Swim 50 Miles in 50 Days
I feel like a salmon swimming against the flow here, but t's just that, when I started tris 12 years ago, running was my worst sport, and swimming my best. Now, for various reasons, that's reversed, and I want to devote my Off Season to regaining some self-respect in my swim. Also, at my age, doing ANYTHING day after day (like 30 runs in 30 days) is risky. A combination of age and spinal cord injury has sapped my upper extremity strength and I want to see if I can get any of it back.
So I'm going to commit to swimming 50 miles in 50 days, starting the week after Thanksgiving (IM AZ looms Nov 20). This will give me some flexibility as to how often and how long to swim each session, but 3300 yards (two miles = 3520 yards) in a workout (not non-stop) now take me 67 minutes, while it used to take an hour. I want to see if I can get back there or not with some focused swim strength building. If anyone wants to join, I'll see if I can learn how to manipulate Google Docs for the requisite speadsheet. Otherwise, I'll just report here as I go.
Comments
Let us know when you are ready and I will get started with you.
I'm starting Nov 20th - my first swim (in the 50 miles in 50 days) will be 2.4 miles @ IM AZ. I say everyone keep his own timetable, and just report thru this thread, or who knows, maybe I'll even form a Group.
I like hearing Paul's imnprovement. There's three elements: technique, raw speed, and endurance to carry the speed for 1+ hour. I'm hoping that by working on the last element, it will help the middle one. Which is backwards, because Rich tells us to go faster to get faster. Problem is, I lost my top two gears in my accident last year, and I'm trying to see if prolonged work @ "Z3" in swimming (which is as fast as I can go now) will bring some speed back. I also warped my stroke balance, with asymetrical strength in various places in my two arms (eg, my left forearm is stronger and straighter than the right, my right upper arm is stronger than the left.) I need to learn how to compensate for that.
@ Al - maybe frequency vs volume will help you recover your balance. It's taken me over a year to get my left arm to work similar to my right (which is definitely stronger). Even when I first starting working on my left arm, I could simply not execute the correct form because it was so much weaker. It's taken a lot of work to be able get near equivalent power off my left arm pull...and a lot of mental concentration without which it will revert back to the old bad habit.
Al - I am with you at IMAZ. So you say to do the 2.4 and then the day after IM swim 1,650 yards (one mile)? and keep going for 30 days?
Nutz! I love it.
John
Maybe tha's a good reason to consider doing it? Also, it doesn't have to be daily swimming, just 50 miles within 50 days. 7 miles a week, 2 miles (3500 yds) a day, 3-4 days a week, is what I plan on doing, starting with IM AZ.
I'm in too. It's hard to believe but I swam a 1:04 at Placid in 2008, so in the EN world I've got more than enough in my swim bag and should focus on the bike. BUT....In 2009 I had c-diff (google it...you don't want it) twice and then a virus or something else resulted in a condition known as Brachial Neuropathy. It resulted in my losing the ability to activate several muscles on my right upper body. It mostly affected my thumb and forefinger (handwriting sucks even worse than before now), but as far as swimming it had a huge impact as well. I lost part of my right tri, lower bicep, a couple of areas in my forearm and, most importantly for swimming, a good part of my right lat muscle. Fast forward to 2 years later and just last month for the first time I saw that some of it has come back. I was told by the docs (one of the best neurologists in country at uPenn...helps to have a wife who did her phd there) that it likely would never come back if it didn't come back within a year. But the good news is that some came back.
Now as far as swimming. It's still a mystery whether I can even complete a 4200 yard swim in an Ironman, let alone swim a 1:04 (yes, bike and run went well). So I'm clearly in the category of needing to work on technique (not much on fitness). I'm using a measure of distance doing bilateral breathing as my progress indicator. 5 years ago I committed to doing TI drills for 6+ months and it took me from probably a 1:25-1:30 swimmer who plowed the water to a 1:04 swimmer using little effort. Then I focused on bilateral breathing 2 years ago and was just getting comfortable with that when I got hit with the above. I like bilater breathing for two reasons. One, it gets me even more balanced and two, it forces me to keep it easy. I get very "out of breath" when swimming bilaterally just from the years of breating every other stroke.
So the summary is, that I'm in, b/c even though the ROI is better on the bike and run, I need to prove that I can still swim for an hour straight and I'm sure my body is going to have to make adjustments given my muscle/nerve issues. It's a very weird feeling with this issue that I have, in that, when it comes to anything that requires strength, it's is a very "binary" situation. My muscles go from putting out some force to fatiguing to being able to do almost nothing very quickly. The fatigue onset is quick.
My yearly goal was to be able to do 1K straight bilateral by New years. I think I can make this work in this challenge.
@ David - Wow. Your story and mine are strikingly similar. In my OP, I didn't detail my neuromuscular issues, but my weakness, caused by a spinal cord injury suffered in a bike accident a year ago, are close to yours. Right hand: little and ring fingers would flop around in the water at first, now, I can keep that hand flat. Both forearms are weak, and start to hurt (ache, like a cramp) as soon as I start to swim. Both upper arms are variably weaker to a small degree, and posterior left deltoid is also affected. Thank goodness my lats are fine.
I'm an MD, and from what I've read and learned from neurologists, rehab med specialists MDs, PTs, etc., nerves WILL re-grow, at the rate of 1 mm/day. But only if the muscles affected are continually used. So if the length of an arm is 36 inches (about 1000 mm), then 2-3 years is a reasonable time frame for re-growth, with additional time for consolidation. Thus, my MDs have given me ranges of 2-4 years to expect continued improvement.
I was a high school and college swimmer (albeit the worst on my team), and always had an advantage from that. At age 60, I was doing 68-70 minute IM swims, and 25 minute Oly swims. At IM CDA, 9 months after my accident, I swam 1:25 (GROAN).
I have also discovered the "binary" nature of the drop off, going from 15-16 strokes/length (before the injury, I was at 14 for yds) to 18+ at some point in a workout, like a switch being turned off. But that time is lengthening. I started in Feb of this year at about 15-20 minutes. Now, yesterday, after a week of hard biking, I swam for 50+ minutes @ 16 spl, before losing it. My goal with this 50/50 is to get that time up over 75 minutes, and hope for a 1:16 swim b y next year. My speed has not improved since I got back in the water early this year. I still swim 100 yds at the time I used to swim 100 meters. But my ability to hold that speed is steadily increasing. I do keep swimming to do the full workout after the drop off in spl, just using a faster turnover to achieve almost the same speed.
@ Dave & Al - you both got some serious medical issues - this block should really help.
@ Mike - my Oly swim time is about the same. Would be exstatic to get it down to 23 min.
@ John - if you do a 1 mile swim the day after IMAZ - I'll buy you coffee and a case of beer!
I am excited to follow your progress, I will be dropping in and checking. You, all get it started it and keep it up. I think you have great group, should be fun.
@Al:
I don't mean to thread hijack, but am very curious regarding your comments on nerve regeneration.
I had a 4 level cervical fusion (C4-T1) in April, and while my right hand strength is better than before the surgery, its still about 50% of the left, and I have minimal use/control of the thumb. You talk about regeneration "but only if the muscles affected are continually used". I've been doing the exercises, but there are just movements that I cannot get the thumb to make. How do you continually use muscles that I can't seem to get to fire.
I was also a high school and college swimmer (albeit the worst on my team as well), and it feels like I'm learning to swim again. Body position is screwed up, and a lack of range of motion in my neck makes breathing a bit of an adventure.
I'm thinking about the challenge, but might modify to 50k in 50 days. I'll need the time running (and I'm using the term very loosely here) if I'm going to be able to think about starting January OS.
@ Brian - Ordinarily, I might answer in a personal message, but others might want to see this as well ... From my research and talks with medical professionals, the issue of permanent muscle atrophy seems to start ocurring 9-15 months after the muscle is "orphaned" - meaning when the nerve activating it is damaged, or there is a more "central" injury like a stroke in the brain, or in my case, which was like a traumatic stroke in my spinal cord.
Anatomically, small numbers of motor nerve fibers end in a muscle endplate, activiating a small number of muscle fibers. That endplate apparently starts to permanently lose its function over time if not continually activated by the nerve. The muscle endplate can be acvtivated directly without using the nerve fiber by something like the Compex system. This can keep the muscle fibers "alive" while waiting for the nerve re-growth to take place - or in my case, for new neural pathways to be formed within the spinal cord.
I started a program of this with my physical therapist, but quit because I'm really only dealing with one specific muscle, and a combination of weight lifitng and swimming seemed to be slowly improving things anyway. It was a big time drain - 40+ minutes (plus driving there and back, etc.) siting there with electrodes on my hand and arm, getting my muscle twitched. And it hurt. But I'm thinking of re-starting that after IM AZ next month, in conjunction with my swim focus and increased weight lifting.
I do NOT suggest getting a Compex system and doing it yourself. I'm an MD, and it wasn't even clear to me exactly which muscles and where needed to be stimulated. It took a combination of a rehab MD (Physiatrist) and a PT to get the process right.
10 x 50s
500m leg drills
250m w/hand pulls
100 free
1350 meters (0.84 miles) total
Didn't bother w/time splits at this point - all just rpe
arms/triceps/shoulders - sore....its been awhile...
All that said, I'm doing this because I don't know what I'm doing, so I'd love to hear some thoughts!
Ok, here are few ideas, you run with them:
3 "hard swims"+ 4th technique+neuro-muscular work :
Week template
Swim 1 (Threshold session refered to EN 2 speed or T30 speed) (ASCA and USA Swimming)
MS
12-15x100 with SI that gives 10sec rest
Progression:
add weekly first 3 weeks until you build to 25x , keep the same speed no faster
next 3 weeks bring speed faster by 1-3sec per interval, retain the same send off
next 3 weeks, increse interval distance to 150-200, recovery 10 sec for 150, 15 sec 200, take to total work of 2000-2500
Outseason, have 200 interval be your bread and butter EN2 work, not short and not overly long for threshold work, play the progression with increasing one intensity variable at the time:
first number of intervals with same speed/same recovery
second faster speed same recovery/ same number or lower
third cut rest, keep number or lower, keep same speed
Swim 2 (VO2max or refered to EN3)
Total work 1500-2000, work to rest 1:1
MS
5 sets of: (1min recovery between)
6x50 on SI that gives equal recovery at the wall, these can be descended but all fast
Progression:
first increase to 4x75@say 1:30 desc multiple sets of those like above for above total
work to 5x100@2:00 fast, these speeds are faster than 100s above@EN2, totaly different kind of work.
This is good for outseason to stop at 100 distance, later build to 150 even 200.
Swim 3( Endurance or refered to as EN1)
Total MS to 3000 for now, longer intervals, short rest, stick with 300-500:
5x500(20sec) or 7x400(20sec)
This like Z1-2 running, it is about duration not speed. this workout will get hard toward the last part of the set, no doubt, but no hard breathing anywhere. This is where it gets good to mix in kick and pull sets. More about that if you wish next time.
You can keep this steady as no real need for very long sets or intervals now, save that for closer to your race prep cycle. 1500m oly swim is distance swimming.
Swim 4 (refered as SP3 work)
This can be your drill session which you will end with very fast 25s with lots of rest. Pick drills that you need, swim them as
drill/swim 50s, 75s or 100s, make sure after each drill length you are swimming with focus on what you drilled.
In the second half of the workout, when you are fully warmed up, good feel for water, you are swimming 25s and 50s all out with 1:2- 1:4 work interval:recovery.
Questions?
Please, no long steady swims now, not now, later they have a place.
I have not invented here anything, just applying Level 3 ASCA Physiology manual to you. Choosing propper speeds is the most critical factor for each set. If I need to elaborate on that, let me know. We use T30 and Maglischo's modified T30 test to determine pacing.
Would love to see you progress toward your goal.
M = 1350m
T= 1500m
W = 1800m
F = 2000m
Sa = 2450
Total =9100m (5.6 miles)
Its a start. Always included at least 500m of leg drills. No intervals greater than 100m at this point. Its all about perspective - I have a friend who pretty much does this much in one workout.....
While I won't be doing the 50 miles in 50 days challenge (!), if you want some different swim workouts to mix it up, I've got over 50 of my workouts up on my blog:
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/search/label/swim workout
I like to change things up a lot in my swim workouts, especially if you start swimming frequently it's easy to get bored.
Some things I add to the mix:
- Change where you end up - I like throwing in a set of 175's or 225's instead of just 200's so that I end up on both ends of the pool. Breaks it up and makes things different.
- Add in other strokes, or kicking or using a pullbuoy to the main set instead of just in the warmup.
- Throw in some core fitness: last week I had my swimmers doing sets of hard 25's, getting out at either end to do pushups, situps, and squats. They were all complaining about being sore this week!
- Changes in speed - doing sets where you increase or decrease the speed in part of the set. For instance, one of my favorite triathlon swimmer's sets is:
4 x (
25 Hard r. 5
50 Distance Pace r. 5
75 Hard r. 5
100 Distance Pace r. 15
)
It sounds easy until you try it. The trick is to keep the Distance Pace from being an "easy recovery" pace. If you want some added fun, throw in another round of four, except make the 50 and the 100 hard and the 25 and 75 the Distance pace.
Here was yesterday's workout for my swimmers:
"Lucky Sevens"
Warmup:
7 x 125 - Odds Swim, Evens Alternate Drill/Swim by 25
25 EZ
7 x 75 - 50 Kick, 25 swim
25 EZ
==========
Main Set:
7 x 175: 1, 2 Cruise
3, 4 Build
5 - 7 Descend
25 EZ
7 x (25 Stroke, 25 all-out sprint)
7 x 125 : 100 Pull, 25 Scull
25 EZ
============
Cool Down:
7 x 25 Cruise
25 EZ
Total: 4150 yards
I am right there with ya, Al. Went and swam 1 mile almost straight through @ 1:38/100 yd.
Happy to get going on this.
John
2,500 yards (1.42 miles) today @ 1:45/100 yds. Nice day sunny day to work on my Speedo tan.
Wait, are we starting this challenge already?
Challenge starts whenever you're feeling up to it, goes for 50 days.
@Mike - I do the same thing.
As a side note - I have been playing with Tom Glynn's SwimSense watch. Counts my laps in yards (or meters), can download the swim and see time per 100 yards, etc.. All I have to do is put my head down and swim. When I swam yesterday just knocking out 2,500 straight I almost swam right into the wall on a few laps.
Just got lost in focusing on form and getting lost in my thoughts. I am really liking it.