[Matt Kurjanowicz]

I’m working my way through Luke Nelson’s 20 week intro to Ultra plan and I have a question about the advised swimming recovery workouts. Many of them are on days with other workouts – strength, AnT test, etc. How should I space these through my day?

From reading the book and this site I suspect I should do one in the morning and one in the evening so as to not mix the training signals from workouts. Am I reading that intent correctly?

An alternate reading is to stack the workouts – i.e. do strength and then jump in the pool to recover.

Thanks! And thanks for all the wonderful training info!

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 25, 2018 at 3:08 pm #10503

I’m not familiar with the training plan in particular, but I am familiar with Scott J’s swimming recommendations for weight-bearing athletes.

These sessions are not intended as workouts. The intensity is very low, not to create fitness, but to speed recovery. Because recovery is the focus, I suspect it’s best to have a swim session between two harder sessions or as the last session of the day.

Again, I’m not familiar with Luke’s training plan, so feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 25, 2018 at 4:27 pm #10505

Matt;

Thanks for buying Luke’s plan.
The swims are not really meant as ‘workouts’ in the sense that they are fatiguing or designed to build fitness. They are included as a suggestion to speed recovery on days when your legs may be feeling pretty worked. So feel free to move them to the best days for you when you need them. In general they will want to be after any hard work. Closer to the taxing workout is probably best but not essential.We included these because a lot of runners have never use swimming as a recovery tool. Luke hadn’t but when he started doing these he saw the immediate benefits. You do not need to be a swimmer to use the sessions and real pool is not essential. If you can swim well then you’ll get great effect from swimming an easy 500-1000 meters. If you are not a swimmer then just hang on the side of the pool so your body is horizontal and lightly flutter kick for a few minutes at a time. Try to accumulate 10-20 min of light activity in the water.

I hope this helps,
Scott

[Matt Kurjanowicz]

Matt Kurjanowicz on June 25, 2018 at 5:47 pm #10506

That helps, thanks.

I think I was most nervous about diminishing the stimulus of a strength workout by doing some recovery afterward. If I’m understanding your answers correctly then I shouldn’t worry about that.

I’ve been spreading the swims in throughout the week. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much better they make me feel …