Training Long Term

kirk i think you have to vary or else you will get ground down. I agree with my friend from Austin(for a change). I have significantly reduced my yardage over the past 12 months and I have added more quality race pace work into my practices. I suspect this will get a little stale at some point and will mix it up again. I am also branching out and swimming events I never thought I would do; recently I did 50s in all strokes at a LCM meet. I think you have to mix it up in training and in meets or it can get stale. I am considering getting my USAS coaching certs and even doing some kids coaching(if I can fit it into my work schedule) which is another way I am considering being involved but bringing some variety to my routine. I would not worry about the yardage but I would look for something that gets you reinvigorated again. There is nothing worse than loosing your mojo!

Relax Kirk, Its just a phase your going through. Ha Ha. But, really, on some days I swim less distance because I am doing more Fly's or IM's. I still spend the same amount of time in the pool.

Many of you have suggested training variations, but what I'm really looking for is whether varying the amount of time and/or concentration spent on swimming has worked well for you. Essentially "taking a break" from swimming and doing something else for a while. If you've done that has it made you come back more motivated or did it just make it even harder to get back in the pool? Interesting wookiee brought up USRPT. I thought of mentioning that initially, but feared it would steer the entire discussion that way. To me it would seem like USRPT would really start to get boring. It's pretty much the ultimate doing-the-same-thing-every-day kind of workout, but I haven't tried it so perhaps I'm wrong.

Hey knelson - for me, cross-training helps. Taking a class or doing a new activity to stay active a couple times a week and limiting swimming to 2-3xweek sometimes makes me appreciate swimming more than when I'm going to the pool every day. Spinning classes are fun and a good work out. Could be good for you just to shake up your routine a little... Good luck :)

usrpt got boring the 1st time i tried it. as i was doing it i thought - oh friggen joy do it again and again and again? the same workout? where is the rusty fork to stick in my eye? no and thank you. josh is special....we are not josh. kirk, last week i got back....went monday tues, weds and coached thrus....yeah rolled over friday and we didnt have saturday. only 3 workouts in 5(6 normally) after 3 days off. yeah thats not like me at all but then again i did swim some. granted 35 years ago i thought swimming for a job would be cool. ...... NOT NOW!!! do 1000 and go to work early (if you swim before) or after...do something different...ride a bike or run (another joke there!) take a day off or 2. have some ice cream...if not i'll have some for you. no really i would do that for a friend. ok ok i'll even have 2 scoops. sometimes you gotta step away to step forward.

Good thoughts, all. Keep 'em coming!

Kirk, I have read your blog for a longtime, when you were posting one. I have always admired your dedication and work ethic for swimming. When you were swimming with the age group kids, the workouts were almost the same everyday, long distance with short rest. I couldn't help but wonder if those workouts were doing you more harm than good because of age difference. You have a tremendous training background. Why not change up your entire routine. Before anyone starts throwing stones, shooting bullets, chasing me with a pitchfork, take a moment to read Josh Davis' article on Swimswam about doing usrpt. Granted, if you are like me, you probably want to swim for more than 30 minutes, but his point is that we don't have to that kind of training all the time or anymore(your preference) Why not for 5 or 6 months, do more usrpt training ideas, where you are racing 25's,50's, 75's at a faster pace, instead of waiting until 3 weeks or so before the big meet. I have spoken to Glenn about this in the past and like the basic idea. You don't have to do it forever but it might be a nice break from how you have trained in the past. Just my $.01.

Kirk, Here's how I vary things and it seems to work: Own the whole order of events throughout the year Don't get in a racing rut I'll enter events on a whim just because they look good in the order and skip events I "should" swim Change up your event focus every time you're going to point to a big meet. Examples: 2011 Mesa Nats - I pretended to be a sprinter and did the 50 free, 50 fly, 100 fly, 100 IM and 200 fly (OK, that wasn't a sprint, but I swam the first 150 like it was!) 2012 Greenboro Nats - While I did do my 'traditional' favorite events (e.g., 400 IM, 500 free, 200 fly), I threw in 3 fun events (50 fly, 100 fly, 100 IM0 2014 Santa Clara Nats - I did 200s of all the strokes, 200 IM and 400IM. 2015 San Antonio Nats - 50, 200 & 500 free, 100 back, 50 & 100 *** Don't go hard all the time, all the year - I almost never go a year where I train hard for each of the three "course seasons" - SCY, LCM and SCM. The only year I did that, 2012, I blew out my shoulder and then paid for it all of 2013 and part of 2014 I almost always take it easier in the summer because family vacations usually mean I can't make it to a big meet and because it downright sucks training in Arizona in the summer. What this has usually meant is that I'm very motivated for the SCM season. Take some time completely away if needed I had an awesome Nationals in Austin in the spring of 2008, it being the first time I had been back to Nationals since 2003, and left there hugely motivated to train. I then took about 8 weeks completely off that summer, but came back in the fall more energized than ever. I am planning to take 2-3 weeks this summer where I don't swim at all - it'll make for a much rougher return to the La Jolla Rough Water swim in September, but will be better for me physically and mentally in the long run Play the 'ego-boosting course game' where you shamelessly rest and swim events in a course you've never or rarely swum before so you can notch a best time It is amazing the tricks a little positive reinforcement can do for you - I did this at San Antonio Nats with the 50 & 100 *** (events I had never tapered/shaved for as a Masters swimmer) and it still felt awesome to drop a couple seconds in my 100 *** I'm going to try that again in a couple of weeks with the 200 LCM *** Heck, I've even started to keep a set of 'altitude best times' for when I go up to race in Flagstaff

Here's my 2 cents for what it's worth. Not only do you swim a butt load, but you swim it super fast on intervals I can't even comprehend. Most swimmers at your load would've been forced to take a break due to injuries. But since maybe you're just resistant to injuries, could you use a well deserved vacation from the current regime? What I think of would be stuff like more drills, have fun in pool with fins, go snorkeling in the caribbean, less suffering in the pool; or like previosly mentioned, train for different events (even a 25) Listen to what your gut is telling ya

Most swimmers at your load would've been forced to take a break due to injuries. But since maybe you're just resistant to injuries Actually I'm not. I hurt my shoulder a couple weeks before SC Nationals in 2014. It bothered me for a long time after that and that did affect my training. Now I'm feeling healthy, but there is some residual worry that I'm only feeling good because I haven't been in the water quite as much. I guess I'll find out if I start to ramp it up again. I do like the idea of training for some different events.