45-55 year olds who compete

I recently heard that Jim McConica, a legend in the 50-54 age group, swam 500,000 yards last February. It was a leap year, so he had the benefit of a 29th day, but by my calculations, he was averaging over 17,000 yards a day (almost 10 miles per day)--this assuming he didn't take a day off. There's quite a range. Another excellent swimmer, though younger than us, is Bill Volckening (spelling?) who told me he swims one mile a day, seven days a week, which is only a bit over 12,000 a week. Whatever approach you take, I second the idea in the earlier post: work up to it very, very gradually, adding no more than 10 percent per week. You might want to throw in some circuit weight training, too, to help guard against injuries. Good luck.

There was a poll last year on this forum with 161 responses. Most were swimming 5-10k, 10-15k or 15-20k/wk. I'm in the 45-49 age group and currently swim 15k (3000/day, 5 or 6 days/week). I built up to this slowly over several months.

Do you swim at the Salisbury Y? It is a great facility, and I know they have a great age group program.

Hi Craig, Thanks for the info. I'm at 2k five days a week after three months but know I'll need to step it up if I'm going to make my time goals. Joe

Phil, I think the 10 percent rule applies more to people who are getting back into a sport after a reasonably long absence. If you can swim 33000 yards some weeks, I suspect the weeks where you can only squeeze in 3000 yards total serve almost like a maintenance dosage. The point is you are in great swimming shape, and some variation is not going to dramatically affect you. But imagine if you hadn't been swimming more or less continuously for several years, but instead were just getting back into the sport. The first week's goal: 3000 yards. The second week's goal: 33,000 yards. I don't think too many people would advocate that, unless you're a orthopedic surgeon trying to scarf up some patients.

I'm sure that 10% figure is great advice, but I find it impossible to follow. With the conflicts of workout focus (distance or taper), work travel, illness, family vacations, and family responsibilities, I find it impossible to maintain a consistent training schedule. 10% of what? I have been keeping careful track since last October, and my weekly yardage varies between 3,000 yards and 33,000 yards, week to week. I know this is not ideal, but does anyone else have this problem?

I have the same problem too. I don't compete, but I do know my PB's and cruise times. When I miss several days in a row my times climb. I think it takes a couple of workouts to get the stamina and stroke back. My goal is to swim 5 days a week. I swim, run and do a little bit of weights just to be in shape so an "ideal" week would look something like this: Monday: 2300-2500 yards freestyle workout followed by 3 mile run. Tuesday: 2800-3000 yard breaststroke workout Wednesday: 1900-2200 yard fly workout followed by weights for about 30-40 minutes Thursday: 2600-2900 yard IM workout Friday: 1900-2200 yard backstroke workout About two out of every five weeks actually turn out that way. Two more of the five will be four of the above days. And the fifth week may be only one or two days of exercise. During those weeks, I can feel it late in the week. I will actually put on one or two pounds and I start to feel it - I just don't feel like myself. Today was my first day in the pool since last Monday - and it was tough. Last week I worked about 80 hours - add to that family obligations, etc. and I was only getting 5-6 hours of sleep as it was. To give up even another hour so that I could swim just didn't seem like a good idea.

wow swimpastor i live in salisbury nc thats like right beside your town, its pretty cool someone that there is someone that lives right near me on this huge message board

It wasn't so long ago that I was starting out after many years off, and things weren't any different then. It was impossible to schedule my swimming to increase my yardage or effort gradually. Instead, I had to pay careful attention to my body, particularly my shoulders, and lay off when I started to hurt. I made an effort to avoid any sort of paddles for a couple of years, and only in the last few months have I started to use the (huge, to me) yellow paddles. So I think advice to be added to yours is to be careful and not rush things. I always say to myself that I will be swimming when I am 90, so there is no rush; I am in the middle of my life!

This has all been really helpful. I particularly appreciate the "no more than 10% increase per week" advice. I have been inclined to try and step it up more quickly, but don't really need to provide any additional support to my local orthopedic professional.