I have a week off work and not a huge amount planned!
I was thinking of taking a really bash at my swimming.
I’m not bad ~1hr for IM swim, but to be honest I dread the start of a race because I never feel comfortable in the swim.
I have lost a fair amount of swim fitness in recent months after having some time off, but I am getting back into it a bit now.
Would this be a bad stage to add in a massive swim week, by this I mean swimming probably 1-2 hours a day, probably in split sessions (The pool isn’t far)
Just for the next week.
Any downsides or would it be too much to really make a significant gain?
See this is my issue really.
The week after (particularly around Christmas) it’s going to be impossible to maintain that, I can get to the pool maybe 4 times.
I also like swimming but can’t stand the pool, so I am only going to do it if it’s really worth it.
I’d say there’s little downside to doing it, but may not be as much remaining benefit come race season if you don’t keep up the frequency. In college swimming we would do a training trip that basically doubled our weekly yardage (going from something like 45k/week to 85-90k/week) for 10 days between semesters. Everyone’s second semester taper times were much faster than first semester, so that big week seemed to help even when reverting back to our usual schedule after it. The taper meet was usually about 6-7 weeks after this training trip. But I think scale matters here. Going from 3k yards/week to 6k yards/week probably won’t do much. But if you usually swim ~10k yards/week, do a big week of 20k yards, then go back to your usual 10k/week, that could be beneficial. As long as you maintain the speed and intensity you were at prior to your big week. Don’t let your self slow down and slog through swims after that big week just because you feel fatigued. I think there’s a lot to be taken away from learning to swim fast even when you’re tired. I’m convinced that’s how I learned to swim efficiently.
Hoping to get some additional thoughts on this same subject. I’m in the middle of about a 3 month swim block. I’m going 5 - 6 days per week and getting about 12k per week (may hit 18k this week). I’m adult onset. Already in the first 6 weeks I’ve been doing this I’ve dropped about 10 seconds on a 1000 yd time trial.
Assuming I survive another 6 weeks, any thoughts on how much of this may carry over to tri season next year? Any suggestions on what to do to maximize the maintenance of this once I start mixing in more bike and run? I know there isn’t a right answer but hoping to get some motivation that this will pay off!
I first swam laps in 2008 or so at age 24. I mostly swam 6-10k a week up to about 2011 when I started swimming on average 16-20k/week. Then in Jannuary of 2013 I began a 3 month block (I think it was like 12-13 weeks) where I average 32,000 yards a week. That was divided up into, on average, 7 swims a week (max of 8) and 1 or 2 doubles. I was also biking and running at the time. The swimming was maybe 9-11 hours a week and the biking/running was way reduced so only 7-9hrs in between them.
I was a good swimmer before, but what I noticed after doing that was not necessarily a huge drop in times (although they did drop) but being able to swim as hard as I wanted to and getting into T1 feeling “fresh” and ready to crush the bike. I think I dropped a 2000yd (SCY) time trial from maybe 25.5 minutes give or take down to 24 even. I could do 20x100 on 1:15 in 1:08-1:10. I was really, really fit in the pool.
Then, motivation struggled from April/May through the end of the year. Luckily most of the gains were still there and my "new starting point’ was always going to be better. But I can tell you honestly that those 12 weeks ruined my desire to swim. Since then I have never felt the same about swimming.
A week is not going to gain you a whole lot other than fatigue.
Now, if you were to string 12 of those weeks together…?
I’m attempting to string 16 of those together (I’m 2 weeks in). I really think that’s what it’s going to take to move me up to the next level. After that I’ll do my best to maintain for a few months.
I first swam laps in 2008 or so at age 24. I mostly swam 6-10k a week up to about 2011 when I started swimming on average 16-20k/week. Then in January of 2013 I began a 3 month block (I think it was like 12-13 weeks) where I average 32,000 yards a week. That was divided up into, on average, 7 swims a week (max of 8) and 1 or 2 doubles. I was also biking and running at the time. The swimming was maybe 9-11 hours a week and the biking/running was way reduced so only 7-9hrs in between them.
I was a good swimmer before, but what I noticed after doing that was not necessarily a huge drop in times (although they did drop) but being able to swim as hard as I wanted to and getting into T1 feeling “fresh” and ready to crush the bike. I think I dropped a 2000yd (SCY) time trial from maybe 25.5 minutes give or take down to 24 even. I could do 20x100 on 1:15 in 1:08-1:10. I was really, really fit in the pool.
Then, motivation struggled from April/May through the end of the year. Luckily most of the gains were still there and my "new starting point’ was always going to be better. But I can tell you honestly that those 12 weeks ruined my desire to swim. Since then I have never felt the same about swimming. So, take that for what it’s worth.
Well, it’s sad that 12-13 wks of 32,000 yd/wk ruined your desire to swim, but diff strokes for…i guess a lot of people just don’t enjoy swimming that much. My impression is that not even all that many swimmers really enjoy swimming all that much, since the vast majority burn out in HS or college and take many yrs off from the sport. It is somewhat rare to find a swimmer who’s swum 1 million yd/yr (20,000 yd/wk, 50 wk/yr) for 20 or more years straight.
Well some do swimming just because; for me swimming has always had a purpose. I do “enjoy” swimming and the act of improvement and getting better at something. But I only swim because I do triathlons.
Well some do swimming just because; for me swimming has always had a purpose. I do “enjoy” swimming and the act of improvement and getting better at something. But I only swim because I do triathlons.
Ya, so you and i are polar opposites, as i always swim, but i run just for a supplement to my swimming, and only bike if i’m planning to do a tri. In the very beginning of my tri career back in the dark pre-internet ages, i was the opposite b/c even i was a little “over-swum” and the run and bike were new challenges. But now, after many races, about 2/3 of my training is in the water:)
This is a strategy used my many very fast college swimmers I knew.
They would do just enough not to get kicked off the team in the fall.
Then go on the team’s 10 day training trip where they would be doing 2 a days over Christmas Break.
How much was that “just enough not to get kicked off the team”? 30-40K per week?
It really more the number of workouts missed. They would always have an excuse to miss about 2 a week.
We only did about 6k a day on my college team so about 36k a week.
My club team would do about 75-100k a week. Heck, we did more in a day than my college team did in a week.
College swimming is really more about the 50’s and 100’s, because you need 4 sprinters per relay, and relays are worth a lot more points.
You only need one good distance swimmer. If that guy can win the 1,000 & 500, then you win the relays and crush the sprints.
Then in Jannuary of 2013 I began a 3 month block (I think it was like 12-13 weeks) where I average 32,000 yards a week…But I can tell you honestly that those 12 weeks ruined my desire to swim…
I’m not surprised. Masters Swimming Canada does a thing called the “Million Metre Challenge”, you can enter your distance swum and it tracks it for you. 32K yards per week works out to about 120K metres per month (more or less). Last month there were four, count 'em, four Masters swimmers in all of Canada who logged more than 120K metres. Not everyone uses the site, of course, and not everyone puts in every swim, but there were over 1000 swimmers who logged “something” on the site last month.
I was a 1:02 swimmer when doing IM (as a 50 year old). I work a full time job (plus annoying overtime).
I would normally swim 3-4 hours a week and that would get me to 1:02. I was reasonably happy with that. A couple of times over the years (when I was slower) I’d do some big swim weeks (by my standards) up to about 12-15 hours of swimming. It was those big weeks that got me from 1:10 down to 1:02. I’ve never done a big week lately.
I found that while there was some improvement in speed, the big things I found was that A) I felt way more comfortable in the water B) I found holding the faster pace was a lot easier. In my last IM swim for example I was able to put in some surges (to get away from Muppets that couldn’t navigate), and not have it impact my overall time. My improved comfort in the water meant I was able to change pace, focus on racing and navigation (I was jumping from pack to pack for example). The net result was that I finished in a PB swim time, without being shattered, and able to get on the bike in t better shape (ie lower HR) than ever before.
While you’re already a good-ish swimmer, you will see gains from a big week, just they will be relatively minor since there isn’t so much room for improvement left for good swimmers. If all else fails, it’s good fun to focus on something for a while, even if it’s just to mix it up and keep your brain fresh.
I have a week off work and not a huge amount planned!
I was thinking of taking a really bash at my swimming.
I’m not bad ~1hr for IM swim, but to be honest I dread the start of a race because I never feel comfortable in the swim.
I have lost a fair amount of swim fitness in recent months after having some time off, but I am getting back into it a bit now.
Would this be a bad stage to add in a massive swim week, by this I mean swimming probably 1-2 hours a day, probably in split sessions (The pool isn’t far)
Just for the next week.
Any downsides or would it be too much to really make a significant gain?
I am a crappy, adult-onset swimmer. I am very time-limited so swim once or occasionally twice a week, about 3000yds per session. I recently had the chance to swim 5x in one week, so did 15K yards, and improved my pace a few seconds/100y, and my fatigue after each hard session lessened. I then went back to my once a week and was able to maintain those gains for a month or so. Then my schedule changed again and I had to take a month completely off from swimming. All gains disappeared, and I am now a few seconds slower/100y than I was before my “swim block” week. What I took away from this n=1 was that one week will improve fitness some, but is insufficient for making long-lasting improvements in technique. Would love to do a 5x/wk block for 3-4 months or even a year some day, I think that that is what it will take to develop long-lasting changes in my stroke that will morph me from BOMOP to at least FOMOP.