Workout Wednesday: Kick focus
–by Lauren Brandon
The following swim set is designed to not only get in some great threshold freestyle but also to get some fast kicking in. Having a strong kick is important in the sport of triathlon because it is a major part of your stroke. You want to have an efficient kick that helps propel you through the water and not a kick that completely hinders your swimming ability. Make sure that when you’re kicking, you are thinking about small kicks. I see a lot of triathletes who have a huge scissor kick, or at least one leg that kicks way out past where it should. This makes it difficult to get your body position back into alignment, so try to keep them smaller.
Warm Up:
6×150 (100 swim/50 kick)Â rest 10-15 seconds
First Set:
4x 50 kick (25/build to fast/25 easy) -meaning the last part of the first 25 should be fast- rest 10 seconds
4x 50 free (25 build to fast/25 easy) rest 10 seconds
Main Set:
*The freestyle portion of this set should be threshold pace, so the fastest pace that you can hold for a long time.
*The kick portion is fast
*After each kick portion, take an extra minute rest before you begin the next 100’s free
2x 100 free rest 10
8x 25 fast free kick rest 10
4x 100 free rest 10
6x 25 fast free kick rest 10
6x 100 free rest 10
4x 25 fast kick rest 10
8x 100 free rest 10
2x 25 fast kick rest 10
200 easy
Total Workout: 4000
Alternate main swim set for a shorter swim (This is 1300 instead of 2500) . You can also do only 4×150 warm up instead of the 6. With a shortened warm-up and main set, you would have a 2500 total swim workout.
1x 100 free rest 10
6×25 free kick rest 10
2×100 free rest 10
4×25 kick free rest 10
3×100 free rest 10
2×25 kick free rest 10
4×100 free free rest 10
