After Key West, while we were waiting on shore, some of the other finishers were asking how I trained for the swim. By far, out of the 5 guys that came in before more, I did more pool training than them. The 1st place finisher, who happened to be a female, had about the same amount of pool training as I. I used to worry about what I was doing, was I training enough? too much? is there such a thing as too much (yes there is)? While I am still curious as to how other open water swimmers may train, I do not worry about my plan. Each swimmer is different and each swimmer needs a certain amount of pool time vs. dryland time. There are those who do not need very much pool time and can manage to jump in a race and rock it, while there are others of us, who need as much pool time as possible. I do believe, for the open water marathon swims, there is a minimum amount of yardage that a swimmer should be doing if they want to be as successful as possible in his/her swims. I also believe that while it is good to be curious, you should never take another swimmer’s training plan without seriously understanding what you should be doing and how that plan will effect you. The best thing that I did was find a coach to guide me through Key West, and the best thing he did for me when I wanted to swim further was acknowledge that what I wanted to do was outside of his comfort zone and I should seek a new coach. Bonnie definitely understands what I need and how much I need to be successful in my open water swims. Do I do more than some that may go faster? Yes. But that does not mean that their plan would work for me. Find what works for you, try not to think about what everyone else is doing, and swim your swim.
