Midmar Mile Training Programme
Wayne Riddin attended the 2000 Olympic Games as the South African Swimming Team Head Coach and manager. He has coached numerous SA swimmers in his 31 years of coaching. In addition, he is the Midmar Mile Race Director and a former double winner of the event.
Each week, I will try and give swimmers some tips on training to improve, but swimmers must realise that if you are already under a coach on a daily basis at club level, this is unlikely to help you more than your coach. However, for the more social swimmers, the ideas should help you prepare better and aim at faster times.
The danger is that swimmers vary considerably with speed, so determining paces for programmes by correspondence is sometimes difficult. Depending on the distance already being covered and the number of days training per week, everything can just be increased or decreased relative to the model below: See which of the three levels is achievable at the start, but remember, as you train, you may improve and jump to the next level Expected number of swimming days: 4. Avoid missing training for more than 2 days in a row if possible. Suggest swimming Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday or Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday etc.
The distance planning to compete is 1600m (ie one mile approximately) if you are looking at competing in the Midmar Mile next year. However, these distances could just be adjusted slightly to accommodate any triathlete or masters swimmer preparing for a major competition.
Distance needed to be covered to swim a comfortable race: Between 1200m and 3000m. Next week will involve some ideas of improving your strokes with the help of drills.