NOVA of Virginia (via their Instagram feed)
Tag: Holidays
Thanksgiving Workout with the Mason Makos
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Halloween Workout with Coach Trip Breen
Coach Trip Breen, Wilmington College (OH)
10/30/18 AM HAPPY HALLOW WORKOUT SCM
1 X 500 FULL MOON (KEEP YOUR SHORTS ON) BIG FREE – EXIT THE WATER AFTER EACH 50 – HOWL AND MAKE A CLEAN ENTRY DIVE….
1 X 300 – TRICK OR TREAT…SMELL MY FEET – PARTNER SWIM – SWITCH AT EVERY 25 – PULL THE DEAD WEIGHT BEHIND YOU! – MAKE A CONNECTION
9 X FRANKEN 50’S – DR. Frankenstein made sure his monster stood tall and was incredibly powerful. With a little electricity he came to life. SHOCK your coaches and swim with great posture and power!
2 x 50 @ 200 RQ 1:00
1 PERFECT
X 3
1250
9 X EGYPTION 75’S – DON’T LET ANYTHING BLOW OUT YOUR SPHINX-STER, AFTER THIS IS OVER YOU WILL WANT YOUR MUMMY – MAKE SICKLE!!!!
3 1:03/1:06/1:10/1:12
3 :58 /1:01/1:07/1:09
3 :54 /:58 /1:04/1:06
675/1925
PSYCHO STARTS….They will Horrify the Competition!
4 x Psycho Starts – Brutal Breakouts-Killer Finishes!!!!
100/2025
TREAT (JUST KIDDING) NESTLE “CRUNCHES” – 75 V-UPS + 75 TWISTED TWIZZLERS
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET KICK SET!
1 X 400 – 25 LURKING LUNGES – 25 FREDDIE KRUEGER KICK…TEAR YOUR LEGS TO SHREDS!!!!
400/2425
TRANSYLVANIA 200’S – WILL SEND THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LOOKING FOR DRY LAND! MAKES THE WOLFMAN WISH THERE WAS NO FULL MOON! MAKES A WARLOCKS WAND GO LIMP, ZOMBIES WANT TO GO BACK TO JUST BEING DEAD…EVEN DRACULA THINKS THESE SUCK!!
1 BROKEN @ 100 :20
1 BROKEN @ 50’S :10
1 BROKEN @ 25’S :05
600/3025
1 X 300 EASY – SWIM IT, THEN BOOGIE..MAN
300/3325
STUDY! I KNOW THAT IS SCARY, BUT GOOD SPIRITS WILL SUROUND YOU WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED!
Marathon Monday with Crimson Aquatics
In celebration of yesterday’s Boston Marathon, this was yesterday’s set for Crimson Aquatics.
New Year’s Set with Coach Todd DeSorbo
Thanksgiving with Coach Tony Carroll of the Lakeside Seahawks
Tony Carroll
Lakeside Seahawks
Editor’s note: After we posted this workout, it was brought to our attention that Coach Don Heidary is the likely inspiration for this workout. You can see Coach Heidary’s workout here. Thank you to Coach Carroll for putting his spin on it.
See Coach Carroll’s other contributed workouts:
Workout Combo with Coach Tony Carroll
Pi Day Practice
The Aqua Murph
Many Veterans and Crossfitters will be doing the Murph Challenge Memorial Day. We will do our version.
1 mile swim
200 push ups
300 squats
Or
20 X
5 PULL UPS
SWIM 1 X 75
10 PUSH UPS
15 SQUATS
Pi Day Practice
The Christmas Tree of Fun (Pain) from Coach Neil Edwards
Neil Edwards
Plymouth Leander Swim Club
Christmas Tree Set from Coach Kevin Harrod
Kevin Harrod
Solon Stars Swim Team
Not the 12 Days of Christmas!
The Cookie Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set yesterday. Our goal today was to get in some quality fast swims of all strokes. We train primarily in a SCM pool, so it is sometimes a challenge to relate training times to SCY race times. Today’s set was an attempt to do that and it worked very well.
7 x 85m from a start @ 7:00
– timed to head crossing the line.
– first four swims had to be of athlete’s best 100 yard event
– last three were choice
– we left one lane open for warm-down between swims
– Goal: Beat your best 100 yard time. In order to meet this goal, athletes had to swim at around 93% of race pace, as 85m is about 93 yards. I estimated that this would be a difficult challenge for seven consecutive swims that began after we had already been practicing for an hour.
We had 19 people at practice, which meant there were 133 total swims. As a group incentive, I promised the swimmers that if they beat their best times in at least 80 of the 133 swims, my wife would bake them cookies for after our Christmas Eve morning practice this Saturday.
They started out a bit behind pace to make the 80 mark on the first round, but came on strong in rounds 2 through 4 to achieve the group incentive with 1 round to go.
Fire up the oven, honey!
Decision 2016
The M & M Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This is a fun concept for practice you can do any time, but I like to save it for a special occasion. In this case, we did it on New Year’s Eve. I buy a bag of M & Ms, and write a set on the board that corresponds with each color in the bag. I pick a swimmer to pull an M&M out of the bag (without looking) and then we do that set. Then, I replace the set with another one in case the same color gets pulled by the next swimmer. The sets can be anything you want, but I like them to be creative, different, or at least something that we don’t do very frequently. Use it as an opportunity to be creative.
The 12 Sets of Christmas

11-11-11 Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Parkland Aquatic Club
Can you have a once-in-a-lifetime set to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime day?
11 x 100 free @ 1:11
Possible instructions:
– Kick out 11m off every wall
– Breathe every 11
– Get 11 seconds of rest each time
– Take 11 strokes or fewer each length
– Use 11 dolphin kicks off every wall
– Take 11 breaths total in each 100
– Descend by 11 seconds from #1 to #11
– Be within 11 seconds of your best time on every swim
– Come up with 11 different technical things to work on and focus on one for each 100
– 11 strokes – 11 kicks – 11 strokes drill
– Start the set at the 11:11 on your pace clock
– Perform the set with 11 people in your lane
– Tell your coach 11 reasons why you liked the set!!!
A Great Halloween Set
We found this one on the USMS website from Coach Mike Collins at NOVA Masters.
Special “Evil” Practice – Come if you dare!
Warm-up:
ae – 200 Free + 100 Back + 100 Breast
i – 150 Free + 75 Back + 75 Breast
r – 100 Free + 50 Back + 50 Breast
1 x 400/300 Evil Free Swim
No wall turns. Turn at the “T” WITHOUT touching the bottom.
Every 4th length Fly w/ Breast kick.
7 x 50’s of Progressive Pain (w/ Fins)
25 FAST Fly + 25 Free
Do pullouts at the turn as follows:
#1- 2 pullouts #2 – 4 pullouts
#3 – 6 pullouts #4 – 8 pullouts
Then back down 6-4-2 to make 7 50’s
Interval increases by 5 with more pullouts and decreases by 5 as they are
taken out
Zombies in the Grave Kicking – 6/4 x 50’s @ :20 RI (w/ Fins)
25 kick on back with arms straight up in the air shoulder width
apart – Kick like HELL!
2nd 25 of each 50 is Backstroke Swim
Swim – 6 x 100 Insane IM’s & Sanity Free @ :20 RI
Odd 100’s – Insane IM’s. Use different kick for each stroke
Fly w/ Flutter kick
Back w/ dolphin kick
Breast w/ flutter kick
Free w/ Breast kick
Even 100’s – Normal swim to return sanity
Suffocating Pull of Death – 3 x (3 x 50’s Pulling)
1st round: 5-4-3 breaths per 50. Beginners start at 6-5-4
2nd round: 4-3-2 breaths per 50
3rd round: 3-2-1 breaths per 50
Intervals :50-1:00-1:10, 1:00-1:10-1:20, 1:10-1:20-1:30
4/3 x Screamer 50’s @ 1:30 or 2:00
25 easy+25 fast
Let out a blood curdling Scream or witch’s cackle at the turn
Leave after the person in front of you screams
Halloween Swim Set #1
With Halloween right around the corner, it’s time to break out the creativity to encourage your swimmers to come to practice before they trick or treat.
A Halloween Set for Age Groupers (a re-post from last year)
A Halloween Set during Adaptation Week (for age groupers)
Head Coach Darwin Swimming Club
5k Pre-Halloween Excursion to the Dark Side (10-15 sec RI throughout)
Time to Cinco or Swimo
Ryan Woodruff
Ryan.d.woodruff@gmail.com
Celebrating Cinco de Mayo
How many 5’s can we squeeze into one set?
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 200 prime stroke @ 2:45 Descend 1-4, hold 5
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 150 prime stroke @ 2:05 Descend 1-3, hold 4,5
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 100 prime stroke @ 1:25 Descend 1-2, hold 3,4,5
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 50 prime stroke @ :45 fastest possible average
500 free @ 5:55
Descend 500s 1-5. Kick 5 yards underwater off every wall.
Total distance = 5,000 yards