More With Less
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San Francisco, CACharter Member
Hello! My name is Hadar and I have a life.
<Hi, Hadar>
I would love to improve my stamina and endurance, but I don't have nearly as much pool time as I had years ago - I am lucky if I can scare up 90 minutes in the water, and more often it's around 60.
I know that, if I set my sites on a substantial swim again, I'll need to put in the time in the water, but in the meantime, what's the best use of the time I do have?
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Consistency.
Since the pandemic, my access to pools has been severely limited--long gone are the 5 or 6 hour swim sessions on Saturday mornings as the reservation systems don't permit me to swim longer than about 75 minutes at a stretch. So to train for SCAR, which I did recently, I just made sure I was as consistent as humanly possible in getting to the pool every. single. day.
I swim with a Masters group, and we log about 3500 yards per session, give or take. I wasn't sure it would be enough, but by going every day for 2+ months, I was able to build my base back up to where I felt I might have a shot at finishing SCAR.
I'm 44, carry an extra 60+ pounds of weight and am not a fast swimmer. I'm strong, though, and have a deep base of swimming experience and muscle memory from past long swims. In the beginning of this new approach, I missed my rest days, but the deeper I got into it, the more I loved the routine and found that I was recovering better after each workout. I've long known that I do better at high volume, so in the absence of long sessions, the grind of day-in day-out had to suffice. And it did.
Consistency is the key. Just do as much as you can and **give your all **when you're there. It's amazing how the body can adapt even in shorter training periods.
Stop me if you've heard this one...
A grasshopper walks into a bar...
https://elainekhowley.com/
I try to swim every summer a 10 km and a couple of swims from 15 to 20 km. For this, my training mainly consists of 4/5 sessions per week, 3500 to 4000 m each one, averaging around 15 km per week. It's not ideal, but enough. I'd like to have more time, but I don't.
With consistency, as @emkhowley says, you can easily reach 18 km (6x 3km in 1 hour). With this, you get some respectable endurance.
I'd add that your sessions should be meaningful, with sets for specific purpose, working on speed and technique, etc.
As a bonus, if you have time at home for some dry land exercices, that would help too.
dieciseisgrados.com/