"Quantity has a quality all its own," huh? It works for some.
Chris,
you have to be very careful about how much credence you give to anything I post: my first comment was AT LEAST a 3/4 dig at my buddy Paul. I do that every chance I get.
That said, for me (as you point out each of us is different) working longer and harder has been the key I believe (please note that I have no way of proving this belief) to swimming success. I put in far more yards in the pool than ever before but don't swim one single junk yard. As I have posted on other threads my time is swum at very slow pace trying to get exactly the stroke mechanics I want. The remainder of the time is very high intensity, not paying attention to the details but hoping that the slow training has caught on. I like my results: going from an occasional Top Ten performance to more than 20 per year and breaking one national record all in the last 5 years. Most swimmers won't train with me because of the slow swimming aspect. The only other swimmer I've ever met who is willing to do what I do is my wife who has made extraordinary strides in her swim performances over the last 5 years. Last SCM season she had more Top Ten times than I did.
We have a training philosophy called by one former coach of mine 'Train until you can't, rest until you can.' This means do the Jack Lalanne thing (train until exhaustion) and go home to rest. Next day do it again. When you reach a point where you can't do a particular performance test (lifting, biking, swimming, speed walking all have different test parameters) you quit. Take a day off. After your day off quiz yourself on how you feel. If the answer to your question is that you'd rather not train then don't. Take another day off. Continue this pattern until all systems are again ready for hard training. I can't tell you how many times I've suited up when I'm at the limit and just couldn't persuade myself to get into the water (i.e. the mental attitude was not there). I changed back into street clothes and went home. How many swimmers do you know who will do that?
I have two bad shoulders and one bad knee from too many years of playing English Football. After 25 years, all is re-habbed (no operations). Since starting with the current training program I've never had an injury (been with it now for 7 years). Everything about me seems to be getting stronger. I can lift more than I could as a teenager. I swim faster now than I did in college.
So, the 1/4 of my first post responding to Paul was very serious. I'm now up to about 120 minutes a day of HARD training (no wimpy Leslie stuff...) - that's over 700 hours per year. For me, more is more.
"Quantity has a quality all its own," huh? It works for some.
Chris,
you have to be very careful about how much credence you give to anything I post: my first comment was AT LEAST a 3/4 dig at my buddy Paul. I do that every chance I get.
That said, for me (as you point out each of us is different) working longer and harder has been the key I believe (please note that I have no way of proving this belief) to swimming success. I put in far more yards in the pool than ever before but don't swim one single junk yard. As I have posted on other threads my time is swum at very slow pace trying to get exactly the stroke mechanics I want. The remainder of the time is very high intensity, not paying attention to the details but hoping that the slow training has caught on. I like my results: going from an occasional Top Ten performance to more than 20 per year and breaking one national record all in the last 5 years. Most swimmers won't train with me because of the slow swimming aspect. The only other swimmer I've ever met who is willing to do what I do is my wife who has made extraordinary strides in her swim performances over the last 5 years. Last SCM season she had more Top Ten times than I did.
We have a training philosophy called by one former coach of mine 'Train until you can't, rest until you can.' This means do the Jack Lalanne thing (train until exhaustion) and go home to rest. Next day do it again. When you reach a point where you can't do a particular performance test (lifting, biking, swimming, speed walking all have different test parameters) you quit. Take a day off. After your day off quiz yourself on how you feel. If the answer to your question is that you'd rather not train then don't. Take another day off. Continue this pattern until all systems are again ready for hard training. I can't tell you how many times I've suited up when I'm at the limit and just couldn't persuade myself to get into the water (i.e. the mental attitude was not there). I changed back into street clothes and went home. How many swimmers do you know who will do that?
I have two bad shoulders and one bad knee from too many years of playing English Football. After 25 years, all is re-habbed (no operations). Since starting with the current training program I've never had an injury (been with it now for 7 years). Everything about me seems to be getting stronger. I can lift more than I could as a teenager. I swim faster now than I did in college.
So, the 1/4 of my first post responding to Paul was very serious. I'm now up to about 120 minutes a day of HARD training (no wimpy Leslie stuff...) - that's over 700 hours per year. For me, more is more.
