Just curious how many yards or meters USMS folks do per week.
I swim independently (i.e. not on a team) for about 45 mins before work, 4 or 5 days per week.
Depending on what type of workout I do, and how lazy I feel, I do 1,500 - 2,000 yards per day. Lately, more than half of my workout is breastroke. So, my range is anywhere from 6,000 - 10,000 yards per week. That is for the two months leading up to a meet. If I am more than 2 months from a swim meet, I swim once or twice per week, and lift weights twice a week.
I am 41, and swam the 100 yd *** in 1:08, and 50 yd *** in 31 at my last meet. My 100 yd free time is somewhere in the mid-high 50's, but I haven't swam it in over a year.
I would love to hear what other folks are doing for yardage, and what times you are getting out of 'em.
I'm all about the open water season, so I keep it long all year. I do about 25000 yards a week, more in season. I swim 5 days a week, and usually run 4. That means more doubles than I'd like, but I love running so I can't quite give it up.
Since I'm all about longer distances when I race, I have noticed that upping my distance in the last few years, from about 18000 to 25000, has lowered my time enough that I'm pretty satisfied. I didn't start swimming until 10 years ago, when I was 27, so I feel happy to even be doing this!
I try to swim 12,000m a week. 3 x 4000, but the more and more stroke work I do tues and thurs usually means I swim 3500-3800 those days and try to get 4500-5000 in on satursday.
but looking at my swim journal I see that I have only swam 12k 5 times in the last 10 weeks, the last two weeks because of illness, two weeks because of meets and one week I missed it by 100m.
this week I am on track to miss 12k, 3800 last night, 3300-3500 planned for thursday and then mostly sprints and starts on sat.
next week I will probably swim 2000 + sprints and starts on tuesday and then 1500 + sprints and starts on thurs, but then with a two day meet, about 4x 2000 warm up (roughly 2000 at the start of each session) and then 1500fr + 400fr + 400im + 200im + 100im+ 200br + 100br + 50br + 200ba plus a 200 meter warm down after every race. and then 5 relays....so I will wind up swimming more than usual. nearly 13,000 just on sat and sun.
A good week, I do about 20 to 25,000 yards/meters in the summer a week.
Right now, since I am on the road for work, I am lucky if I can do 15k yards. But, I was able to get almost 9,000 yards these last two days.
It's easy to overestimate how much you swim if you don't write it down. I enthusiastically recommend any and all of you who are not already signed up to log your monthly yards/miles and post the total on Mary Sweat's great "Go the Distance" feature on USMS. Mary is great--an excellent swimmer and a tireless promoter of our sport. If you email her, she will send you a neat Excel spread sheet that helps you keep track, has some graphs to compare this year to last year, etc.
I find it very motivational--you see that you are up or down on your goal mileage, and it serves to modify your behavior accordingly. Most of all, it keeps a pitiless calculation (assuming you are honest and log your yards or meters at the end of each practice) of how much you're doing.
PS we had a poll some time ago about this topic, and if memory serves, the most common weekly yardage was somewhere between 12,000 - 15,000, though many did a lot less, and some did up to 30,000 or more.
15,000 - 16,000 yds winter,
17,000 - 18,000 m in summer if I make 4/week.
Assumes 3 mornings at about 3,400 plus a Saturday at 5,000+, then a good nap.
DV
My local Rec Center has a program for Master's swimmers called Swim Across Tennessee to log your miles. I've participated in this program for a couple of years now. It is very helpful to log your miles, meters, or yds.
I swim about 2,000 yards a practice, four times a week, so about 8,000 yards a week with the team. I also swim on my own, about 1,000-1,500 yards once a week. So, I probably swim about 9,000-9,500 yards a week, but that can vary depending on what we're doing in practice. The other two days I go to the gym and lift. Lately, I haven't been able to swim on my own because the gym has been trying to convert the pool to a salt water system, and it's been closed for almost a month now.
I also recommend swimmingcommunity.com, where you can enter a profile, log your yardage/meters, and also get computer generated workouts that help on those days you can't make it to a practice, or just need someone else to decide what you are going to swim.
I've been using it for a few years and I love that it's low tech., and not filled with any sponsorship ads.
