After I uploaded the Erik Vendt interview this afternoon I was highly motivated to swim and went downtown to swim for 45 minutes. Somehow though I still feel like a slacker compared to that:
ST: During the season, what workload do you have during a typical week?
Erik: During the heaviest part of training we do upwards of 80K a week, with 3 weight sessions and 3 dry land sessions a week. Though that’s extremely difficult on the body, I feel what we do at altitude training camp in Colorado Springs is far more difficult. We’ve done this 3 times since I’ve been here, and will have one more go at it at the end of April for 25 days. We go from sea level to 7,000ft and our schedule is as follows: triple, triple, double, triple, triple, double, single (Repeat that three times for three weeks at altitude and that’s our camp. Also, you have to add in one dry land or weight session per day so in reality we’re doing quadruple workouts. Though our yardage isn’t as high as we do at sea level our intensity is much, much greater. And it makes for a pretty tough few weeks. Though it’s extremely challenging for the body and especially the mind, I feel I haven’t done anything more beneficial than this.
More here: http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Erik_Vendt_talks_to_Slowtwitch_279.html
Best,
Herbert
Surprised he didn’t mention the legendary 30x1000 set…that workout still boggles my mind!
Thanks for the interview Herbert. They bring back memories from the good old days when knocking out 15km of swimming was just another day at training camp. I may have done 1 or 2 weeks with 15km of swimming since then.
LOL - his swim week (80k) is heavier than some people’s bike week…
Am mentally filing away his 10x300 key workout example the next time the discussion comes up about how triathletes are distance swimmers, and distance swimmers don’t need to do interval work.
I’m still trying to lift my jaw off the floor from the video clip. The last 100 was sub 58 sec. in a 800m race in a long course pool.
That’s ABSURD!!! Anytime I see these olympic swimmers swim in a clip like that i’m floored at the kick rate these guys produce. It’s like watching Dash in The Incredibles movie in the scene where he is powering the boat that his mom Elastigirl formed after a rough water landing.
It is mighty impressive indeed, 80 k in a week sounds to me like I would be in the water 24/7.
Either way, just like Peter Vanderkaay, Erik Vendt was very cordial and helpful when it came to do these interviews,. Now if I could only get the cyclists to give long responses like that, and all the runners follow up with me. 
Herbert