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.
Allen, I think you bring up a great point here. Emphasizing quality over quantity definitely plays an important role in training.
I would not give up the idea of counting yardage entirely, however, because it is a great way to keep track of your progress.
I advise my swimmers to log their weekly yardage and create a graph to get a visual, both for tapering purposes prior to meets and to keep motivated in general. Without a sense of weekly or daily yardage, it can become easier to cut corners in practice! At the other extreme, there are swimmers who are only concerned about logging in their laps or their yardage without considering the content of their workouts - and that can also be a problem for swimmers who want to improve.
Thanks for raising this issue!
Allen, I think you bring up a great point here. Emphasizing quality over quantity definitely plays an important role in training.
I would not give up the idea of counting yardage entirely, however, because it is a great way to keep track of your progress.
I advise my swimmers to log their weekly yardage and create a graph to get a visual, both for tapering purposes prior to meets and to keep motivated in general. Without a sense of weekly or daily yardage, it can become easier to cut corners in practice! At the other extreme, there are swimmers who are only concerned about logging in their laps or their yardage without considering the content of their workouts - and that can also be a problem for swimmers who want to improve.
Thanks for raising this issue!
