I'm a 61 y.o. still-practicing physician. I've done a 1.5 mile lake swim in Maine for the last 3 years. I was able to reduce my time to 48 minutes this past summer from 49 the two previous summers. I've increased my workouts to include three days in the pool and two in the gym with a slave-driving trainer. I swim around 2500-3000 yards in the pool. I'm seriously considering the FKCC Around Key West Swim this June. It is 12.5 miles, though some of that is with the tidal current. Suggestions for training other than seek psychiatric help?
Former Member
I drank lots of Ensure, gatorade and water. Probably took in at least a litre an hour. That seemed to work well.
Wow, those were quick responses and helpful. Did 3,000 yards this morning and will up it each week. Unfortunately, still have to work full time, so don't know if I can get up to doing 30,000 yards regularly.
I will warn you...if you do it, you will want to do more. As my daughters and I discuss, "Open water swimming is a disease, and there is no cure." I say go for it!:banana:
I can vouch for that!
Go for it! I did the Key West swim this year and it was a blast. The tidal assist was awesome.
My regular workouts were much the same as yours, except I started putting in some long ones round May. Once did about 13000yds in a day (split into 2 swims). About 3 weeks out, I went to Fort Myer and did two 1 mile races on a Saturday and a 10k the next day. That was plenty.
Hardest thing about that swim was the water temperature. So hot!
Take lots of zinc oxide with you, and maybe I'll see you there!
good luck
Doc - I would encourage you to start upping your training immediately. 9,000 yards a week is not enough to prepare you for a 22,000 yard swim. You should start incrementally increasing your yardage each week by 5% and every 3rd or 4th week taper off for recovery (perhaps half of whatevery you did that last week of training).
If possible you would want to be up to 30,000 yards by the end of May and then have 3 weeks of tapering built in before Key West (20,000 the first week in June, 10,000 the second week in June & around 5 to 6,000 yards the week leading into the event).
I would also encourage to gauge whether your training is on track by doing a 3 mile swim in or around March, a 6 mile swim in April & a 9 mile swim in May.
The best thing to do is to prepare a training plan so you know how much you need to swim each week, to build in the taper / recovery weeks and to build in that last 3 weeks of tapering before the swim. (Most important is to listen to what your body is telling you so as not to overtrain, i.e. if you're supposed to swim 15,000 yards some week & your body is screaming at you, listen to it and back off).
You also should begin experimenting with nutrition during your swims as you will need to hydrate & eat during your Key West swim (e.g. electrolyte replacement drink such as Cytomax and nourishment such as Clif Shot gels and / or bananas. As Chicken of the Sea notes, the water is hot! It was 87 degrees this year and you need to be hydrating at least every 20 - 30 minutes during the swim.
Wow, those were quick responses and helpful. Did 3,000 yards this morning and will up it each week. Unfortunately, still have to work full time, so don't know if I can get up to doing 30,000 yards regularly.
You may also want to consider a "weekend warrior" type of training plan if the week days are a bit hectic. By that I mean you may want to load the weekend days with disproportionately more yardage/effort. The key is to be certain to increase your distances SLOWLY or injury/illness is likely. Also, be sure that Friday and Monday are EASY RECOVERY days. Technique is critical, both for efficiency and injury prevention - don't increase anything if you are struggling with technique - in fact, you might have to back off.
Let your body tell you what it can do; don't let your head force your body to do things it can't.
-LBJ
:chug:Wow, those were quick responses and helpful. Did 3,000 yards this morning and will up it each week. Unfortunately, still have to work full time, so don't know if I can get up to doing 30,000 yards regularly.
I'm curious if you did the swim around key west 2009?
I'm looking at this for this year, if I can coordinate my husband kayaking for me with finding someone to hang out with our son while we're out on the water. Then, of course, the airfare and blah blah blah.
I'm hoping my distance is enough. I average about 25 thousand a week, plus my running, and bump that up a bit for the season. Last summer, I did the 10-mile in Vermont and that was great.
Did anyone have jellyfish or sea lice issues? I am pretty allergic and Florida can be tough.
What is the cost of this event, I can't get anything to come up on the website regarding it. I'm seriously going to consider coming down with my kayak and have my brother be a chase boat.:applaud:
