should i do doubles

Wow, he would have swam in the B heat at the NCAA championships.

What happens if you do doubles and try and swim sprints? We should probably ask Dara that question. There's a reason she swam only once a day in training for 2000 and 2008 Olympics. Particularly in athletes over 30, recovery becomes an issue. If you are asking me, it has been a disaster for me to do double swim workouts since I was 16. Broke me down to a point that I was beyond the help of a taper. I'd get sick, injured, etc. and be out for a week, so a taper would become meaningless. Of course, I believe each person is different and on the masters level, folks should do what they want. I do think, however, masters swimmers that want to do well in JUST the 50s and 100s should be mindful of the lesson we have learned from Torres - less is more. I will add that I have found swimming twice a day to be more taxing than doing a run workout and a swim workout in one day. Why this is, I don't know. Again, I go back to Dara - there must be a reason her coach had her doing just one swim workout and one dryland workout a day versus two swim workouts a day. Some folks aren't as talented as the (S)he-man. I do think though that if you just wanted to focus on the 50 free, and decided to go the low yardage route, you'd swim a low 23. On the other hand, with a multi-talented athlete like yourself, focusing on just a few short events could be boring.

A 43 100 free makes you the fastest USMS swimmer at that distance, any age. He may not be a masters swimmer. In a post on September 29, he mentioned that he is 23, had a 10 year layoff, and then after only 7 months of training, he made Olympic Trials cuts in two events (See true beginner thread). Peter - I figured out who you are and your feats are impressive. Hope you will keep up your hard work. Keep in mind that many of the folks on here are a good bit older than you. Many of us 40+ swimmers can't put in the yardage that you swim or swim at the intensity that you do without paying a price. Also, remember that the original question was about two swim workouts a day. No coach would suggest that a world class sprinter just swim without doing dryland work. This requires doubling up.

There are no 47s in 100 Fly or 100 Back according to USMS records. That is true, however I believe Sabir Muhammad would have easily crushed the :48.00 standard for the 100 Fly at the 2004 USMS Short Course Nationals in Indy. He went a :21.15 for the 50 Fly in that meet. He elected not to swim the 100 Fly. His other times were :19.44 in the 50 Free and :42.91 in the 100 Free. Those two free times were better than his college times and were lifetime bests. He went :46.18 in the 100 Fly at the 1998 NCAA Championship meet in setting an American Record. So the way he was swimming I believe he would have been close to that time. www.usms.org/.../poolrecords.php

and I am actually a 100 swimmer. 43 free, 47 fly/back!?, and I've only been swimming for 10 months. . Only 10 months in the water and you are swimming a 43 second 100 Free?

i'm 33 y.old male great shape, recover from workouts easliy. jjpj

If you have the time, go for it.

On the one hand, I'm an advocate for training how you like, rather than what you feel you "must" do. We're not USS swimmers. Monitor the health of your shoulders if you decide to do doubles. But you already do 2250 a week and that should be plenty for many (most) purposes in USMS if you train with good intensity. If are not already doing some cross-training like weights or Pilates or running (or whatever), you might want to give that a try for your second daily workout Or not. Your call. There is no right answer. And hopefully you're in this for the long haul, you can always do something different later.

I've done doubles a few times while swimming masters. Almost every time I've ended up having bad workouts, getting a bit burned out, and hurting myself. Shortly before we began our taper last year I did doubles and hard training for a week. (I teach and we were on spring break) I think this helped me swim well tapered. If you add a morning session I would focus on tecnique and recovery swims. I would also think about focusing on things like SDKs and kicking.

What happens if you do doubles and try and swim sprints? You explode? :dunno: You rip the space-time continum?