I hope no one minds, but I could use your input. And if I repeat myself, it is for the benefit of any new people to this forum.
I am training for what I call an epic swim; a swim from the island of Roatan to Utila in August of 2008, the year I turn 60. The distance is about 19 miles. After months of not swimming by choice, I started re-training this past January 15th. Due to previous swimming injuries, I decided to not leap into it but to train smart so I don't have any downtime due to injury flareups.
In January, I only swam Monday-Wed-Fridays and the yardage started small. My total from Jan 15 to the 31st was 8,800 yds.
In February, I added a fourth swim day, Saturdays. I decided to make Mondays and Fridays drill and sprint days, and Wednesdays and Saturdays are distance days, many times I time them to see progress. My total yardage from Feb 1 to Feb 24th is 26,980 yds. There were 6 days in there the ocean was angry and the swims were of short duration.
Two weeks ago, I timed my 2nd 2 mile swim and it is down from a 54:07 to a 51:02 so I see progress, and not just in time but how trashed I felt hours after it. Last Wednesday, I timed a 1 mile swim and it was a 27:01 so that is rather slow compared to the 2 mile, but hey, we all have off days.
Since that time, I have been extremely fatigued, I actually did not swim this past Saturday because I needed the rest. It is difficult doing a load of laundry. Now, I do not take vitamins because there aren't any here but I plan on getting a suitcase full when I go home to Texas in April. Also, it is hard to hydrate during training because the little island kids steal my gatorade and water off a chair on the beach. But I am not sure how important hydration is for a mile or 2 mile swim, but when I get into the 4 milers and I am about ready to break into those, I guess I'll have to figure a way like wear them around my neck or something.
My questions are: do I need to incorporate periodization into my training routine (periodization is where you swim so many weeks on, and so many days off on a regular basis); what vitamins or replacement products would benefit me as I move upward into more mileage? The reason I am asking these questions is when I go home the end of April for a visit, I will be able to buy anything that may help my body regulate the training I am incurring. The only thing here is Gatorade and my problem with that is it may take so much of it, that my stomach will be sloshing around full of liquid; not a good thing.
Sorry this is long, but wanted to layout the groundwork. So, periodization, pros and cons? Replacement products? Vitamins?
Donna
Parents
Former Member
Jim,
I have been pondering why my 1 mile swim was so far off from the splits on my 2 mile swim. I think this is it: When I did the 1 mile swim I increased the effort and intensity from the beginning and normally, I am a swimmer who always comes from behind; I never start off in a roar, I build the mile or miles as I go. And this effort, I believe, took a lot out of the remainder of that mile swim because my conditioning at that time did not match the effort of the swim. I never let up, but I think I lost a good deal of controlled power and also my breathing rate became high off the bat.
I am also finding out that I swim slower if I don't let my body do what it does naturally: building the speed with the yardage, not blazing out the gate. I am not a sprinter, but spending lots of time on sprinting to get out of my comfort zone cause I'll need this tool for our triathlon in about 3 weeks as because I will have to pass people.
And I do analyze all of my swims for a couple of hours after each one of them; this helps a lot.
By the way, this evening I figured up my yardage for the month of February (well, 26 days of it), and it was 19 miles, the distance of my long swim, but the only problem is it took me 26 days and I'll have to do it all in one someday next year:rofl:.
Yikes,
donna
Jim,
I have been pondering why my 1 mile swim was so far off from the splits on my 2 mile swim. I think this is it: When I did the 1 mile swim I increased the effort and intensity from the beginning and normally, I am a swimmer who always comes from behind; I never start off in a roar, I build the mile or miles as I go. And this effort, I believe, took a lot out of the remainder of that mile swim because my conditioning at that time did not match the effort of the swim. I never let up, but I think I lost a good deal of controlled power and also my breathing rate became high off the bat.
I am also finding out that I swim slower if I don't let my body do what it does naturally: building the speed with the yardage, not blazing out the gate. I am not a sprinter, but spending lots of time on sprinting to get out of my comfort zone cause I'll need this tool for our triathlon in about 3 weeks as because I will have to pass people.
And I do analyze all of my swims for a couple of hours after each one of them; this helps a lot.
By the way, this evening I figured up my yardage for the month of February (well, 26 days of it), and it was 19 miles, the distance of my long swim, but the only problem is it took me 26 days and I'll have to do it all in one someday next year:rofl:.
Yikes,
donna
