I've been swimming for Masters for 34 yrs (age 58 on 1/27/13) and like to swim 6 days/week, 4000 to 6000 yds/day, across most of the year, taking maybe 2 weeks off per year. Obviously, I tend to get tired over time. The key issue seems to be how tired is too tired??? I've read Maglischo's books ("Swimming Fast", "Swimming Faster") and he uses a % effort formulation based on HR and/or best time in an event. If you're doing repeats at say 30-50% slower than your best race time, is there value in that from the long term development perspective??? When I rest and taper for a meet or race, I seem to recover pretty well and I'm much closer to the national 55-59 records than I was in the 25-29 AG, so it seems like I must be doing something right, but wondered what long-time Masters swimmers thoughts are. Also, FWIW, I do most of my training on my own, but just race whoever happens to be in the pool.
As i think you probably know, your body builds muscle when it recovers, not when it's working out and tired. Inadequate recovery will result in little or no gains. I think its more of question of how much recovery do you need to avoid over training and loss of training benefit, especially considering the tri training. Also, how you are training during the 30k/wk, and what are you trying to accomplish is a huge factor, not just the distance. 6 days/wk x 5,000 yds of EZ lap swimming per day would produce a really good EZ lap swimmer.
Take a look at what J. Friel says about over training in the Triatheltes Training Bible and what Salo says in his Complete Conditioning for Swimming about training smart for the events you want to swim. At 63 i know i need more recovery time and that cycling, running, and weight work take a toll too and need to be figured into the recovery side of the equation. Friel (and i think Bernhardt too) points out that it is easy for most tri athletes to over train and suffer the consequences.
Ya, I'm well acquainted with the overtraining issue. As I pointed out in one of the other posts, when I increase my biking and running, I decrease my swimming. This year I did more swimming and averaged 30,000 yd/wk. My long-term (27 yrs) averages are 18,000 yd/wk swim, 75 mi/wk bike, and 18.5 mi/wk run, plus about 1.5 hr/wk of strength/stretching, for total of about 14 hrs/wk average, on a 50 wk/yr basis, i.e. 2 weeks off each year. One thing I have noticed is that my very best efforts come after many weeks of feeling exhausted, then finally tapering and then BOOM, I can really move. Seems to work most of the time.
As i think you probably know, your body builds muscle when it recovers, not when it's working out and tired. Inadequate recovery will result in little or no gains. I think its more of question of how much recovery do you need to avoid over training and loss of training benefit, especially considering the tri training. Also, how you are training during the 30k/wk, and what are you trying to accomplish is a huge factor, not just the distance. 6 days/wk x 5,000 yds of EZ lap swimming per day would produce a really good EZ lap swimmer.
Take a look at what J. Friel says about over training in the Triatheltes Training Bible and what Salo says in his Complete Conditioning for Swimming about training smart for the events you want to swim. At 63 i know i need more recovery time and that cycling, running, and weight work take a toll too and need to be figured into the recovery side of the equation. Friel (and i think Bernhardt too) points out that it is easy for most tri athletes to over train and suffer the consequences.
Ya, I'm well acquainted with the overtraining issue. As I pointed out in one of the other posts, when I increase my biking and running, I decrease my swimming. This year I did more swimming and averaged 30,000 yd/wk. My long-term (27 yrs) averages are 18,000 yd/wk swim, 75 mi/wk bike, and 18.5 mi/wk run, plus about 1.5 hr/wk of strength/stretching, for total of about 14 hrs/wk average, on a 50 wk/yr basis, i.e. 2 weeks off each year. One thing I have noticed is that my very best efforts come after many weeks of feeling exhausted, then finally tapering and then BOOM, I can really move. Seems to work most of the time.
