Carolyn, a swimmer, was going on a trip. See didn’t want to get out of shape when she was on the road so she searched a bit and found a hotel with an “Olympic sized” pool. Upon arrival at her hotel destination, she found a pool that was 10-meters long by 6- meters wide. How was she going to stay fit in this pool?
Everyone goes on the road sometime, and I don’t think any of us are fooled by the words “Olympic sized” anymore. You might be an adult masters swimmer, a triathlete, an age group swimmer, or the parent of one of those mentioned. How do you train when you are not at home and have to make do in a hotel pool or a vacation condo pool?
The idea, of course, is to maintain your condition on these trips rather than lose it. Most people would be surprised at what it takes to maintain their condition-not as much as one might think. Let’s take an elite swimmer who is training about 8000 meters a day (a little over two hours). This swimmer goes on a family vacation for a week and only has access to a small pool, 12 meters in the long direction.
Here is a recommended training plan for this swimmer. This regimen will take about one hour of your day.
- Perform 400-600 StrechCordz® pulls a day for at least five of the seven days while on vacation (This is an out-of-water exercise). A swimmer not used to doing this kind of dryland workload will have sore muscles after the first day and perhaps over the entire week. But the muscles will start to adapt, and when this swimmer gets home, he/she will be stronger in the water from all the pulls. In many cases, swimmers will actually gain strength during vacation following this routine.
- Use a StrechCordz® Short Belt for continuous swimming in a small pool. Tie the cord off to the pool ladder or handrail and swim in place. Now, swimming in place is not the most fun thing to do for any length of time. It is best for the brain to do interval training with a Short Belt. For example, 10 x 2 minute swims with 30 seconds rest between. Swimmers can change strokes and kick while using Short Belts to vary the routine. Doing this for 30-45 minutes is probably optimal. Any longer and boredom could keep the swimmer from continuing during the following days. The idea is to do this five times during the seven days of vacation-not necessarily the same days as the StrechCordz® pulls.
- Incorporate turns in your workouts. The ability to push off a wall hard and in streamline is one of the most important things in swimming. All swimming velocity is initiated either from the starting block or off a wall. Either way, the legs are first and foremost. Short pools offer an opportunity to work turns. A pool that is 10-12 meters long can be ideal. Swim blasts of 6-8 turns really pushing hard and working perfect streamlines.
Doing the above training regimen will help athletes, 1) increase their swimming pull strength with the StrechCordz® pulls, 2) keep them in aerobic condition with the Short Belt work, and 3) likely increase the power in their legs with the short-pool turn work. So, time on the road does not have to be a losing proposition.
