Training for a 20+ hour swim

musclewhale89

Hey Folks!

I am curious if any of you have done any swims that have taken over 20 hours? If so, was there any specific training (other than putting the miles in) that you did to prepare for that amount of time awake/in the water?

If noone has done a swim of that magnitude I would love to hear your ideas on what YOU would do to prepare for that.

Thanks!

Guyco111

Include these in your program:

• Night swimming! lot's of it. And in variable time schedules - evening, midnight, early mornings etc.
• Do lots of "boring" long drills - you need to get into the mindset for those long and boring hours. I find long pool swims perfect to get this done, such as 10 X 1,000 meters or yards sets, or 8 X 1hour sets.
• Back-2-Back long swims, such as 6 & 8 hours on successive days.
• I find it better to log training hours, rather than distance in the planning and execution of the training program.
  Good luck

musclewhale89

@Guyco111 said:
Include these in your program:

• Night swimming! lot's of it. And in variable time schedules - evening, midnight, early mornings etc.
• Do lots of "boring" long drills - you need to get into the mindset for those long and boring hours. I find long pool swims perfect to get this done, such as 10 X 1,000 meters or yards sets, or 8 X 1hour sets.
• Back-2-Back long swims, such as 6 & 8 hours on successive days.
• I find it better to log training hours, rather than distance in the planning and execution of the training program.
  Good luck

Wow, Thank you! That is great advice. I appreciate it alot!

Kagemusha

On the longer sets try to develop patience and pace. For example, instead of trying to hold 1:15 on 1:30 intervals, slow down to 1:25. You need to learn to swim slower then normal while still keeping form.