I would love to see what kind of yardage some of you are doing out there. Just ball park numbers. I realize there is much more to swimming than how many yards one does, and training for different events entails differences in yardages, but I would still like to see what everyone is doing so I can know where I fall within the "norm". Also, if anyone knows, I would like to know what some of the masters All American's do as far as yardage. I see times for Jeff Commins in the *** and IM events and wonder how much he must train.
I started back Masters in 2000/2001 (age 33/34) and through 2007, my weekly average was about 6,500 yards per week. That was pretty pathetic and brought down by some periods each of year of very minimal swimming. Still, even when training "hard" during those years, I would rarely go above 10K per week.
In 2008, I averaged about 11K during the SCY season and then 16K during the SCM season. However, in the eight weeks preceeding my big taper meet for SCM (where I had significant time drops), I averaged 20K per week.
For this SCY season, I'll spend Jan & Feb averaging about 12K and then aim for the low 20K range for March and April.
I don't think most Masters' swimmers need to do heavy yardage. I'd recommend spending proportionally more brainpower focusing on technique and training fast than just cranking out the yards.
Now, with all that said, long ago in my "real" swimming career, I trained pretty much a mega, mega yardage program, particularly during my high school years where >100K weeks were not uncommon. I don't know how much impact twenty plus years later that has today.
I started back Masters in 2000/2001 (age 33/34) and through 2007, my weekly average was about 6,500 yards per week. That was pretty pathetic and brought down by some periods each of year of very minimal swimming. Still, even when training "hard" during those years, I would rarely go above 10K per week.
In 2008, I averaged about 11K during the SCY season and then 16K during the SCM season. However, in the eight weeks preceeding my big taper meet for SCM (where I had significant time drops), I averaged 20K per week.
For this SCY season, I'll spend Jan & Feb averaging about 12K and then aim for the low 20K range for March and April.
I don't think most Masters' swimmers need to do heavy yardage. I'd recommend spending proportionally more brainpower focusing on technique and training fast than just cranking out the yards.
Now, with all that said, long ago in my "real" swimming career, I trained pretty much a mega, mega yardage program, particularly during my high school years where >100K weeks were not uncommon. I don't know how much impact twenty plus years later that has today.
