Yardage

RE: Yardage

jim thornton — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:57:55 GMT

Hm... send rambunctious toddler to Thornton's house so I can swim more in 2009. That's my plan!:bolt: One woman's ranbunctious toddler is another man's free house-cleaning servant! Note to self: buy candy and toddler-sized Swiffer body suit. Hide candy in every dust bunny rabbit warren of filthy home.

RE: Yardage

jim thornton — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:55:56 GMT

In other words, what is the point if one isn't Jim Thornton? :) Finally, finally, an ex-Olympian gets it! Thank you, Chris Stevenson, pride of Greece! PS I think your swimming may have fallen a bit into the obsessive category last year. If you want, I can do a psychiatric and pharmaceutical consult with you at a 10 percent discount from my usual fake-doctor fee.

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swimshark — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:10:47 GMT

Swimshark and Ourswimmer: quit your jobs, put your children into foster care, and focus on what is important in life. What is the point of money and family if you are not swimming the optimal distance? Hm... send rambunctious toddler to Thornton's house so I can swim more in 2009. That's my plan!:bolt:

RE: Yardage

Rykno — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:25:53 GMT

I'm going to have to keep better track of my swimming in 2009. based on what I have written down I would have to guess that I swam between 350-360miles in 2008 in a pool, and then another 58-62 in the lake. Thanks now I have one more thing to document in my road to Worlds logbook :-)

RE: Yardage

jim thornton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:26:00 GMT

And also show you the true outliers! This year's champ bested 2000 miles for the year (2000.32 to be exact). With 366 days in 2008, that's an average of 5.5 miles per day or over 67,000 yards per week. Wow. That's...sick. If you use the standard 4x multiplier effect for converting swimming to running, that's close to 22 miles running per day, or nearly a marathon, every day of the year. I think that many of us swimmers have obsessive tendencies, but this seems to me to be bordering on the faint cusp of pathology. Assuming he/she can hold a 25 minute pace per mile, and swims the workouts straight through without intervals, that's 2 hours and 17.5 minutes per day, seven days a week, in the pool. Perhaps a little Prozac added into the filter system could be beneficial. For what it's worth, I swam 406.7 miles last year. By defnition, this is the optimal distance. Anything over this is obsessional. Anything less than this is laziness. Note: for those who want to use my swimming as a way of planning a neither-pathological-nor-lazy regimen for themselves, please understand that optimum distance is subject to change this year depending on what I do or fail to do!

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Chris Stevenson — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:39:48 GMT

What is the point of money and family if you are not swimming the optimal distance? In other words, what is the point if one isn't Jim Thornton? :)

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Former Member — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:11:00 GMT

That's the equivalent of swimming the Ohio River from Dam 1 in Pittsburgh to Dam 33 in Maysville, KY (~60 miles southeast of Cincinnati.) That would be one heck of an OW swim, even if it was with the current. That's sick, too!:applaud: The Ohio River For what it's worth, I swam 406.7 miles last year.

RE: Yardage

jim thornton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:09:48 GMT

You two are somewhat correct. In 2007, I swam 350 miles. That was the optimum distance that particular year, with > 350 = obsession and 406.7 = obsessive

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swimshark — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:13:16 GMT

I won't! I swam 350 miles last year and although I have plenty of athletic faults I do not think that "lazy" is one of them. I cross-train a lot to manage chronic injuries and prevent new ones, but on 350 miles of swimming last year plus a bunch of spinning and Pilates I managed to swim my best in 25 years. I did the same exact mileage and cross training! And, like you, swam my best last year, too. Must be working for us :)

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ourswimmer — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:09:02 GMT

I will agree on anything less than 400 miles as being lazy. I won't! I swam 350 miles last year and although I have plenty of athletic faults I do not think that "lazy" is one of them. I cross-train a lot to manage chronic injuries and prevent new ones, but on 350 miles of swimming last year plus a bunch of spinning and Pilates I managed to swim my best in 25 years. Many of my teammates who swam less than I did last year are not lazy either; they just have several small children, or demanding jobs, or both, and they fit in what they can.

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tjrpatt — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:38:14 GMT

That's...sick. If you use the standard 4x multiplier effect for converting swimming to running, that's close to 22 miles running per day, or nearly a marathon, every day of the year. I think that many of us swimmers have obsessive tendencies, but this seems to me to be bordering on the faint cusp of pathology. Assuming he/she can hold a 25 minute pace per mile, and swims the workouts straight through without intervals, that's 2 hours and 17.5 minutes per day, seven days a week, in the pool. Perhaps a little Prozac added into the filter system could be beneficial. For what it's worth, I swam 406.7 miles last year. By defnition, this is the optimal distance. Anything over this is obsessional. Anything less than this is laziness. Note: for those who want to use my swimming as a way of planning a neither-pathological-nor-lazy regimen for themselves, please understand that optimum distance is subject to change this year depending on what I do or fail to do! Jim, Training can get really obsessive. I will agree on anything less than 400 miles as being lazy. I think that the 2000 mile individual needs to go to chlorine rehab or something because he/she might get convulsions if he/she is out of the pool for more than 6 to 8 hours. Can you imagine how chlorinated that person's car smells. My friend's kids complain how his car smells of chlorine.

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Former Member — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:04:08 GMT

I do tons of yardage. 2000 yards is not a ton. Especially not spread over a couple weeks. Maybe Jazz Hands meant moving a ton of iron, one yard up, one yard down? Jazz Hands does make a great case for quality over quantity. In general, I think increasing the frequency of workouts helps more than increasing yardage per workout. For example, I think it would be more beneficial to train 6x3k/week instead of 3x5k/week.

RE: Yardage

Former Member — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:27:06 GMT

Really I was just lying to look cool in the yardage thread. Don't worry. You are cool. I'm not sure about frequency versus volume sometimes. The example you wrote is a case where frequency is better. Maybe it depends whether your volume is for building endurance or strength/power. The common saying is that for every day you miss, it takes two days to get back. I noticed that when I did more endurance stuff, but not so much for strength training or sprinting. Let me expand on my statement a little. I think technique is king, and I can do more quality technique work if I spread the yardage over more practices. The longer distances you compete in, the more yardage that is going to be needed just to practice racing. Not sure how to balance that out in my philosophy, but 200 is the most I plan on doing in the near future...

RE: Yardage

Former Member — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:43:33 GMT

Especially not spread over a couple weeks. Maybe Jazz Hands meant moving a ton of iron, one yard up, one yard down? Jazz Hands does make a great case for quality over quantity. In general, I think increasing the frequency of workouts helps more than increasing yardage per workout. For example, I think it would be more beneficial to train 6x3k/week instead of 3x5k/week. Really I was just lying to look cool in the yardage thread. I'm not sure about frequency versus volume sometimes. The example you wrote is a case where frequency is better. Maybe it depends whether your volume is for building endurance or strength/power. The common saying is that for every day you miss, it takes two days to get back. I noticed that when I did more endurance stuff, but not so much for strength training or sprinting.

RE: Yardage

Rykno — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:31:05 GMT

I probably should have asked for everyones yardage as well as training goals and times they are producing with the yardage. I am curious to know if those who put in 20K are doing better/worse/same as those who put in 15K, 12K, 10K or less. Like I said I get around 12k, but plan on upping that to 15k when family and work allow it. I'm still in the getting back into shape phase of my training, after a 10+ yr break from training. eventually I want to be a good breaststroker, but I find myself liking the longer swims more and more each time I race them. 400free, 800free and 400 IM. and since I like the OW races in the summer, it's better for me to keep my freestyle distance condition up all winter. I just looked at the USMS quailifying times for SCY and LCM. before I saw them I thought my goals would be to quailify, but after seeing the times as well as looking at 2008 top 10 times, my goals are to get into the top ten and stay there in as many events as I can. I know it's a long shot, but I would also like to place top 12 at the worlds in 2010. It really depends on how many of the really good swimmers show up :-)

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knelson — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:11:15 GMT

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". And also show you the true outliers! This year's champ bested 2000 miles for the year (2000.32 to be exact). With 366 days in 2008, that's an average of 5.5 miles per day or over 67,000 yards per week. Wow.

RE: Yardage

Former Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:39:10 GMT

its not all about quantity of yards... there is something to be said about quantity of quality yardage. That being said i think im on the lighter end of the spectrum (relative to people who already posted). Right now im not doing much 3 x ~3000 per week. I'll add some more swims and prob end up in the 12000-17000/per week range.

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Former Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:31:11 GMT

Still :banana::banana::banana:managing to get in about 5000m a week.

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tjrpatt — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:48:30 GMT

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The Fortress — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:37:12 GMT

I probably should have asked for everyones yardage as well as training goals and times they are producing with the yardage. I am curious to know if those who put in 20K are doing better/worse/same as those who put in 15K, 12K, 10K or less. I just recently moved from 6-8K per week to 12-14K and am swimming much faster times all around, but I am only putting in 4 days per week, which leaves me plenty of rest days for recovery. I really want to know if putting in another 4-6K per week would make me much faster or not. I don't keep track of my weekly or annual yardage. I agree with SKO's comments above that it is generally the "quantity of quality" that matters most. I like being in the pool 4-5 x per week rather than just 3-4 x though. However, if I had to guess, I'd say I average 12-15K a week in 4-5 workouts, sometimes more and sometimes less. I've only done 20K once in my masters career (a week ago, in fact, had to look it up). However, I am a sprinter, so don't need as much yardage. This yardage seems to be sufficient for me to land in the top ten in my events. Mid D or long D swimmers will need more yardage, I'm sure.

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jordangregory — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:27:09 GMT

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Former Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:26:49 GMT

I do tons of yardage. . . . 2000 yards is not a ton.

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Former Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:27:06 GMT

I do tons of yardage. Sometimes when I'm feeling down, I do more yardage, and it cheers me right up.

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Former Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:22:07 GMT

could be an interesting poll to see what different distance specialties think about yardage, how much is ideal, do you even keep tabs on it? I'm also a sprinter and dont focus too much on the numbers. Like jeff i'll do other things if i find a set to contain lots of "garbage" yards. And much like Ande I do try and make sure when im working out i make sure i get yards where i am swimming "FAST" (which i take to mean 95%-Race Pace kinda deal)

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ndecker — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:34:08 GMT

My masters team practices four days a week, but I usually only go to three of them. We tend to swim anywhere from 3,000-3,800 yards per workout, so about 10,000 yards a week would be a pretty good average for me. That said, I also do plenty of cross training. I usually lift weights once or twice a week, and run or bike once or twice a week as well. So even if I'm not doing mega yardage, I'm still working out about six days a week.