Does anyone know of a blog link to a successful Masters swimmer's personal training progression?
What I am looking for is a swimmer who, like many Masters swimmers, was out of the sport for a while, then came back to it having to start over.
My curiosities are:
- How long from getting started did it take to become competitive again. Competitive meaning you aren't necessarily breaking records, but are winning your age group a reasonable amount of time and when not winning, still finishing with the pack.
- During the progression, what was the workout schedule? Was it every day evenings + morning workouts? Only evenings? Saturday practices?
- Did your diet change, are you now eating more or less, different composition?
- Were you slim already or did you have to lose weight as part of your training?
I am trying to figure out how hard to train. I have been back in the water off and on for about 9 months, mostly casually 1-3 coached evening workouts a week (about 3500m each workout). I know I need to ramp it up if I want to compete. I am less concerned about winning, more concerned about just making swim meets worth the time to register and drive, etc. If this means morning and evenings and diet changes, I will do them, but dont want to burn out either, so would be nice to see what successful Masters swimmers have done.
If you are such a swimmer, and want to either share here or have a email conversation, just send me a message.
Me:
- Swam school and club teams from age 6 through a year in college. (Best time was something like 20.63 in 50 free yards in high school.)
- After college, didnt really do any kind of workout program until now.
- Age 32 (33 in a few months)
- My focus is on sprint events 50's and 100's.
- Height: 6'1", Weight: 218 (have lost about 20 lbs since I have started swimming again, hoping to lose another 20, but not shedding them as quickly with the same workout/diet as the first 20)
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Former Member
David -
Just my :2cents::
In order to be competitive in the 50s and 100s, you should focus on:
OUT OF THE WATER
- Getting stronger and leaner, via weight-lifting, stretching, plyometrics, etc ... and diet
IN THE WATER
A healthy dose of fast swimming (always with good technique), alternating days with aerobic recovery and drill work in between. Swim faster than fast on the fast days, but easier than easy on the recovery days.
The former would include:
- 25s and 50s with lots of rest, swimming at 100%
- 50s, 75s and 100s with moderate rest, swimming at 90-100%, focusing on lactate tolerance
- broken 100s, swimming at 100%, focusing on race pace
- fast kick sets (50s, etc)
The latter would include:
- timed swims
- pulling
- snorkel work
- hypoxic work
This is basically the program that I have been following for the 2+ years that I have been back in the pool (after a 20+ year layoff). It has helped my 50 and 100, but I am hopeless for a 200... Having said that, I always was more "fast twitch" in the pool, with my 100 being better than my 200.
YMMV.
I hope that ehoch and paul smith will reply, as their insights will be more valuable than mine.
Do you think doing the weights in the morning is a good way to go? I think in high school we did 2 days a week weights in the morning, but I always hated it then because I love sleep.
As far as the swim routine, I would love to have a sprint coach for this. The master's group I swim with tends to mix up things a lot, but more often than not, its a middle to long distance workout with the rare sprint training. I am concerned about "doing my own thing" in the master's workout because I am kinda there to get their workout, not my own. I also dont want to ask the coach for a special workout because there aren't always a lot of lanes and it would probably be annoying to the other swimmers. The other option is just to swim on my own for the sprint workouts and do the master's workout for the off days. Is that pretty common?
David -
Just my :2cents::
In order to be competitive in the 50s and 100s, you should focus on:
OUT OF THE WATER
- Getting stronger and leaner, via weight-lifting, stretching, plyometrics, etc ... and diet
IN THE WATER
A healthy dose of fast swimming (always with good technique), alternating days with aerobic recovery and drill work in between. Swim faster than fast on the fast days, but easier than easy on the recovery days.
The former would include:
- 25s and 50s with lots of rest, swimming at 100%
- 50s, 75s and 100s with moderate rest, swimming at 90-100%, focusing on lactate tolerance
- broken 100s, swimming at 100%, focusing on race pace
- fast kick sets (50s, etc)
The latter would include:
- timed swims
- pulling
- snorkel work
- hypoxic work
This is basically the program that I have been following for the 2+ years that I have been back in the pool (after a 20+ year layoff). It has helped my 50 and 100, but I am hopeless for a 200... Having said that, I always was more "fast twitch" in the pool, with my 100 being better than my 200.
YMMV.
I hope that ehoch and paul smith will reply, as their insights will be more valuable than mine.
Do you think doing the weights in the morning is a good way to go? I think in high school we did 2 days a week weights in the morning, but I always hated it then because I love sleep.
As far as the swim routine, I would love to have a sprint coach for this. The master's group I swim with tends to mix up things a lot, but more often than not, its a middle to long distance workout with the rare sprint training. I am concerned about "doing my own thing" in the master's workout because I am kinda there to get their workout, not my own. I also dont want to ask the coach for a special workout because there aren't always a lot of lanes and it would probably be annoying to the other swimmers. The other option is just to swim on my own for the sprint workouts and do the master's workout for the off days. Is that pretty common?
