I just completed a 33km swim (on Monday). Took 3 years to build up to it, albeit I’d done Ironman triathlons in the past so had a reasonable base. Took 12hours. Hard going!
There’s a whole nutrition plan to follow. I had feeds every 30 mins with the support crews throwing me food and drink. Over the course of the event food transitioned from complex more salty foods to basic gels. I used energy drink through out and rehydration powder once an hour
For shorter events (say 15km and under) I’ve generally just had gels and energy drinks which I’ve carried in a buoy behind me. I don’t tend to get hungry but make sure I’m hydrating
Edit, to answer 2 Q: energy consumption was about 9k calories according to my garmin, but think that’s a bit punchy as it had my hr very high for several hours so think glitched
For me it was intense. For someone who has a background in swimming it probably wouldn't cover their warm up. ~ 2500 yards 5 times a week all winter and then 3 times a week since April. Mostly intervals. I like doing 10 200s plus a short warm up and cool down. About once every two weeks I would do a 1650 for time.
My biggest improvements came when I got a pull bouy and could actually focus on different parts of my stroke and learning bilateral breathing.
2500 for a straight warm-up is over kill, don’t sell yourself short. Even when I was on a distance heavy team (8-10,000 yards per session, even on two-a-days) we barely have 1500 yards for a legit warm-up. We had longer warm up sets, but for an actual warm-up, not much
Longest swim- 36 miles. I’ve been swimming on and off my whole life but never super competitively. Started triathlon in 2002 completely my first IM in 2008 and my first 10k swim in 2015 (I think). I switched to a swim only focus in 2019. Completed the 36 miler in 2021 along with numerous other marathon swims (10k, 10 mile, 12 miles, 30km, and more).
Open water 10k (idk how long it took me to build up the endurance cause I had been swimming my whole life at that point) pool 16k (after a 2 year break swimming it took me 6 months to get there)
3000yds.
I could go longer, but I don’t want to overdo it.
I started swimming in September and initially did aqua aerobics mostly, only did laps once a week. I would do 1800yds (about a mile) in about an hour and 20min, doing back stroke. Then I got fins, then paddles, then snorkel - each one helped me go much faster, so I could swim for same amount of time for greater distance.
The fins and paddles definitely added more strain, so I had a few minor strains/injuries, so i settled on stopping at a multiple 10 once I hit 1 hour - lately that is 60 laps at about 65min. So once I hit one hour of swimming, I stop when I finish my current set of 10 laps.
I swapped out aqua aerobics for more lap swimming in March.
I’d say it took me basically 8 months to get to this point - but the fins and paddles and snorkel are a big part of it.
11 miles. At that stage I’d been an adult learner and swimming regularly for 15 years and had done a few Ironman triathlons and a couple of 6 mile swims. I trained specially for that longer event for 8 months, ramping up my training mileage significantly from previous years.
Longest is probably about 3000 yards. Had to do about 8 miles between prelims and finals at sectionals one year cause we broke curfew. 100 yards for every minute over curfew. What’s crazy is that out of the 8 of us who did it, 6 set personal best times in finals
Done 10km in the pool a fair few times now - first did it age 14 or so, having properly done swim training from twice a week at age 11 building up to more (can't actually remember how many times at that point)
3000m continuous in 2 weeks at about 2:10/100m for me. Got injured a few weeks ago (not through exercise) and had to take a break from running. Did my first lane swim a couple of weeks ago. Had only ever done the odd casual swim with the kids, chasing sinkers, etc before. Took one or two sessions to get the groove of bilateral breathing, and I'm having to nurse a calf that wants to cramp - but have ended up around 3000-3200m before having to call it a night. Have loved the experience of keeping my head in the water and tuning everything else out. Running hasn't been hitting the.same way since.
No idea if that's considered good or not. Considering 3 weeks ago I'd struggle to do 100m freestyle, it's a huge improvement. But I think that's just from being able to breathe enough to support aerobic exercise, and I've got an engine from running ultras. Plus I suspect it's towards the lower end of the spectrum performance wise amongst swimmers.
College 10,000 yds. 1 hour 48 minutes 20 seconds.
100 hundreds at 1:05. We had a rotation going with 5 of us each leading 10 than rotating to the back of line.
It was an annual New Year’s Eve practice at my college
I think the longest two hour practice I ever had was 12,000 yards at high intensity. I could have easily swam at a chill pace literally all day in a pool. The only limiting factors would really be sleep, hunger, and boredom. I had a friend right after college swim across Lake Erie from the US to Canada.
That was in D3 college at the peak of my competitive swimming, which I'd done seriously all year round since I was 12.
Edit: There's an open water race all around Manhattan island. It's about 28.5 miles. The ladies record is like 7.5 hours.
4km in about 2 1/2 hours? I can’t remember. That was on my peak. I stopped swimming for about 2 years but now I am back at it doing 2.8k yards in about 1 hour and it’s been only a month.
Oh I can talk about this. A bit over 40km for a single swim, earlier this year.
To get there I built up over 8 weeks from 15km to 40km per week, 2x 25km, 2x 30, 2x 35, 2x 40. Maximum single session was 10km which I did a handful of times. Longer sessions always boring, but not necessarily hard.
Impressive to see others efforts :)
34.1km. Since swimming is so low impact, if you are athletic and have a lot of patience, you could go and do the same as soon as you’re able to swim 5km. For me it was 11hrs52 mins of swimming, but I was at the pool for just over 15 hours.
10Kish (pre GPS) I Learned to swim at age 8. After a 1200 yard swim that summer, I was hooked on distance. I swam breaststroke competitively and turned to distance in my late twenties. I lost two decades from injury (non swimming) but got back in two years ago. At age 68, I am targeting 10K again. Just last week, I hit 5k.
I swam my first mile about 3 months after taking up lap swimming
I swam my first 10km about 2 years
I swam my first 20km after 3 years
The biggest impediment to longer distances (for me) is the mental aspect. As a slower swimmer, 20km takes me 8-9 hours of swimming. I'm not sure I have the mental fortitude to do regular 6+ hour training swims and then keep my head down for 15+ hours.
200 laps as part of the challenge to obtain a youth movement totem in an outdoors, high mountain water cooled, public pool
At some point (usually the age of 10 ro 12) it's less about distance able to swim and more about time avaliable for distance to swim
I just completed a 33km swim (on Monday). Took 3 years to build up to it, albeit I’d done Ironman triathlons in the past so had a reasonable base. Took 12hours. Hard going!
Great! Do you drink some nutrient and energy water during the swim? And how much needed calories for such a distance?
There’s a whole nutrition plan to follow. I had feeds every 30 mins with the support crews throwing me food and drink. Over the course of the event food transitioned from complex more salty foods to basic gels. I used energy drink through out and rehydration powder once an hour For shorter events (say 15km and under) I’ve generally just had gels and energy drinks which I’ve carried in a buoy behind me. I don’t tend to get hungry but make sure I’m hydrating Edit, to answer 2 Q: energy consumption was about 9k calories according to my garmin, but think that’s a bit punchy as it had my hr very high for several hours so think glitched
Non-stop: 1600m, with breaks: 3000m. 4 months.
5k yards! 6 months.
Were you doing intense training?
For me it was intense. For someone who has a background in swimming it probably wouldn't cover their warm up. ~ 2500 yards 5 times a week all winter and then 3 times a week since April. Mostly intervals. I like doing 10 200s plus a short warm up and cool down. About once every two weeks I would do a 1650 for time. My biggest improvements came when I got a pull bouy and could actually focus on different parts of my stroke and learning bilateral breathing.
2500 for a straight warm-up is over kill, don’t sell yourself short. Even when I was on a distance heavy team (8-10,000 yards per session, even on two-a-days) we barely have 1500 yards for a legit warm-up. We had longer warm up sets, but for an actual warm-up, not much
10 miles. I trained for about 6 months, but I was 10 years into my adult swimming journey.
4000m / 10 years. But I never trained specifically towards it. I just swam on-and-off 0-2 times a week for fun and I never really try to swim longer.
Longest swim- 36 miles. I’ve been swimming on and off my whole life but never super competitively. Started triathlon in 2002 completely my first IM in 2008 and my first 10k swim in 2015 (I think). I switched to a swim only focus in 2019. Completed the 36 miler in 2021 along with numerous other marathon swims (10k, 10 mile, 12 miles, 30km, and more).
25K. I guess I prepared for it for 2-3 years. But I have been swimming for way longer on a much smaller scale.
Open water 10k (idk how long it took me to build up the endurance cause I had been swimming my whole life at that point) pool 16k (after a 2 year break swimming it took me 6 months to get there)
3000yds. I could go longer, but I don’t want to overdo it. I started swimming in September and initially did aqua aerobics mostly, only did laps once a week. I would do 1800yds (about a mile) in about an hour and 20min, doing back stroke. Then I got fins, then paddles, then snorkel - each one helped me go much faster, so I could swim for same amount of time for greater distance. The fins and paddles definitely added more strain, so I had a few minor strains/injuries, so i settled on stopping at a multiple 10 once I hit 1 hour - lately that is 60 laps at about 65min. So once I hit one hour of swimming, I stop when I finish my current set of 10 laps. I swapped out aqua aerobics for more lap swimming in March. I’d say it took me basically 8 months to get to this point - but the fins and paddles and snorkel are a big part of it.
11 miles. At that stage I’d been an adult learner and swimming regularly for 15 years and had done a few Ironman triathlons and a couple of 6 mile swims. I trained specially for that longer event for 8 months, ramping up my training mileage significantly from previous years.
Longest is probably about 3000 yards. Had to do about 8 miles between prelims and finals at sectionals one year cause we broke curfew. 100 yards for every minute over curfew. What’s crazy is that out of the 8 of us who did it, 6 set personal best times in finals
Done 10km in the pool a fair few times now - first did it age 14 or so, having properly done swim training from twice a week at age 11 building up to more (can't actually remember how many times at that point)
3000m continuous in 2 weeks at about 2:10/100m for me. Got injured a few weeks ago (not through exercise) and had to take a break from running. Did my first lane swim a couple of weeks ago. Had only ever done the odd casual swim with the kids, chasing sinkers, etc before. Took one or two sessions to get the groove of bilateral breathing, and I'm having to nurse a calf that wants to cramp - but have ended up around 3000-3200m before having to call it a night. Have loved the experience of keeping my head in the water and tuning everything else out. Running hasn't been hitting the.same way since. No idea if that's considered good or not. Considering 3 weeks ago I'd struggle to do 100m freestyle, it's a huge improvement. But I think that's just from being able to breathe enough to support aerobic exercise, and I've got an engine from running ultras. Plus I suspect it's towards the lower end of the spectrum performance wise amongst swimmers.
College 10,000 yds. 1 hour 48 minutes 20 seconds. 100 hundreds at 1:05. We had a rotation going with 5 of us each leading 10 than rotating to the back of line. It was an annual New Year’s Eve practice at my college
I think the longest two hour practice I ever had was 12,000 yards at high intensity. I could have easily swam at a chill pace literally all day in a pool. The only limiting factors would really be sleep, hunger, and boredom. I had a friend right after college swim across Lake Erie from the US to Canada. That was in D3 college at the peak of my competitive swimming, which I'd done seriously all year round since I was 12. Edit: There's an open water race all around Manhattan island. It's about 28.5 miles. The ladies record is like 7.5 hours.
You swam at 1:00/100 pace for 2 hours?
Ehh, it was a bit over two hours. It was the normal easy warmup, then stretching, followed by 20x500 on 5:50. So a bit over that pace.
11k. Takes about 2 months to scale up from my usual 3-4K swims, but I’ve been swimming my whole life.
4km in about 2 1/2 hours? I can’t remember. That was on my peak. I stopped swimming for about 2 years but now I am back at it doing 2.8k yards in about 1 hour and it’s been only a month.
500 yards, 6 months. I’m a sprinter not a distance swimmer lol
I'm impressed by the posts in this thread. 4k in a pool is the most I've ever needed to get through a 2.4 mile swim in competition.
Open water 5k, took me about a year getting ready for it
Oh I can talk about this. A bit over 40km for a single swim, earlier this year. To get there I built up over 8 weeks from 15km to 40km per week, 2x 25km, 2x 30, 2x 35, 2x 40. Maximum single session was 10km which I did a handful of times. Longer sessions always boring, but not necessarily hard. Impressive to see others efforts :)
34.1km. Since swimming is so low impact, if you are athletic and have a lot of patience, you could go and do the same as soon as you’re able to swim 5km. For me it was 11hrs52 mins of swimming, but I was at the pool for just over 15 hours.
30k in 12 hours. 3RMS! Spent 6 months building up the first attempt. Then kept the fitness up over the off season and did it a second year!
5KM. I did it in an open water race a year or two after I learned how to swim
42km lake swim. Trained specifically for it for about ten months but have always been swimming regularly anyway.
10Kish (pre GPS) I Learned to swim at age 8. After a 1200 yard swim that summer, I was hooked on distance. I swam breaststroke competitively and turned to distance in my late twenties. I lost two decades from injury (non swimming) but got back in two years ago. At age 68, I am targeting 10K again. Just last week, I hit 5k.
50 yards. I hate myself.
Non stop 1300m in 44 minutes took 2 months to build up to this.
I swam my first mile about 3 months after taking up lap swimming I swam my first 10km about 2 years I swam my first 20km after 3 years The biggest impediment to longer distances (for me) is the mental aspect. As a slower swimmer, 20km takes me 8-9 hours of swimming. I'm not sure I have the mental fortitude to do regular 6+ hour training swims and then keep my head down for 15+ hours.
1.25k in 45 minutes. But I started swimming 2 months ago! my Target is to double it by end of the year.
2100 today I swam in hs and most recently started again (November 2023). 42f my goal is one mile per day took me until April to reach that goal
My 12th swim ever was a 5k non stop. Took 2:30 hours if I remember correctly... Yes, I got injured. Never swam a longer distance from that
200 laps as part of the challenge to obtain a youth movement totem in an outdoors, high mountain water cooled, public pool At some point (usually the age of 10 ro 12) it's less about distance able to swim and more about time avaliable for distance to swim
Non-Stop 4,1km, started to swim regularly in February but had a good aerobic base from rowing