Shannon's Ulti Swim Workout

Ok so here is a pool workout I love to do for ultimate:

Approx 60 mins total

1 lap = down and back

start with 5 lap warm up, at whatever pace you like
You can do all freestyle, or alternate other strokes


then get a kick board

5 laps of alternating freestyle kick, and breast stroke kick
(do these 5 laps a bit faster than warm up, think about building leg strength)

Treading water sets:
go to middle of lane where its deepest,
make sure you can see clock (there is usually a big white clock or digital clock)
this is a 5 min set
30 sec tread water freestyle kick hands in water
30 sec tread water freestyle kick hands out of water (straight up over your head)
30 sec tread water breast stroke kick hands in water
30 sec tread water breast stroke kick hands in water
30 sec tread water freestyle kick hands in water
30 sec tread water freestyle kick hands out of water
30 sec tread water breast stroke kick hands in water
30 sec tread water breast stroke kick hands out of water
30 sec tread water freestyle kick hands in water
30 sec tread water freestyle kick hands out of water

So, the trend is,
alternate each minute with different kick strokes, first 30 sec hands in water, 2nd 30 sec hands out of water,

go to wall and rest briefly (if needed)

repeat same set only start with 1st minute as breast stroke kick (so that you do 3 min of breast stroke kick and 2 min of freestyle, to even it out)

(so in total you would have done 10 minutes of treading water)

The rest of the workout is supposed to be the hardest parts, so you can adjust as you get better, and push yourself more each time

Get kickboard again
(this will be like interval training)
Each set goes like this:

kick down (1/2 lap) at normal pace
when you reach wall look at clock and rest 30 seconds, as soon as 30 sec passes sprint back and have a timed goal (ex, I always tried to make it back in less than 30 seconds, I think I usually did it in 22-25 sec)

As soon as you reach the wall after your sprint, do not stop, immediately kick back at casual pace, then when you reach the opposite, rest 30 seconds, then repeat until you have completed 10 sprints

And lastly-- my favorite, the lungbuster lap training (pretty sure Lauren Boyle taught me this, and everything else I know about swimming…and life)

You are doing sets of 1 lap (down and back) as fast as you possibly can.  You have 60 seconds for each lap, and whatever time you have to spare is your rest time before the next lap.

for example, I would typically do them in 40-45 seconds, so I would have about 20-15 seconds rest in-between, but then more like 10seconds when I got slower

Repeat this as many times as you can.

When I first started doing these, I could only do 3 in a row (and feeling like death was near), and its amazing how quickly your lungs strengthen and  you can work up to doing 6 or more at least

I would always start by going as far as possible without breathing, then coming up for air every 4 or 6 strokes. not sure if that's recommended… but I felt like I wanted to push my lungs to capacity to see how hard/far I could go without breathing

And then afterwards, do a 5 lap cool down