Drag Swim

We did this workout at the pool this morning and, as usual, I feel compelled to spread the word as I thought it was really effective.  I am falling asleep as I write this if that’s any indication.

This workout as I describe it has lots of equipment used, but some of it optional.

What you’ll need…

1. Pull Buoy: Standard piece of swim gear.
2. Elastic Band: Basically, you need something to keep your feet held together while you swim.  Used with a pull bouy, this keeps you from using your legs at all (ie. cheating)… until you try it, you have no idea how hard this makes it to swim.  Mine is a slice of an old mountain bike tube.
3. Paddles:  Another standard piece of swim gear – I use these.
4. Long Sleeve T-Shirt: The weight and drag make swimming much more difficult.
5. Snorkel (Optional): This is optional, but if you are a fan of using a snorkel and want a way to incorporate it into your workout, here is a chance to use it.  I use this.
6. Kick board
7. Flippers

The workout…

Set #1 – Warmup (300m)

25m freestyle with pull buoy

25m kick with pull buoy (instead of a kickboard)

Repeat for a total of 300m

Set #2 – Drag Kick (500m)

500m kick with kick board while wearing the long sleeve t-shirt.  The extra drag adds some difficulty to the kick set.

Set #3 – Dragging the Anchor (1,000m)

500m freestyle wearing the elastic band, pull buoy, long sleeve t-shirt, and snorkel (optional).  This starts out feeling easy, but between the elastic band tied around your feet and the long sleeve t-shirt weighing you down, your legs quickly become an anchor dragging behind you.  The key is to hold form as best you can and maintain good speed.

500m – same as the above, but add paddles.  The additional power you can get with the paddles will help your speed which in turn will help your form, but the additional resistance will also make it that much harder.

Set #4 – Flipper Sprints (500m)

10 x 50m sprints while wearing flippers and still wearing the long sleeved t-shirt.  Rest 5 seconds between each 50m.

Set #5 – Sprints (250m)

10 x 25m sprints with no equipment.  Rest 5 seconds between each 25m.

Set #6 – Cool Down (200m)

Tags: 300m, additional power, additional resistance, anchor, anchor dragging, buoy, buoy 25m kick, cheating, Drag Kick, elastic band, Equipment, extra drag, flippers, freestyle, good speed, Hand paddle, kick board, kickboard, legs, long sleeve t-shirt, mountain bike, mountain bike tube, paddles, Physical exercise, pool, pull bouy, pull buoy, resistance, Rubber band, Sleeve, snorkel, Sports, spri, standard piece, swim gear, Swimming, Swimming (sport), Swimming and Diving, Swimming board, T-shirt, The weight, warmup, Water Sports, workout
Category Favorite Workouts, Featured |

Leap Frog Transition Workout

The Leap Frog Transition Workout is definitely my new favorite in a long list of workouts.  It’s hard. It’s intense. It satisfies a number of key triathlon training elements all in a single workout.  And it’s actually fun! Here is how it’s done.

You need to have at least 2 people and 1 bike for this to work. Our version of it happens in Umstead Park here in Raleigh, so we use a mountain bike, but you could ultimately use any kind of bike as long as you can wear running shoes on it.

Step 1:  Pick a loop course that is long enough for this to last an hour.  For me, it’s a 12 mile loop.

Step 2: Person A begins running.  Person B begins biking.

Step 3: Once Person B is 100-300 yards ahead of Person A, they should jump off the bike as quickly as possible and immediately start running at VO2 Max or greater.  To put this in perspective, I typically run 7:30 miles… during this workout, I am typically running well under 7:00 miles.

Step 4: Person A continues running until they catch up to where Person B ditched the bike. They should then jump on the bike and begin chasing Person B who is now running.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4, alternating between who is on the bike and who is running until you complete the loop.

A really fun variation of this is to have teams and race (obviously, you need multiples of 2 and a bike for each team).  It forces you to push that much harder and just makes it a fun way to kill yourself for an hour.

Benefits

1) Transition training:  You are essentially training for legs on how to deal with going from bike to run over and over again for an hour.  This is really tough to do by yourself, so this workout is a great solution for it.

2) Speed Work:  Since you are supposed to essentially sprint off the bike, your legs are generally moving at a much faster cadence than normal. This helps train your body how to feel coming off the bike and maintain a fast speed on race day.

3) Interval Training:  Unless you have the unfortunate luck of having to ride the bike up a steep hill, your turn on the bike is generally a cool down while you prepare to run again.  This type of interval training is just awesome for your endurance.

Tags: Bike-Run Transition, High-intensity interval training, Interval Training, Sprints, transition training
Category Favorite Workouts, Featured |

Intense Indoor Brick

I did this workout with Olivier this morning that I feel compelled to tell everyone about.  In fact, it has inspired me to create a new category on this site that I will dedicate to my favorite workouts.

This workout is made up for 3 components:

Swim

No pool required on this one.  The “swim” takes place on a Total Gym where you mimic the swim stroke with both arms straight.  Start on your stomach with your arms straight out and fully extended. Next push your arms down towards the floor and continue through until your hands are at your waist.  It is critical that you complete the full stroke in order to get the complete benefit of the exercise.  Repeat at a fast cadence for the length indicated.

Alternatively, the same exercise can be done lying on your back and pulling through the same stroke the same way.

Bike

Heavy Spin – standing.  Set the resistance to the point where you can barely push through the peddle stroke while sitting.  Standing, peddle as fast as you can (which won’t be fast) while holding on to the farthest point of the handle bars.  This should burn the crap out of your quads and simulate a tough climb.

Fast Spin – sitting.  Remove all resistance and spin (without bouncing) as fast as possible.

Run

Set the treadmill to a speed that equates to something faster than race pace (almost a sprint) and keep it on even while you’re not on it (be careful getting on it!).  This is meant to simulate coming off the bike and flying out of transition

The Workout

1. Swim for 2 minutes (on stomach)
2. Run for 30 seconds
3. Bike for 2 minutes (heavy)
4. Run for 2 minutes
5. Swim for 2 minutes (back)
6. Run for 30 seconds
7. Bike for 2 minutes (fast)
8. Run for 2 minutes

… repeat 1-8 2 more times.

Tags: place, stroke, transition training, transition workout, workouts
Category Favorite Workouts, Featured |