Here's the deal.
I can only swim 50 min to one hour a day, which equates to at most 2000 yards for endurance work and 1500 yards for faster interval work with more rest.
I feel guilty when I read about other peoples yardage. Is anyone putting up some fast freestyle times with this little yardage? If so, what are the times? I really want to know.
Parents
Former Member
I think that I can clear up a lot of talk or just add some commentary to this thread. Up until age 13, I never swam in the summer. Only in the winters and spring and of course, it was not until I was 13 or so that I started seeing improvements.
At 13, I started swimming 6-8000 yds per day, and by age 15 was going in the 18-20,000 yds range per day. Four doubles a week and a total of 10 workouts. 1:50.9 in the 200m free my senior year.
Went to Texas and started doing 12-14,000 per day - saw improvement and eventually went 1:48.1 in the 200m free in 2000.
Then after I left Texas I went 10-12,000 per day and eventually even below that, and I never improved in my five years of swimming after that. I put a lot of stock in putting in the yardage at a young age... not "garbage" yardage, but quality hard work.
Now, I have been out of the water for almost 18 months, just had knee surgery, have gained 25 lbs. since I stopped swimming competitively, and would love to be able to get in the pool again and go 1500-2000 yds. per day 4-5 times per week.
And a note on Phelps... he did not do weights before he got to Michigan, but I would prefer to do the weights that I did over the torture that Bob put NBAC through in their dryland medicine ball program.
I think that I can clear up a lot of talk or just add some commentary to this thread. Up until age 13, I never swam in the summer. Only in the winters and spring and of course, it was not until I was 13 or so that I started seeing improvements.
At 13, I started swimming 6-8000 yds per day, and by age 15 was going in the 18-20,000 yds range per day. Four doubles a week and a total of 10 workouts. 1:50.9 in the 200m free my senior year.
Went to Texas and started doing 12-14,000 per day - saw improvement and eventually went 1:48.1 in the 200m free in 2000.
Then after I left Texas I went 10-12,000 per day and eventually even below that, and I never improved in my five years of swimming after that. I put a lot of stock in putting in the yardage at a young age... not "garbage" yardage, but quality hard work.
Now, I have been out of the water for almost 18 months, just had knee surgery, have gained 25 lbs. since I stopped swimming competitively, and would love to be able to get in the pool again and go 1500-2000 yds. per day 4-5 times per week.
And a note on Phelps... he did not do weights before he got to Michigan, but I would prefer to do the weights that I did over the torture that Bob put NBAC through in their dryland medicine ball program.
