do you have an off season

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?

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

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

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.

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.