How much endurance training?

In recent weeks I've begun to correspond and collaborate on a regular basis with Jonty Skinner, the Performance Science Director for the USAS National Team. He takes his work seriously because it can impact on Katie Hoff's chances of winning an Olympic medal and whether more Katie Hoffs get discovered and developed. Jonty and I speak the same language and are in virtually total agreement on how swimming works and how swimmers ought to train. He encounters a degree of resistance and skepticism at times, because his message is untraditional. Still no one ever suggests he should "lighten up." I just returned from teaching an hour-long lesson to a 59 y.o. woman named Jeannie. Jeannie is a Ph.D. psychologist with a thriving practice in Manhattan who also writes very successful books on relationships. She's never swum competitively, and though I've encouraged her to enter a Masters meet, may never do it in the future. But for the hour she spends with me every week -- and the two or three hours she spends swimming in Manhattan between lessons -- she's unconditionally serious and committed. She -- and I -- also laugh a lot during her lessons, which says that fun and serious aren't mutually exclusive. She gets extraordinary satisfaction out of her swimming -- she was positively over the moon about learning butterfly at 59 and tells me that swimming is the most fulfilling thing she does. Needless to say, she's grateful that I take her interest, needs and goals as seriously as any elite coach does their athlete. I don't take myself too seriously. I take my work very seriously. I don't expect every Masters swimmer -- or even a significant number -- to share that level of passion. But to suggest that because it involves adults and non-elites, it doesn't merit seriousness is to devalue the rewards and benefits of passion and committment for any person in any endeavor they consider worthy. I've said many times I don't feel any compulsion to "convert" those who are perfectly content with their way of swimming or who see things differently than I. But ne"lighten up?" Not gonna happen. Terry you are contradicting yourself ... we are just trying to find the balance between fun and uptight. I take my swimming very seriously. I train hard, I spend a lot of time researching stroke mechanics and training methods, and have thrown my heart and soul into the sport. BUT the bottom line is it's something we all do for fun

In recent weeks I've begun to correspond and collaborate on a regular basis with Jonty Skinner, the Performance Science Director for the USAS National Team. He takes his work seriously because it can impact on Katie Hoff's chances of winning an Olympic medal and whether more Katie Hoffs get discovered and developed. Jonty and I speak the same language and are in virtually total agreement on how swimming works and how swimmers ought to train. He encounters a degree of resistance and skepticism at times, because his message is untraditional. Still no one ever suggests he should "lighten up." I just returned from teaching an hour-long lesson to a 59 y.o. woman named Jeannie. Jeannie is a Ph.D. psychologist with a thriving practice in Manhattan who also writes very successful books on relationships. She's never swum competitively, and though I've encouraged her to enter a Masters meet, may never do it in the future. But for the hour she spends with me every week -- and the two or three hours she spends swimming in Manhattan between lessons -- she's unconditionally serious and committed. She -- and I -- also laugh a lot during her lessons, which says that fun and serious aren't mutually exclusive. She gets extraordinary satisfaction out of her swimming -- she was positively over the moon about learning butterfly at 59 and tells me that swimming is the most fulfilling thing she does. Needless to say, she's grateful that I take her interest, needs and goals as seriously as any elite coach does their athlete. I don't take myself too seriously. I take my work very seriously. I don't expect every Masters swimmer -- or even a significant number -- to share that level of passion. But to suggest that because it involves adults and non-elites, it doesn't merit seriousness is to devalue the rewards and benefits of passion and committment for any person in any endeavor they consider worthy. I've said many times I don't feel any compulsion to "convert" those who are perfectly content with their way of swimming or who see things differently than I. But ne"lighten up?" Not gonna happen. Terry you are contradicting yourself ... we are just trying to find the balance between fun and uptight. I take my swimming very seriously. I train hard, I spend a lot of time researching stroke mechanics and training methods, and have thrown my heart and soul into the sport. BUT the bottom line is it's something we all do for fun