do you have an off season

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Sat, 13 Sep 2003 09:37:39 GMT

i swim same as normal all year long,twice per week i swim without stopping usually for up to an hour,although i'm thinking of stepping it up a bit.i normally can do 1250 per half hour for both halves of the hour=2500twice per week.I include WARM UP/DOWN into 1st 125metres and last 125metres.A jaccuzi after normally helps too.i'm 36.

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Sat, 13 Sep 2003 08:47:57 GMT

This is interesting because I've been thinking about it lately. Most of the year I swim 2-3 x/wk and do weights/cardio workouts 2 x/wk. (I didn't start swimming at this level until age 49. I didn't know how to do fly or a flip turn and the thought of competing ina meet would have struck me as absurd 3 years ago. Even now the 5000 yard workouts people talk about are not something I ever expect to do.) But here in Minnesota summers are short and I have to fit in golf and biking and gardening and time at the lake cabin and watching kid softball games. . and . . and. So in summer I tend to swim 1 or 2 x/wk and do the weights/cardio workout once, twice if I'm really lucky. The once is with the swim trainer and she doesn't let me slack off. But my swimming is continuing to improve in spite of less practice. I just did a 400 IM for the first time last week. I've never managed to do more than 50 yards of fly, but in spite of less training, I suddenly can do 100 - very slow with a couple extra breaths at the turns but still 100! For an older, overweight woman this is an achievment! I think it is the mental break that got me past my fear of the second 50. I expect I've had the stamina to do it for a while I was just afraid to try. So I believe that breaks are helpful - and for folks like me - vital.

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Fri, 12 Sep 2003 15:03:17 GMT

Yo! I just want to give a shout out to my brother Tom "Milhouse" Bubel. He and I share the same thoughts on the need to take a break once a year. I'm alittle more like Ken Classen there, and his "Dog Days" of summer, than my kid brother. When Tom says he's taking a break, he means it. Like the song, "See you in September". I try to get in 2x a week, just to keep the feel. There is a huge difference in how you feel when you get back into the saddle, between 2x a week (nothing really hard) for a total of 2 1/2 hours and not getting in at all. But, I think you still get the same 'mental' and physical breaks. I know when I take a month off completely, I feel like how those non-swimmer triathaletes must feel. :-) And yes, I put on 10 - 15 pounds during the summer. Gives me a goal each and every Fall. It's September Tom, where have you been? Joe Bubel

RE: do you have an off season

ggcarroll — Fri, 12 Sep 2003 09:39:12 GMT

I take a few weeks off after a major competition, like USMS Nationals and the recent Waikiki Rough Water Swim. Then I start back very slow around 1,500 to 2,000 yards four times a week. That's where I am now. I let my body tell me if I'm adding too much yardage on, too quickly. But I swim all year round -- it just varies in the intensity and yardage. glenda

RE: do you have an off season

WaterRat — Tue, 02 Sep 2003 02:57:32 GMT

Summers are always hard for me to keep the training up. In the past, I usually end up taking 3-4 months off and have found it takes me two months of solid training to get back to where I left off. This summer has been hit and miss for swimming but not a total shut down. So I'm hoping to be back where I left off in less time. Does anyone have experience on how much minimum swimming is required to maintain conditioning levels at present levels over an extended period of time? During the season, it seems that if I have a week with only 3 workouts I can maintain but not improve. Does the same apply over a course of a summer?

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Mon, 01 Sep 2003 14:34:51 GMT

I like to take a week or so off the end of August and I take it a little easier durning the rest of the summer, and do a couple of open water races durning the summer. First of sept I get right back into it again and go untill June again.

RE: do you have an off season

CJR — Sun, 31 Aug 2003 11:12:08 GMT

Hi Jerrycat, Yes, I believe in "Breaks". A mental break is as much needed as a physical one. As LBJ said and I agree with him "Off" means swimming about 1/2 hour easy 3x's a week, concentrating on drills. Also, weight training and stretching to prevent shoulder injuries several times a week and some running just because it is something different.

RE: do you have an off season

Betsy — Sun, 31 Aug 2003 10:06:53 GMT

I do not take a break from swimming. My fall routine is to swim, but to work on strokes and long slow sets - it's a mental break. There are 2 reasons that I don't stay away from the pool. When I returned to training at age 33, it was extremely difficult for me to get back into swimming regular workouts again. I don't ever want to experience that again. Secondly, so much of what we do is based on a routine. If I break the routine of swimming regularly at certain times, I fear I won't return to that schedule. At 61, I feel so healthy. I don't want to lose that good feeling. Betsy

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Thu, 21 Aug 2003 13:14:28 GMT

I'm in my Dogs days of Summer off season right now. That means working out 3 to 4 times a week of about 3000 yards per practice instead of the usual 5 to 6 times a week 4000 to 5000 yards per practice. In recent years the only time I have not swam for longer then a week was due to injury or illness. It's just to hard to get back into shape after time off.

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 15:24:07 GMT

Because I started about a year ago training again in swimming and doing casual swimming about 2 years before that. I tried to swim at least 3 to 4 days as possible. Doing near to no swimming for 25 years has an effect on my swimming. I use two pools,so when one is not available the other one is.

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 14:36:29 GMT

Maybe at 33 I am still young enough, but from Nationals in May till Labor Day I mentally need a break from this sport- so the only swimming I do this time of the year is on an inner tube. Plus it gives me a goal every September to work myself back into shape. - It usually takes till January but it does give me a focus until the bigger short course yards meets begin in the spring. I always come back in September much more enthused to swim than I would be if I swam all year long.

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 09:12:07 GMT

I've heard that for every week you take off you lose 1/4 of your conditioning so it wouldn't take long at all to get back to where you started. Cutting down for a few weeks sounds like a better idea.

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 08:22:58 GMT

Off-season will set you back tremendously. If you take 3 months off it takes 6 months to get where you were before the break (this was an old coach’s moniker). Seriously, one week maybe two...

RE: do you have an off season

Former Member — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 07:55:09 GMT

Open water season ends about the third week of September in the Northeast, so I usually take off the ~5 weeks from then until the beginning of November. "Off" means swimming about 1/2 hour easy 3x's a week, concentrating on drills, using fistgloves, etc. Also, stretching several times a week and some light weight work to prevent shoulder injuries. I am also married to my massage therapist, so I try to look pathetic and get some sympathy massages. By the beginning of November, I am a raving psychotic and She Who Must Be Obeyed orders me back to the pool under threat of sleeping on the couch for the rest of my life. -LBJ

RE: do you have an off season

MegSmath — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 04:27:26 GMT

I'm in the midst of an enforced off-season right now. Practically every pool in central Kentucky shuts down August 1. I normally swim at the Univ. of Ky. pool, and they drained it to paint it. Hopefully it will reopen soon. Because of the budget crunch, most of the public pools shut down then too. A private donor came up with enough money to keep one pool open till Sept. 1, but it closes at 7:00 p.m. I live in the next county and commute with my husband, so I can't get from Fayette County, to Jessamine County, and back to Fayette County after work in time. The YWCA is also closed for maintenance now, as is the pool at Asbury College. It's like they all plan it this way!