Your aQuelle Midmar Mile training guide
We're just four weeks away from swimming the aQuelle Midar Mile and by now everyone will have countless kilometres training behind them and will be feeling totally prepared. YEAH RIGHT!
The reality is that this week most Midmar milers only start their preparation. So how do you get ready for the world’s biggest open water swimming event in just a few short weeks?
If you are just getting started this week, you need to ease into it.
Aim for about 1200 meters in your first session and look to hit the mile (1600m) by the end of the week. You are aiming to comfortably swim 2000m by the end of your four weeks preparation so that the mile feels a little easier. A mile should not be the longest training distance you achieve.
Most swimmers tend to head to the nearest gym or municipal pool and just follow the black line up and down for as long as they can manage. Apart from being incredibly boring this is also not the best way to prepare. While you obviously need to be focusing on endurance training for this event, just swimming up and down is not actually most effective way to achieve this. Doing interval training of medium distances with short rest will give you a far better result.
Many swimmers will find swimming up and down aimlessly relatively easy, a bit like walking, and this won’t elevate your heart rate much. By giving yourself a little rest between each effort, you can go a little faster, pushing your heart rate up a little higher. Depending on your age, anywhere between 130 and 150 beats per minute is a good heart rate to be at for endurance training.
Below are a few examples of how you should be training this week.
Session 1 (A programme for those who haven’t touched water since Midmar 2013)
Warm up:
• 200 freestyle nice and easy getting used to the feel of the water again
• 4 x 50m as 25 free 25 back @ 30 sec rest.
• 100 kick choice
Main set:
• 4 x 25 free @ 15 sec rest (each 25 must be a little faster until the last one is a sprint)
• 4 x 50 free @ 15 as
Odds: easy
Even: hard
• 200 free pull (if you don’t have a pull buoy then cross your legs and just drag them so you are only using your arms)
Cool down:
• 100 backstroke
TOTAL: 1200m
Session 2 (A programme for those who have been training a few weeks already)
Warm up:
• 2 x 150 as 50 free 50 back 50 free kick @ 30 sec rest
• 4 x 25 free pull @ 10 sec rest
• 100 breast
Main set:
• 3 x 100 free @ 20 sec rest as
1. 25 fast 75 easy
2. 50 fast 50 easy
3. 75 fast 25 easy
• 4 x 25 medley order @ 15 sec rest (one of each stroke. If you can’t do butterfly just choose something else)
• 3 x 100 free @ 30 sec rest as
1. Breath every 5 arm strokes
2. Hold your breath on the first length and the last length
3. Easy free
• 4 x 25 IM order as above
Kick: 2 x
• 2 x 50 free kick @ 30 sec rest FAST
• 100 back kick easy @ 30 sec rest
Cool down:
• 100 choice
TOTAL: 1800m
For more information on swim training contact Angela:
(Photo: Anthony Grote, Gameplan Media)