Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Training plan through the end of April

I've got my training mapped out through the end of April, when the Masters National Championship meet is held.  This week is only a half week for me, so it's an abberation from the schedule, but here's the normal weekly schedule.  A note--the organized practices vary in intensity, some being pretty easy, while others rachet up the intensity to a pretty high level.  There are four different coaches, and they all have their own type of practice they like to give us.  Practices on my own are generally more stretched out and focus on stroke work and technique, since the organized practices often focus more on yardage and free than stroke and the fine stuff.
  • Monday: Two back to back morning practices, from 5:00-6:00 and 6:00-7:00.  Evening practice from 7:30-8:30.  If I only manage to make it to one morning practice, then I try to get in an hour long practice on my own before the 7:30-8:30 practice.  If I don't manage to get in for either practice, then I try to get in an hour and a half long practice on my own before the evening practice.
  • Tuesday: One morning practice from 6:00-7:00 and an evening practice from 7:30-8:30.  Alternatively, I do the morning practice, then do an hour long evening practice on my own before spinning with my friend from 7:30-8:30.
  • Wednesday: Two morning practices the same as Monday.  There is no scheduled evening practice, so depending on if I missed a morning practice, I'll do either an hour or hour and a half long practice on my own.  If I didn't spin on Tuesday night, then I'll try to spin on this night.  Since the spin class is earlier (5:30-6:15), I don't know if Wednesday night spin class is very achievable, given how long it takes to get home from work and then get to the gym (it can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half from the time I leave work till I get to the gym, on a good day).
  • Thursday: Same schedule as Tuesday, sans potential spin class.
  • Friday: Same as Wednesday, except the spin class is at 6:00, so it's more achievable.
  • Saturday: Morning practice from 8:00-9:00.
  • Sunday: Hopefully nothing except for any swim meets, since those run on Sundays.
On average (based on weeks past), that would come out to 10-11 practices a week, not counting meet weekends.  Of those 10-11 practices, (depending on what the coaches have in store for us), that would be 7 or 8 relatively high intensity practices and 3 or 4 lower intensity practices working on the finer points.  General ballpark for distance should be around 35,000 yards a week.  Obviously, it will vary based on the yardage the coaches have us do in their practices (I've been in practices where we've done as little as a 2600 and as much as a 4000) and how much I do in my own practices, but 35,000 should be a decent average.

Several other things I'm adding in, or have just added in to my workout regimen:
  • Resistance band training: I bought resistance bands this past weekend, so I'll be adding them in next week as part of a dryland training regimen either three or four times a week.
  • Weights: On the non-dryland days, I'll start lifting weights again.  I've been out of the weight room since last April.  I think three times a week, Mondays/Wednesdays/Saturdays?  Not sure where they will fit into the overall workout plan yet.
  • Stationary exercises: The other half of my dryland routine--pushups, crunches, squats, calf raises, pullups/chinups, stuff like that.  I need to work on my core, which is also something I haven't done since April of last year.
  • Running: At some point in February (I haven't decided when yet), I'll add running into the mix.  Probably just run two or three times a week.  No clue on the distances, but when I stopped running last April, I was running 5 times a week for anywhere from 3-6 miles each time.
  • Biking: In addition to the spin classes, I might add biking into the workout mix in February, probably about when I add in running.  I'm thinking once, maybe twice a week, most likely on Saturdays.
This whole workout plan will hold through the second week in April.  The third and fourth week in April will be taper weeks for Nationals, so I'll drop down to 6-9 practices a week at that point, but will train at full speed till then.  Overall, it's a pretty darn high intensity workout plan.  The cross training between the bike/spinning/swimming/running/dryland/weights should keep me pretty well balanced, while the hour long swim practices should help me keep the yardage up without getting the fatigue that two hour long practices produce.

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