Swim Drills & Cycling

Friday I was supposed to go swimming and do 1400 yards of drills. I was going to blog about it because I know when I first started swimming I'd never heard of these swim drills. Well, I totally slept through my alarm Friday and couldn't go swimming.

Saturday I decided besides my cycling workout B.J. had planned for me, I was going to do Friday's swim workout. I got up early Saturday morning, drove 20 minutes to a different swimming pool and paid $5.50 to go swim (there was a swim meet at my normal pool). I walk in to the pool area and there was a Masters Swim class going on. I should have just jumped in with the class but I am VERY intimidated by the Masters Swim class. I am working on that. I ended up just leaving, going back to my gym and doing my cycling workout.

If I would have been able to swim, this is what I was supposed to do.

200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull.

200 yards of the skate drill. The skate drill is where you lay on your side with one arm resting on your leg and the other stretched out in front of you. Your head is resting on the arm stretched out in front of you. You just kick your way across the pool and then when you turn around to come back, you switch arms.

200 yards of the under skate drill. This is the same as the skate drill, but about every 5 - 10 seconds, you turn your head in to the water and swim like that for 5 - 10 seconds. You need to try and not move your shoulders when you turn in to the water.

The next couple of drills, I'm just going to post videos about them because it's easier to show you than it is to try and explain it to you.

200 yards of the shark drill.


200 yards of the stop switch drill.


200 yards of the triple switch drill. This one took me a while to get used to. I think this one is one of the harder drills.


200 yards of the catch up drill.


Last one, and I still have a VERY hard time with this drill is the finger tip drag drill.


I hope these drills help you like they'ved helped me.

Since I didn't get to do any of these drills, I ended up just going back to my gym and doing the cycling workout B.J. had for me, which was a 30 minute warm up and then 1 hour at a steady effort, and then a cool down of 10 minutes.

I would normally LOVE to go out on the street, but with it being winter now in Utah, you can't really do that. My gym only has 2 spinning bikes. I LOVE doing the spinning bike. It is the most like going outside. I was crossing my fingers that when I got to the gym a spinning bike would be available, but the way my luck was working that day, it wasn't. I ended up sitting on a stationary bike for 1 1/2 hours. A stationary bike is VERY hard for me to comfortably sit on. But, I did it. I was able to stay at a resistance of 14 the entire time. I got a really good workout. I burned 1360 calories. I figure that was pretty good.

There really isn't too much to write about when talking about cycling, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Question:

Do you have a typical swim workout? What is it? Do you do these drills or do you have different drills you do?

How long do you do your cycling workout?

But My Bed Is Soooo Comfy...

I swim three days a week. I swim on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. At the Rec Center that I workout and swim at, it's easiest to go swimming in the morning. In the evening, there are swim lessons, open plunge, etc., and it's hard to get a lane to do your swimming.

Well, it's REALLY hard for me to get up in the morning to go swimming...especially in the winter time. To get a lane in the pool without having to share with anybody and before the Masters Swim Team and the local high school team invades the pool, you have to be up there and on the pool deck by 5:00 a.m. At 5:00 a.m., I'd much rather be doing this:



Add in the cold weather outside and that makes you REALLY want to stay asleep in your warm, comfy, bed.

Well, I need to get back in a habit of going in the morning. It's SO much easier to go in the morning. Get that portion of your workout done for the day and everything.

Well, this morning, I dragged my ass outta bed at 4:50 a.m. and headed up to the pool. Surprisingly there weren't too many people there yet. There were quite a few lanes available. I was surprised to see that Earl (one of the regulars) wasn't even there waiting to get in the pool.

I got up there just in time this morning. The lifeguards had just taken there seat, which is the queue to us swimmers to hop on in the pool. I didn't have to sit around on the pool deck and wait for the lifeguards.

I dipped my feet in the water before I got in and HOLY CRAP it was freezing!!! Gah!!! It took me a few minutes to get used to the temperature before I could start swimmming.

I always start out each swim with a 200 swim, 200 kick and a 200 pull.





Normally I don't swim on Thursday's, but because I didn't swim yesterday, I'm made up my swim today. So, after my swim/kick/pull, B.J. (my personal trainer) had me do the following workout:

3 x 300 with 45 second rest
3 x 200 with 30 second rest
3 x 100 with 20 second rest

I swim in a 25 yard pool, so 300 yds is 12 lengths of the pool, etc. My goal is to swim each 50 yards in 1 minute or less. I used to be able to do it and can still do it sometimes, but because I haven't been consistent with my weights, I tend to be a little slow in the pool. :(

I did ok this morning in the pool. I kept track of my time for the first 50 yds and then I kinda gave up, just because I knew I wasn't going to reach my goal of 1 minute or less for every 50 yards I swam. My first 50 yds, I swam in 1:03. Not too bad considering I haven't done weights in a while. After my first 300 yds, and I started on my second set of 300 yds, I watched my time for the first 50 yds again, and I swam it in 1:02, so I was ok with that. I was still right around the same time.

By the time I got to my last set of 200 and all of my 100's, I was pretty slow. I knew I was without even looking at the clock. Because I can't do a flip turn, when I get to the edge of the pool, I have to grab the edge of the pool, hurry and turn around and push off the wall. There was a longer pause every time I went to turn and push of the edge. I was getting tired. It's pretty typical for you to slow down though.

I know another thing that would help me with my timing in the pool is if I could do a dang flip turn. I'm SO uncoordinated I can't do a dang flip turn. I've never been able to do a hand-stand in the pool and I've never been able to do a somersault in the pool. Even when I was a little girl. Plus, I'm always afraid to practice because I'm afraid everyone around me (including the lifeguards) or gonna look at me and go "Oh look at that girl who can't do a flip turn tee hee hee." Granted, I'm sure they have better things to worry about, but still.



I did weights tonight and I'll do weights again on Saturday. B.J. likes me to do weights twice a week. Typically on Monday and Wednesday. But, this week, my workouts have been kinda busy and all, so I didn't get my first set of weights in until today. So, then I'll do more weights on Saturday. Hopefully I will start seeing an improvement on my swim time soon.

Now, my swim workout for tomorrow is going to be interesting. B.J. has me doing the 200 swim/kick/pull and then drill 200 on each of the following drills: skate, under skate, shark, stop switch, triple switch, catch up, and finger tip drag.

Before I started swimming I didn't even KNOW they had drills like this. So, I will try and do another post tomorrow night about my swim workout tomorrow night.

This Last Week

This last week has been another crazy week at work and I've eaten WAY too much and I only went to the gym twice and didn't even do my full workout both times...however, there is good news. I thought I would definitely gain probably 5 lbs that's how much I ate, but I only gained 0.4 lbs!!! I was SO excited.

Work is starting to slow down now though, so I'm WAY excited to start going back to the gym tomorrow morning.

This last Friday morning, I got to meet with my personal trainer and he coached me in my swimming. Wow! I didn't realize how much goes in to swimming to make you a faster swimmer. When I think faster swimmer, I think you need to move your arms faster, but that's not necessarily true. He has me doing all these drills in the water (they're kind of hard to explain), and I'm excited to get back in the pool tomorrow morning and do them and start losing this weight that I've gained.

All I have to say is God bless my personal trainer for having patience with me. First off, we haven't met in probably 4 weeks because his work schedule has been crazy and so has mine. Plus, I have not very much coordination so some of the different drills he has me do, I find quite hilarious. I'm surprised he doesn't burst out laughing at me. I wouldn't blame him if he did. I can't wait to start meeting with him on a regular basis now.

The main thing I can't wait for is my first race of the season to see how his coaching helps me in my races!