Weeks 1-4

Open Water Challenge
by Susan Scanlan | August 16, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Ever wonder what to do when swimming open water? TImed swims can get boring. Why not try this challenge? You will need to bring good technique and siting. Enjoy!

Back to School Workout
by Susan Scanlan | September 17, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Have you forgotten how to swim with beautiful technique? This workout will review the basics and get you tuned up for a great season! Originally published on Oct 12, 2019.

Welcome Back!
by Susan Scanlan | October 10, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This is the first workout of the fall season. Set lengths are variable, depending upon how much you have been swimming.

Week 1, Day 2 Practice
by Susan Scanlan | October 11, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Workout focuses on catch drills and building endurance. Mostly freestyle.

Week 1: Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | October 13, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout is a basic endurance one. In addition, the YMCA catch drill allows you to slow down your catch and pull. Thus giving you the feel of proper hand and arm position.

Week 2, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | October 17, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The focus of this workout is the transition from extension to catch position. The movement is initiated by pointing the elbow up. The hand will drop into position for your pull. Keep your wrist straight and pull water back.

Week 2, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | October 18, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Still concentrating on extension and catch, today we are incorporating the 6-3-6 drill. Start in arm lead kick position. Kick 6 times. Stroke 3 times. Breathe. Then kick 6 times in the other arm lead postion.

Week 2, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | October 21, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Building on our heart rate set, we will do a set of 100s on descending intervals. In addition, we will do another heart rate set incorporating strokes. Country Club IMs alternate 25 freestyle with 25 stroke.

Week 3, Day1
by Susan Scanlan | October 23, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments

Week 3, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | October 26, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
In this workout, we will be doing some short distance stroke work. We will concentrate on technique rather than endurance. There is also an opportunity to practice IM turns.

Week 3, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | October 28, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today’s workout features streamlining and changing speeds. The warm-up includes 12 x 25 power push-offs. These start with one hand on the wall, both feet on the wall facing up or slightly angled to the side and the other arm out. Sink, touch and push from the wall to streamline. Continue to push off from the all on all repeats in this manner.

Week 4, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | October 30, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This is a basic endurance workout with emphasis on turns. The warm-up includes turn drills as well as streamline jumps. The rest of the workout is to be swum at threshold pace (400 pace).
Weeks 5-8

Week 5, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | November 5, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Time to start Endurance -2 workouts. These workouts will require a pace that is 1-2s faster than threshold pace. We will start by giving longer rests to longer sets, but eventually we will shorten these rests. In addition, we will continue to work on the push-off portion of the turn. Equipment needed: paddles, pull buoy, dragsox (mesh bags for your feet).

Week 5, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | November 9, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Backstroke is star of this workout. Warm up includes some progressions. One of the keys to backstroke is that is it not done on your back. The kicking drills emphasize rotating the body from side to side. One arm kicks should be done at a 45 degree angle to the water with armpit pointing to the side. The 6 & 6 drill involves 6 kicks on one side with arm extended, switch and 6 kicks on the other side. The 6-3-6 drill is similar to the 6 & 6 drill except for the three arm strokes in the middle as you transition from side to side.

Week 5, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | November 12, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The focus on today’s backstroke workout is timing. Starting with a vertical kick hesitation drill. The goal is to pause your kick in a bent knee position, drive your foot and hip forward. See if you can rotate your body with this thrust. Aaron Piersol can rotate 360 degrees with one kick. Next, we move this drill to a horizontal position timing it carefully with an opposite arm pull and same side arm recovery.

Week 6, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | November 14, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Some will be glad that this is the last day of backstroke progressions. We will be concentrating on the kick, which needs to be powerful. The drill set includes fly kick on your back. Start the kick with your core. Titanic is a drill in which you are kicking on your back and both arms are pointed to the ceiling. Try not to sink! Mummy is a drill in which your arms are moving in opposition forward and backwards while kicking on your back. The main set is freestyle. Set your intervals so you only have 10-15s rest.

Week 6, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | November 15, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today is the day to show off your backstroke. I will be taping you underwater. I will be looking for proper head and body position, hand entry and exit positions, pull, tempo and walls. I will give you the results of your assessment on Friday.

Week 6, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | November 18, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout is EN-2, or threshold pace minus 2 seconds per 100. There are 4-5 repeats of 400s, each starting with a portion of a 200 and finishing with a 200. Your goal is to keep an EN-2 pace throughout. Extra rest is provided after each 200.

Week 7 Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | November 21, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Fine tuning freestyle and backstroke, this workout is designed to help levitate hips. The pull with buoy drill at different sites in the legs encourages a strong core to hold a balanced body line.

Week 8, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | November 28, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Welcome to breastroke! We start with breastroke kick basics and the pullout. There are also scull drills included in the warm-up. The main set starts with a basic endurance mini set, then moves to a threshold endurance mini set and finally to a threshold overload set.

Week 8, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | November 29, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This is a power workout with a breaststroke feature. The power portion will include tombstone and vertical kicking plus pulling with paddles and people. The breaststroke feature will focus on the kick.

Week 8, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | December 1, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The warm up continues with breaststroke drills. Still concentrating on the kick, pulling the heels to the butt. The main set concentrates on achieving negative splits based on threshold times. Hold your threshold time for the first half of the swim and then drop 2 seconds per 100 for the second half of the swim.

Week 9, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | December 3, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today’s workout it a bit of a respite from the previous weeks. We will concentrate on a long and efficient stroke while reviewing breaststroke pull.

Week 9, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | December 6, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Todays set incorporates threshold swimming pace, EN-2 pace and an EN-2 Plus pace. In the main set, you will swim a 300 at threshold pace. Next 2 x 150 at EN-2, threshold pace minus one second per 50. Lastly, 4 x 75 at threshold pace minus 2s/50 yds. There’s plenty of rest, so I am anticipating everyone meeting their goals!
Weeks 9-12

Week 9, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | December 3, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today’s workout it a bit of a respite from the previous weeks. We will concentrate on a long and efficient stroke while reviewing breaststroke pull.

Week 9, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | December 6, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Todays set incorporates threshold swimming pace, EN-2 pace and an EN-2 Plus pace. In the main set, you will swim a 300 at threshold pace. Next 2 x 150 at EN-2, threshold pace minus one second per 50. Lastly, 4 x 75 at threshold pace minus 2s/50 yds. There’s plenty of rest, so I am anticipating everyone meeting their goals!

Week 9, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | December 8, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today we are reviewing some drills, namely arm lead and buoy balance drills. The goal of the first drill is to keep your lead arm straight and still while you breathe. The goal of the buoy balance drill is to keep your core tight and don’t wiggle!

Week 10, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | December 10, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The main set of this workout was featured in 33-epic-swimming-workouts. It is designed to help freestylers to master their stroke rate without a tempo trainer. The main set has three rounds of 8 x 25 which increase in cadence each repeat. The first repeat the cadence is set by dolphin kick. The second round a stretch band is used to bind the ankles. Your goal is the keep a balanced body line with high hips. To do this you must increase your tempo. Last round is as fast and you can rotate your arms.

Week 10, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | December 13, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
It’s race day! Our session is ending, so let’s check out our progress. Everyone will swim at 400, 2 x 50 choice and 2 x 25 choice. Everyone has times to beat in the 400. We will run this practice like a meet with a warm-up and then the events.

Week 10, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | December 15, 2021 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today’s workout covers a variety of distances. The first round gives 10s rest per 50. Intervals are based on your new threshold times taken from your 400 for time swim on Wednesday. The second round gives 5s rest per 50. In addition there is leg, arm and abs strength work incorporated into the main set. Enjoy!

Week 12
by Susan Scanlan | January 7, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Bring your paddles, buoy and fins for this power set. You will be adding resistance and then taking it off. Goal times are threshold endurance times taken from your average 100 pace for your timed 400.

Week 13, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | January 10, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout originally came from San Ramon Masters swimming. I attended a practice there and this was the main set. I liked it and have repeated it often. It is a great workout for building endurance.

Week 13, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | January 12, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The warm-up of this workout emphasizes the feeling of weightless hand entry. Too many of us are letting our entry hand sink. We will be practicing by placing our hand on the buoy, NOT GRIPPING IT! Then we will perform a one arm stroke, breathing on the stroking side. Next, to simulate a pull using your lats, we will do a one arm drill breathing on the non-stroking side. The non-stroking arm will be at your side this time. The goal is to feel like you are doing a lat pull down as you pull.

Week 13, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | January 14, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The drill in the warm-up emphasizes a high hip position. We are swimming distance today, so low hips are really a drag. Moving the pull buoy down the length of your legs gives you the feeling of swimming downwards. Keep that feeling when you remove the buoy.

Week 14, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | January 17, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
In the main set, your pace should be 1-2 seconds faster per hundred than your average 100 on your 400 for time. So if your 400 time was 6:00, your average 100 pace was 1:30. Try to swim your 200 in 2:56-2:58, your 150 2:12-2:13, your 100 1:28-1:29 and your 50 in :44. Determine your intervals based on your goal times. Give yourself :45s rest for a 200, :35s for a 150, :25 for a 100 and :15 for a 50. Enjoy!

Week 14, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | January 19, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The main set here is a basic one – repeat 100s. For those who are strokers, replace the free with your stroke and see how long you can hold your pace. When and if you start to slow by more than 5s, take an extra minute’s rest and start up again.
Weeks 13-16

Week 13, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | January 10, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout originally came from San Ramon Masters swimming. I attended a practice there and this was the main set. I liked it and have repeated it often. It is a great workout for building endurance.

Week 13, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | January 12, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The warm-up of this workout emphasizes the feeling of weightless hand entry. Too many of us are letting our entry hand sink. We will be practicing by placing our hand on the buoy, NOT GRIPPING IT! Then we will perform a one arm stroke, breathing on the stroking side. Next, to simulate a pull using your lats, we will do a one arm drill breathing on the non-stroking side. The non-stroking arm will be at your side this time. The goal is to feel like you are doing a lat pull down as you pull.

Week 13, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | January 14, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The drill in the warm-up emphasizes a high hip position. We are swimming distance today, so low hips are really a drag. Moving the pull buoy down the length of your legs gives you the feeling of swimming downwards. Keep that feeling when you remove the buoy.

Week 14, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | January 17, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
In the main set, your pace should be 1-2 seconds faster per hundred than your average 100 on your 400 for time. So if your 400 time was 6:00, your average 100 pace was 1:30. Try to swim your 200 in 2:56-2:58, your 150 2:12-2:13, your 100 1:28-1:29 and your 50 in :44. Determine your intervals based on your goal times. Give yourself :45s rest for a 200, :35s for a 150, :25 for a 100 and :15 for a 50. Enjoy!

Week 14, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | January 19, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
The main set here is a basic one – repeat 100s. For those who are strokers, replace the free with your stroke and see how long you can hold your pace. When and if you start to slow by more than 5s, take an extra minute’s rest and start up again.

Week 14, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | January 21, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout takes a break for all the freestyle that we have been doing. Choose two other strokes to work on today. You will start by drilling and kicking the stroke, then building to 75s.

Week 15, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | January 24, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Time to work on stroke sprints! The main set will work on stroke endurance and finish with a sprint. Choose 2-3 different strokes to work. Keep the same stroke for each round. Enjoy!

Week 15, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | January 28, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Working on IM transitions today. I am reminding everyone of the rules. Two handed stroked like breast and fly required two handed wall touches. The back to breast transition requires a wall touch on your back. There are lots of turns to day, so you will get plenty of practice on your technique and speed.

Week 16, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | January 31, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This is a threshold overload or EN-2 workout. Pace should be about 2s faster than threshold pace per 100. Rest is a bit longer so you can hold your pace.

Week 16, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | February 3, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Time for another time trial. Why? To see if the training is working and to make adjustments. After the 400 time trial, there is a basic endurance set in which you will be asked to hold your previous threshold pace PLUS 4s per 100.

Week 16, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | February 4, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Using our new threshold endurance times, this set starts with a basic endurance tempo and works into a threshold tempo. Two hundred repeats are a great way to train for distance events.

Week 17, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | February 7, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
We have been working on building our endurance for quite some time. Now it is time to work on speed. Today, you will swim a 100 yard freestyle from the blocks for time. This will set your 25 yard pace for Ultra Short Race Pace (USRP) training. Afterwards is an IM set.
Weeks 17-20

Week 17, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | February 7, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
We have been working on building our endurance for quite some time. Now it is time to work on speed. Today, you will swim a 100 yard freestyle from the blocks for time. This will set your 25 yard pace for Ultra Short Race Pace (USRP) training. Afterwards is an IM set.

Week 17, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | February 9, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout encourages fast arms for the 25s, a long stroke for the pulls and a technique-accurate stroke for the super slow swims. Freestyle is the main stroke, although alternate strokes may be substituted for the 25s and 200s.

Week 17, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | February 11, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Broken 500s are a distance swimmer’s friend. Start with your threshold 100 pace. See if you can hold that pace for 5 x 100 with only 10s rest. If you can, move on to 3 x 150 + 50. Give your self 10s rest again. If you are still holding pace, move on to the 200s. At any time, if you cannot hold your threshold pace, repeat that distance intervals. You may not be ready to move on. If you do move on, you will surely be disappointed at your inability to hold pace.

Week 18, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | February 14, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today starts our Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT). To determine your race pace for repeat 25s, take your 100 sprint time and divide it by 4. Add 15s rest for your interval time. Read the directions for how to complete the set if you are not familiar with USRPT. Good luck!

Week 18, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | February 17, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Today’s workout employs equipment to build power into your stroke. Bring you fins, paddles and pull buoys.

Week 18, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | February 18, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout is for the entire team to do together. Lanes with slower swimmers can swim with fins or switch to 150 yards. The challenge is to hold your pace as your rest gets progressively shorter.
Week 19, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | February 21, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This is the second week of USRPT training. You should be able to get more repeats without “failing” to meet your goal time. It you are able to complete three rounds at your goal pace with little or no fails, drop your goal time by one second for next week’s challenge.
Week 19, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | February 23, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
I am calling this workout: IM having a good time. Get your IM grove on! We are working toward building a 200 IM by alternating 25 and 50 yards of stroke to build a 150 IM. At the end of the workout, there is an opportunity to see if you can make the full 200 IM OR see how fast you can finish a 200 IM.

Week 19, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | February 25, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Equipment needed for this workout: fins, paddles, t-shirt, PJ pants with drawstring, and kickboard. This is a power workout. We will put on equipment to swim and then take it off. The 12 x 25s are to be down fast for 8-10 stroke cycles, then easy to the wall.

Week 20, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | February 28, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This is week three of USRPT. You should be able to do more repeats without failing. If you can successfully complete this set, drop your goal time by one second for next week’s challenge.

Week 20, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | March 2, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
We will be working on two new drills based on your freestyle videos. The first one enforces proper head position, which is a long neck with a tucked chin. Hold a flat paddle vertical to your head and swim. Breathe when you have to, but keep the paddle in place. The second drill promotes a high elbow catch. Get the skinniest pull buoy you can find – maybe a kids. You will be gripping it and initiating the catch twice and then pulling with the buoy in your hand. Make sure your elbow is pointing up and not to the side. The main set includes an overload endurance set. Set your goal times to be about 2 seconds under threshold per 100 yds.

Week 20, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | March 4, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
After two hard workouts this week, this workout brings some recovery. No sprinting. The main sets are shorter distances at threshold pace. Keep working on head position and catch position with the vertical paddle and buoy drill.
Weeks 21-22

Week 21, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | March 7, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout is a recovery workout for those who participated in yesterday’s meet or had a long weekend of training. The first part of the swim is to be done at about 70% of maximum speed. The heartrate set varies by age. For those between 30-50, wait until your HR goes down to 110-120bpm. For 50-60, 100-110 bpm, and for 60+, 90-100bpm. The last part of the workout is a lactate production set of 25s. Make sure you do an easy cool down.

Week 21, Day 2
by Susan Scanlan | March 9, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
Last day of USRPTs. If you are feeling especially fast, drop your goal time by 1s. If not, try to increase the number of reps before failure from last week.
Week 21, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | March 11, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout is a bit of a recovery from Wednesday’s USRPT set. The main set is 10 x 125 alternating moderately hard and moderate. Some fun sculling drills are included.
Week 22, Day 1
by Susan Scanlan | March 14, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This set is great pace work for a 500 or 1000. Start with your 500 or 1000 average pace per 100 yards. Then see how long you can hold that pace with the interval dropping 5s every repeat. If the interval doesn’t work for you, start with adding 20s to your 500 or 1000 pace. Then drop 5s on the interval every repeat of 4 x 100.
Week 22, Day 3
by Susan Scanlan | March 16, 2022 | 75 Minute Swim | 0 Comments
This workout goes out to anyone who wants to swim the 200 without dying. The goal pace is a race pace 200. You have three opportunities to get it right. The first drill is a one arm pull with the opposite arm at side. Breathe on the non-stroking side. This drill forces you to use your hips and core to rotate. The second drill is like a doggie paddle, but with your head in the water watching your entry and catch. Make sure hands enter in front of shoulders, wrist stays straight and elbows are high.
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Join us for 5:15-6:30am workouts October thru June. Registration starts in October.