HOLIDAY TRAINING

It’s that magical time of the year again, and with it all the bright lights, decorations, good friends and families.  It’s also the season of giving and what better gift could you give    yourself than keeping up with your training this holiday season.  This gift that is yours to open if you choose is so much more than a material gift.  This is a gift that will keep giving throughout your lifetime, it will keep you true to your goals and dreams for later in the year.   A gift that will keep you healthy both physically and mentally throughout the holidays.  Yes there will always be obstacles that will present themselves and yes that little man that lives between your ears will have to make a choice.  You can always make excuses for yourself, but that is just what they are an attempt to lessen the blame and justify yourself.  What choice will you make? Don’t be that person who let’s all the hard work that you have been doing since September who throws it out the window, only have to start over again in January.  

If you are traveling or can’t make the training sessions at George Mason I have several workouts below that will help you over the holidays.  These are only a guide and feel free to set intervals and change some sets.  They are designed to take 60 to 100 minutes.

Workout#1 -  A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING 60-80 minutes (4400 yards)
WARM UP  500 alternating free to back ( fast feet to wall on free. Open turn on back)
                      20x50 free to back fins @50/1:00 ( off turns underwater dolphin as far as you can. Challenge yourself)
KICK SET
8x25 fast kick @30/35 board rest 30/. 4x100 kick with snorkels @2:00/2:00/2:15 rest 30/. 8x25 fast kick on back @30/35
MAIN SET. 4 rounds
2x100 fast free@1:15/1:20/1:30. 4x50 stroke drill/swim non free @1:15 recovery
COOL DOWN 500 done same as warm up

SET#2 Distance and Stroke 90 minutes (4300 yards)
400 Mixer/Choice (no kick)
300 IM (25 drill 50 swim)
2x200 back @3:00/3:10/3:20 (core rotation)
8x50 fly/breast with glide @1:00
KICK SET
500 kick build alternate easy/fast 30 seconds rest. 5x100 kick @2:10/2:20/2:30
SPRINT SET (50’s 2/3 breathing.  25’s 2 breaths)
4x75 free @1:05/1:15
8x25 free fast@35/40
4x50 free fast @40/50
8x25 fast free @30/35
COOL DOWN 
20x50 free with fast set to turn underwater as far as you can to dolphins @1:00

WORKOUT #3 Long warmup 50’s and 25’s.  60- 75 minutes (4000j
600 mixer. 12x50 stroke drill/swim @1:00. 3x100 IM @1:45/2:00. 4x50 free fast @1:00
SET
30x50 free @1:00. Every 5th one sprint @40/45
16x25 stroke non free. Same stroke 1-8. And 9-16 @40. Good breakouts 

WORKOUT #4. Short Set 60-70 minutes. (2500 yards)
WARMUP 
500 free with fast flip to back with open turns
8x75 (25 kick fast 50 swim)@ 1:20/1:30
SET
8x50 free@50/1:00 odds breathing 2/3. Evens 3/4
8x50 stroke non free work breakouts and fast turns @1:00 same stroke 1-4 and 5-8
8x50 free @1:00 odds breathing 1/2 evens 3/4
COOL DOWN 200

Think of these workouts and the ones you attend as the gifts for success in the future.  Senior prep let’s not forget about some dry-land over the break, at least 2 if not 3 a week.  A short 20 minute session while your watching a movie or listening to music would be nice.  You should continue focusing on your core exercises ( low and high planks, flutter kicks, leg lifts, sit-ups/get ups, and crunch twists) and also your leg exercises ( squats, jump squats, lunges).  Don’t forget to these in a slow controlled manner while maintaining good body position.

Have a great holiday.

COACHES VIEW

MEET WRAP UPS

With the Winter Classic and Mako Invitation meets now behind us we can look forward to a few weeks of hard training, but before we do let’s take a look at things learned, and also things to work on as we move forward over the next few weeks.

Let’s start by giving the parents a big thank you for all the help and support over the last few weekends.  Thanks for having the kids where they were supposed to be.  The coaches really appreciate this as it one less thing on our plates that we need to worry about.

When looking over all the swims over the last two weekends, I like to evaluate the group as a whole to see if what we are doing is working and what needs to be added or deleted to help us move forward.  After that I look at individual swims to see areas that we can work on during practice.  When looking at the groups as a whole there was a lot of success throughout the weekend.  Certainly there were some individual swims that some of you might want back, but all you can do is learn, understand and move forward.  All athletes have those moments when they wish there could have been a different outcome, but you know what happened  so let’s understand it and move on.  That is what is unique about sports, outcomes are not pre-determined, you must have the heart to go and grab it and sometimes you miss.  Get over it. There are no predetermined outcomes that’s why we race and play the games isn’t it.  Now what about the meets.

First off you all were great working through your warmups and warm-downs throughout the weekend.  Now I will speak for myself here and it involves your little chats with coaches after your races.  Now I heard a coach this past weekend say, “I discuss the same thing after every race but they won’t correct it.”  For myself this is one of the most frustrating things that I encounter in coaching.  Those little chats are opportunities to learn.  For myself I try not to overwhelm you information, and I try to narrow in on one maybe two things that will help you in your next race.  Will it result in a best time, not always but with some attention it will eventually.  The best thing that you can do after the meet is keep a little log where you can write down your events, what worked or didn’t and what you discussed with your coaches that can help you in future races.  Please don’t look at these chats as criticism, it’s feedback to help you move forward.

Over both weekends it was great to see that all of you arrived at the pool with your game faces on.  Rarely did I hear from any of you that familiar line “ I’m tired” which told us right from the start that not only did you come to swim, but you were here to race.  From the start we were able to see all of your hard work starting to pay off on all aspects of your races.  We saw some great things with your underwater dolphins, some aggressive work in and out of your turns and some great detail in finishing your races to the wall.

The execution of your races was a lot of fun to watch.  For the longer events it was good to see so many of you step out of your comfort zones and really work the middle of your races and trusting the process and hard work that you have put in to be able to finish those races.  Personal best were abundant throughout the racing over the course of both weekends.  Yes, as in any athletic event some of you were faced with adversity but it was great to see that you were able to deal with it, move on and bounce back, one of the hardest lessons faced both in athletics and life in general.

You will be a better person because of it. 

 The way that you all supported each other both when things went well, and when some of us hit bumps was great to watch as the weekends went on.  Way to go by all of you who participated.  Great Job!

KEEP THIS THOUGHT IN YOUR MIND AS WE MOVE THROUGH THE WINTER MONTHS

LOOKING FORWARD

A Look Ahead 
Now that we are through the first part of the season with the championship meets behind us, it this time to tire our focus towards the qualifying meets.  We have talked about how important it is to start preparing for this part of the season from day 1.  As you are preparing for this part of the season it is important to take a look at the meets on the horizon and make a plan for yourself.  Below I will try to share my thoughts with you as you make your plan.

The first thing that we need to understand is that any events that you have made your qualifying times for (JO, Senior Junior Champs, NASA ) should not be swam until those meets.  Try new events.  Please be smart.

HOLIDAYS I f you are going to be away for the holidays, I will post some “Go TO WORKOUTS” for you if you can find a pool.  It is important to stay in the pool during this period or the work you have done so far will go into the trash bin.  You will end up starting over again and put yourself in a bad position for championships. I will have them up next week.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY MEETS

DISTANCE MEET - January 4-5. Senior prep group let’s not forget that 1000 free is requirement in the program.  There will be no mako qualifier meet so let’s get it done.  The timeline is fast and you have a specific time that you swim and so you come in warmup, swim and leave.  If you are not training over the holidays you should not enter this meet.

MAKO INVITATIONAL January 11-12. If you are swimming the IMX meet you should not be swimming in this meet.  The only reason you should be entered in this meet is if you are trying to achieve qualifying times.  Focus only on the events that you are near your cuts.  Do not overload your list with events that you are not near.  For all the events you enter there should be something specific that we are trying to accomplish.

IMX January 24-26. This is a qualifying meet.  You must have swam all the events on the program within a specific time and have also accumulated 1800 points.  If you go to the Mako /USA swimming site you can find your score and the rules for the meet.  If you meet the requirements I would like to see you enter this meet.  You must swim all the events, if you planning on not doing some of them please do not enter this meet.   I really believe that this is a great meet to build your confidence because it challenges you mentally as you move into championship season.  If you get through this meet anything is possible.

SNOW QUALIFIER February 8. This is a one day meet.  The events that you pick should be events that you are within reach of achieving.  When signing up please consider where the events fall in the schedule.  The turnaround can be quick with not a lot of time to rest.  Keeping that in mind remember  you have the presidents meet later.

PRESIDENTS CLASSIC February 14-16. This is a preliminary and finals meet.  This is also the last meet which you will be able to get qualifying times for the championship meets in March.   That being said if you achieve your cut in the preliminary session you will be scratching out of finals.  The reason being if we achieve the cut, mission accomplished and there is no need to swim the event again that day, and it will also allow a swimmer on more chance to get that cut.

I hope that this information will help you as you plan for the next two months.  Please take the time to sit down and plan out,  one what you want to accomplish, and two how we are going to get there.  If you need help I am hear just ask.

We will wrap up the two meets and go back to our regular blog this week.

BEING GOOD

Hope your Thanksgiving was quiet, peaceful and you feel recharged and ready for the busy two weeks that we all have in front of us.  We have two meets over the next week to wrap up our fall season, and no matter which meet you find yourself in this is a time to gauge where you stand with your swimming as we head into the heart of our season.  We would like to congratulate all the swimmers who are on the team that we are taking to the Winter Classic Championship meet this weekend.  The coaches had to make some tough decisions and choice as we put this team together.  All the teams participating are limited to a set number of swimmers that they can bring with the hopes of making this a true championship meet with the same criteria for all the teams.  This is not much different than your High school District meets or your summer divisional meets.  Regardless of the meet you are in over the next two weeks, make no mistake about it, this is your time to shine.

After the Swim and Rock meet and reflecting on what a lot of you had to say about your races I came away with four areas that you had trouble with that little man between your ears and leaving you with this “What just happened.”  The four areas were,

1. Bad start off block
2. Missing a turn
3. Staying challenged during the race
4. Being tired at the end of a race

Maybe this sounds all too familiar with some of you, but not to worry especially if you have been filling your buckets with tools that will help you plug those leaks and that is all they are, leaks that can be filled.  As we have been talking about all season it goes back to that positive mindset that will set you up mentally as you prepare to race.  It’s as as important as anything else you do with your swimming or in life.

How can you use your tool kit to help you in the four areas above.  The start, as we talked about in practice we n to be ready to explode and be ahead or even with everyone else off the blocks and really unless it’s a 50 you basically have to tell yourself that you can get back into it, and let’s go.  Pretty simple stuff don’t overthink it and stay positive.

What about missing a turn, first think is go to your tool box and don’t panic.  The longer the race the more turns you will encounter and you may miss one and slow your 
momentum.  Again you cannot go negative at this point, don’t let it bother you.  Keep going and keep pushing.

What if your challenged during one of your races, after all it is an athletic event and if the challenge was not there what fun would it be.  Again this is the time your positive side should kick in with thoughts of “ I’ve got this in me” or “Come on I’m better than this” “It’s go time” and now it’s up to you to stay in the fight.

All swimmers tire near the end of a race.  It’s the point where your legs start to burn and the arms get heavy.  You have reached the wall where physical exhaustion is starting to creep in, but no panic you have this under control with your positive mindset with this one thought, Don’t give up, I can overcome this feeling.  No matter what athletic event I found myself, it always seemed that the more tired I got and the more pain I encountered the better I was. 


Always give your best effort, or you will never know, what might have been.  Let yourself be good through the next two weekends.  Don’t overthink the situation you find yourself in.  “Keep it simple and you can see if it works, make it complicated and if it doesn’t work you have no idea why not.”