12 Week Aerobic Builder

Hey there!

If you are not afraid to work hard, focus and be patient.. then this plan is for you!

I wrote this plan to help you lay the foundation for becoming a faster swimmer. If you work through all 12 weeks, you will learn how to minimize resistance, transfer drill practice into your freestyle stroke, and understand pacing through negative split, build, and descend sets.

The plan is geared towards helping you become a better swimmer. Whether you’re gearing up for an Olympic, 70.3, or Ironman distance race, this plan has been written to improve your abilities in the water. The distances that we cover are roughly geared towards an Olympic distance 70.3 distance, race. However, I say roughly because I’ve had people follow this plan in the off season when preparing for a sprint distance race. I’ve also had people follow this plan while working towards full Ironman races.

The plan focuses on three key areas:

1. Technique:

The primary goal is to minimize resistance by focusing on maintaining a streamlined body position. This involves keeping your head, hips, and heels aligned on the surface of the water. Though the drills may seem basic, mastering them is fundamental to enhancing speed and endurance. Patience and persistence are essential during this phase, as the techniques learned here will form the foundation for future improvements.

2. Developing Your Stroke:

Transitioning from drill practice to full-stroke swimming is crucial. Efficiency gained in drills must be transferred seamlessly into your freestyle stroke. Throughout this cycle, we’ll prioritize carrying technique learned in drill sets into longer, faster-paced swimming sessions.

3. Pacing:

Pacing is the final key aspect we’ll focus on with this plan. You’ll work through various pacing sets such as negative splits, descends, and builds. These tools are invaluable for understanding how to use your energy effectively during races and training sessions.

This is not an easy plan to follow. It will require patience, persistence and a lot of consistency. But the rewards will be worth it!

This program assumes you know how to swim basic freestyle (front crawl) and can swim a continuous 400 in the pool without stopping.

Let’s Dive In

~ Rory

My name is Rory. I’m a swimming for triathlon coach and I help triathletes conquer the swim.

I’m a retired, internationally ranked, swimmer and as a coach I’ve spent over 20 years identifying the most effective ways of moving through the water. I’ve helped triathletes finish their first race and I have coached Ironmen who have completed at World Champs. Let’s dive into your plan!

The Plan Details:

Plan Design:

This plan gives you two swims to do over 12 weeks, a total of 24 workouts. Each workout builds on the on before and gets progressively more challenging as the weeks goes on.

Workout Structure:

Warm Up

Your warm ups are designed to get you wet, loose and comfortable in the water. They should warm up your muscles and elevate your heart rate a little bit before you get into the meat of the workout.

In our program the warm ups consist of easy swimming, some fast sprinting and some breathing work.

Skill & Drills

Swimming can be complicated. There are a lot of moving parts… Your breathing is limited. There are so many things to think about when you envision that “perfect stroke”. It can be really overwhelming to try to get everything right all the time.

This is why we do drills.

Each session you will be given a drill that will help you with your stroke. Slow everything down and do the drill right. The videos and instructions on how to do each drill can be found at the end of this document.

These are the drills you will find spread throughout your plan. Click on each one to play the video and read the instructions on how to execute the drill correctly.
➜ Balance Drill
➜ Side Kick
➜ Balance Drill With Hands At Side
➜ Still Head Shoulder Rotation
➜ Hip Led Body Roll

Main Set

Think of the Skills and Drills set as the architectural piece of your workout. It’s the piece where we craft and design your stroke to be efficient and fast.

The main set is the building and testing piece.

The main sets of each workout will focus on building your swimming fitness and teaching you to maintain good form when fatigued.

There are a few different speeds and intensities you will need to understand to really execute the main sets correctly, here they are:

Descend Swims

Descend sets asks you to swim increasingly faster with each completed repeat. Start each set easy and get faster as the set goes on.

Negative Split

Negative Split simply means the second half of the distance is swum faster than the first. So whatever distance I ask you to swim, divide it in 2. Make sure the second half of that repeat is faster than the first half. That generally means you will need to swim a little slower (perfect for transferring your good technique from the drill sets to the main sets) on the first half and then pick up the pace on the second half.

Builds

Build Swims are similar to negative split swims. Negative splits have a clear black and white line separation between the second fast half and the first easy half. Build sets are a little more gray. You’ll simply build the speed as you go through the swim. For example if you have a build 100, you might get faster every 25. Or if you have a build 50 you might get faster every 6 strokes. You can decide how you build the swim, but it should start slow and then build up to speed as you go through it.

Cool Down

We’ll finish each session with a warm down.

You should emphasize great technique during your warm down. The stroke you use here is what your body will remember doing last when you leave the pool. The better your stroke ends today, the better it will start next session!

SAMPLE WORKOUT

Warm Up

➜Get comfortable in the water on the easy swim. Then get your heart rate and stroke rate up on the sprint piece.

1 x 100 Easy
1 x 100 Alt 25 Sprint/25 Easy

Skills & Drills

➜ This drill set is intended to help you work on balance and alignment. You should be
entirely focused on being:

• In a straight line – head to toe
• Floating as high as you can in the water

➜ The focus here is on perfect technique – not how fast you can finish.
➜ Fins are recommended for these Drills
⏱ Rest as needed between each repeat

3 x 50 Alt 25 Balance Drill with Hands at Side/25 Freestyle
1 x 100 Freestyle focused on line – pay attention!
3 x 50 Alt 25 Balance Drill with Hands at Side/25 Freestyle

Main Set

➜ Hold the best freestyle stroke you can through the whole set – as you fatigue, fight to maintain your balance and your line through the water. Hold the fastest pace you can while sticking to 20 seconds rest.  If 20 seconds is not enough rest, slow your pace down – you must stick to the rest interval.
⏱ Rest 20 Seconds between all repeats

1 x 75 50 Easy/25 Fast
1 x 100 75 Easy/25 Fast
1 x 150 100 Easy/50 Fast
1 x 200 100 Easy/100 Fast
1 x 150 100 Easy/50 Fast
1 x 100 75 Easy/25 Fast
1 x 75 50 Easy/25 Fast

Cool Down

1 x 200 Snorkel Swim Focus on Great Alignment

SAMPLE WORKOUT

Warm Up

➜ Get comfortable in the water on the easy swim. Then get your heart rate and stroke rate up on the sprint piece. Lengthen out your stroke as much as possible without killing your momentum in the Distance Per Stroke. Find your lowest stroke count without completely slowing down between strokes.

1 x 100 Easy Swim
1 x 100 Build To Sprint By 25
1 x 100 Maximum Distance Per Stroke

Skills & Drills

➜ This drill set is intended to help you work on balance and alignment. You should be entirely focused on being:

• In a straight line – head to toe
• Floating as high as you can in the water

➜ The focus here is on perfect technique – not how fast you can finish.
➜ Fins are Optional for these Drills
⏱ Rest as needed between each repeat

2 x
{ 1 x 50 Side Kick Drill
1 x 75 Freestyle focused on line
1 x 50 Side Kick Drill
1 x 100 Freestyle focused on line }

Main Set

➜Hold the best freestyle stroke you can through the whole set – as you fatigue, fight to maintain your balance and your line through the water. If 20 seconds is not enough rest, slow your pace down. The times for each round should be within 2 seconds of each other. Don’t go out hard and die – sustainable speed!
⏱  Rest 20 seconds between repeats.

3 x through

{ 2 x 50 Strong
2 x 100 @ Negative Split
1 x 200 @ Build by 50 }

Cool Down

1 x 50 Easy

SAMPLE WORKOUT

Warm Up

➜ Get comfortable in the water on the easy swim. hen get your heart rate and stroke rate up on the variables. Baby Tarzan Drills is 6 head up freestyle strokes, 6 head down strokes – focus on keeping your head low in the water, and as still as possible. The higher your hips sit the better.

1 x 100 Easy Swim
4 x 25 Variables done as
1st 25 – 1⁄2 length easy, 1⁄2 length fast
2nd 25 – 1⁄2 length fast, 1⁄2 length easy
3rd 25 – all easy
4th 25 – all fast
1 x 100 Baby Tarzan Drill

Skills & Drills

➜ This drill set is intended to help you work on balance and alignment. You should be entirely focused on being:

• In a straight line – head to toe
• Floating as high as you can in the water

➜ The focus here is on perfect technique – not how fast you can finish.
➜ Fins are Optional for these Drills
⏱ Rest as needed between each repeat

2 x
{ 4 x 50 25 Balance Drill/25 Freestyle focused on line
1 x 75 25 Easy/25 Medium/25 Fast  }

Main Set

➜ Hold the best freestyle stroke you can through the whole set – as you fatigue, fight to maintain your balance and your line through the water.
⏱ Rest 20 seconds between repeats.

4 x 300 Descend 1-4

Cool Down

1 x 50 Easy