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 was/still am interested in this topic, too, and posted a poll a while back that might give you some data about the norms.
Check it out at: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
The vast bulk of respondents did between 5,000 to 20,000 yards a week, with the bell shaped curve peaking in the 10-15 k range (5.69-8,52 miles). If you keep this up for the whole year, it translates to 295-443 miles.
I am a wee bit suspicious of this total, though. I think lots of us tend to estimate how much we swim per week based on an "average" week. But if we get sick, or have to travel, or the pool is closed for holidays, or whatever, we tend to gloss over that. Bottom line here is that there is a difference between an estimated average and an actual, written down, charted total. Which is why I so heartily recommend GTD, otherwise known as Go the Distance.
The swimmers who participate in Mary Sweat's wonderful Go the Distance program (free USMS perk--see www.usms.org/.../gothedistance ) provide another gauge for the yearly "norms". As Mary wrote in November:
"In fact, our 2008 GTD participants have now swum a grand total of 151,457.84 miles with an average of 250.76 miles. Yep – you read that right – as a group we have now crossed the “250 miles” GTD distance milestone together!" (I am not sure if this includes the month of December; if not, add another 20 or so miles, which is fairly close to the poll results.)
I personally did 406.7 miles in 2008, the most I have done in several years. It does seem to decrease times a wee bit (or at least slow the the effect of aging on performance) when you increase your yards.
If you haven't tried the GTD stuff, I really recommend it for keeping you on track and free of self delusions about just how much you really are swimming!
I was/still am interested in this topic, too, and posted a poll a while back that might give you some data about the norms.
Check it out at: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
The vast bulk of respondents did between 5,000 to 20,000 yards a week, with the bell shaped curve peaking in the 10-15 k range (5.69-8,52 miles). If you keep this up for the whole year, it translates to 295-443 miles.
I am a wee bit suspicious of this total, though. I think lots of us tend to estimate how much we swim per week based on an "average" week. But if we get sick, or have to travel, or the pool is closed for holidays, or whatever, we tend to gloss over that. Bottom line here is that there is a difference between an estimated average and an actual, written down, charted total. Which is why I so heartily recommend GTD, otherwise known as Go the Distance.
The swimmers who participate in Mary Sweat's wonderful Go the Distance program (free USMS perk--see www.usms.org/.../gothedistance ) provide another gauge for the yearly "norms". As Mary wrote in November:
"In fact, our 2008 GTD participants have now swum a grand total of 151,457.84 miles with an average of 250.76 miles. Yep – you read that right – as a group we have now crossed the “250 miles” GTD distance milestone together!" (I am not sure if this includes the month of December; if not, add another 20 or so miles, which is fairly close to the poll results.)
I personally did 406.7 miles in 2008, the most I have done in several years. It does seem to decrease times a wee bit (or at least slow the the effect of aging on performance) when you increase your yards.
If you haven't tried the GTD stuff, I really recommend it for keeping you on track and free of self delusions about just how much you really are swimming!
