I know everyone is focused on Kona for Knibb and Lionel's latest shenanigans but thought I would interject a bit of swimming news, espec for those who think swimming 2.4 miles is a long way.


For those who haven't read the first 50 posts, every year U.S Masters Swimming has an event called "Go The Distance" (GTD), which is basically a contest to see who can swim the furthest in the calendar year. Under the GTD rules, a swimmer can use whatever equipment they want: fins, paddles, pull buoy, etc. And it starts over on 1 Jan every year, so no breaks. This ultra long distance swimmer Doug Allen has won GTD now for the past 9 years (2014-2022) and is leading the 2023 contest with 2250 miles as of 3 Oct, or about 8.2 mi/day (14,400 yd or 13,200 m/day). In sum, this guy has averaged about 8 mi/day (14,000 yd/day or 12,700 m/day) for the past 9 yrs and 9 months. Here's an online article about him:

https://www.openwaterswimming.com/go-the-distance-doug-allen-is-champion-again/

Apparently he does some open water swimming but I have no idea what percentage of his yardage/mileage is OW vs the pool. Also, even if he's using fins and paddles on many of his swims, any way you slice it, averaging 14,000 yd/day across the year for almost 10 straight years, is simply a sheet-ton of swimming. Makes my whole body hurt just thinking about it. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

this guy must froth on the smell of chlorine

Ya, really!!! I used to think that perhaps if I used the fins I could swim longer and further. As an experiment, and to give upper body a rest, I did nothing but kick for two full months (61 days). I improved a good bit but at the end, when I was up to kicking 3200 m/day, my calves were SO SORE and very tight. So I restarted pulling and swimming just to give the legs a break. Any way you cut it, going 98.000 yd/wk (88,000 m/wk) is going kick almost everyone's butt in just a few weeks, let alone TEN YEARS. IMO, this guy has prob done more athletic work than any other athlete in the world over the past 10 yrs. Just incredible!!!

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I'm not a swimmer and don't know the answer, but do you think his 10 year span greater than someone like Katie Ledecky over the same 10 year period?

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Ya I do b/c Katie and other top D swimmers taper for 2-3 meets per yr, and "rest a few days" for a few other important meets each year, plus they typically will take 2-3 wks off from swimming just as a mental/physical break. The top D swimmers are prob mostly averaging around 80 - 100,000 yd/wk when in heavy training but their heavy training is "only" around 43-44 wks/yr. Thus this guy Doug Allen is doing more yards across this year, and it is precisely his apparent lack of any substantive breaks that amazes me. Maybe he is going 120,000 yd/wk at his peak and tapering and resting some, but then 120,000/wk is just beyond belief also. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Yeah you need to build up to it. But he probably feels shitty if he doesn’t get his pool time in. 14k a day - I’d be interested to know what time that takes. Would have to be less than 4 hours right?

When the kids do 100k weeks they just go steady / easy a lot of the time. It’s like 2-3 gear out of 5 gears

I don’t really have much of a kick - it just sort of balances and keeps me floating. Doing too much swimming with fins is not fun for me. If it’s just 500 easy backstroke sure but lots of free no thank you

The top distance swimmers have to put in some crushing threshold sets - like 30 - 45 minutes of really high intensity - through the season they build this up , including the speed and duration of sets l. Maybe something like 1 minute really hard effort , 20 seconds rest, 10 times over. Short break of easy. Then repeat 2-3 times. So “greater” has some subjective interpretation to it

This guy must have a food bill longer than a giraffe neck as well

Ya, I'll bet he's eating at least 5500-6000 cal/day, not to mention sleeping 9 hr/night plus a 2 hr nap betw workouts. I'm guessing 6300 m in the a.m. and 6300 in the p.m., prob around 2 hr/workout.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."