I enjoyed the article. Especially since it made me feel better about being the ‘weid old guy’ that swims with the youth club team (even though I’m not convinced I’m all that old since I just turned 30 this year, but I remember how old that seemed when I was 15-16!)
I’ve been swimming 9,000-11,000 yds total in 3 sessions a week. I could easily add a couple session to get up to 20,000-25,000 yds/week. I’m curious if you think it’d be better to put a week a month in over winter like this or if I would get more out of a solid month of swimming like crazy? I live in Idaho so my cycling opportunities go away anyway, the month of december of january off the trainer would be a real treat!
a lot of people like to run a marathon over the winter/late winter. i’m not necessary all that red hot on marathons, but i’m not againt them, and i’m certainly not against half marathons and footraces of that ilk.
so if your intention is to become a better triathlete, my dual goals would be to put in a week a month of mega-yards, and then a couple of weeks a month, and a general special emphasis, on a specific running goal that is long-distance in nature (a half marathon up to a full).
those goals are achievable in concert with each other. plus, running will keep you land-based fit, and it won’t take you long to get into cycling shape.
I really enjoyed the article too and I do believe that there is a lot of truth to what he says. Two summers ago I joined my university’s masters team to get back into swimming. I basically swam 5days a week for three months. By the end of summer i had jumped two lanes. I’m still new to triathlons. I’m only training for my second race right now. One thing is for sure, I’m only swimming twice a week right now and I don’t think I’ve made any major gains in time like I did when I was swimming ALL the time. But I’m sure that’s just how it goes when you’re training for three things at once.
This article brings back so many memories of my high school swimming days. Those first few weeks of 2 a day workouts were really tough. We would routinely swim 5000 yds in the morning before school and 7-10,000 yards in the afternoon, 5 days a week. Really gets you in shape fast! After those first few weeks we were doing 10x100 yds @ 1:25 for WARM UP! Now I can’t even swim 10x100 @ 1:25 as my main set without it turing into a continuous swim for the last, oh, 700 yds…
Of course when you’re 15 you can go from 2,000 yds a day to 15,000 yds a day without too much trouble (injury). I sure don’t think I could do that now but I wish I had the time (and motivation) to try.
And working out with the local university women’s team would be a tough decision. ;^)