Yardage

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

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.

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.

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 :-)

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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 :)