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?
Cool. Yeah I found your blog and have been reading it. My kick needs some work and I figure I can improve technique some which is why I think I will need some more yardage but I definitely don't want to be > 2000 yards/week and that's assuming a lot of it is slow technique type work otherwise there is little chance I maintain what muscle I have let alone gain.
Does the place where you life and do drylands not have a pool?
If you swim 3 times a week, 700 yards per practice, I can't imagine this will rack up too much of your time. (It would be different if you had to make a separate trip just to swim.)
Say you did an incredibly slow tai chai style warm up of 200 yards. This would take what? Five minutes at the absolute most?
Then you do 400 yards broken into whatever you consider to be swim training--most likely short sprints either swimming or kicking on a generous rest interval. Say you do these as 16 x 25 on 2 minutes. Add in another 32 minutes. That leaves you with 100 cool down. Take another five minuts!
So at the absolute most, you are swimming (and resting!) 700 yards in less than three-quarters of an hour, three times a week. If you really can't spare the time away from the barbells, I say: end with the swim. Then you can skip the shower and get back home or work without further delay!
Cool. Yeah I found your blog and have been reading it. My kick needs some work and I figure I can improve technique some which is why I think I will need some more yardage but I definitely don't want to be > 2000 yards/week and that's assuming a lot of it is slow technique type work otherwise there is little chance I maintain what muscle I have let alone gain.
Does the place where you life and do drylands not have a pool?
If you swim 3 times a week, 700 yards per practice, I can't imagine this will rack up too much of your time. (It would be different if you had to make a separate trip just to swim.)
Say you did an incredibly slow tai chai style warm up of 200 yards. This would take what? Five minutes at the absolute most?
Then you do 400 yards broken into whatever you consider to be swim training--most likely short sprints either swimming or kicking on a generous rest interval. Say you do these as 16 x 25 on 2 minutes. Add in another 32 minutes. That leaves you with 100 cool down. Take another five minuts!
So at the absolute most, you are swimming (and resting!) 700 yards in less than three-quarters of an hour, three times a week. If you really can't spare the time away from the barbells, I say: end with the swim. Then you can skip the shower and get back home or work without further delay!
