I've just met a top swimmer in my country who is now in his 40s, and he is in the top 5 of the national long distance swimming championships, not in the age group, but overall.
He mentioned that he trains about 80 km a week. I wonder how he can keep such amount of training in his working age, and I have found out that he is the CEO of a telecommunication company he created, i.e. he's an entrepreneur. He trains at a recreation club, i.e. a place exclusively for the upper social class.
However, even for me working in a standard 9 - 18 office job Monday to Friday, I cannot do more than 20 km a week, and recently due to the pool opening time (the pool I use opens 7:30 and closes 19:00 in winter), I can only do about 13 km a week, which is totally not enough for my target race (my target is to do 15 km race next year). If I need to do the channel afterwards I must convert my full time job to part time in the winter preceding my attempt in order to have enough training, i.e. live off my saving.
The life of an entrepreneur, with no doubt, is much busier than employed as a 9-18 office worker, how is he still possible to have 80 km training a week? This question is very offending that I dare not ask him directly.
I would be wondering more about how he keeps his body in top shape to handle that kind of mileage. I took a 30 month break when my wife and I had two kids. I actually left the hospital the day after my daughter was born for one "Last Hurrah." After that I didn't do much for that entire stretch. But right near the end of my last grind before my daughter was born, I found I was actually spending more time RECOVERING than I was training. I wasn't training quite at the levels I referenced in my first post, but I mean I was spending hours stretching and icing just to be ready for the next day. I missed swimming during my hiatus, but I didn't miss all that. And now that I am at it again, I find the time spent recovering is again creeping up to ridiculous levels.
I will say part of that is my ice maker only holds so much ice, so I have to ice body parts in shifts. But anyways, I wonder where the OP's friend finds the time to recover!
I would be wondering more about how he keeps his body in top shape to handle that kind of mileage. I took a 30 month break when my wife and I had two kids. I actually left the hospital the day after my daughter was born for one "Last Hurrah." After that I didn't do much for that entire stretch. But right near the end of my last grind before my daughter was born, I found I was actually spending more time RECOVERING than I was training. I wasn't training quite at the levels I referenced in my first post, but I mean I was spending hours stretching and icing just to be ready for the next day. I missed swimming during my hiatus, but I didn't miss all that. And now that I am at it again, I find the time spent recovering is again creeping up to ridiculous levels.
I will say part of that is my ice maker only holds so much ice, so I have to ice body parts in shifts. But anyways, I wonder where the OP's friend finds the time to recover!
