What should be the best time to swim?



T

Tim

Guest
I'm just curious if there is a scientific explanation of what should be the best time to swim?
Personally I used to swim about an hour after dinner at night twice a week and two hours after
breakfast on a saturday morning. About 6 months ago I started swimming straight after work before
eating dinner. I found I was probably 5-10% quicker. I would guess this would be the difference
between a full stomache and and an empty. Now, since I'm working from home, I have just recently
started swimming right before lunch. I'm a tad quicker than at night, but feel much stronger and the
swim is much easier. I've never tried swimming at 6:00 in the morning, although when I used to run I
did it occasionaly and hated it. I'm wondering if the difference between the peformance at different
swimming times is solely a result of the length of time since last eating (and to a lesser extent
since sleeping), or if there is actually another reason for it. It could also be psyhcological as
well because swimming at lunch 1) avoid 5-10 minutes extra peak hour traffic and 2) has at most one
or two others sharing the lane versus 6+ people sharing the lane before dinner.

I doubt this is specific to swimming, but seeing as this is the only fitness type newsgroup I read,
I figured I'd annoy all of you :)

Tim.
 
Tim wrote:
>
> I'm just curious if there is a scientific explanation of what should be the best time to swim?
> Personally I used to swim about an hour after dinner at night twice a week and two hours after
> breakfast on a saturday morning. About 6 months ago I started swimming straight after work before
> eating dinner. I found I was probably 5-10% quicker. I would guess this would be the difference
> between a full stomache and and an empty. Now, since I'm working from home, I have just recently
> started swimming right before lunch. I'm a tad quicker than at night, but feel much stronger and
> the swim is much easier. I've never tried swimming at 6:00 in the morning, although when I used to
> run I did it occasionaly and hated it. I'm wondering if the difference between the peformance at
> different swimming times is solely a result of the length of time since last eating (and to a
> lesser extent since sleeping), or if there is actually another reason for it. It could also be
> psyhcological as well because swimming at lunch 1) avoid 5-10 minutes extra peak hour traffic and
> 2) has at most one or two others sharing the lane versus 6+ people sharing the lane before dinner.
>
> I doubt this is specific to swimming, but seeing as this is the only fitness type newsgroup I
> read, I figured I'd annoy all of you :)

I think you will find few compulsive swimmers who train after eating. Anyone who trains hard in the
pool by habit will always do it on an empty, or near empty, stomach.

Still, I find that I can often work harder in the afternoon than I can first thing in the morning,
and I attribute this to the fact that I drink coffee during the day. If I drink a quick cup of
instant before a monring workout, it often boosts my workout performance.

martin

--
Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 18:20:02 +1100, "Tim" <[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm just curious if there is a scientific explanation of what should be the best time to swim?

I don't know about scientifically, but I have heard that different people perform better at
different times of day. I wouldn't schedule practice just to get better times though.

I can't swim with anything in my stomach, so I have to adjust meals to swimming. Some people seem
to need food for energy to workout, but I prefer swimming and running in the morning when my
stomach is empty.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)
 
Donal Fagan <Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 18:20:02 +1100, "Tim" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I'm just curious if there is a scientific explanation of what should be the best time to swim?
>
> I don't know about scientifically, but I have heard that different people perform better at
> different times of day. I wouldn't schedule practice just to get better times though.

This fits with my experience. I personally do well at about 4 PM. I know other swimmers who seem to
be at their peak in the late morning hours.
 
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