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?
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My impression is that most swim workouts involve overtraining and better results could be gotten with more focus. When I read that shoulder pain is more prevalent in high school level swimmers than in older swimmers, I think "destructive overtaining"
Maybe coaches use overtraining to filter for the most highly motivated? Overtraining as hazing?
A while ago, a coach posted on here about letting one swimmer (who later became an olympian) train less than the team. I've been thinking - it would be a rare coach, indeed, that would do that for a kid whose highest potential, say, would be to get a partial scholarship for a non-powerhouse college team.
I read about something similar in principle for marathon runners "Run Fater, Run Less."
Amazon.com: Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster: Become a Faster, Stronger Runner with the Revolutionary FIRST Training Program (9781594866494): Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, Ray Moss: Books
As near as I can see, the "run faster" is only slightly faster. The book could be more accurately: "Run less, Run without injury, Enjoy it, Still Run Fast."
I used a modication of this program to train for Upper Michigan's Teal Lake 2.25 mile Swim for Diabetes for this year. Bettered my old time by 16 minutes. (Now I'm just slow. But continents now longer drift past me when I swim.)
I'm guessing that your program's success might depend on some fine tuning in the exact lifting exercises you do. It will be interesting to see how this experiment plays out. Good luck.
Thanks. This is exactly what I am getting at but you phrased it much more elequoently than I could. Overtraining is very real and very underrated/ignored.
My impression is that most swim workouts involve overtraining and better results could be gotten with more focus. When I read that shoulder pain is more prevalent in high school level swimmers than in older swimmers, I think "destructive overtaining"
Maybe coaches use overtraining to filter for the most highly motivated? Overtraining as hazing?
A while ago, a coach posted on here about letting one swimmer (who later became an olympian) train less than the team. I've been thinking - it would be a rare coach, indeed, that would do that for a kid whose highest potential, say, would be to get a partial scholarship for a non-powerhouse college team.
I read about something similar in principle for marathon runners "Run Fater, Run Less."
Amazon.com: Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster: Become a Faster, Stronger Runner with the Revolutionary FIRST Training Program (9781594866494): Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, Ray Moss: Books
As near as I can see, the "run faster" is only slightly faster. The book could be more accurately: "Run less, Run without injury, Enjoy it, Still Run Fast."
I used a modication of this program to train for Upper Michigan's Teal Lake 2.25 mile Swim for Diabetes for this year. Bettered my old time by 16 minutes. (Now I'm just slow. But continents now longer drift past me when I swim.)
I'm guessing that your program's success might depend on some fine tuning in the exact lifting exercises you do. It will be interesting to see how this experiment plays out. Good luck.
Thanks. This is exactly what I am getting at but you phrased it much more elequoently than I could. Overtraining is very real and very underrated/ignored.
