Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.
This swimming workout was submitted by Josh Fulton, the head coach of Virginia’s Tide Swimming:
This was a Mid Long Course Season Workout, about 8 weeks out from our Champ Meet. A couple times a week we will pull out different groups based on needs of the athletes. (Ex. Mid Fr, Sprint Fr, Breast, IM, etc.) In this workout we had two groups; the IM/Free/Stroke Swimmers and then we pulled out breaststrokers.
Breaststrokers are certainly a different breed and we tend to pull out those guys more and more especially pure breaststrokes that don’t tend to swim the IM. (We had a male breaststroker, Austin Temple, go 1:01.99 in the 100 Br LC this summer)
400 sw
Pre Set all w/ :10 rest
4 x 25 tip into stroke–Fly
3 x 50 Fly pull free k brth every 3–keep low and forward
4 x 25 L drill
3 x 50 bk sw light hands
4 x 25 inchworm
3 x 50 2 strokes uw/1 @ surf
4 x 25 double touch
3 x 50 free sw 4 brths
(1300m)
IM/Fr
4x
250 IM–last 50 Fr!! bld through hammer last 50! @3:10
4 x 75 Rd of ea stroke hold HR 16/strong effort @1:15
50 EZ @1
100 IM race @1:45
20 x 25 @:35 12.5 UW Fly k !!!
900 pull 25!/25 ez–50!/50 ez–75!/75ez
18 x 75 w/p and f @1:15
3 fast–1 ez
2 fast–1 ez
1 fast- 1 ez
200 WD
(6500m)
Breaststrokers
8 x 100 Breast Pull @ 2 max effort
2x
12 x 25 @:45
Breast pull fly k uw with fins—-working fast hands coming off Br Pull
3 x 50 breast sw max speed least strokes @1
4 x 100 Free @1:25/1:30
1-pos split
2-neg split
3-ez
4-last 35!
8 x 50 breast k @1:05 max speed work dpk
900 pull w/pads 25!/25ez–50!/50ez–75!/75ez
2x
2 x 50 @200! @1:10
4 x 25 1 pull 3 kick ride into line @:35
2 x 25 max effort
50 EZ
(6200m)
The IM Set is a general aerobic IM set bringing in a few race components We do a lot of fast back end 50s on any aerobic swims we do, trying to finish races hard and have ability to change gears at the end of races. Then at the end we are working a fast 100 IM, I really like 100 IMs because I think they are a bit easier to maintain race speed and gives athletes a great chance to work transitions within the IM at race speed.
When working with breaststroke we try to work the pieces separately and any full stroke we are swimming we are trying to hit race speeds. More and more I am allowing breaststrokers to decide when to stop swimming that stroke based on breakdown. Certainly a power stroke that shouldn’t be swum much after breakdown.
Got a workout you would like to share with the swimming community? Send it on in to Olivier at [email protected]