Masters swimmer Erik Hochstein posted an interesting question over on the Timed Fianls site: www.timedfinals.com/.../
Basically, Stefan Nystrand swam the 2nd fastest 100 m free in history last week in Paris (47.91). Stefan says he trains 20K max per week in the pool with only two days per work of dryland. He swims either all out or easy, nothing in between.
So what do you think? Is this possible? Are swimmers and coaches too hung up on putting in yardage? Is this "less is more" philosophy something we'll see more of? It is certainly appealing to Masters swimmers who usually have a limited amount of time to train.
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Former Member
How many workouts a week?
Depending on how much of a beginner you are I would shoot for between 2000-3700 yards of swimming where you're always aware of your technique. Swimming too hard and killing yourself leads most people to sloppy technique because they're tired. I think with that amount of yardage you could do a 200 or 500 just fine. If you really just want swim the 50 and 100 you could probably do even less. Keep in mind I'm no expert. This is just my opinion; but I do think you could swim fairly well with that relatively small amount of yardage.
How many workouts a week?
Depending on how much of a beginner you are I would shoot for between 2000-3700 yards of swimming where you're always aware of your technique. Swimming too hard and killing yourself leads most people to sloppy technique because they're tired. I think with that amount of yardage you could do a 200 or 500 just fine. If you really just want swim the 50 and 100 you could probably do even less. Keep in mind I'm no expert. This is just my opinion; but I do think you could swim fairly well with that relatively small amount of yardage.
