Body Balance in the Water: A Swim Workout by Coach Mackenzie Madison

Yes race fans; new month, new workouts!
And with that, comes a new guest Coach of the Month to share some wisdom and insights.
Thanks for welcoming professional triathlete and coach, Mackenzie Madison to the party. 

Now, in the coming days we'll pull together a proper introduction on Mackenzie to highlight her impressive credentials and background, and share more on the spirited soul that she is.

But for right now, it's #workoutwednesday and Mackenzie has this great SWIM workout to share.

   One of my favorites; who doesn't love a great swim set! - Coach Mackenzie 

I'm sure you'll discover and agree, getting to know Mackenzie is a delight. Talking about workouts, she mentioned that she just swam this set with one of her athletes just the other night.

As she describes, "It helps with power, speed and also race pace. Most triathletes and swimmers spend too much time in one area vs. really challenging themselves at various paces and using paddles the correct way. This allows for proper rest, but also can correct form, increase strength, speed, power, threshold and body balance in the water. It's a great overall workout that can rack up the yardage and intensity while being manageable and helpful in so many ways."

See what we mean! Give this workout a go..

Warm Up: 700 yards

• 200 swim
• 200 pull
• 2x 150s: 100 drill, 50 kick

Main Set: 3000 yards, down-ladder format

• 1x 500, on your interval base time*

         *that's baseline 100 yard freestyle pace time, +:15 seconds rest

• 10x 50s
  • on :50, if coming in on 35-42 secs 
  • on 1:00 for base 50's 40-50 secs

​and then..

• 1x 400, on your interval base time* 
• 8x 50s, same time as the 10x50's

  and then..

• 1x 300, on your interval base time* 
• 6x 50s, same as above

​you get the idea..

• 1x 200, and then the 4x 50s

and lastly..​

• 1x 10o, and then the final 2x 50s

​
Cool Down: 100-200 easy

All summed, that's a hearty swim session, coming in just shy of 4000 yards; we like it!

Coach Mackenzie Madison in proper streamline form.

Notes on this workout:

For added fun, Coach Mackenzie mentions that you can pull for the distance blocks, always focusing on form & body-balance. 

She also likes to increase the strength component by adding paddles to the 50's of increasing size (if equipment access makes that possible) as you get further and further down the distance ladder.

And, workout yardage can be adjusted by starting at the 400, or 300 and moving on down at that level.

*  *  *
Mackenzie Madison is a professional triathlete and USAT certified coach for Team Madison, based in Eugene OR. Please feel free to reach out and introduce yourself and welcome Coach Mackenzie! 

Contact her at www.kenzmadison.com 

• or directly at [email protected] ​
• or find her here on instagram: @kenzmadison
• or here on facebook: @kenzmadison

​In the meantime, be on the lookout for that in-depth intro and Mackenzie's inspired posts throughout the month.

Happy swimming, y'all!