Circuit Pool Workout

Happy Thursday! And there are only two hours left in Thursday, so it's pretty much Friday. Even though I thought it was Friday all day, but hey, tomorrow is really Friday, so I'll give a FriYAY to that. And I don't have much for you guys, besides another pool workout. I swim a lot, but I typically do the exact same routine, so it would get monotonous to continue to share that with you guys. But I also know that swimming intimidates a lot of people, and it's such a wonderful workout that I want to help lower that intimidation factor.

I can't take all of the credit for this workout. I was innocently swimming over in lane 3 when I saw the white board for the Master's Swim Program taking place in lanes 4 through 6. We won't discuss the frequent lack of lanes at the MAC, but I digress. The workout was a circuit of sorts, and you guys know that I'm a big fan of circuits. I'm a very task-oriented person, and the feeling of being able to cross off a set is second to none. I know, I need help.

Anyway, I modified the workout a bit, until I came up with the following:

And, as usual, let me explain. The word "drill" may throw some people off. But I like to put it in terms that I can understand. When running, I'll sometimes (key word: sometimes) do sprint work. But I don't just sprint laps and laps and laps on end. No. I would make it maybe one lap and be done. Instead, I may sprint the straights, jog the curves, or vice versa. I may sprint one lap, walk one lap. I may sprint 1/4 of the track, rest for x amount of time, and start again. I may do lunges in between, I may broad jump the length of the football field (doubtful), but by no means am I simply running my hardest for that entire length of time. It's the same with swimming. I'm not going to swim 100 laps of freestyle. That would be terribly boring, and I guarantee my arms would stop functioning. I did a variety of different drills, and if you would like a list of them for your own knowledge, I suggest starting here. But I simply did two laps of one drill before moving onto the next. I then did a 100 IM, meaning I swam one lap of butterfly, one lap of backstroke, one lap of breaststroke, and one lap of freestyle. Those laps of butterfly absolutely killed me. The kick and pull are just what they sound like - you are using either only your legs or only your arms. And the 100 swim is completely up to you. I did a mix of breaststroke and freestyle, but you do whatever strokes you please. I'm not a huge fan of backstroke - it relaxes most people; it does not relax me - but some people could backstroke all the live long day. But I went through that series three times, for a total of 72 laps, before warming down to make it an even 100 laps.

I really enjoyed this workout because it challenged me in ways that my own swims don't, and it definitely prevented me from getting bored. It makes swimming a whole lot less intimidating to think of it in chunks of two or four laps, as opposed to thinking you have 100 laps to swim. And you certainly don't have to do this whole thing! Maybe one or two rounds of the circuit is all you can handle. And that's 100% okay. Getting outside of your comfort zone at all is a huge accomplishment. In my book, anyway.

And with that, I'm off to get some sleep. I've been the Grinch of Bellaire High School this week, so I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep and not be so quick to snap at my crazy students. Adios!