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I'm finally at a place where I feel like I can hold my own in the water. That doesn't mean that 15 year old girls don't kick my ass in the pool, it just means that there are less of them doing it these days. :)
I've gone through several training methods to finally discover one that works for me consistently. By consistently, I mean a method that allows me to improve without putting me at risk for injury. My approach for the last year or so has been mostly low intensity volume. I haven't completely excluded intensity, but the majority of the work has been done at an easy effort.
By keeping the intensity down, I have managed to increase my frequency to 5 days a week without getting hurt. I've also managed to increase my session time from one hour to 1:15 and now I'm able to throw in a 1:30 every so often.
Round numbers could be the death of me but I think as long as I don't allow them to become my primary focus I'll be ok. The latest round number I've got stuck in my head is 20,000 yards. It's a nice round number and for me, it means swimming 5 days a week.
Through the course of increasing my volume, 20K would appear to be within reach but I never tried to get there for the sake of getting there. In November of 2009, I nearly got there but it just didn't happen.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been playing a swim game with some other athletes. But rather than follow the rules, I used the game as an opportunity to achieve my own goal of hitting 20k. In the first week, I came up short because of work obligations but upon completion of that first week, I knew I had it in the bag.
Trying to juggle a business, a life, and a heavy training load is similar to herding cats. In an attempt to manage my time more efficiently, I joined a second gym last year which is conveniently located near work. The idea was that I could get up early, avoid the commute traffic, get my swim done and then get into work around the same time.
By following the above plan last week, I managed to knock out 12,000 yards within the first three days. On Wednesday, I swam 5300 yards assuring my goal would be met by the end of the week as long as I could fit in two more swims. And then a funny thing happened -- my shoulders felt tired. For me, tired shoulders are followed by injured shoulders. I think that 5300 yard swim put me close to the edge so I decided to put some space between my last two swims.
Shoulders cracking and popping like bubble wrap, I jumped into the water Friday afternoon and spent some time warming up. After a nice long warm up, I managed to crank out another 4400 yards which gave me two days to complete a one hour swim. Remaining conservative, I decided to throw in another rest day and wrapped up the week with over 20,000 yards on Sunday afternoon.
Up until this point, volume has allowed me to safely gain speed but these past two weeks have shown me that I am now at the point of diminishing returns. It's near impossible for me to add more swimming into my routine without compromising some other aspect of my life.
If not right now, in the very near future, 5 days of swimming is going to become maintenance. I've known this all along; I just didn't realize I would get here as soon as I have. I guess what I'm saying is that I think it's time to explore over avenues. Perhaps it's time to start incorporating those drill thingies. :) Or maybe I should just learn how to kick. I don't know -- but in order to continue to see progress, I will need to incorporate a new stimulus other than volume.
It's Wednesday morning, I swam for an hour yesterday afternoon and my shoulders are nearly back to normal. I'll probably swim again today but I will keep this week light with "only" four swims. That seems funny to me considering that not too long ago, three swims was a big week. :)
Two week total: 38,700 yards
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