I wanted to ask a question - just out of curiosity.
I had a too strenuous training regime a couple of weeks ago and I ended up a bit overtrained. I suffered then from chronic exhaustion and my results became much poorer. All improvement that I had made during the past three months was gone. I started to swim 50m fc at terrifying time of 41-43 secs, though I had already been able to do the same in 38 secs for 50m (not great, I know, but my swimming career is yet rather short).
I decided to have a rest. I was going to the pool only two - three times a week, decreased the volume to 1500-2000 and abandoned any demanding tasks. Just leisure swimming - technique and turns.
After about 10-12 days I was feeling great. No sign of exhaustion. In fact the fatigue disappeared already after about three days of rest.
But then, whenever I tried to experiment with speed and swim one or two 50s or 100s I found my results still as poor as at the time when my exhaustion reached its peak. I could not understand why my body does not want to stand a heavier effort even though my subjective symptoms of overtraining (i.e. fatigue etc) are no longer felt.
Now I am back in form - even did my pb at 50m :) (probably because I focussed so much on technique during the past three weeks).
Still I am very curious why it was so hard to me to swim faster, even though I did not feel any chronic exhaustion any longer? Is it possible that the effects of the overtraining last still longer than you subjectively experience them?
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Former Member
Hi Lindsay,
Your posed a very good question about overtraining. I will say this about my training for the LC Nationals. Earlier that year is when I had my last shoulder surgery. After all the PT and downtime, I had to make a decision to try to get into good swimming condition in a small amount of time. I believe I had about 3 months total. I knew I could "pass" on the Nationals or go for it. I chose to go for it, and I knew I had to intensify my training to get to where I wanted to be. I do believe, in my case, I did overtrain for this one swim event. The fatigue was significant. Normally, I do not do this.
So now with this new question I am wondering how much of a taper I really should do when I can swim/train for months on end? It may have been a one-time long-needed taper. But now I am 58 not 40-something so the question of tapering is still one I have to figure out. Especially now since I am aiming toward an 18 mile swim in a year & a half.:shakeshead: Right now, I haven't a clue as to the taper needed for that one. I will probably pose this question as the swim date gets closer.
Donna
Hi Lindsay,
Your posed a very good question about overtraining. I will say this about my training for the LC Nationals. Earlier that year is when I had my last shoulder surgery. After all the PT and downtime, I had to make a decision to try to get into good swimming condition in a small amount of time. I believe I had about 3 months total. I knew I could "pass" on the Nationals or go for it. I chose to go for it, and I knew I had to intensify my training to get to where I wanted to be. I do believe, in my case, I did overtrain for this one swim event. The fatigue was significant. Normally, I do not do this.
So now with this new question I am wondering how much of a taper I really should do when I can swim/train for months on end? It may have been a one-time long-needed taper. But now I am 58 not 40-something so the question of tapering is still one I have to figure out. Especially now since I am aiming toward an 18 mile swim in a year & a half.:shakeshead: Right now, I haven't a clue as to the taper needed for that one. I will probably pose this question as the swim date gets closer.
Donna
