ROKA Guppy Challenge: Week 9

February 5, 2018

Two weeks to go! Who has made it this far? Have you had to take a week off? More? No problem. Go back a week for every 1 to 2 weeks you took off. This challenge isn't going anywhere.

It's like college. I took 5-and-a-half years to do 4 years of work. I transfered, not all my credits did, I spent a year on the sidelines as I gained in-state tuition eligibility. Who doesn't have stories like this? That college degree was waiting there for me, and the end of the Guppy Challenge is waiting there for you.

A lot of you are posting your videos! Here is the forum thread for this. Thanks to JoelO and Ken Lehner and others who've stepped in to help with the analysis of y'all's strokes. I couldn't keep up! But keep them coming.

You need to start thinking of life without me. Not that I intend to die soon, though nothing is guaranteed. It's that after these 10 weeks I'm not going to be giving you workouts. My recommendations are three: First, look at the Fishies threads on the forum. They're monthly, usually. That's where the swimmers hang out and if you're not on there already you should be; you're one of them now. And, yes, you belong!

Second, it would be great if you are in with an actual group, instead of or in addition to a virtual group. Now that you have the concept down of a "leave interval" you can go to a Master's team and say to the coach, "For a main set of freestyle, I typically leave on the 1:50 base." Or the 1:40, or 2 minutes, whatever. Now the coach knows what lane to throw you in. If you're still fuzzy on this, perhaps go back to week-1 and week-2 and read up on nomenclature. Also, by the time you read this I either will soon be posting, or will have already just posted, an update on an article on group swim etiquette, assuming you do join a Master's group.

Third, I think you've got a pretty good idea what workouts appeal to you, what you respond to, what's good for you. You should be able to write your own workouts for those times you aren't training with a group. Continue to video yourself (or get someone to video you in the pool), and post the videos on the forum and ask for advice. Post your weaknesses and crowdsource the remedies.

Lastly! Go onto the Reader Forum, or write a Facebook post below this article, and post whether you're making progress swimming your 1000-yard time trials.

Focus on your arms

We have focused a lot on your legs, your torso, your core, kick, head, breathing, and we've focused a fair bit on your catch and your extension, your hand position near the surface of the water, after the catch.

What we have not written about much is your pull – what you do with your hands and arms in the water to propel you forward. In short, in one sentence, keep your hand even with your elbow, making your entire forearm from your elbow to your fingertip a vertical paddle, and pull straight back (no S pattern or anything of the sort). Pull back. Not down. Not to the side. Back. If you sense, anywhere during the stroke, that your hand is pulling in any direction but back, it's likely that it's doing something to counter, to stabilize, some bad thing your body is doing, as in, while you're breathing. So, as you're swimming with bound ankles, think about what you're doing with your arms. If you pull straight back, with bound ankles, and you're not fishtailing, your form is in good shape!

Guppy Challenge, Week-9, Workout-1

Warm-up => 4 x 50yd freestyle, easy, slow, establish a leave interval that gives you 10sec rest between each 50.
Style set => 3 x 100yd: Swimming with bound ankles, with or without snorkel.
Style set => 2 x 100yd: first 50, Slow arm recovering with hesitation; second 50 regular freestyle
Kick set => 4 x 50yd, with or without zoomers, but the last 2 should be without zoomers.

Main set =>

GUPPIES => 8 x 150yd, on your interval (5sec to 10sec rest between each)
TARPONS => 10 x 150yd, on your interval
TUNAS => 12 x 150yd, on your interval

Warm-down => 100yd, easy, alternate freestyle and stroke.

Total Guppy yards this workout: 2200

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Guppy Challenge, Week-9, Workout-2

Warm-up => 6 x 50yd freestyle.
Style set => 3 x 100yd: Swimming with bound ankles, with or without snorkel.
Kick set => 4 x 50yd, with or without zoomers, but the last 2 should be without zoomers.

Main set =>

GUPPIES => 12x100yd swim
TARPONS => 16x100yd swim
TUNAS => 20x100yd swim

Warm-down => 100yd, easy, alternate freestyle and “stroke”.

Total Guppy yards this workout: 2100

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Guppy Challenge, Week-9, Workout-3

Warm-up => 2 x 50yd, 2 x 100yd, 2 x 150yd
Style set => 3 x 100yd: Swimming with banded ankles, with or without snorkel.
Style set => 3 x 100yd: first 50, Slow arm recovering with hesitation; second 50 regular freestyle
Kick set => 6 x 50yd, with or without zoomers, but the last 2 should be without zoomers.

Main set => I like to do 250s. So sue me. Do them on an interval so that you end up "on the top" at the end. So, 4 x 250yd repeating on the 1 minute. Or, 6 x 250 on the 3:50 (if you're a Tarpon). Or, 8 on the 3:45 if you're a Tuna. Or 6 on the 3:40 (If you're a fast swimmer and you only want to do Tarpon yards). Or 4 on the 4:15, or the 4:30, depending on your speed.

GUPPIES => 4 x 250yd
TARPONS => 6 x 250yd
TUNAS => 8 x 250yd

Warm-down => 100yd, easy, alternate freestyle and “stroke”.

Total Guppy yards this workout: 2500

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Guppy Challenge, Week-9 Workout-4 Extra Credit!

Warm-up => 6 x 50yd
Style set => 6 x 50yd: first 25 Slow arm recovering with hesitation; second 25 regular freestyle.
Kick set => 4 x 50yd, with or without zoomers, but the last 2 should be without zoomers.

Main set =>

GUPPIES => Swim 100yd w/bound ankles, followed by 4 x 100yd without bound ankles, fairly hard, longer rest. Repeat this 500yd cycle (bound then unbound ankles) 3x.
TARPONS => Do this cycle, but 6 x 100yd in place of 4 x 100yd.
TUNAS => Do this cycle, but 8 x 100yd in place of 4 x 100yd.

Warm-down => 100yd, easy, alternate freestyle and stroke.

Total Guppy yards this workout: 2400

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Guppy Challenge, Week-9, Workout-5 Double Extra Credit!

Warm-up => 6 x 50yd freestyle, easy, slow, establish a leave interval that gives you 10sec rest between each 50.
Style set => 6 x 50yd: 2-beat kick first 25, natural kick pattern back.
Style set => 3 x 100yd: first 50, slow arm recovery with hesitation; second 50 regular freestyle

Main set =>

GUPPIES => 6 x 200yd, on your interval
TARPONS => 8 x 200yd, on your interval
TUNAS => 10 x 200yd, on your interval

Warm-down => 100yd, easy freestyle

Total Guppy yards this workout: 2200

Total weekly GUPPY yardage:

If you do the first 3 workouts: 6,800yd
These plus the 4th workout: 9,200yd
All 5 workouts: 11,400yd