How much endurance training?

This is very true, Lindsay. Unfortunately, the ability to hit the quote button makes it readily apparent who you are referring to. So how much is solved? Once things leave the friendly zone I would advocate avoiding the quote button. ;) ============== Personally, as has been said by several people in several threads, I think the soundest most general advice is to figure out what you need to do to improve and then do it. I think a lot of unnecessary controversy arises if you replace the first half of that prescription with what people perceive to be one prescription for everyone - even if it is the right prescription for 95% of the population. As a fledgling flyer I believe I need to improve my endurance so that I can swim enough good quality fast fly to imprint it. I have swum enough slow/distance fly that I can do a 200 fly, albeit very slowly, even when I'm not in good shape, but I want to improve my fast fly, and I don't think I am going to get there any other way than swimming a lot of (relatively) fast fly, and I think that means getting in better shape. Recently I took a couple seconds off my 100m free by realizing that my 50m split was way too slow compared to my 50m race and going out a lot faster. I also realized that I tend to drop my left elbow when I get tired near the end of the race. In this case I made a big improvement without getting in better shape. So, I would recast the original question to: How do I tell if lack of endurance training is limiting my improvement? Or more generally how do I tell what I most need to work on? I also think it is interesting to look at the world of running when pondering people's appetite for unmindfull endurance-oriented activities. ;)

This is very true, Lindsay. Unfortunately, the ability to hit the quote button makes it readily apparent who you are referring to. So how much is solved? Once things leave the friendly zone I would advocate avoiding the quote button. ;) ============== Personally, as has been said by several people in several threads, I think the soundest most general advice is to figure out what you need to do to improve and then do it. I think a lot of unnecessary controversy arises if you replace the first half of that prescription with what people perceive to be one prescription for everyone - even if it is the right prescription for 95% of the population. As a fledgling flyer I believe I need to improve my endurance so that I can swim enough good quality fast fly to imprint it. I have swum enough slow/distance fly that I can do a 200 fly, albeit very slowly, even when I'm not in good shape, but I want to improve my fast fly, and I don't think I am going to get there any other way than swimming a lot of (relatively) fast fly, and I think that means getting in better shape. Recently I took a couple seconds off my 100m free by realizing that my 50m split was way too slow compared to my 50m race and going out a lot faster. I also realized that I tend to drop my left elbow when I get tired near the end of the race. In this case I made a big improvement without getting in better shape. So, I would recast the original question to: How do I tell if lack of endurance training is limiting my improvement? Or more generally how do I tell what I most need to work on? I also think it is interesting to look at the world of running when pondering people's appetite for unmindfull endurance-oriented activities. ;)