hey, i just wanted to ask everyone for their experience with over training and recovery.
i've put my whole heart into swimming since freshman year in high school (im a senior now), and trained as hard as i could since the spring of freshman year. at first i just swam the same practice everyday....then i started doing a lot of dryland, running, biking, and changed up my practices to faster intervals, and different strokes.
i never rested, until i realized that i get faster when i rest/taper. i realized this the summer between my sophmore and junior year. by then , however, it was too late. i broke my body down so much, that it would take a long time for me to recover. when highschool swimming started up again my junior year, i was so broken down, that i was swimming even slower than before my freshman year. i've been battling my coach trying to convince him to let me rest, and understand my situation, and he finally did.
this year, my senior year, im trying to feel strong in the water again.
im posting this on the forum to ask you guys if u know anyone who seemed like a slow swimmer for a while, then had one year where they suddenly started breaking records like crazy. i hope im not crazy, but i really think that with my body, if i get it back to full strength, i could pull off some crazy fast times. now, with this broken down body i can go a 1:10 in the 100 yard ***...and i haven't dropped anytime since my freshman year. this entire time i've been getting in so much better shape, yet dropping no time.
therefore i think once i taper, i will drop 10 seconds at least....am i crazy? or does what i think make some what sense....according to my situation.
Former Member
The original suggestion may have gotten lost in the thread, but you should definitely post videos of your stroke. The forumites will be all over them and you are sure to get some good feedback.
i don't appreciate ur negative criticism.but if it's because u don't know the facts then thats fine. i've trained very hard in the water, and read books, and studied strokes, more than i've done dryland, and running.
i am not a body builder, sir, i am a swimmer. and i know what i am talking about when i say overtraining in the water. thank you very much
i don't appreciate ur negative criticism.but if it's because u don't know the facts then thats fine. i've trained very hard in the water, and read books, and studied strokes, more than i've done dryland, and running.
i am not a body builder, sir, i am a swimmer. and i know what i am talking about when i say overtraining in the water. thank you very much
If you don't want negative feedback, either give people more detailed information or don't post. You asked for advice without a whole lot of specific information about your training.
Based on what you posted, then it's difficult not to think you were/are training harder outside the pool than inside the pool. You can muscle only so far in swimming.
Can you drop 10 seconds in one month in a 100? Sure, anything is possible but I suspect that gbrain is onto something with your stroke mechanics. I have seen people that train very hard in the pool with poor mechanics not be able to swim as fast as they would like. I have seen people spend time developing good mechanics, train hard but not as hard as people with poor mechanics, swim amazingly fast.
If you have any videos to post, that would allow people to give you a better idea of what is going on with your stroke.
If you want honest feedback, then don't get pissy when someone gives you their honest impressions based on the information you provide them.
Hard to say if you are overtraining or not. Really depends what your goals are, what "level" you swim at, when you need training, when you need to "peak", etc....lots of variables to consider. Without a ton of info I doubt anyone on here could determine.
Just for reference, I was a distance guy in HS (4:26 500 Free, 15:20 1650 Free) and I've only really felt "overtrained" a couple times in my swimming career (age 6 to now) and that is over Christmas break when we would have 10 practices in a week and do at least 10,000 yards per workout....something like 110,000 SCY in a week. That's 66.66 miles! But thats only for a week or two and temporary.
Resting heart rate and weight are good indicators. In college my resting heart rate went from 43 to 74 and my weight dropped from 195 lbs. to 165 lbs. in a 3 month span. I was extremely fatigued. (I ended up quitting swimming for 8 years; something I really regret doing)
you probably do too much cardio/aerobic trainning, you don't need that much for 100 ***, you need more speed, so you have to do more all out speed sets with a lot of rest.
I think 10 seconds in two moths is too much to ask for, maybe you can drop 5 sec if you do the right things.
If what you have been doing isn't working, do something else, is not impossible to improve on your own as much as with a team, but you have to test things out, if you are in shape, and you are not getting faster that can only mean that either: you have to get stronger or improve your technique, there is no point on keep doing 10x100 in that case with low rest.
"taper time" is very subjective, 3 weeks of doing nothing is just stupid, you have to figure out what works best for you, in my case I just need a week and 3 or 4 swims during that week of doing sprints and drills, and I'm ready to go fast.
For now, I would sugget you to film yourself doing a 100 *** as fast as you can (like it is your final race), and then it will be very obvious what you are doing wrong, spliting? techinique? cardio? we will see.
therefore i think once i taper, i will drop 10 seconds at least....am i crazy? or does what i think make some what sense....according to my situation. If I am not mistaking, you're the maths expert that created this thread about performance prediction?
Here, this software here can assist you in modeling your performances, including tapering strategy and expected performance levels at the end of the taper.
The philosophy used by the creator of this app applies very some of the important principles explained in Rushall's paper which I referred to earlier in this thread.
www.physfarm.com/.../raceday.html
You can download a trial and play with it a bit. I'm sure you'll have a ball discovering how other maths experts have managed to model performance using "updated" power based impulse-response models.
