Fighting Burnout. Suggestions?

... a goal to just do it to enjoy it ... To me that's the key. The whole goal is to enjoy it, everything else is a side-effect. What do you enjoy? For me, I enjoy the whole process of going to meets. I enjoy finding them, deciding what events I want to swim, working out a travel schedule, minimizing cost, traveling, hanging out with my buddies, actually swimming the events!, geeking out on split times, and seeing the results posted on USMS. I like swimming faster at meets! But if I swim a little slower, I'm not going to agonize over it. I enjoy preparing for meets! I like working on the little puzzles, like how many SDKs can I put off each wall in a backstroke event, or how the heck am I going to do a 100 fly at the start of a 400 IM and still have anything left for the other legs. I enjoy conditioning sets when I know it'll improve my 500 free. I enjoy shooters when I know it'll improve my 50 back. I'm looking forward to going to the FINA World Masters Championships in Riccione Italy in 2012! That will be an adventure! I will get my butt kicked by faster swimmers from all over the world, and then enjoy a glass of wine. I'm looking forward to all the other meets between now and then as well! And in the meantime, in the middle of all this enjoyment, I'll stay fit and healthy. Cool side effect! What do you enjoy?

Have you competed in any meets? I get bored with practice if I don't have a goal. I need to be preparing for a meet to get the most from my practices. The meets are fun and show my progress. The number one reason people can't stay motivated - no goals! :2cents:

The number one reason people can't stay motivated - no goals! :2cents: I agree also. It is harder to do things "because you think you should" than if they are getting you closer to a goal or if they are intrinsicly fun. I also struggle with my weight and have best results with a lot of exercise done frequently. I have found that bike riding is fun and is very friendly on my crappy knees. It is much easier for me to go on an outdoor 2-hour bike ride than to sit in the gym on a stationary bike or ride a trainer for 30 minutes. It complements swimming nicely. In the pool, I give myself permission to do things I enjoy when I am swimming on my own. For me that means doing lots of IM sets and wearing fins. Some people (me) just aren't morning people. If you can swim at a different time of the day that might help. Sometimes I get demotivated when I hit a plateau or get slower. It can help to buy new toys, use a heart rate monitor, and otherwise shift the focus and increase the novelty in your workouts.

To me that's the key. The whole goal is to enjoy it, everything else is a side-effect. What do you enjoy? I enjoy being able to train with different people and teams. Every once and awhile, I am able to travel up to Knoxville to swim with Judd and his teammates. That puts me in a new enviroment, which refreshes the mental side for me.

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). OK, sorry, I hear you. Sounds like the OP is swimming for weight management, though, so I thinking dropping down to two practices a week would be detrimental to this unless she added in something else to replace the lost swimming.

For me, a small change of scenery can help with a burnout on tedious tasks. One of the examples: recruiting and mentorig a new team member... Often the enthusiasam new people often tend to show can be catchy... and knowing that they may realy on you for some of their accountability works on you too. Another example: For me, often entering a swim meet, just for the social side of things is a good change of scenery - even if I finish last in my events. Goal for coming to a swim meet isn't always to swim your Personal Best, often you just want to spend a day doing something very physical, and social. I used to do a 'fat burning' swim meet day, withoug the pressure to seriously improve my times, but swim as many events as I can, especially distance events. My goal for that swim meet may be to burn as many calories as possible. (Weight loss is often my main goal). Competing is not always just about the speed. Often it's more about competing against yourself. Swimming several distance events in a meet is a lot less monotonous then a daily 3000Y workout. Then you get things like this happen... at oneof our zone meets, again, my goal was to swim all of my events, however slow I am.... so I entered 200 back, LCM, for the second time ever. I was in a 35-39 age group, and my time was so slow and new to it that most of the 80 year olds were passing me. Well, I ended up getting first in that event, and a team record for a year... because the event was close to the end of the meet, IIRC, and everyone else in my age group scratched the 200back. So, even though the time was atrociously slow, and I felt kind of guilty for getting first by default, it was kind of fun too.

My feeling is more is better up to a point. I think you need days to recover. My opinion is five days a week is plenty. I'm sure there are those who swim seven days a week, but I'll bet even they use a couple days per week as recovery days and only swim easily. My best advice is to listen to your body and your mind. If you feel too tired or just mentally aren't into it that day, don't swim. Swimming should never be drudgery. What I used to do, when I wanted to do a lot of fat burning yardage for weight loss, and doing it every day, I would 'borrow' what is often done in weight training. Asoide from a good warmup and warmdown, I would vary the goal of my workouts. I would have 2-3 more intense 'complete' workouts a week, then one day where I'm doing lot of easy stretchy swimming - an active recovery day, where you're not straining, but mostly loosening. Often this is a great day to slow down and just focus on drills, rather then strenght and speed. Then another day, I would do the whole workout with bigger fins and kicking.... that would be my 'stairmaster like' workout. Rest the shoulders and smaller muscles, and hit the legs hard. Doing that in an outdoor pool, with a two piece suit, you can get a tan at the same time. To get a more even tan, alternate your kicking, front, back and both sides. Side kicking can be great breathing improvement exercise. There are lot of ways to break things up, if one stays open minded.

OK, sorry, I hear you. Sounds like the OP is swimming for weight management, though, so I thinking dropping down to two practices a week would be detrimental to this unless she added in something else to replace the lost swimming. Detrimental only if OP is in a hurry to lose the weight ;) Dropping practices in half isn't going to cause weight GAIN either... it'll just not be as fast as it would otherwise be. I guess I feel it'd be worth dropping practices down if it saves someone from quitting altogether over burnout. Some swimming is still better than none in a weight loss program.

Detrimental only if OP is in a hurry to lose the weight ;) Dropping practices in half isn't going to cause weight GAIN either... it'll just not be as fast as it would otherwise be. I guess I feel it'd be worth dropping practices down if it saves someone from quitting altogether over burnout. Some swimming is still better than none in a weight loss program. The only thing wioth that is, some people (like me) can be a bit obsessive.... I have to do my 5-6 days a week, or I fall off completely. varying intensity of workouts is one way to strike a balance between falling off, and overtraining and burning out. However, I seldom tend to quit, or fall off due to burnout. I tend to need to stay focused, and too many days off seem to derail me.... I start hyperfocusing on something else (like fun and rest). Anyway, a lot can depend on individual personality.

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. What I have found is that when I swim regularly I can eat pretty much what I want and maintain whatever weight I am at. When I stop the swimming the pounds pile on instantly (I'm 36 with very efficient fat cells too!). So, if I'm not swimming I have to watch what I eat or do some other form of excercise, or just gain weight - the latter is what usually happens. I have never been able to lose weight through swimming alone, I have to diet or do extra exercise, both of which I hate. Right now I am swimming 4 x per week and not dieting as I am racing next week and can't race if I'm weak and starving. However earlier this year I did combine dieting with swimming and have lost 16lbs so far :banana: but now plateaued with 10 lbs to go. I guess all that is to say it depends if you're maintaining or wanting to lose weight....perhaps if you want to lose a few lbs give yourself a manageable goal, get a heart-rate monitor and work in your fat-burning zone - I got one a few weeks ago and its fun to see how many calories you burn and how high your heart rate gets. Then I can get all geeky and wonder if my max HR is good or bad for my age, see the average HR for the workout and it beeps at me when my HR is lower or higher than the fat burning zone! Come September I'll be back on the diet and back into fat-burning to try and shift those extra lbs....:blah::blah: There I go again..... Mini-goals are good - I sometimes have motivation problems, so set yourself something, not necessarily all about speed. I had a goal of simply finishing a 200 fly once. In fact I might set myself that one again..... I also second the advice for mixing it up, do lots of fins 1 day, distance the next, speed the next and if your not feeling speedy, work on technique. Most of all - enjoy it.