My favourite workout: Xavier Grenier-Talavera

Name: Xavier Grenier-Talavera

Coach: Kyla Rollinson

Current training location: Brisbane, Australia

I compete in: ITU olympic and sprint distance

I typically train: Around 20 hours a week, up to 30 hours in big weeks

My strength in the sport is: Consistency in my race results, I’ll very rarely abandon or DNF a race.

My weakness in the sport is: I’ve still got to work on my general short-burst speed in all the three disciplines.

My favourite workout is: This swim set at a recent altitude training camp. While the speed is quite hard, you get to a point where you get ”in the zone” and just rip out super quick times, which can be a great confidence booster for your swim fitness.

• 300 easy
• 4×100 as A/B, B/C, C/D, D/X per 50m, progression to X being 200m pace, starting on an interval of choice
• 4×25 band fast choice of interval
• Main set (no specific start times, but start swimming shortly after each effort, no dwindling around for 2 to 3 minutes before the easy swimming)
• 50 Fast
• 100 EZ
• 100 fast
• 200 EZ
• 150 Tempo (1500m pace)
• 400 EZ

 

• 50 Fast
• 100 EZ
• 50 Fast
• 100EZ
• 100 Tempo (1500m pace)
• 200 EZ
• 100 Tempo (1500m pace)
• 400 EZ

 

• 50 Fast
• 100 EZ
• 50 Fast
• 100 EZ
• 50 Fast
• 100 EZ
• 100 Tempo (1500m pace)
• 200 EZ
• 50 Fast
• 300 EZ

Finish up with

• 3×400 1 pull, 1 pull+paddles, 1 pull+paddles+band
• Make sure there is a slight progression in the pace, starting strong and finishing strongest. We usually start those on a 5:30-6:00 cycle

My least favourite workout is: Gym training. Even though I know it makes me a stronger and better athlete, when I get in the gym motivation seems to vanish, especially on quick coordination exercises, in which I’m terrible at, and can be quite frustrating.

Best pro tip: Never forget your strengths. You can work extra hard to improve your weaknesses, but it should never be at the expense of what initially made you good!