Australian swimmer Bobby Hurley is a former world-record holder in the short course meters (SCM) 50m backstroke and the 2012 world champion in the same event. In 2009, he won a bronze medal as part of Australia's 4x200m freestyle relay at the FINA World Championships in Rome. He has five FINA World Championship medals to his name -- two gold, one silver, and two bronze. Most recently, Hurley coached with Energy Standard Teamand led South African swimmers Cameron Van Der Burgh and Chad Le Clos to success at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in July.

Hurley is making a comeback to competitive swimming with his eyes set on the 2018 Commonwealth Games Trials in April in Gold Coast, Australia. Along with his coach Tim Lane, Hurley is giving us behind-the-scenes access of his training sessions for 30 days. Stay tuned!

Day No. 11 (LCM)

Friday, October 13th AM

Long course aerobic kick set today. As I explain in the video, the bulk of my aerobic work nowadays comes through kicking. Kick is something that is important at the end of backstroke races, as in all strokes, as it greatly affects body position and therefore resistance in the water. Being an older swimmer, with previous injuries in the upper body with shoulders and elbows, I am able to handle a larger volume of aerobic work at different intensities doing kick, than if I had to do it swim. In all honesty, the times I held below in the kick set I would only go a few seconds quicker per 100m doing swim. Funny, isn't it?

400 swim -- Warmup

{3 rounds -- Fins}

3x50 drill -- double/right/left

3x50 w/paddles -- 35m desc. 1-3

• Last one did 50m at controlled intensity -- 24.7 with 24 strokes

100 easy

KICK -- backstroke

3x300 on 5:00 {goal @ 4:30} -- average 4:25’s

3x200 on 3:30 {goal @ 2:50} -- average 2:51’s

3x100 on 2:10 {goal @ 1:20) -- average 1:19’s

3x50 on 1:30 {all out effort) -- 34.2, 35.1, 35.0

200 easy

{2 rounds -- Fins}

6x50 aerobic flush on :45

100 easy

4,500m TOTAL