Workout Wednesday: Aj Baucco’s pythagorean strength swim set
A swim workouts that builds your strength, too.
Before pursuing a career as a professional triathlete and a triathlon coach, I was a high school math teacher. Every now and then, the nerd comes out and I write a workout that is inspired by my background in mathematics. This workout was inspired by the Pythagorean Formula; more specifically, Pythagorean Triples. So before you do this session, dust off your old textbook and try to figure out why this workout is called Pythagorean Strength. Your high school math teacher will be proud.
It’s still winter in North America, so this workout has a nice strength component. This workout isn’t meant to be insanely hard, but it is meant to have plenty of pace changes. It is important for athletes to learn to swim different paces. Athletes that can only go “all out” in the water are likely limited by their swim mechanics. Poorer swimmers or beginner triathletes may want to make this workout shorter. Do so by starting the first set with 150s instead of 200s.
What You Need: Buoy, Paddles
Main Set
3 x 200 easy swim on :20 rest
4 x 150 aerobic swim on :15 rest
5 x 100 tempo swim on :10 rest
1min rest
5 x 75 aerobic pull on :20 rest
12 x 50 tempo pull with paddles on :15 rest
13 x 25 best effort with paddles only on :10 rest
Cool Down
100 easy choice
Total = 3100 meters
AJ Baucco is an established long course professional triathlete from Cleveland, Ohio. He founded AJ Baucco Coaching LLC, which currently coaches nearly 50 age group triathletes from all over the country. He also runs an age group triathlon team called the “Baucco Squad”. In 2014, AJ Baucco was crowned the first ever Kona (Beer Mile) Champion. He has since been given legendary status on the Big Island.
Contact – ajbaucco@gmail.com
Websites – www.baucco.com, www.ajbcoaching.com, www.bauccosquad.com
Twitter – @irunshirtless
Instagram – @ajbaucco
