For those who train several days a week, how long does it typically take to return to form after taking one week off from swimming? I recently went on vacation and wasn't able to train and must now build back what was lost over the week off. I generally train 5 or 6 days a week, 3500-4000 per day. I've taken weeks off in the past and based on my experience it appears after one week back I have my feel for the water, after two weeks I'm roughly 80-90% to where I was, then by the third week close to 100%. Interested in hearing what others experience. For reference, 44 years old. thx
For those who train several days a week, how long does it typically take to return to form after taking one week off from swimming? I recently went on vacation and wasn't able to train and must now build back what was lost over the week off. I generally train 5 or 6 days a week, 3500-4000 per day. I've taken weeks off in the past and based on my experience it appears after one week back I have my feel for the water, after two weeks I'm roughly 80-90% to where I was, then by the third week close to 100%. Interested in hearing what others experience. For reference, 44 years old. thx
Ten years younger than you, but I find it takes me 2-4 days to get my full feel for the water back, and then usually within the week I am back to 100%. Now this is based off taking ten days off for a Disney cruise back in May, and I was coming from doing about 22-25k a week. I DID swim twice on the cruise, but once was in the hotel pool (about 1000 meters), and once was open water at the Disney private Island (about 2k). Neither qualified as much of a practice. I raced the Saturday afternoon after I flew back into town (late Friday night), and went a pretty solid 4:43 400M FR (at the time my lifetime best was 4:39.9). By Wednesday the following week it felt like I hadn't missed a beat.
I initially read this as "Return to forum after a week off". :)
I believe in this rule: Whatever time you had off, double that time "on" to be back to where you were. (Whatever age you are, whatever your normal "on" is.)
Thoughts?There's an exponential in there after you turn 50, in my experience :(
I initially read this as "Return to forum after a week off". :)
I believe in this rule: Whatever time you had off, double that time "on" to be back to where you were. (Whatever age you are, whatever your normal "on" is.)
Thoughts?
If you're laying on the beach all day hammering cold ones and stuffing yourself with pizza, donuts, hot dogs & burgers, etc. it might take longer than 1 week:) But, that's a vacation!
I agree with Rich, 65ish+ makes 50 seem easy. And Patrick, Entropy and Gravity clearly have exponential effects.
Took about 16 months off for shoulder reasons but I did manage to do kick only swims a few times or less a week. Once back, I swam about 4 times then entered a meet:
50 bk +3.78
50 br +3.67
50 fr +2.75
100 fr +5.20
100 br +8.59
For my past few vacations, I've planned the trip so I could still get in at least a little swimming. I've found that even if I swim 2-3 times a week, it isn't nearly as bad to get back to normal when I return home.
Heck, last year I spent 2-1/2 weeks in Australia. I probably swam more then than I normally do. There are fantastic, inexpensive 50m pools nearly everywhere it seems.
For some past trips to London, I was probably closer to the 2-3x week, including some with a team and some open water (in season).
