Free Open Water Swim Workouts PDF

Free Open Water Swim Workouts PDF

18 structured open-water swim workouts covering speed, power, endurance, technique, recovery, open-water skills and tethered swimming.

Do you get to the lake or sea and lack focus and direction? Do you end up swimming lap after lap, hoping that simply spending more time in the water will improve your swimming?

Good swim training needs a purpose.

I've put together some of my favourite open water swim workouts to help you make every session count. This free 37-page swimming training programme contains 18 structured swim sessions to help you develop your freestyle/front crawl, improve your technique and prepare for your next open-water challenge or triathlon.

Whether you're new to open-water swimming, an experienced swimmer or training for a triathlon, there's something here for you.

What's included?

• Speed – develop your ability to swim faster
• Power – improve power and efficiency through the stroke
• Endurance – build your ability to maintain pace over longer swims
• Technique – improve your freestyle/front crawl
• Recovery – relaxed sessions for recovery weeks or after racing
• Test Set – assess your swimming fitness and track progress
• Open Water – practise skills such as sighting and pacing
• Tethered Swimming – train when you only have access to a small pool

There are also Pool Open Water (POW) sessions, allowing you to practise important open-water skills in the pool when you can't get to a lake or the sea.

The sessions combine different distances, intensities and drills so your swimming has structure, variety and purpose.

Open Water Swimming Tips

The book also includes practical advice to help you become a more confident open-water swimmer, including sighting, breathing, swimming in different conditions, drafting, wetsuits, stroke efficiency, course awareness and safety.

You'll also find useful swimming drills, swimming kit recommendations and an explanation of the swimming terms and training zones used in the sessions.

Example Open Water Swim Workout

Open Water Prep – 30-Minute Pool Session

Can't get to the sea or lake? This session brings some important open-water skills into the pool.

Warm-up
200m easy, alternating 50m freestyle with 50m flutter kick without a kickboard.

Main Set
6 × 50m Tarzan/water-polo drill – swim freestyle with your head out of the water – 15s recovery
3 × 200m freestyle without touching the walls – 30s recovery
6 × 50m freestyle, sighting every 5 strokes – 15s recovery

Cool-down
200m easy, alternating 50m freestyle with 50m flutter kick without a kickboard.

Total: 1,600m

The session helps you practise sighting and swimming straight without relying on the black line at the bottom of the pool. It also helps you learn to sight without lifting your head too high and disrupting your body position.

This is just one of the 18 structured open-water swim workouts included in the free PDF.

Download your free 37-page Swim Workouts for Open Water PDF and start making your swim training more purposeful.

Ready to take your open-water swimming further?

If you'd prefer a progressive swim training plan that tells you exactly what to swim each week, I've also created structured swim programmes available through TrainingPeaksand Final Surge.

Whether you're training for your first open-water challenge, a triathlon or simply want to become a more confident and efficient open-water swimmer, these sessions will give your training focus, variety and purpose.