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.
So a question for you uber long distance folks, probably mostly open water folks if any of you reading are in that category. What do you do about drinking while training? In one of my workouts "swim a 3,000 without stopping" was the main set. By 1500 yards I was parched. I just stopped at 2,000 because I desperately needed water. Was it the water temperature, or do y'all do something to stay hydrated?
A water bottle is part of my practice kit every day. I don't ever train long enough these days to warrant a refill, but I will finish a whole 32 oz. size gatorade water bottle every practice. And usually I fill it and drink it dry again on the way home. In college, I would go through at least 2-3 bottles of water (32 oz) in a 2.5 hour practice. Now it's 1 bottle in a 1-1.5 hour practice (3000-5000 yards).
Now all that is for pool workouts. If I was swimming open water in the ocean, I bet I would be way thirstier, and obviously hydrating when open water swimming is a little more difficult.
So a question for you uber long distance folks, probably mostly open water folks if any of you reading are in that category. What do you do about drinking while training? In one of my workouts "swim a 3,000 without stopping" was the main set. By 1500 yards I was parched. I just stopped at 2,000 because I desperately needed water. Was it the water temperature, or do y'all do something to stay hydrated?
A water bottle is part of my practice kit every day. I don't ever train long enough these days to warrant a refill, but I will finish a whole 32 oz. size gatorade water bottle every practice. And usually I fill it and drink it dry again on the way home. In college, I would go through at least 2-3 bottles of water (32 oz) in a 2.5 hour practice. Now it's 1 bottle in a 1-1.5 hour practice (3000-5000 yards).
Now all that is for pool workouts. If I was swimming open water in the ocean, I bet I would be way thirstier, and obviously hydrating when open water swimming is a little more difficult.
