I went to a clinic last year by Dave Salo on BR and someone asked him how much yardage his team did in workouts.He replied that he didn't know and he discouraged his swimmers from keeping track as it distracted them from focusing on quality swims.I have been a proponent of quality over quantity since I started Masters Swimming,but I wasn't ready to give up on yardage.I had GTD goal after all.Last Tues I had a really good workout and finished with an extra 50 swim to get a nice round number for GTD. In the shower I realized I had probably miscounted the yards in my warmup.As I ruminated about this I remembered Salo's comments and decided it didn't matter. I decided to stop counting total yardage for workouts.I still do my sets and live and die by split times,but I don't pay any attention to totals,especially in recovery swims and warm downs.I have found this liberating.I can do vertical kicking without worrying about how it will affect my GTD. Fri I did 8 turns with pullouts in a row without worrying about calculating how far I swam.I can do just starts without having to pay attention to where I came up to figure yardage.I'll lose my opportunity to get another mesh bag,but so far for me it seems worth it.Obviously if your main goal is yardage or you GTD ranking this is not for you,but if you want to clear your mind for quality swims,give it a try.
Everyone has different reasons why they swim. Some swim to compete in a zillion meets a year, others train for uber distance open water events, while others may just swim to shed a few pounds.
We're all adults here...you know why you swim, and what you need to reach your goals. If you are a drop dead sprinter focused on 50s in meets then you should have different workouts than someone training to swim the Channel.
Personally, I like GTD. It gets me out of bed on mornings when I'd otherwise be tempted to shut off the alarm clock and roll over. If that doesn't work for you, then don't do it ;)
Everyone has different reasons why they swim. Some swim to compete in a zillion meets a year, others train for uber distance open water events, while others may just swim to shed a few pounds.
We're all adults here...you know why you swim, and what you need to reach your goals. If you are a drop dead sprinter focused on 50s in meets then you should have different workouts than someone training to swim the Channel.
Personally, I like GTD. It gets me out of bed on mornings when I'd otherwise be tempted to shut off the alarm clock and roll over. If that doesn't work for you, then don't do it ;)
