End of year

Thank you everyone for the wine, chocolates and kind messages you gave me for Christmas. It is very much appreciated and I love having such a great group of people to coach every week.

We are going to finish off 2022 with a session working on distance per stroke. Having a good distance per stroke is one of the two things that help you swim faster and more efficiently so it is always good to count your strokes and know what your current stroke count is. We will be using golf stroke drills to help you work on your distance per stroke in the subset before the main set. Key points to think about are:

• Counting your golf stroke on the first 50 (counting your strokes for 50 and adding your time for the 50 to get your total golf stroke).
• Reduce it by 1 or 2 on each 50 by trying to keep your stroke count the same and swimming 1 or 2 seconds faster. Try and do this by having a little bit faster kick and push at the end of every arm stroke.
• Monitor your stroke count throughout the main set and try and keep the same in the second half as you start to tire.

For the daily core set we are going for a standard core set. Longer reps but with a rest. Enjoy!

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 1 – Saturday 31st December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 backstroke

100 breast stroke

200 f/c alternating 25s three-quarter catch-up & full stroke

Technique set – golf stroke, reducing by 8

8 x 50 off 60, reducing golf stroke by 1 each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

4 x 75 f/c off 1:15

4 x 125 f/c off 1:55

2 x 25s with 15s rest three-quarter catch-up

4 x 75 f/c off 1:10

4 x 125 f/c off 2:00

Subset – aerobic pace

2 x 200 f/c pull with paddles w 20s rest

Swim down

200 choice 

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 2 – Saturday 31st December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 backstroke

100 breast stroke

100 f/c alternating 25s three-quarter catch-up & full stroke

Technique set – golf stroke, reducing by 8

8 x 50 off 70, reducing golf stroke by 1 each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

4 x 75 f/c off 1:25

4 x 125 f/c off 2:10

2 x 25s with 15s rest three-quarter catch-up

4 x 75 f/c off 1:20

4 x 125 f/c off 2:15

Subset – aerobic pace

2 x 150 f/c pull with paddles w 20s rest

Swim down

100 choice 

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 3 – Saturday 31st December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 backstroke

100 breast stroke

100 f/c alternating 25s three-quarter catch-up & full stroke

Technique set – golf stroke, reducing by 8

8 x 50 off 70, reducing golf stroke by 1 each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

4 x 75 f/c off 1:30

4 x 125 f/c off 2:25

2 x 25s with 15s rest three-quarter catch-up

4 x 75 f/c off 1:25

4 x 125 f/c off 2:30

Subset – aerobic pace

1 x 200 f/c pull with paddles

Swim down

100 choice 

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 4 – Saturday 31st December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

50 backstroke

50 breast stroke

100 f/c alternating 25s three-quarter catch-up & full stroke

Technique set – golf stroke, reducing by 8

8 x 50 off 1:20, reducing golf stroke by 1 each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

3 x 75 f/c off 1:45

3 x 125 f/c off 2:45

2 x 25s with 15s rest three-quarter catch-up

3 x 75 f/c off 1:40

3 x 125 f/c off 2:50

Subset – aerobic pace

2 x 150 f/c pull with paddles w 30s rest

Swim down

100 choice 

Christmas Swim 2022

It’s Christmas Swim time again and unfortunately we won’t have the extra time I announced last week so all sessions are the usual times of 7-8 and 8-9. But we can still get a lot of swimming in. All the sessions will fit into a one hour slot if you start on time and don’t add any extra rests. So please do:

• Turn up early so you are in the water and starting on time
• Don’t add any extra rest or your lane won’t complete the set.  Miss out 50 if you miss a turnaround.
• Pace yourself as there is a lot of swimming to do in the hour.
• Enjoy the challenge, be considerate to your fellow swimmers and let them go ahead if they catch you up

The core set this week is slightly longer at 10 mins per day and one we haven’t done before and includes a good amount of side plank. I hope you enjoy it.

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 1 – Saturday 24th December 2022

Christmas Swim 2022

16 x 100s f/c, swum as 4 sets of 4

Set 1: swum off 1:40

Set 2: swum off 1:30

Set 3: swum off 1:35

Set 4: swum off 1:40, 1-4 prog

1 mins extra Christmas Brucey Bonus Rest

36 x 50 f/c

14x50m every 4th 50m fast (off 45sec)

12x50m every 3rd fast (off 50sec)

6x50m every 2nd fast (off 55sec)

4x50m every 1 fast (off 60sec)

Merry Christmas – you have now earned that extra turkey and mince pie.

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 2 – Saturday 24th December 2022

Christmas Swim 2022

16 x 100s f/c, swum as 4 sets of 4

Set 1: swum off 1:50

Set 2: swum off 1:40

Set 3: swum off 1:45

Set 4: swum off 1:50, 1-4 prog

1 mins extra Christmas Brucey Bonus Rest

30 x 50 f/c

12x50m every 4th 50m fast (off 50sec)

9x50m every 3rd fast (off 55sec)

6x50m every 2nd fast (off 60sec)

3x50m every 1 fast (off 65sec)

Merry Christmas – you have now earned that extra turkey and mince pie.

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 3 – Saturday 24th December 2022

Christmas Swim 2022

16 x 100s f/c, swum as 4 sets of 4

Set 1: swum off 2:00

Set 2: swum off 1:50

Set 3: swum off 1:55

Set 4: swum off 2:00, 1-4 prog

1 mins extra Christmas Brucey Bonus Rest

24 x 50 f/c

12x50m every 4th 50m fast (off 55sec)

6x50m every 3rd fast (off 60sec)

4x50m every 2nd fast (off 65sec)

2x50m every 1 fast (off 70sec)

Merry Christmas – you have now earned that extra turkey and mince pie.

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 4 – Saturday 24th December 2022

Christmas Swim 2022

12 x 100s f/c, swum as 4 sets of 3

Set 1: swum off 2:10

Set 2: swum off 2:00

Set 3: swum off 2:05

Set 4: swum off 2:10, 1-3 prog

1 mins extra Christmas Brucey Bonus Rest

24 x 50 f/c

12x50m every 4th 50m fast (off 60sec)

6x50m every 3rd fast (off 65sec)

4x50m every 2nd fast (off 70sec)

2x50m every 1 fast (off 75sec)

Merry Christmas – you have now earned that extra turkey and mince pie.

Only 9 more sleeps…

Well done for looking after yourselves while I was away last week. I understand I mucked up the session for some of the lanes and you finished early. Sorry about that. If I do that again (and I probably will) please feel free to adapt the session and add in something extra to make it work. I understand Helen suggested some extras for the second session so hopefully that helped.

Only 9 more sleeps now until our Christmas Swim. We have the pool for all 3 hours on both 24th and 31st December with the Juniors away so we really can have a lot of Christmas Swimming. You have done some great work this Winter and made both some good stroke and fitness improvements. The Christmas Swim will be a chance to put it all together in probably our most challenging session of the year. Earn that extra mince pie or 10.

This week I would like you to focus on your posture and shoulder position.  This should help you get more power in each stroke.  To focus on posture this week I would like you to think about keeping your shoulders forward and close to your face during the pull. We will be doing some shart fin drill to help with this that you can see demonstrated in the video below. 

For the core session this week we are going for a new Heather Robertson Tabata-style workout. Choose your own pace!

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 1 – Saturday 17th December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 kick b/c without float, hands above your head

100 kick f/c with float

100 IM

Technique set – breathing every 5, focus on posture

8 x 50 with 15s rest as 25 drill, 25 swim 

1^st 4 drills shark-fin drill every 3 strokes

2^nd 4 drills three-quarter catch-up

Main set – focusing on posture

6 x 50s off 50

3 x 100s off 1:35

2 x 200s off 3:10, first 25 three-quarter catch-up

3 x 100 off 1:35

6 x 50s off 50

Sprint set

4 x 25s f/c sprint races

Swim down – 200 choice

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 2 – Saturday 17th December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 kick b/c without float, hands above your head

100 kick f/c with float

Technique set – breathing every 5, focus on posture

8 x 50 with 15s rest as 25 drill, 25 swim 

1^st 4 drills shark-fin drill every 3 strokes

2^nd 4 drills three-quarter catch-up

Main set – focusing on posture

6 x 50s off 50

3 x 100s off 1:50

2 x 200 off 3:40, first 25 three-quarter catch-up

3 x 100 off 1:50

6 x 50s off 50

Sprint set

4 x 25s f/c sprint races

Swim down

200 choice

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 3 – Saturday 17th December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 kick b/c without float, hands above your head

100 kick f/c with float

Technique set – breathing every 5, focus on posture

8 x 50 with 15s rest as 25 drill, 25 swim 

1^st 4 drills shark-fin drill every 3 strokes

2^nd 4 drills three-quarter catch-up

Main set – focusing on posture

6 x 50s off 55

3 x 100s off 1:55

1 x 200 off 4:00, first 50 three-quarter catch-up

3 x 100 off 1:55

6 x 50s off 55

Sprint set

4 x 25s f/c sprint races

Swim down

200 choice

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 4 – Saturday 17th December 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

50 kick b/c without float, hands above your head

50 kick f/c with float

Technique set – breathing every 5, focus on posture

8 x 50 with 15s rest as 25 drill, 25 swim 

1^st 4 drills shark-fin drill every 3 strokes

2^nd 4 drills three-quarter catch-up

Main set – focusing on posture

6 x 50s off 1:05

3 x 100s off 2:10

1 x 200 off 4:30, first 25 three-quarter catch-up

3 x 100 off 2:10

6 x 50s off 1:05

Sprint set

4 x 25s f/c sprint races

Swim down

200 choice

Going long

Well done for your work on distance per stroke last week. I saw some good increases in distance per stroke during the main set.

This week we are going to do a long main set that Helen and I did in New Zealand with the Auckland Masters club. Many of swimmers we swam with are training for some long endurance swims so the ladder set is a good opportunity to focus on endurance. The set is all off a fixed recovery so lane leaders please use your judgement on rest intervals and increase slightly if required to ensure the lane stays together and everyone gets a good workout. Also think about using your core rotation throughout the main set to keep your stroke count low as a good measure of your distance per stroke.

For the daily core routine this week we are going with a 45 second on, 15 sec off routine from Chris Heria. Enjoy!

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 1 – Saturday 10th December 2022

Warm up

4 x 100 off 1:40 swum as

1-3 steady f/c

4th is reverse IM

Technique set – rotation from your core

6 x 25 f/c drills with 15s rest swum 

2 x 25s hip-connector drill

2 x 25s Unco

2 x 25s Reverse catch-up

Repeat

Main set – aerobic pace ladder set

50, 100, 150 even pace, with 15s rest

200, 250, 300 negative split, with 20s rest

350 every 4th length reverse catch-up, with 30s rest

250, 200, 300 negative split, with 20s rest

150, 100, 50 even pace, with 15s rest

Swim down

100 own choice, not f/c 

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 2 – Saturday 10th December 2022

Warm up

4 x 100 off 1:50 swum as

1-3 steady f/c

4th is reverse IM

Technique set – rotation from your core

6 x 25 f/c drills with 15s rest swum 

2 x 25s hip-connector drill

2 x 25s Unco

2 x 25s Reverse catch-up

Repeat

Main set – aerobic pace ladder set

50, 100, 150 even pace, with 15s rest

200, 250 negative split, with 20s rest

300 every 4th length reverse catch-up, with 30s rest

250, 200 negative split, with 20s rest

150, 100, 50 even pace, with 15s rest

Swim down

100 own choice, not f/c 

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 3 – Saturday 10th December 2022

Warm up

4 x 100 off 2:00 swum as

1-3 steady f/c

4th is reverse IM

Technique set – rotation from your core

6 x 25 f/c drills with 15s rest swum 

2 x 25s hip-connector drill

2 x 25s Unco

2 x 25s Reverse catch-up

Repeat

Main set – aerobic pace ladder set

50, 100, 150 even pace, with 15s rest

200, 250 negative split, with 20s rest

300 every 4th length reverse catch-up, with 30s rest

250, 200 negative split, with 20s rest

150, 100, 50 even pace, with 15s rest

Swim down

100 own choice, not f/c 

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 4 – Saturday 10th December 2022

Warm up

4 x 100 off 2:10 swum as

1-3 steady f/c

4th is reverse IM

Technique set – rotation from your core

6 x 25 f/c drills with 15s rest swum 

2 x 25s hip-connector drill

2 x 25s Unco

2 x 25s Reverse catch-up

Repeat

Main set – aerobic pace ladder set

50, 100 even pace, with 15s rest

150, 200 negative split, with 20s rest

250 every 4th length reverse catch-up, with 30s rest

200, 150 negative split, with 20s rest

100, 50 even pace, with 15s rest

Swim down

200 own choice, not f/c 

Slide and glide

Good work last week on a long and challenging session for Julia’s 60th Birthday. This week we are going to focus on distance per stroke. Watch the following video from Brenton Ford about increasing your distance per stroke with a new drill called slide and glide.

For the core session this week we are going for a new Heather Robertson Tabata-style workout. Choose your own pace!

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 1 – Saturday 3rd Dec 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 own choice drills

100 own choice swim, not f/c

Technique set – distance per stroke

1 x 50 f/c golf stroke to set your baseline golf stroke

(add your stroke to your time for 50) then take 30s rest

4 x 25s slide and glide with 15s rest

5 x 50s with 15s rest trying to reduce golf stroke on each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

22 x 100s f/c off 1:35

Every 5^th 100 off 1:25, every 7^th 100 IM off 2:00

Keep it going, no extra rest, and think about keeping your distance per stroke!

Swim down

200 choice

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 2 – Saturday 3rd Dec 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 own choice drills

100 own choice swim, not f/c

Technique set – distance per stroke

1 x 50 f/c golf stroke to set your baseline golf stroke

(add your stroke to your time for 50) then take 30s rest

4 x 25s slide and glide with 15s rest

5 x 50s with 15s rest trying to reduce golf stroke on each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

18 x 100s f/c off 1:50

Every 5^th 100 off 1:40, every 7^th 100 IM off 2:10

Keep it going, no extra rest, and think about keeping your distance per stroke!

Swim down

200 choice

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 3 – Saturday 3rd Dec 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 own choice drills

100 own choice swim, not f/c

Technique set – distance per stroke

1 x 50 f/c golf stroke to set your baseline golf stroke

(add your stroke to your time for 50) then take 30s rest

4 x 25s slide and glide with 15s rest

5 x 50s with 15s rest trying to reduce golf stroke on each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

18 x 100s f/c off 1:55

Every 5^th 100 off 1:45, every 7^th 100 IM of 2:30 

Keep it going, no extra rest, and think about keeping your distance per stroke!

Swim down

200 choice

Cambridge Triathlon Club Swimming Session

Lane 4 – Saturday 3rd Dec 2022

Warm up

200 f/c

100 own choice drills

100 own choice swim, not f/c

Technique set – distance per stroke

1 x 50 f/c golf stroke to set your baseline golf stroke

(add your stroke to your time for 50) then take 30s rest

4 x 25s slide and glide with 15s rest

5 x 50s with 15s rest trying to reduce golf stroke on each 50

Main set – aerobic pace

16 x 100s f/c off 2:10

Every 5^th 100 off 2:00, every 7^th 100 IM off 2:45

Keep it going, no extra rest, and think about keeping your distance per stroke!

Swim down

200 choice