How should I time my weight training in my swim schedule?

How old are you? What is your athletic experience prior to start this? I would wager you do not need to be doing doubles given the stats you've mentioned before.

Miklcct, I am very much in favor of adding strength training to a fitness routine - just for general living purposes. So, adding strength training to your routine is a good thing. There is a caveat though - given your other posts. Swimming is a technique driven sport. A weak person with good technique will beat a strong person with poor technique every single time. If you are adding strength training because you think it will instantly overcome technical weaknesses, you are mistaken. I use this analogy with my swimmers. Swimmers are like dragsters on ice. It does not matter what our horsepower is (aka "strength") if our tires are bald (aka "technique"). If you add studs to the tires (aka "technique"), horsepower will matter. Speed and endurance will improve when technique improves. Paul

I am 26 and have completely no athletic nor swimming background in my youth. However, I'm doing orienteering at local elite level because my map reading is good. OK, in my opinion you do not need to be doing doubles. Unless of course you are doing them because you really enjoy swimming - it doesn't seem like that's the case by the things you have posted in the past, but I may be completely wrong. If I were you, I would find a two-day upper/lower split lifting routine - relatively high reps/low weight based on something like this: exrx.net/.../Workout2UL Then, given that you do want to do long-distance stuff, I would swim 4 times a week with one full rest day. I would try to make them the coached workouts as much as possible - both for the coaching, and because being able to train with other people is generally more fun and more motivating. You (and really any adult in sports in a non-professional capacity) should be optimizing, not maximizing, workout load. You want to do the smallest amount the produces the adapatations you want - more is not always, and actually is very rarely, better. My n=1: I took 6 years off swimming after swimming at a relatively high level through college. A year after getting back in, I swim generally 3 times a week, about 12km a week. I do 2-3 CrossFit or lifting sessions a week, about an hour a pop. I try to take one day completely off (that is today for me due to the polar vortex closing schools/pools). I had a meet last weekend, and went two lifetime best times and two Masters best times. My point: Most people don't need as much work as they think they need in order to see improvement.

OK, in my opinion you do not need to be doing doubles. Unless of course you are doing them because you really enjoy swimming - it doesn't seem like that's the case by the things you have posted in the past, but I may be completely wrong. If I were you, I would find a two-day upper/lower split lifting routine - relatively high reps/low weight based on something like this: exrx.net/.../Workout2UL Then, given that you do want to do long-distance stuff, I would swim 4 times a week with one full rest day. I would try to make them the coached workouts as much as possible - both for the coaching, and because being able to train with other people is generally more fun and more motivating. You (and really any adult in sports in a non-professional capacity) should be optimizing, not maximizing, workout load. You want to do the smallest amount the produces the adapatations you want - more is not always, and actually is very rarely, better. My n=1: I took 6 years off swimming after swimming at a relatively high level through college. A year after getting back in, I swim generally 3 times a week, about 12km a week. I do 2-3 CrossFit or lifting sessions a week, about an hour a pop. I try to take one day completely off (that is today for me due to the polar vortex closing schools/pools). I had a meet last weekend, and went two lifetime best times and two Masters best times. My point: Most people don't need as much work as they think they need in order to see improvement. Of course because I'm enjoying swimming in

How old are you? What is your athletic experience prior to start this? I would wager you do not need to be doing doubles given the stats you've mentioned before. I am 26 and have completely no athletic nor swimming background in my youth. However, I'm doing orienteering at local elite level because my map reading is good.

Since you'd be new to it, I'd probably start out with just 2 weight training sessions a week for 2-3 weeks. Then if you feel ok, add in 1 more, then maybe another after that. I have absolutely no idea how I did it, but several years ago I was swimming (with a team) 4-6 practices a week, lifting (solo) 3-4 times a week, and running 3+ times a week (total about 30 miles). I was constantly tired, but was swimming at decent speeds (for me), and was in fantastic shape. I sometimes did doubles of swimming, and occasionally of running (I did 2 miles before weights). Of course I was constantly tired and much more prone to injury and illness, which both hit me. Multiple people suggested I cut something, but it took some time for me to figure that out for myself. I tracked much of this in my USMS blog; feel free to take a look and see how crazy it all was (yes, it was crazy, and I'll be the first to admit that now). Right now I usually manage 2 gym sessions a week and 4-5 pool sessions a week. I'll also walk the dogs and do some hiking, but nothing too intense. Maybe I am really too ambitious and trying to do too much - I am feeling unwell in these days and already skipped my planned gym session on Wednesday evening, but still not getting good sleep and not doing well today (Thursday) morning. I am thinking skipping tomorrow (Friday) morning as well and wait until Saturday. I should be doing 12 - 13 km per week now as written in my year plan, but in 3 out of 4 weeks this year I am actually doing 14 - 15 km per week, and after hearing my coach and my friend's advice to have some gym training I put that in addition to my swim schedule. Next week will be my planned rest week though, but it seems I have pushed myself to limit too early before the planned rest week.

Miklcct, I am very much in favor of adding strength training to a fitness routine - just for general living purposes. So, adding strength training to your routine is a good thing. There is a caveat though - given your other posts. Swimming is a technique driven sport. A weak person with good technique will beat a strong person with poor technique every single time. If you are adding strength training because you think it will instantly overcome technical weaknesses, you are mistaken. I use this analogy with my swimmers. Swimmers are like dragsters on ice. It does not matter what our horsepower is (aka "strength") if our tires are bald (aka "technique"). If you add studs to the tires (aka "technique"), horsepower will matter. Speed and endurance will improve when technique improves. Paul I've tried reading a lot of articles, watching a lot of videos, and joined a squad training starting from last October, trying to improve my technique, but I felt that my rate of improvement was not up to my expectation (started at 35 minutes last May and ended up around 31 and a half minutes in November for 1500 m). I simply can't sustain any of my technique emulation over 100 m (no matter how good I was feeling at the start) always having the horrible feeling of stroke breaking down without short of breath. Even the simple act of making a high elbow catch tires my arm dramatically, and whenever I am tired I start feeling losing balance such that the coach always notices my legs doing wide "scissor kick", causing a vicious cycle.