DJDavey's group - CLOSED (Page 7)

It saddens me to see a Donkey group mentor's thread go to the 2nd page.  This just ain't right.

Sorry for the lack of posting and inspires my fine friends............have to confess to suffering a letdown of sorts after watching that fantastic Packer game on Sunday night.......man..........great game, bummer the beloved Pack lost tho............anyway, time to taper now for the marathon weekend on the 23rd and 24th..............who else has stuff coming up?

"Bump" the post up to the top of this forum so it doesn't get lost/forgotten.

"Set" is just a play on the process, using a volleyball term, i.e. bump, set, spike.

Make sense now?

tender calves come in handy dont they? 

whats your gameplan for it?

a - I LOVE COMPRESSION SOCKS!!!.  i took the cheapo route tho and got mine from walgreen's!!!  would recommend those for everyone!!!

b - be careful when changing your gait and stride, sometimes that can muck someone up more.................not all the time tho, just be careful!

still time, you can do it!!!! as far as swimming goes, i am not a strong swimmer by any means as my strengths are more the run then the bike.........and i used a coach as well.  we have some strong swimmers in this group it sounds like so how about it guys?!?!!?  can we help each other out?

There are three things you can work on when swimming.

1. Form

2. Endurance

3. Speed

My typical swim, when I'm figuring them out on my own, would be a warm up, drills, and a main set.  So, every single day I swam, I worked on form.  Then, I'd either be working on endurance or speed. 

Form:  The drills were real basic stuff.  Kick drills, single arm, catch-up, etc.  Stuff you probably do in a masters class or are included in swim workouts you can find just about anywhere.  My endurance sets had a broad range.

Endurance:  These main sets included all sorts of stuff.  For a while, a favorite of mine was a 500 free followed by a 400 IM.  I'd reapeat that as many times as I felt like.  Sometimes I'd do ladders.  Maybe it was 500,400,300,200,100.  When I got ambitious, it was 2000, 1500, 1000, 500 (I only did that once ).  You could do 8x200 or 5x300... whatever, as long as you swim longer sets at a nice relaxed pace.  And by relaxed, I don't necessarily mean easy.  It means a pace that you can hold for the entire time.  For example, if you're doing 4x400 and you're fastest (really hard effort) 100 time is 1:30, then you might want to hold a 1:45-1:50/100 pace for each 400 yard set.  I also work in sets with paddles in endurance swims.  Sometimes a 500, sometimes a few 200s.  Paddles are easily my favorite swim tool because they really can build your strength and endurance as well as point out a flaw in your pull.  They also make you feel like you just got done lifting weights.  LOVE THEM!

Speed:  You absolutely have to work on form and endurance to go fast, but you also have to swim fast on occasion to go fast.  My favorite/most grueling speed set is 20x50 sprints.  Pick any number of 50s you'd like to do, though.  It's also fun/painful to do any number of 100 or 25 sprints as well.  Descends are another great set to do.  Basically, you swim a 100 with the first 25 nice and easy, the second 25 a little faster, the third even faster, and the last 25 should be a sprint.  Do a few of those and you'll be feeling it  

Stuff like this is completely within your ability right now.  You're swimming over 1600 yards regularly, so there is ample yardage to work in some good stuff.  For a form/endurance example:

200 wu

6x50 drills (single arm, catch-up, fist, finger tip, kick, pull)

400, 300, 200, 100 ladder

100 cd

That is 1600 yards.  If you want to go bigger (and of course I suggest you do! , then start the ladder at 500.

A form speed example:

200 wu

6x50 drills (single arm, catch-up, fist, finger tip, kick, pull)

2x100 sprint

100 ez

8x50 sprint

100 ez

8x25 sprint

100 cd

That's a pretty good speed workout that will wear you out.

Basically, my advice to anyone is to find your comfort zone in the water.  Find a pace that you can hold, is comfortable and lets you feel like your stroke is clean and efficient.  That's your endurance swim pace.  Toss in some speed workouts for a few weeks (but keep doing those endurance swims!), then see if you can't bump that endurance pace up, or see if you can't bump that endurance yardage up (hold the same pace if you go up in distance).  It'll probably suck for a while, but when that becomes comfortable, repeat the process.