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.
But the fact is that he's now the top swimmer in the national champ even when he's competing with the youth together.
And who's to say he still couldn't be if he trained half as much?
I'm not going to say I'm close to being the top swimmer in my age group, but I have won national championships in distance free and I've never, ever averaged more than 20k per week in my masters career.
But the fact is that he's now the top swimmer in the national champ even when he's competing with the youth together.
And who's to say he still couldn't be if he trained half as much?
I'm not going to say I'm close to being the top swimmer in my age group, but I have won national championships in distance free and I've never, ever averaged more than 20k per week in my masters career.
