Pool / Dry Land: What's your weekly schedule?

I've been swimming 5-6 days a week 2-3k yards per practice since starting up again at the beginning of Nov. and, frankly, I'm too sore to lift at this stage. I'm thinking that until I get in better swimming shape, it makes sense to swim more and not worry about strength training.

I swim M,Tu,W,F and sometimes Sa&/or Sun.I lift M&F.I lift right after swimming.I used to lift before,fearing I'd be sorer if I lifted last,but when circumstances caused me to have to swim first(I had to get the swim in before the noodlers arrived) I found I got a better work out swimming first.

Weights about 5X week Swim (solo) every day for about 2 hours with 40% of it being rest, mostly sprints, drills, slow 200's with strict form. Been doing it like this for about a month No former swimming background, 20 months ago I really didn't know how to swim or really ever tried more than a lap. 1st meet in Jan:)

I swim Tuesday,Thurday,Saturday, lift on Sunday, Monday,Wednesday

History: I quit masters when I went back to school and started lifting instead. During my final semester and a half, I quit lifting too because I needed time the time for my thesis. I returned to swimming about 3 years out of USMS swimming shape, and 9 months out of lifting shape (for me). For the first 7 months back, I swam 4-5k 3x/week and lifted 3x/week. Swimming was a cut down USAS program, so it was heavy on IM and kick work. Lifting was A day: 5x5 squats, 5x5 bench, 5x5 inverted rows; B day: 5x5 squats, 5x5 shoulder press, 3xfailure pull ups; increase weight 5lbs every days (15lbs every week on squat, 15lbs every 2 weeks on everything else), and rest to 80% max weight once I failed horribly (less than 3x5). Then I found USMS.org forums and got this dumb idea I wanted to break 1:50 scy in the 200 free. I added 1-3 more swim workouts of 2-3k meters for 4 months. In April of this year, my USMS team disbanded because the USAS team needed the pool space, and the team was really small. I joined a much larger team, but the workouts were much easier. I dropped from 4-5k of USAS style workouts to ~3k mostly freestyle workouts. I maintained my solo workouts of 2-3k 1-3x/week and my lifting. In October, I swam my first USAS meet, and I was so pissed at my 200 free time, that I added another 3 dryland workouts (light stuff) in addition to my lifting, and I more consistently get solo workouts. I am hitting 3 lifting, 3+ "conditioning/drylands" workouts, and 6+ swimming workouts. Postscript: I say I swam 4-5k the first 7 months back. It was probably 5 months before I could finish a 5k workout if we happened to have a predominately free workout, and for the first month or so, I never finished the workout. The workout really were not meant to be finished, since they were 90 minute age group workouts, and we had 75 minutes from the time the doors were unlocked to the time we had to be out of the lanes for the age groupers.

Assuming you are leading a real world life (family,career and all other obligations) you will have to prioritize. Is lifting supplementing your swimming or vice versa? If swimming is your priority then you schedule the lifting around the swimming. Never skip the swimming in order to lift. Remember, s... happens so there will be times when you have to miss a day of training. Cancel a lifting session if you have to. Remember, lifting complements and optimistically (but contentiously) improves your swimming. Another thing is the question of intensity and recovery. As you grow older recovery takes longer. I am nearly 56 and there is no way that I can do an intense session of full body lifting with composite movements (squat,deadlift, clean etc.) and the next day swim an intense session. I would suggest considering a twice a week full body session or possibly a split along the lines that Sharpsburger mentioned. My primary activity is lifting. Swimming is supplementary so I schedule my swimming around my lifting with the major effort invested in lifting. During the year I employ different lifting routines ranging from twice weekly to every other day. Swimming is arranged around lifting frequency and intensity.

During normal schedule, swim 4-5x a week with a masters team. Lift upper body and some core work 3x week, legwork 1-2x a week, and run 3+ times a week.

That makes sense to me, b/c I'd think the swim would be a better warmup for the lift than vice-versa. When you do both together, how much time do you spend on each? I've been debating whether to make my Saturday routine a swim+core. Before I got back in the pool, I used to do about a 25 mile ride on Saturdays. Swim 40-45 min and lift 45-50 min.Total time at the Gym is about 2 hr.

I had a terrible problem w/ leg cramps starting out. I added stretches after my swim and increased my stretching after my lifts, and started keeping a water bottle at the end of the lane, and that helped tremendously. But now they're back, tho they don't come on as quickly, so I'm thinking of trying to increase the magnesium and potassium in my diet. I hate having my swim interrupted by a cramp. I agree, cramps are the worst, especially when I am finally in that part of the workout when I feel like I could go forever! I usually don't have too much of a problem with them and I bring Gatorade or Accelerade (works better for me than water) and I try to stretch, it's just those days when I've worked myself to exhaution the night before and my body can't handle it. I should probably not swim on those nights, it's just the only time I could fit in another workout in the pool.

Good gawd, man, where do you get the time for THAT?! I'd kill to get that much time.Just 2.5 hrs a day of my free time. I also work nights and furthermore my wife likes the abdominals and stuff so she helps out. At work I also get 3 hrs a week to lift in the gym we have set up there. If the work load slows I can also workout more than just 3hrs per week too but I really don't spend more than an hour lifting. Nevertheless, I'm still a slow swimmer but I certainly look as if I were fast -lol