Arizona State head coach Herbie Behm has sent SwimSwam the workout that Olympic gold medalist Michael Andrew swam in his first practice as part of the Sun Devils training group.
For anyone expecting that Andrew’s new coaching regimen would launch into some kind of massive aerobic-work, quite the opposite took place. Andrew swam a total of 3,880 yards, and aside from a 200 warmup, no repeats were longer than 100 yards.
In total, the set was 3,880 yards (rounding to about 4,000 for where he presumably completed a length after a 15 yard effort), plus a presumed cooldown (which wasn’t on the document that Behm provided).
While the workout wasn’t pure USRPT, the training that Andrew made famous, it did have a lot of short efforts on fairly-long rest intervals. USRPT is predicated on training full-speed at mostly under-distances, replicating race speed for a shorter length, on repeats.
This workout incorporated some less-than-max-speed work, and the closest thing it had to aerobic work was a set of 8×100 loaded up with equipment. That’s another derivation from Andrew’s previous training, where he used very little equipment.
The Workout Dissected (original workout follows)
Warm-Up and Relay Starts
- 200 choice – 200 yards
- 4 relay starts – Generally, relay starts don’t cover a lot of distance; let’s estimate 15 yards per start = 60 yards
Total for Warm-Up: 260 yards
First Set (2 Rounds)
- 2×100 flutter kick w/board = 200 yards per round
- 2×50 w/4 kicks + 7 strokes = 100 yards per round
- 4x (5 kicks + 4 strokes) MAX SPEED on :30 = 100 yards per round
Total per Round: 400 yards
Total for 2 Rounds: 800 yards
Second Set
- 8×100 w/buoy + paddles + band + breathing every 3 = 800 yards
- 4×25 w/paddles + buoy @ ankles = 100 yards
- 4x (6/6 buoy drops) MAX SPEED = 100 yards
Total for Second Set: 1,000 yards
Third Set
- 4×50 w/4 kicks + 7 strokes = 200 yards
- 4×15 MAX SPEED – Since 15-yard swims are specified, 4×15 = 60 yards
- Alternating MAX SPEED and easy swims:
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 2×25 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 1×50 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 1×50 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 2×25 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
Subtotal for Alternating Section: 400 yards
- 4×15 MAX SPEED = 60 yards
- 4×50 w/4 kicks + 7 strokes = 200 yards
Total for Third Set: 920 yards
Fourth Set (2 Rounds)
- 1×100 streamline flutter on back = 100 yards per round
- 3×50 IM switch = 150 yards per round
- 8×25 on :30 = 200 yards per round
Total per Round: 450 yards
Total for 2 Rounds: 900 yards
Total Yardage
- Warm-Up and Relay Starts: 260 yards
- First Set: 800 yards
- Second Set: 1,000 yards
- Third Set: 920 yards
- Fourth Set: 900 yards
Total Yardage: 3,880 yards
Click to Enlarge
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN ORANGE COUNTY! YOU BROKE MY HEART! YOU WOULD HAVE BEATEN CIELO in 2024!!! SPRINT REVOLUSHUN!!!
Wooo just like entering a Colorado Springs training camp of difficulty for MA! Will be great for him. Cheering him on.
Love the headline
Where’s today’s update? : )
How did today go?
Did he do 4001 yards?
Michael Andrew booked an one-way ticket to Costa Rica.
Going to Cariari to train with the Poll sisters next? Good plan.
Loving this update! So happy for him and USA swimming that he’s made this step!
Aaaaand all of the former swimmers who never went past a Jr Nationals (MAYBE) commence and drag MA through the mud. Typical loser former athlete mentality in this thread.
Dude is still passionate for learning and training and adopting new habits to improve instead of just resting on laurels of having already been to the Olympics, winning a Gold and setting a WR.
“Ive done more yardage with my left pinky than he has his entire life!”, anon commenter says to himself from his cubicle desk job. Smh
MA is an easy target to be fair but, with the right coach and lifting program, he could absolutely return to an elite level in the 50 free and 100 breast and NEVER go above 5000 yards in a single practice. Swimming is a bit backward in this regard. This is obviously a crude estimate but that’s about 3 miles, which is sorta the equivalent of 12 miles of running (4x is a decent conversion between swim and run races). You’d be hard pressed to find any elite 400m and below specialist running 12 miles a day. And 4-5K practices are hardly “sprint revolution” nonsense—that’s plenty of yardage to have a stretch of aerobic training.
Hard to do 1 to 1 comparisons for volume with running and swimming because the differences in tension on muscles and ligaments and the resulting neural load. Track cycling or speed skating are better comparisons for shorter duration swim events. I agree with the larger point that 4-5k can absolutely get the job done for a male pro for 50 FR and 100 BR, even with regular workouts well under that volume, but as he has aged there has to be an emphasis on different energy systems at times to allow for enhanced recovery and supercompensation from training stress.