So I got the swimming bug again after the World Championships so I decided yesterday to do a swim meet without having swam at all in 12 years. It was more fun than I expected and I swam about as fast as I was when I stopped swimming (at age 17).
What changed since then? (1) I have no cardio (i.e. died on 35-40m of the 50m LCMs I swam) and (2) 40 extra pounds of muscle with not a lot of extra fat.
I have always been of the view that strength/weight training is vastly underutilized in sports in general and am going to put it to the test in swimming.
My training will consist of only technique training, sprints, kick and very very little yardage (like ~1200 yards a WEEK).
I figure that will be enough to get my cardio to where I can sprint a 50 without dying and I figure all you need for a sprint is to be able to go all out for the whole race, with the remaining factors being power and technique which don't require much yardage I don't think.
Anyone ever try it?
Parents
Former Member
50 yards/meters is an awfully short event. I bet that once you start doing more meets you are going to want more for the time/money/travel invested, which will lead to doing stroke 50s, 100s, etc. All of which require more time in the pool, which I'm sure you will enjoy anyway. Not that it matters one way or the other. I'm just hypothesizing.
Personally no matter how many events I sign up for at a meet I always leave wishing I had swum more.. with the exception of the one time that I did 6 events including the 200 free and the 200 breaststroke. That was enough :)
Perhaps and then I can adjust it .. though with 4 available 50s that is probably enough to keep me satisfied. Plus, its's not like I'm going to get to the level where I 'need' to be able to swim a 100 in order to swim strokes other than freestyle. And if it happens then I'll just up the swimming.
50 yards/meters is an awfully short event. I bet that once you start doing more meets you are going to want more for the time/money/travel invested, which will lead to doing stroke 50s, 100s, etc. All of which require more time in the pool, which I'm sure you will enjoy anyway. Not that it matters one way or the other. I'm just hypothesizing.
Personally no matter how many events I sign up for at a meet I always leave wishing I had swum more.. with the exception of the one time that I did 6 events including the 200 free and the 200 breaststroke. That was enough :)
Perhaps and then I can adjust it .. though with 4 available 50s that is probably enough to keep me satisfied. Plus, its's not like I'm going to get to the level where I 'need' to be able to swim a 100 in order to swim strokes other than freestyle. And if it happens then I'll just up the swimming.
