Rocking the Workout Ladder

This week has been extra hectic and I barely had any time to get to the pool.  Fast forward to today and I had only swam twice this week.  That just wouldn't do so I headed to the gym after work for a swim.  I haven't been swimming inside since the outdoor pool has been open so it was a little funny to be walking into the gym again.

I had a new swimsuit to wear today. I ordered this suit last week and was really surprised to see all the skulls on it when it arrived.  I still like the design because it's a perfect combo of black and pink! With a suit like this I knew I could handle a tough after work swim.



I got into the water and the shock of the cool temps was initially surprising.  The outdoor pool is definitely warmer than this!  I got started with my favorite warmup.  It's a 1000 yd ladder that starts with a 400 yd easy swim.  Next is a 300 yd drills section.  I swim the drills section as 25 drill, 25 free, 25 drill x 4 covering each of the four strokes.  For the 200 yd section I will break out my pull buoy and do some pull.  I finish with 100 yd kick set.  I don't worry about the time during any of the warmup.  My goal is just to swim relaxed and focus on doing flip turns throughout the warmup.

Today for my main set I decided to do another ladder.  I wanted to get in around 1000 yds so that I would end up over 2000 yds for the day.  Here's what I came up with:

1 x 200 yd Free
2 x 150 yd Pull
3 x 100 yd (Swim stroke for the interval ie 1st = 25 fly, 75 free, 2nd = 25 free, 25 back, 50 free, 3rd = 50 free, 25 breast, 25 free)
4 x 50 yd (Free/Back)
6 x 25 yd Free

Since I had been out of the pool so much this week I was very generous with the rest times.  I especially gave myself plenty of time on the 25's to recover and it helped so that my final sprints were my fastest.  I ended with another 150 yds for cool down to finish at 2300 yds.

I enjoy doing ladder workouts because I'm able to increase my intensity over the course of the workout.  While the effort increases, the distance is decreasing on each rep so somehow it doesn't feel quite as daunting.  The variety is also fun and it's easy to track my distance.

What do you think about workout ladders?