Go The Distance

I'm with George. Who cares how far you swim. These distance events seem more for the individual. I'm more impressed with fast swimming and many masters do this without much mileage. While I'm not into trying to compete against others on total distance swum I find it interesting and useful to be able to look back at how many meters I've put in. And it sometimes motivates me to do some extra work. I recently passed the million meter mark and while it took me a couple of years it gave me some sense of accomplishment. For the majority of masters swimmers that don't compete this can add a little extra interest or motivation to their swimming.

If you look at the Canadian equivalent, the Million Metre Challenge, the highest distances achieved are dominated by men, and then it evens out: http://mymsc.ca/Million.jsp

When I was a stay at home Mom, I was extremely busy, and had about the same time as now to swim.

As I understand Modern Swimming Theory, faster times and more efficient swimming come from low-mileage, high-quality workouts that emphasize bouts of sprinting, with rest in between (assuming technique, kicking, and the like are already well incorporated into swimming style). For fitness or noncompetitive swimmers, high yardage brings psychological satisfaction and provides big impetus to return to the pool daily. Others find a way to combine both.:cool: VB

I've heard that theory as well. What's actually practiced is quite another story. From what I've seen (and experienced personally) the top clubs here in GA and at NCAA Div I schools (like Stanford and Auburn) train their swimmers with double workouts. And depending on the time of the season they swim over 10K a day and up to 20K. I feel it's more of a high mileage, high quality in reality. If we're talking about masters swimmers, the top two dominant women in my age group swim doubles including 6 to 10 swimming workouts a week (as quoted in swimming magazine - or as one of them told me personally.) However, I'm still going to work on putting the modern swimming theory to the test. It's soooo much easier. Most USA swimmers train like crazy. The "Modern Swimming Theory" only seems to work for sprinters and some masters. Some of the best women in my age group also put in doubles and high yardage. But (S)he-Man, 6 x week 1.5 hours is not the "Modern Swimming Theory." That's a heckuva lot of swimming.

For example, in 2003, I averaged 7.92 miles a week and my 1650 time was 18:53 This year, I averaged 6.82 miles a week and my 1650 was 19:47. Granted, I've gone from 50 to 55 in that interlude, but I definitely believe the 15-16 percent decrease in practice yards made a difference, too. Finnish Formula, Jim! :bouncing: I was slightly ahead of what I did last January (kept track but never got around to sending in my results), but somehow am quite far behind my female counterpart. In our case, she has the ability to get to practice on time nearly every time (I hit more traffic), she is more likely to do a saturday workout (while I'm catching up on sleep), and I have other things (ie Hockey) that supplement my swimming. I would not be surprised to see her finish 50 miles ahead of me, assuming I don't injure myself again this year.

I would not be surprised to see her finish 50 miles ahead of me, assuming I don't injure myself again this year. Yeah, but is she going to finish 50 miles ahead of the other Jeff!?!?! He's been picking on me that he was almost ahead of me in January. And I'm sure I'll hear about it when he's ahead of me in February too! About GTD, I have always kept track of my training with an excel spreadsheet. It's interesting to see year after year when I am and I have some comments on how I was feeling throughout the year. In the past I had always taken a break in the fall and then been completely out of shape come January. This year I made a huge effort to stay in shape and actually had the best masters meet of my life in December. Having past year's data was helpful in deciding how to taper this year. Last year I did learn that I need to take more short breaks from swimming and did get a little obsessed with training in March last year. 30,000 yards in one week ending in a swim meet wasn't the best idea. I guess when you're 13 you body can handle that beating, but not now. On the subject of kids training, I have no idea how I ever did it. And seems that they train more now. Over the holiday break one team in our area gave a set of 20 x 400 IM. I can't even imagine the pain.

These distance events seem more for the individual. True. I do it much more for my personal motivation than anything else. I look at the results, but the fact that others are swimming 100 miles per month doesn't really make me want to. The whole GTD thing is more of a goal thing than a competition thing. However, I am impressed with this distances the top folks are logging.

As with anything EEEEZZZZ into it. When I went from 4 days a week to 6 days a week that took some time to adjust to physically 2.5 years ago. This past summer when I went from 6 times per week to 11 it took about 2 months to get used to the workload. Next we are adding stretchcord work 1-2 times per week and that too is taking some getting used to. But you always have to shake things up a bit to make improvement. At 42 I really did not think I would ever get down to my kid times in the 50 or 100 Free but now at 45 after seeing others who are able to do it, I say "Why can't I?" Atleast I know I will have given it my best shot. A year with the kids team is really helping me along too.

I'm with George. Who cares how far you swim. These distance events seem more for the individual. I'm more impressed with fast swimming and many masters do this without much mileage. I too am impressed with how many masters can rip it up without a lot of practice. I would LOVE to get away with little practice AND fast times. Perhaps a college background would have been helpful. I'm still working on my technique though. Ah well. I can dream. Fortunately, I enjoy my time in the water (1.5 hours 6x/ week seems minimal to me).