I've had a yarn about this with mates before...

Why do professional swimmers (grant hackett, libby lenton etc) train at such ridiculous hours? They always go on and on about the "4am wakeups for 4:30am training sessions" blah blah blah. What a crock of s***.

No other athletes do it, except rowers who prefer the calm water to train on in early mornings before the wind picks up.

So why don't swimmers have a lazy sleep in and hit the pool at 9am? It's not like they have anything else to do.

The only answer I've been able to come up with is that they do it just so they can tell people how hardcore they are.

Or am I missing something here?

they've got to get their training in before a hard day filming 'fully sic' cereal commercials.

My guess is that $ in swimming is proportional to the entertainment value. As a result you would need to be in the top 0.00000001% to make a living as it would be one of the most boring "sports" ever. EVER.

As a result, the other 99.99999999% would need to have a paying job to suppliment their training, meaning training is early before work.

Guessing so they dont get there mid day and have a bunch of kids playing marco polo in the lanes.

As a result, the other 99.99999999% would need to have a paying job to suppliment their training, meaning training is early before work.

Except for the fact almost any half-decent swimmer knows that they are going to be going pro or semi-pro from a ridiculously early age and are on sponsorships/govt support as a result.

Imagine training from 9am-2pm. Middle of the summer heat...f*** that for a joke! You would get burnt to a crisp. 4-9am is much easier and not as hot! :) Probably different now, but still.....

Two reasons already stated (plus another):

1. Training before work
2. Training before the pool gets busy
3. For me, it's much easier to train in the morning, regardless of sport.

So why don't swimmers have a lazy sleep in and hit the pool at 9am?

I thought it would be pretty obvious.

The fact that they are swimmers means that they aren't lazy and hence are very motivated to start training early, as it's a high priority. Plus I bet they are exhausted at the end of the day and sleep early.

cold water + shrinkage = less drag = faster

last edited by scuzzy at 16:22:33 29/Jun/07

We cyclists do the same thing. 5am start for 45km morning rides down Beach Road and back (Brighton to Mordialloc).

You would get burnt to a crisp. 4-9am is much easier and not as hot!

I can buy sunburn as a factor, but not temperature. You're in a pool!

We cyclists do the same thing. 5am start for 45km morning rides down Beach Road and back (Brighton to Mordialloc).

Yeh but cyclists are mental anyway (reference: your injuries)

Most pro swimmers train indoors so scratch the sunburn theory. It mostly gets down to the tv ad stuff strex was talking about.

I can buy sunburn as a factor, but not temperature. You're in a pool!

I'm guessing you haven't ever done any intensive swimming training/racing before? You do get quite hot when swimming kilometre after kilometre.

I'm guessing you haven't ever done any intensive swimming training/racing before? You do get quite hot when swimming kilometre after kilometre.

I guess, I spose I can imagine if you're doing regular swim sprint training you might work up a bit of heat.

I've been in the ocean bodysurfing for like 4 hours at a time; you're not swimming the whole time but battling the surf isn't exactly low energy expenditure work, and I've never once felt hot. Except from the sun!

lol are you used to race competatively ek ?

that would be like watching them trying to refloat the pasha bulker

yeah it doesn't make any sense

you'd think they'd need some serious feeds before doing their thousand lap training sessions as well.. yet by starting at 4am all you'd have time to do would be gulp down a shake of some description

the work theory makes a bit of sense. don't they train in squads? sure, the elite dude in teh squad probably doesn't have a day job, but the rest of them probably do

you don't ever eat before swimming. thats like rule no 1. back in the old swim team days we chowed some mega breakfasts afterwards though.

lol 2nd dumbest thing iv ever heard u say


dumbest was some otgher thing that i cant remember

lol are you used to race competatively ek ?

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3760/pavelz2.jpg

They get in really early so they get a good towel locker! Plus they are always first in line for the Sunny Boy iceblocks when the shop opens.

hahaha what a fat c***

i heard he lost like 20kg's since then

Its cause they hold up a job as well, unless you win gold medals.

I'm talking about the gold medal winners.

Don't u remember thorpie crapping on in all his interviews about the 5am training sessions etc?

They all love to tell everyone how they're hardasses cos they get up early.

when i was trainging is squad we started at 5am.. mostly because it was a 2 hour session so we would be out by 7am and then would have 30 mins to get home and get ready for work cause work started at 8am

since i have been working for myself i cbf having an early morning squad..

usually these days i swim at 10am

also for professional swimmers they do have multi training sessions a day.. its not just 1 early in the morning

usually its 5am start and 5pm start so they need the break in the middle of the day for eating, gym etc

also you dont turn professional overnight.. and for years you would be doing the 5am squad sessions.. and after awhile it would be just habit/normal to train at this time

as for not getting hot in a pool... well in cairns in summer in an afternoon session the swim squad coach was standing at the end of the pool hosing everyone down with tap water cause the pool water was causing everyone to overheat..EVERYONE was stopping at the end of a 100m and standing up to get hosed down.. it was the last time i ever did an afternoon session in summer... f*** the cns heat

it's obviously to fit it in before work/study.

after work is commonly accepted as 'family time'. 'family time' as I can best understand it is what mum and dad used to do because back in the 1980's they were all too poor to afford fast food, nintendo wii and internet porn

Why do swimmers train so early in the morning?

because they are noobs.

i guess there's less piss in the water of a morning?

Look to the yams for answers.

haha owned by ek.

I swam with Sam Riley and Susie O'neill, I think it was like 5am starts, for just under 2 hours of training, saturdays were longer, and sundays I had off - no idea if they did. Not everyday was swimming, sometimes we'd run from like breakfast creek to the city botanic gardens and then hit the gym for weights or some other kind of activity like doing some kind of wierd long jump s*** on these mats and floor excercises, oh and there was also boxing with bags.. sometimes..

But once you were done that, and had a shower, and changed, and ate some breakfast, it was time to go to school, or work etc.. so it wasn't crazy early timing...

meh I don't swim anymore

last edited by Idol at 14:16:39 30/Jun/07

thats what i look like now fpot