How They Train: The Workouts of Cavalier Aquatics’ Sara Czirjak (5 Practice Sets Included)
With the Olympic buzz still in the air, swim club personnel persevere in polishing swimmer skills while college coaches continue the unending process of targeting potential recruits.
One such prospect is Sara Czirjak, a rising junior at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Va. According to Swimcloud, she is ranked third in Virginia in the Class of 2026 (44th nationally). At the 2024 VHSL 5A state meet, she won the 100 yard breast in 1:02.82 (second in 2023, 1:04.00) and was second in the 200 IM (2:04.36). Recently, she became a four-time NISCA All-American (two-time 100 breast, two-time 200 medley relay).
As an accomplished breaststroker, Czirjak has also enjoyed considerable success at YMCA short course nationals. In 2023, she won the 200 breast (2:13.11) and finished fifth in the 100 (1:02.44). Last April, she placed second in the 200 (2:11.37) and third in the 100 (1:02.26), lifting the Piedmont Y women to a sixth-place finish.
More recently at Olympic Trials this summer, she clocked a 2:32.29 in the 200 meter breast to finish 24th out of 44 competitors.
For the last three years, her training has been overseen by Cavalier Aquatics coach, Gary Taylor, now an associate head coach at the University of Virginia. “I attribute her substantial progress to things she has been doing in and out of the water. In the pool, she has dedicated herself to process. She is constantly working on details and rarely misses a workout,” he says.
“Sara is open to suggestions and has become a more complete swimmer—on the surface and under water, across all strokes and events. Her daily work ethic is exceptional. She has shown a willingness to push herself in favorite and non-favorite training aspects. Whether its breaststroke or threshold freestyle, she shows a consistently strong effort, which is the main reason for her progress,” says Taylor.
“Outside of the water, Sara has a really bubbly, fun personality, making it easy for coaches and teammates to connect with her. She has a winning smile and a goofy wit that keeps the environment relaxed and enjoyable when the work gets hard. Her teammates enjoy her positivity, and they respect her abilities in the pool. This combination works well for her from a competitive and leadership standpoint.
“In the biggest moments, Sara performs well under pressure and races with great tenacity. At the USA Super Sectional in May, she competed against some of the nation’s best breaststrokers and didn’t miss a beat, staying focused on herself and competing admirably. I credit this to her ability to ‘turn on’ the switch when she needs to be the best version of herself,” says Taylor.
It’s been great fun to watch Sara grow and thrive in the sport. If she continues to be herself—maintaining her positive spirit while focusing on her goals—I have zero doubt that she will only get faster for years to come.”
SAMPLE SETS
Tuesday AM, April 9
Sara had a strong workout on the AER/Threshold end of the training spectrum. The primary focus was to use the freestyle as aerobic set-up and really push the effort on the breaststroke swims. Sara was able to descend her effort from 2:35 down to 2:25 on the 200s breaststroke, 1:56 to 1:48 on the 150s, and 1:12 to 1:06 on the 100s.
Saturday AM, April 13
Sara typically performs well in breaststroke sets off the blocks. On this particular Saturday, the goal was to perform really well on the Dive 100, then back it up with a Push 100 with a goal of back 200 speed. Sara was typically 1:04 to 1:06 on the Dive 100s, then performed very well on Push 100s, swimming in the 1:07-1:08 range. This is roughly her back 100 split in the 200 yard breaststroke.
Tuesday AM, May 7
The goal of this set was to hold a strong pace in the threshold spectrum. Sara averaged 1:12-1:14 on all of the 100s breaststroke on 1:30, then following the 100 aerobic freestyle was typically 1:06-1:07 on the all-out efforts. Stroke count is usually a big part of this and Sara is able to swim in the 5-7 stroke range for much of her speed work.
Saturday AM, May 11
The group did an Urbanchek Broken 200 Set in their primary stroke and I had them wear tech suits for these swims. Sara typically averaged between 28.7-29.2 on the 50s and was right around 1:04 high to 1:05 mid for the push 100s. Her broken swim add ups were in the 2:02-2:04 range on all 4.
OT Crew!
Monday AM, May 27
This workout stands out to me because Sara thought it was the hardest set she completed this spring/summer season. The goal was to hold stroke counts by rounds (4-5-6 stroke per 25) and the aerobic interval, then descend the freestyle effort to fast and follow this with 200y breaststroke pace at :45. Sara hit the stroke counts dead-on and was typically in the 1:11-1:13 performance range. On her freestyle, Sara descended from about 1:07 down to 1:02, then was :31-high to :33-low on the pace. She definitely found this set difficult!
6100+300 AER REC
Michael J. Stott is an ASCA Level 5 coach, golf and swimming writer. His critically acclaimed coming-of-age golf novel, “Too Much Loft,” is in its third printing, and is available from store.Bookbaby.com, Amazon, B&N and distributors worldwide.