After watching Katie Ledecky’s inspiring 1500 m swim at the Olympic Trials last night, I got in the pool and swam faster than usual, not just for the warm up (which was 10-20 seconds faster), but the entire workout. I was keeping the 125s under 1:50, not really losing much speed with the backstroke. At least, not as much as I expected. That was really exciting to me. It all stemmed from me asking myself: If I could swim like Ledecky, how would that feel? Obviously, I’m more than 2 minutes slower than her 500 m time, so I don’t quite have her speed or ability, but the 500 warmup was easy and significantly faster than how I usually swim it. I’ll take it. And the fact that I swam 2850 yards in 47 min and 30 seconds is pretty cool, too.

I always find these races to be incredibly inspiring. The day after the US men’s relay team beat the French team by hundredths of a second (the same year Dara Torres won the silver medal in the 50 m free), I swam an insane set (never to be repeated) that totaled 2000 broken IM. I plead temporary insanity on that one, but, once I was committed, I had to finish it, no matter how ugly it was. I was younger and stupider then. 🤪 Or maybe younger and more naive. LOL

Regardless, here’s today’s workout. Adjust as necessary. Change the strokes, the times, the distances, and have fun.

47:30-minute swim workout, backstroke stroke technique

500 warmup (~7:10 min)

Warmup set (600 yds, 11:30 min)
10 x 50 back drill/swim on :55
100 on 1:40

Main set 4x (1600 yds, 26 min)
125 on 2:00 — 25 back/100 free
100 on 1:30 — 25 back/ 75 free
75 on 1:15 — 25 back/50 free
50 on :45 — 25 back/25 free
50 easy on 1:00

Each round, replace a 25 free in the 125 with a 25 back until you are at 100 back/25 free.

Easy 150

Total yards: 2850

#swimmer #swimming #mastersswimmer #mastersswimming #50minuteswimworkout #backstroke