This works for me and find it very helpful, yes it is a boring swim everyday, but I think that's what I love about it, it's such a long swim but it alowes me to tweek my freestyle to make me more effeciant as well as build up endurance.
8,800 yards in 2 hours, with a overall target of 10,000 yards a day ( eventually in about another month)
I will keep you posted on how this workout helps me at the meets.
I got into the water about 2 1/2 months ago after about a year off from competing, I started out with 1 hour 4400 yards and worked my way up swimming a straight 8800 which was'nt easy, 5 days a week and about 1500 on the weekends, been fortunate enough to be able to swim before work because I work 2nd shift, I was at 222 lbs when I started, now down to 191 lbs, I just swam the last PNA short course championship in seattle, had a ugly crummy 50 free time of :24.25 ( compared to the :21.59-:22.3 I used to swim) which I really got on myself about how bad I did but I kept having to tell myself that I've only been in 2 1/2 months, 100 free was a :54.??, 11:55 in the 1000 free, :31 in the 50 *** ( I think this was a meet record, but not sure, will get back to you) and a 19:48 in the 1650 free. I checked these time with how I ranked nationally for th Men age 35-39 and I was shocked at how well I did, the 50 free and 100 free were in the top 30 - 50 fastest times, my 1000 & 1650 free were in the top 10 times for this year, which is shocking because I have always been a short distance sprint swimmer. I put it into my head that I'm going to push to make Nationals next year and go to FINA world championship. Also helps when I compete with the age group swimmers and they have a 15 or 17 and over event that drive to be able to keep up with school kids keeps me going, also I like motivating the kids to show the benefits of competative swimming when you get older.
Thanks everyone, keep up the goodwork to all, inspire people to make a healthy lifestyle change, if it's not in swimming, then something they are passionate about, let's beat lazyness !!!!:weightlifter: and set good examples to our kids, grandkids and future generations to come, not just with excersice but also spending time with our family.
Holy smokes! Boring or not, that's a heckuva workout! I've never even hit 4000 yards during the One Hour Postal swim, yet you're holding a 1:13 pace for two straight hours.
Skip
had a ugly crummy 50 free time of :24.25 ( compared to the :21.59-:22.3 I used to swim) which I really got on myself about
Your long, straight workouts probably aren't going to help you take your 50 time down much. You should work in some speed work, too. Even if it's just a few fast 25s at the end of your long swim. Do that and I bet you'll see results right away.
trust me it aint easy and I'm so wore out after finishing the set, it takes, and yes I've had days where I just say "not today" and only do about 6500 yards in 1 1/2 hours, but I try to stick with the 8,000 as much as possible. I swim a straight swim but break the workout up in my mind 6 X 550 then 2 X 550 then 6 X 550 then 2 X 550 ( swim 11 50's go onto the the next one ), I found if I mentilly break the swim up it's a heck of alot easier than looking at
First of all, I would like to say that what you are doing is extremely impressive, I'm one of those young kids, and that workout is scary to me. Just a thought though, your longest event is 1 mile, which is roughly 1/6 of the yardage that you are doing straight. If you halved the continuous yardage down to 4400 in an hour, holding that same pace(or possibly quicker with the shorter time), you'd still get a very good aerobic benefit(swimming roughly 3x your longest event), yet you'd still have an hour left over to work on some of the speed Kirk was talking about, which will help you in every level, from the 50 all the way through the 1650 (although maybe less so).
That is an amazing workout. I tend to swim about 4000 yards per hour, but need breaks say 4 X 1000 on the 14 minute or what we did the other night.
400 on the 6:00, 100 IM on the 1:45, 300 on the 4:30, 2 X 100 IMs on the 1:45, 200 on the 3:00, 3 x 100 IMs on the 1:45, 100 on the 1:30, 4 X 100 IMs on the 1:45. This was 2000 yards in 33 and 1/2 minutes a good set and very tiring.
Again 8,800 yards in 2 hours is amazing. You should be training for the English Channel. I did an attempt in 2006, but pulled myself out after 14 hours and less than 3100 meters from France. I could no longer get my arms out of the water. If I had trained like you are, I may have made it. I did swim from Catalina Island to the California Coast in 2005.
Holy smokes! Boring or not, that's a heckuva workout! I've never even hit 4000 yards during the One Hour Postal swim, yet you're holding a 1:13 pace for two straight hours.
Skip
A 1:20 pace for 2 hours will get you 9000.
Zac,
it's such a long swim but it alowes me to tweek my freestyle to make me more effeciant as well as build up endurance
I like that about long swims as well. I started swimming with Jeff ("Animal") a few months ago and they often will start out with 1000 swim, 1000 pull. That's really been helping me to figure out what about my stroke is not efficient.
I'm with Kirk, though, on the importance of mixing in some speedwork. Not only will it help your 50, it will help improve times across the board--practice distance paces included. Part of it is that you give your fast-twitch muscles some work, and part of it is due to the same reason as above -- you learn how to be more efficient while swimming at faster speeds.
Mike
