Sleep / Rest / Recovery
SuirThing
Carrick-on-Suir, IrelandMember
Having read a recent article about Ireland's high performance swim team I was struck by the emphasis each of them placed on the importance of sleep. Regardless of the sportstar, everyone from Usain Bolt to Tiger Woods talks up the importance of rest and recovery in their interviews. For most elite athletes, (or at least for those that are "full-time"), life consists solely of training and recovery, without the interference of a full-time job. The age profile of many of these elite sportstars would also suggest that they might not yet have to factor in "family time" either.
Those of you training for channel swims are I imagine putting in similar training hours to many of these elite athletes while also having to maintain the capacity to earn a living (with enough to spare to cover the cost of your swim!), and if you also have kids .... how do you fit it all in and leave enough hours in the day to get the necessary recovery time, especially given the link between tiredness and ability to tolerate cold.
Those of you training for channel swims are I imagine putting in similar training hours to many of these elite athletes while also having to maintain the capacity to earn a living (with enough to spare to cover the cost of your swim!), and if you also have kids .... how do you fit it all in and leave enough hours in the day to get the necessary recovery time, especially given the link between tiredness and ability to tolerate cold.
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
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A more useful or appropriate answer would be, almost every marathon (Channel) swimmer that I know makes significant sacrifices to swim, and just as importantly, so do their families (esp, partners, spouses, children where this is applicable). The biggest sacrifice is time for other things and people. It's very visible at the various parties where the families are just as important as the swimmers, and most swimmers are keen to make sure their families sacrifices and help are recognised.
loneswimmer.com
I'm very thankful that my fiance understands and supports my going to bed very early so I can get up stupid early to spend enough time in the pool before I go to work to mean anything. Sometimes on Friday nights when I go to bed early, she gets a little annoyed, but mostly, it means date nights are Saturday, since I don't swim sundays, usually.
I'm not going to end up doing it, but she would have even let me race something open water on our honeymoon.
Another factor contributing to the lack of sleep is aging. I have found that as I've aged, inconsistent sleep patterns seem to be the norm. It doesn't even seem to relate to anything. I can have a major day where I drop to sleep, exhausted and then, bing! I'm wide awake at 2:30 in the morning for no good reason. Those nights where I get a nice full sleep are becoming kind of a blessing.
I focus on going to bed earlier. I get up for 5 a.m. Masters swimming so find that even an extra hour sleep makes a huge difference. I take a magnesium supplement and glass of milk which helps to sleep well. I know that avoiding screens before bed is helpful also and am working on that some. Keeping the same bed and wake times on weekends keeps things consistent.
I train at 2am so aim for 7pm sleep so 7 hours which is OK for 1st sess of day - 2nd sess is about 1pm so will have a 30min power nap if needed work fulltime
I find when too hitting the wall give yourself a day off and if train well thru the week then Sunday Funday
@Troi how many rest days vs training days/training amount is a very individualized question and depends upon your history, regular training volume and goals.
One way to think about this question is: what is the ideal balance between a training “stimulus” and recovery period from that stimulus. What balance is most conducive to producing the best training adaptation?
This is very individualized because a 10k for one person might be a fairly intense stimulus requiring considerable recovery time to maximize adaptation. Whereas for another person it could be their regular daily swim needing just 21 hours or so to recover and repeat the next day.
I’m general, I think people should strive to be as consistent as possible with the number of days they swim and training volume on those days.
Never a truer word buddy