It's a constant debate and battle in my head, the angel and demon on each shoulder: should I go to swim practice on the seventh day or not? Is swimming 365 days a year in good interest? I am sure context, how you live and work your hours outside of swim, matters here. Are there any true fish out here who make it to the pool day-after-day almost infallibly? I'd be impressed to hear your story! :bow:
I always swim 3-4 days a week, no challenging it.
I would like to always swim 5-6 days a week, and do in fact hit this goal during different seasons.
Still...
....I'm always debating trying swimming 7 days a week, every week.
Part of me wants to do it, because I'd want to take full responsibility for making myself the best swimmer I personally can be. And that would be an impressive and presumably rewarding undertaking. But is knocking off days of eventually-mandatory rest even worth it? Am I just being to hard on myself? Would swimming that much be counterproductive? Perhaps it would leave me feeling as though I had something to prove. Some days when I listen to my body, the is reply is "less is more." :drowning:
What do you all think? Would you change your schedule to swim 7 days, every week, for as much as one whole year straight - and if you did, why would that be a worthy, worthwhile goal for you? And if you are already a fish 7 days a week, almost every week, would you ever consider swimming less? (Not counting tapering, of course: which could be defined as not swimming for a swimming reason --- as opposed to taking a break/changing your schedule: which is not swimming for an external reason or justification.)
Solarizing,
There are all kinds of reasons to swim, so "how often" & "how much" are an individual choice and decision.
When I was in my 20s and 30s, I swam every day (usually 4500-6000 yards, sometimes as high as 12,000). Although my goal was to bust my butt every day, I also had days when I focused on technique because I was physically tired. That continued until I was 50ish. The results were pretty good - national records, one world record, 24 hr relays, a 50,000 yard day for the year 2000..
In my 50s, I still swam every day (had keys to the pool) and also took off time for bicycle trips. Volume and intensity was less as I struggled with some shoulder pain. There were a couple of times when I would kick the entire 5,500 yards.
Now, in my 60s, my daily volume is down to 4500 and I swim 5 days/wk - only because weekend pool hours (no keys to the pool now) are inconvenient or the other swimmers are too slow. I could join a masters team, but I have swum on my own for almost 40 years, so doing what the coach wants me to do might not mesh with what I want to do. If I could, I would still swim every day because I feel physically better for doing it.
The key to doing something every day is to accept whatever each day brings and don't get hung up on doing what the pundits tell you is necessary or required. For example, I used to get anxious about making each practice different than the previous. One day, I stopped worrying about that and wrote a practice that was for a specific day of the week. That was in 1992 and I have been doing those same 5-6 practices for the past 27 years. Not only don't I get bored, I look forward to them because I don't have to think up something to do. And, every Wednesday is my "mega-monotonous" day when I do 100s on an interval for the entire 90 minutes (i.e. 60 x 100 on 1:30).
For many swimmers, what I do would drive them crazy. For me though - it works. Intermittently, injuries have led me to consider less days or no swimming at all. That only lasts a day or so and I find a way to swim around the injury.
The key is accepting whatever each day brings. Don't get hung up on how fast/slow you go. Some days are gems, some are stones. No one tries to have a "stone" day - they just happen. When it does, accept it (like a traffic jam every afternoon) and get through it. One stroke at a time. :)
Good Luck figuring it out for yourself.
Paul
Solarizing,
There are all kinds of reasons to swim, so "how often" & "how much" are an individual choice and decision.
When I was in my 20s and 30s, I swam every day (usually 4500-6000 yards, sometimes as high as 12,000). Although my goal was to bust my butt every day, I also had days when I focused on technique because I was physically tired. That continued until I was 50ish. The results were pretty good - national records, one world record, 24 hr relays, a 50,000 yard day for the year 2000..
In my 50s, I still swam every day (had keys to the pool) and also took off time for bicycle trips. Volume and intensity was less as I struggled with some shoulder pain. There were a couple of times when I would kick the entire 5,500 yards.
Now, in my 60s, my daily volume is down to 4500 and I swim 5 days/wk - only because weekend pool hours (no keys to the pool now) are inconvenient or the other swimmers are too slow. I could join a masters team, but I have swum on my own for almost 40 years, so doing what the coach wants me to do might not mesh with what I want to do. If I could, I would still swim every day because I feel physically better for doing it.
The key to doing something every day is to accept whatever each day brings and don't get hung up on doing what the pundits tell you is necessary or required. For example, I used to get anxious about making each practice different than the previous. One day, I stopped worrying about that and wrote a practice that was for a specific day of the week. That was in 1992 and I have been doing those same 5-6 practices for the past 27 years. Not only don't I get bored, I look forward to them because I don't have to think up something to do. And, every Wednesday is my "mega-monotonous" day when I do 100s on an interval for the entire 90 minutes (i.e. 60 x 100 on 1:30).
For many swimmers, what I do would drive them crazy. For me though - it works. Intermittently, injuries have led me to consider less days or no swimming at all. That only lasts a day or so and I find a way to swim around the injury.
The key is accepting whatever each day brings. Don't get hung up on how fast/slow you go. Some days are gems, some are stones. No one tries to have a "stone" day - they just happen. When it does, accept it (like a traffic jam every afternoon) and get through it. One stroke at a time. :)
Good Luck figuring it out for yourself.
Paul
