Tag: Woodruff

Race Pace Saturday

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Standard Warmup

Pre-Set 4 x 100 choice @ :20 rest.  Fast turns and 4+ dolphin kicks
   
Main Set (go to a hand touch on everything and keep an eye on the clock):
 
4 x 75 at P200+6 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez @ 3:00
3 x 75 at P200+4 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez

2 x 75 at P200+2 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez
1 x 75 at P200 @ 1:20
 
300 kick/scull/swim by 25

4 x 50 at P200+2 seconds @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
3 x 50 at P200+1 seconds @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
2 x 50 at P200  @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
1 x 50 at P200-1 @ 1:00
 

300 kick/scull/swim by 25

1 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
2 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
3 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
4 x 25 at P100  @ :40
 

500 ez warm down, your choice of equipment

Snake-Style Fly Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We have three narrow lanes for our group, so swimming fly with 20 swimmers sometimes gets hairy.  We swam this set “snake-style” to avoid collisions and 1-arm strokes. We went one direction in the first lane, came back in the second lane, and so on…

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Parallel Sprint and Distance Sets

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did the following parallel sets this morning.  The structure allowed me to focus on the sprinters for a few minutes, and then shift my focus to the distance swimmers, making me able to time everyone’s race pace swimming. LCM.

Distance Group
5 rounds of:
1 x 500 free B3, paddles, snorkel, buoy optional @ 7:30
3 x 100 @ 1:30
   Round 1 – descend to P1500
   Round 2 – at P1500
   Round 3 – descend to P1500 -1
   Round 4 – descend from P1500
   Round 5 – Fastest possible average

Sprint Group
5 rounds of:
3 x 35m sprints timed to the head, swim 15m easy @ 2:20
1 x 300 free B5, paddles, snorkel, buoy optional @ 5:00

We used these pace cards for determining race pace.

Choose your weapon — back or breast

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

LCM.  Wanted to get some good swimming of both of these strokes in today.  Being within the best+30 goal on the 200s wasn’t a problem for most, and the conscientious ones were able to be within 20 for the most part.  Rest intervals allowed for good flexibility on lane assignments and stroke choices.  Swimmers had to stick with either stroke for a round before switching.

Butterfly Quality Control

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

With narrow lanes and lots of turbulence in our pool, I try to find ways for our swimmers to get in good quality fly sets without having to dodge teammates, do 1-arm strokes, or have to worry about getting hit in the face.  This set accomplished all of those objectives AND helped us deliver some fast performances at practice.  On the 25s, we were able to go :10 apart.  On the 75s, I would start the second heat when the first heat had finished about 60m (SCM pool).  For the 125s, the second heat would begin as soon as the first heat had finished about 110m.  This also produced a “chasing” effect that encouraged swimmers to finish their last 25 fast lest they get caught by a teammate in embarrassing fashion.

Fartlek Fun. Is that redundant?

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This is 8:00 of continuous swimming with 1:00 rest.  Each time there are slightly different instructions.  “Deep” refers to deep practice, where I ask our swimmers to focus on one technical element and try to improve it.  On #4, they swim continuous backstroke until they hear me bang the wrench on the side of the pool. When they hear the bangs, they sprint br 2 walls (25-50m) and then return to swimming steady backstroke.

The Big Descend

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This set went really well for our team.  I like that it forced them to really pay attention to their pace and demanded exceptional effort for the last few rounds.  We did 150s instead of 100s or 200s because there is less “mental baggage” attached to that distance — swimmers’ don’t have well-defined expectations of what their times for 150 should be.

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