Too much swimming lately?

You don't have any logs to check, but I have a hard time believing that being in the water for 500-1000m per session for the last 5 days is going to cause you many issues. 

You should probably still be doing some harder work between now and race day too--though, again, I know nothing of your training or abilities so this is just a probablistic guess.

like JohnnyKay said, its hard to determine without looking at your logs but i wouldn't say you are swimming too much.

if you are a relatively "new" swimmer its actually more beneficial for you to increase your frequency in the water than increasing the distance you are doing each session at first.  frequency in the water will improve your "feel" for the water which is extremely important.  once you feel stronger you can add yardage to your workouts and maybe reduce the number of times you are at the pool.  as long as your aren't having shoulder pain (or any other types of pains) from the workouts you are doing i would say you are fine.

its is important to feel strong in the water and feel in control.  and yes, being relaxed and comfortable with the swim will set you up much better on the bike and on the run.

i also agree that you should mix in some intensity to your swims.  what distance is your swim for your first tri?

Yeah, what he said.

Although if you want to work on endurance, you would be better served trying to combine some of those workouts.

Do 1500 one day... 1500 another. Versus 3 days of 1,000 yards/meters.

I have an issue with my right shoulder from swimming... doesn't keep me from swimming but is a slight annoyance... BUT I also went from:

May - 13137.62 Yd - 3h 47m

June- S: 43717.76 Yd - 12h 20m

Yeah, that would be called ramping it up too quickly. Then again I had a 3 mile swim I signed up for in June and the swim was July 11th. I only had a month to train.

ahem, so atleast 8000/day x 6 = 48,000 yds a week.  . .
you can overtrain at anything.  however, it takes A LOT of training. .  (see above)

The above guy is correct-We did swim a lot-But my High School (Kelly College-In the UK) HAS PRODUCED 60 + Olympians and had medalists in a couple of events at Bejing in different sports so my experience in swimming is different to most...since I was at a school devoted to athletes...

My personal advice would be to use a coach if possible-They pull you back from the edge...

I remember hell week though...100km in the pool over 7 days...ouch...or how about the dreaded 100x100 set...right of passage as far as I am concerned...

I very much doubt there is ANY triathlete doing 8000m/day, including the pros. 8000m/day is a very dedicated single sport swimmer, most likely at a high level.

Most triathletes could safely do 2-3000 per session, 3-6 times a week with no problems, assuming they aren't killing themselves in other areas and neglecting recovery.

John

over the winter/early spring i has in the pool 20k a week or so, and was still getting in a decent run and bike volume. it wasnt killing me.

just be careful with it and you willl be fine, even more so splitting it up like tha.t

I very much doubt there is ANY triathlete doing 8000m/day, including the pros. 8000m/day is a very dedicated single sport swimmer, most likely at a high level.

Most triathletes could safely do 2-3000 per session, 3-6 times a week with no problems, assuming they aren't killing themselves in other areas and neglecting recovery.

John
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Well John...8000 day in and day out...maybe not...but one of my class mates from school who is now a pro came in the top 15 at the London tri a couple of weeks ago does this during hard weeks...He went sub 1.50 in the olympic tri...

ii just came from a pool where i swam with many of the top pros in the sport, and i didnt see too many people (read: none) doing 8k a day.


i think you would be hard pressed outside your friend to find many triathletes swimming that much on any sort of regular basis.

During hard weeks, sure, I can see a pro doing that. But not day in, day out.

John

Alright,alright...I am not trying to get in to a match about how many pros I know-4000m for me is an hour to an hour and a half of swimming...Just two training sessions a day-Not exactly amazing...

Most of the Pros I know just do the one training session now in the pool a day...

I thought this thread was about overtraining...I was trying to give an example of that...

My high school had 'hell week' too.  The 100x100 set is something I'll never forget.

OP, I can't imagine that you are overtraining on your swimming.  My high school and college teams managed 50,000 yards week in, week out no problem. 

No worries. Get from what you are currently doing to 10,000 per week and see how you feel.

Dang. Here's the thing - 10,000m / week wouldn't be that hard for me if I just did it at my god-awful slow pace.

10,000 m / wk of 100-200m hard intervals with 5-15 sec rest would KILL me!

Is that what all you are all talking about?