- BMC Racing Team's Richie Porte has successfully
incorporated swim training into his cycling training
but can this work for you?
Well, here are Richie Porte's swim training drills
for cyclists.
I'm not too sure if they're cyclists or not
but it doesn't matter.
(upbeat music)
So Richie, you've clearly made swimming work for you,
so what are the four key sessions that cyclists
can do, to benefit them?
- Yeah, so let's give those cycling terminologies.
So threshold, for me that's time constraints,
just keeping it to about half an hour.
Usually I do it with my dad, sort of 10 100s
on about a minute-thirty and just smash it.
I think it's easier to hurt yourself when you've got someone
to race, so for me the threshold sessions, kind of just
punching it out.
- So Richie, that session in particular,
so what are we looking for, what kind of effort levels
is it going to entail?
- I think it's more like a time trial effort,
so it's short, sharp, sort of sustained intensity
and I think it really benefits the time trial kind of work.
It's kind of like that effort.
- [Matt] Richie is certainly super fast, completing 10 lots
of 100m on 90 seconds.
Good luck if you can keep up with him.
But for a slightly easier alternative,
which will have very similar benefits, take note
of this challenging session.
(upbeat music)
- So session two is just endurance.
If it's raining outside, I think you don't need
to go and do six hours like you do on a bike.
You just to the pool, for me it's one hour,
I bust out about 4km just non-stop.
I think it just depends on your ability, your background
and where you're at with swimming.
I think it's wise to start maybe 500m and build it up.
I think that's it, just build your fitness
and you know, no time at all, you'll be up
to 2km.
- [Matt] As Richie mentioned, work at your own capabilities,
but the goal for an endurance session is to keep
the intensity controlled and build up the distance
over time.
Take a look at this endurance session to improve
your cardiovascular fitness and to keep you motivated
in the pool.
You might want to try some of these sessions
with the Elite Pullbuoy.
(upbeat music)
- So session three is recovery, personal favourite
of mine.
That's the day after or the day of a hard, intense session
or a race.
Just go to the pool, jump in, just break it up,
do a few different strokes, like breaststroke,
backstroke, freestyle, whatever you like and just enjoy it.
- Now recovery is really my type of session.
Active recovery is proven to help you recover faster
and allow you to train harder next time
that you're in the saddle.
Okay Richie, final session, session four
is recuperation.
- Yeah, so recuperation, that's,
coming back from an injury for me, it's been lungs
or a fracture scapula.
Obviously, seek medical advice with this one,
but I think swimming is fantastic, it's load bearing,
there's no weight on the joints in the pool.
So it's just a great place to recover.
- And it's important as well to keep the intensity
really low isn't it as well, don't try too hard.
- Yeah, I mean don't do too much, just keep it
nice and relaxed and it's a fantastic way
to get back into fitness.
- if you're recuperating from an injury,
here's another session that will help get your fitness back.
It can also be used as another recovery session
after a hard day in the saddle.
And for these sessions, a kickboard, is a really
helpful bit of equipment to use.
Thanks very much to Richie for those
and hopefully these drills should be
a really good starting point should you risk
to use swimming to complement your cycling training.
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