Sunday, May 31, 2009

Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming...

There will be a few challenges for me on triathlon day. The very first will be the swimming portion of the race. This will be a challenge for two reasons, #1- I do not normally swim in open water, particularly oceans, and #2- I never swim with TONS of other people. Because of these challenges, I’d like to make it so that swimming 1/3 of a mile itself is not a huge challenge. I just came across this fabulous website on Susan's blog: http://www.swimplan.com/. It will design FREE personalized swim plans for you. I don’t know about you but I am lost when I am swimming laps. I basically just get in, swim 2 laps, stretch a bit, swim another 30ish and then get out. No thought to it what-so-ever. Now, thanks to this website I can plan out workouts that will push my endurance (I told them I can swim 800 yards comfortably and they gave me a 1200 yard plan!) and help me get a little bit faster. This is the plan they developed for me. I will either do it later today or early this week depending on how the cold is feeling. I usually rest for the first day or two of a cold and then continue to work out, but I’m not sure if swimming is different. I’ve heard that when you have a cold your ears don’t drain as well and I could get an ear infection. That does not sound fun so I may do something else to work out today ☺

Warm Up:
2 x 100 yards, rest 20 seconds/100 yards (kick with streamlined arms every 4th lap
*easy (50-60%)

Build Up:
2 x 100 yards, rest 20 seconds/100 yards (kick with streamlined arms every 4th lap)
*aerobic (60-70%)

Core:
3 x 100 yards, rest 30 seconds/100 yards
12 x 25 yards, rest 10 seconds/25 yards (try to reduce number of strokes)
*aerobic (60-70%)

Warm Down:
1 x 100 yard- Push and Glide (pause at the end of each stroke with one arm stretched out in front)- rest, 20 seconds/100 yards
1 x 100 yard- rest, 20 seconds/100 yards
*easy (50-60%)

10 comments:

  1. That's so cool! I'm so glad you told me about that website, I have been thinking of signing up for a triathlon too!

    Ear infections are the worst! I used to get them all the time when I was little! Good luck with your training :) PS. I responded to your bike questions on the comments page of my last post :)

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  2. that's so awesome to customize your own swim plan! good luck girl :)

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  3. I've considered training for a tri, but the swim part would be so scary! Good luck, and that swim plan looks great.

    Have a lovely Sunday!

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  4. Good luck with the training!! I'm sure that by triathlon day you will be kicking ass in the swimming portion ;)

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  5. I don't know what most of that terminology means, but it sounds like a great workout. Good idea getting as comfortable as possible with the distance so you won't be so overwhelmed with the open water/crowd aspects.

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  6. hiya! congratulations on being my first official "follower!" (my husband doesn't count, haha). i look forward to reading about your training :) thanks for stumbling upon and reading my blog! i'm brand new at it, so i hope i don't disapoint :)

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  7. That sounds like a great plan! Swimming will help you so much in other aspects of your training too! I really need to get my butt back in the pool, last fall I started swimming Master's twice a week and it was SUCH a huge help when I started running again because I already had wayy more endurance than before I started swimming. I haven't swam for a few months now though, fail!

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  8. a triathlon...goodness! just running a simple marathon is a dream for me...but a triathlon! I wish you all the best luck, and I hope that personalized swimming plan works out for you! I can't wait to see the progress of your training!

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  9. I love the name of this post - a good quotation for your marathon training AND for life :)

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  10. thanks for the website! sometimes i want to go for a swim workout but i never know what to do, and i need some sort of structure or i'll just float around :) hope you are feeling better so you can get some killer swims in!

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