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
I'm about your age (45), and unfortunately had periods where I miss. And my recovery is very similar to yours. And it seems like every time I get back up on the horse, I have a delay. Kids' LSC championship this past weekend made me miss 5 days. We have Futures next weekend, that'll probably take at least 4. Basically my whole Summer has been shot, I'll probably be lucky to be back in form by mid October......about the time we'll have to go who knows where for Fall Break.
Sadly, my time off is almost never caused by vacation. On the upside, my illnesses aren't lasting 2-3 weeks. 😁 I just turned 33 and it takes me maybe a couple of swims to get back to pre-break form? But I don't swim nearly as often as most of you, right now only 3-3.5 miles a week. Perhaps that has an effect.
OP here. Thanks for all the responses. It’s now three weeks since the week off for July 4th so I thought I’d share my findings. Overall the past three weeks have mirrored my prior experiences with coming back after a week off and I felt very close to the levels of performance I outlined in the initial post. One additional observation, during the first week back I do notice extra energy. As noted the times are slow, but I’m able to complete long sets, due to the week off allowing the body to recover from heavy training.
Agree with several of your responses, age matters.
Also, a few related comments on making a point to swim a day or two while on vacation – I’ve only done this once and yes it reduces the ramp up time significantly.
In my 30s, so I'm the youngster of the group, but I've found the 1:2 ratio works out pretty much spot on for me for up to 2 weeks out, but the recuperation math gets fuzzy after that. I was out for about 6 weeks due to shoulder issues a couple years ago and it took me 4-5 weeks to get back into it, really not much longer than it took me to get back into it after taking 2 weeks off at the end of the summer before heading back indoors for the fall season.
