My 2nd year of competitive swimming, a few questions

Hello everyone, just joined this forum a few minutes ago. Glad to be here! :) This will be my second year of competitive swimming. I swim for my high school which is one of the top athletic school in the country. Our team has a rigorous swim season and every athlete must be devoted or else they are kicked from the team and / or do not swim in any "top" or potentially any meets. I have been swimming for 13 years(I am 17), however last year was my first year of competitive swimming. My times were only miliseconds off state records and I think this is my one of my talents and something I am almost born with. I have a few questions about off-season training since I have been training every single day this summer for the upcoming season in November. Also, starting in April I have been lifting weights at the gym for 2-4 hours a day. I was getting pretty "big" so I stopped and now for the last 2 weeks I have been swimming.... 6-7 times a week. 1. I swim 2 hours every day -- I lose track of laps and possibly do around 100+ a day. Only problem is I do not have a routine I follow. I just dive into the water and do what I feel like. Can someone help me pick a nice 2 hour routine that involves every stroke? 2. Since I have stopped lifting at the gym, should I cancel my membership? I've been reading a lot about how "dry land / gym" training is excellent for swimmers, but why can I not become a better swimmer just by swimming? I thought practice makes perfect, no? So should I keep this gym membership? 3. How can I increase my stamina on every stroke? I am a fast swimmer but I burn out pretty quick, I cannot do anything 200m or higher without a rest, and that is why I do not swim the 20-lap free in competitions. Thanks! Welcome to the forum. I'll give you my advice from my 32+ years (summer league, age group, HS, College, Masters). You are definitely lifting WAY too much for swimming. A couple times a week for an hour is plenty. Drylands (tubing, medicine balls, abs, cardio) is much more effective for the most part. For sprinters I think strength is good, but only to a point. You want LEAN muscle, not bulk. 1. 2 hours a day in the pool (6 days a week) is about avg. I'd say for a year round swimmer your age. Most elites will do another 90 minutes 3-5 days a week in the morning in addition to the 2 hours in the evening (doubles). Depends if you are sprinter or distance guy. Look in the "Workout" section of this forum and there are lots of good workouts as well as check out the "Blogs" people keep. Don't just "swim laps", learn how to structure a workout with intervals (see the workouts people post) 2. No, unless the pool you swim at has a weight room and all the stuff you need. Just layoff doing so much on the weights. Swim more and use the gym stuff to supplement. 3. You need to learn how to do "interval training" in sets. Generally speaking, there is a warmup, build set, main set, secondary sets, warm down. Kind of a bell shaped curve on distance and efforts. That is just the "general" structure of how a swim workout is. It changes based on time of year, what you are training for, etc. Best of luck!

To follow up with Lumps brilliant advice: Give each workout a goal. Work on Sprints, Strokes, Endurance, Form... etc... It sounds like you're okay being a sprinter, and being that you're in high school - you should probably be getting off season workouts from your coach anyway. So when you do lift/dryland work on explosiveness (plyometrics) and agility. Also - make sure to have a strong focus on flexibility as it will help you keep going in the long run. Read up on the following books: Amazon.com: Mastering Swimming (The Masters Athlete Series)… Amazon.com: Swimming Anatomy (9780736075718): Ian McLeod: Books They'll both give you a good basis to work on. Let us know when you're in masters meets. (Hopefully its after you've swam competitively at college.) -Michael P.