Fighting Burnout. Suggestions?

After college I didn't want to swim at all. Took about a 4 year break. I made a couple comebacks to the sport since then, each time I started hot n heavy on practice 5-6 days a week, got a lot of my speed back and was competing, then after about 9 months in each time i just found i lost interest for it altogether for another year or two. I finally started back up this past december with a 2-3 time per week swimming program and a goal to just do it to enjoy it rather than as a structured training regimen. I don't think i've ever enjoyed swimming so much. No burnout so far, not even close to what I felt after 6 months of swimming in the other "comeback" attempts i made, and my speed is right on par with what it was swimming 5-6 days a week but I'm only doing 2-3000 yards 2-3 times a week with better quality rather than quantity. Try dropping the frequency down to 2-3 days a week for a month or two. Even experiment with different types of practices. Tone down the yardage and up the quality for a while. Then use the extra time you would've been in the pool to get into something else that you enjoy . I personally like my time with video games :applaud: but i'm just a big kid yet at 31 :D This is very interesting to me. I have been thinking of bumping up my # of workouts per week. And I've seen the advice on this board from time to time that if you want to swim faster, swim more often. But maybe that's not true? Maybe some of us would suffer psychological burnout if we swam too often, not to mention that our old muscles might not fully recover? Maybe we're better off doing non-swimming activities some days? I'd love to hear others thoughts on this.

only this time i was even heavier at about 80lbs more than college race weight. But is this really where you want to be weight-wise? Maybe you could swim more and you'd lose the weight. It's not just about swimming fast in masters, after all.

Many good suggestions. I don't compete and really have no interest in doing so as I'm not fast enough for it to be worth the time and expense just to race against "myself". That’s not to say that I don’t like getting faster and compete with my lanemates. I swim mainly for weight management. I have some injuries, so many other easy/common cardio options aren't an option for me. Cutting back sessions/week with the efficiency of my 34 year old fat cells scares me. For change, I'm going to go swim by myself this weekend and just swim smooth, no workout, no length in mind. If that goes well, I'm on vacation next week, so I'm going to try to force myself back into it and hope that the funk passes. Hopefully, vacation from work might help with this too. I felt a little swim in me this morning, not enough to get up, but a little.

I felt a little swim in me this morning, not enough to get up, but a little. I like that approach and use it often. Wait until you have that feeling back and maybe mix it up a bit once you get back in the water. Do more sprints, do long slow-paced stuff and don't look at the clock, or try to get better in your weaker strokes. Doing consistent interval training only can be a drag. Some of the swimmers on our team like to do open water swimming in the summer. Maybe they like it because it is outdoors or because the pace clock isn't relevant, but it seems like the open water swimmers suffer less from burn-out. Tim

Many good suggestions. ... I swim mainly for weight management. I have some injuries, so many other easy/common cardio options aren't an option for me. Cutting back sessions/week with the efficiency of my 34 year old fat cells scares me. Have you contemplated flow / hatha yoga classes? Free weights are also great for weight managment, IMHO. I'm not an expert, but I think more muscle helps with increasing metabolism. ... Some of the swimmers on our team like to do open water swimming in the summer. Maybe they like it because it is outdoors or because the pace clock isn't relevant, but it seems like the open water swimmers suffer less from burn-out. Tim A great suggestion. In addition, Rachael, given your concerns about competing, most OW races (at least where I swim) have loads of tri-folks who are not the most excellent swimmers. The more party-esque, even more laid-back air of most open water swims is also appealing.

And I've seen the advice on this board from time to time that if you want to swim faster, swim more often. Sorry this is long and only semi related to the original post. Honestly, coming from a college program that wasn't light on quantity, I can't believe how much yardage some of the people on this forum do at an older age. I've long questioned the need for major yardage if you're a short event swimmer, and I tested this theory about 3 years ago and again now. My best in college in yards for the 50 was 21.7 and 47.1 in the 100. I trained 6000 yards a week for an entire winter when I was about 28 (2 x 3000), and I was still 50 lbs heavier than my college "race weight" and I went 22.6 for the 50y and 49.1 in the 100y (in an aquablade jammer, never believed in nor tried one of the new speed suits). Fast forward to this year. 2-3 times a week on my lunch i swim about 2400m on average. First meet I was at 23.4 in 50y and 26.9 in the 50m (standard speedo jammer), only this time i was even heavier at about 80lbs more than college race weight. I only swam the 100y once this year and it was kindof plagued by a horrible reaction and improper pacing so the 52.2 time isn't something I can really judge progress on. The only problem I see with this type of workout, is that there's not much of a base to taper from. I don't think I'll see the same kind of taper effect when there's so little to taper off, but time will tell. I've made a few changes to my stroke since my last race and i'm seeing decent results in practice sprints so maybe that'll pay off. To get back on topic, the only reason i elaborated here was to further my opinion that you don't have to get mentally drained on 5-6 day a week practices to still have the speed. Maybe that's different if you're into distance, but I think you can train distance pretty well also with pace work instead of mindless yards. Doing so can certainly keep the interest in the sport and save the dreaded burnout. One thing I'll add for the OP along those lines, if you swim alone, try swimming with a team or partner. If you swim with a team or partner, try swimming alone. Change it up. I trained exclusively with teams until this year. I now swim alone, in my own lane, doing my own workout, and it has contributed greatly to not getting burned out. I always felt people were just in my way when i had to swim with a team. :cool:

If you're near the ocean, go surfing or better yet go paddleboarding prone style. Avoid the pool; stick on some short fins, goggles and sunblock; and swim out to the breakers enjoying the view beneath you. Please no snorkles, practice your breathing and stroke while exploring the reef system. You'll be amazed at how much interesting yardage you'll cover that you don't see in a pool. Swim with the current, swim against it and become a fish.

I can train longer and much, much harder and I recover like a twelve-year-old (I'm 45), if I stick to a vegan, 60-80% raw diet :bliss: If I eat meat, dairy products, refined sugar etc. I get tired, loose training motivation and generally find my couch more attractive than the pool :bed: You can live an ordinary, western-style life on a rather lousy diet without really "paying" until you reach your late forties - or later, if you're lucky. If you train 6x week on a lousy diet, you will tire out (physically and mentally) sooner or later, no matter how young you are. Most of us know what is good and what is bad for our bodies, the difficult thing is to actually do it: Take in a lot of the good stuff (fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, water), reduce the not so good stuff (light meat, white bread) and avoid the bad stuff (refined sugar, tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, red meat, animal fat, industry processed food, dairy products).

Fight the boredom of the pool. Go swim in a lake. I've been swimming 5x per week in the pool for months but just recently started replacing one of those workouts with a weekend morning swim in a lake. I look forward to these swims and it helps to keep me interested/motivated.

But is this really where you want to be weight-wise? Maybe you could swim more and you'd lose the weight. It's not just about swimming fast in masters, after all. I realize this and I wasn't really trying to say that i'm better off overweight or anything like that. I'm in no real hurry, and the weight IS dropping doing what i'm doing, albeit not as fast as if i was actively trying to lose it (down about 20lbs since december). I more put that fact in there for a reference point to attempt to explain why the times were indeed slower. IF the weight slows one down, then perhaps my current "slower" times are alot more on par with midseason college swims back in the day. (i was always low 22's untapered). If the weight is indeed the factor keeping me in the low 23's, then maybe i'm not all that far off doing about 1/5th the yardage per week of what i did back then. IF the weight doesn't actually slow a person down, then maybe I really have gotten slower relative to myself over time. Perhaps then my argument is wrong that a quality 6-7k yards per week is just as valuable as 25-30k of mindless yard pounding to keep the race speed up.