How to Swim 40 Miles (Or Reach Other Goals)

I looked at my swim log the other day and learned some great lessons. This blog post will share what I learned and give you some tips with your own goals.

Can you swim 40 miles?

Here’s what some of you are thinking:

“Yes, of course!”
“No, what are you kidding?”
“In what time frame?”

I swam 40 miles in October!

I ask you the question because I looked at my swim log the other day and realized I swam 40 miles during the month of October. It kind of surprised me. I was swimming regularly and was surprised how my 5-6 swims a week added up to over 40 miles in a month. Reaching this objective has elicited different responses depending on my friends’ perspectives.

Competitive swimmers:

For competitive swimmers, believe it or not, 40 miles is not a large number. Competitive swimmers will often swim 5000-7500 yards per day, most days of the year. That equates to somewhere between 800-1200 miles per year, depending how much time a swimmer takes off.

Non-swimmers:

If you’re not a swimmer, I’m sure the thought of swimming 200 miles is a daunting challenge. You looked at my question, and said “no way!”.

Casual swimmer:

And if you do swim fairly regularly, you were probably thinking “Yeah, I can do it over a period of time”.

Are your goals big enough?

My achievement the other day of reaching 40 miles for the month made me think. We all have different goals in life and different measurements of success in achieving them. Below are some strategies I used to swim 40 miles in a month. I believe these strategies can help you swim 40 miles (or more) in a month or achieve any goals you have in life.

Five tips to swim 40 miles (or reach any big goal)

Take small activities and do them consistently over time. With swimming, start with 1/2 a mile and build your way up to 1 mile … or even 2. Just be consistent and pick a distance you are comfortable with.
Track your activities – In this case, track your swim workouts every day. This will allow you to look back and track your progress. In my case with swimming, the US Masters members website has a tracking event called Swim the Distance that helps me measure my results.
Don’t compare yourself to others – everyone has different goals and sets a different pace. Comparing yourself to others causes paralysis of action. Don’t compare. If you start looking over at faster swimmers it can be easy to get discouraged.
Think big – Most often, we reach a goal and say “that wasn’t so hard”. Think bigger, go for big goals that are hard to reach. Then even if even if you fall short, you still win big.
Get out of your comfort zone and try something new – if you’re not a swimmer, then take a lesson. The YMCA has learn to swim programs and many classes to improve your techniques.
Join an accountability group – In adult swimming this means joining a Masters swimming group. This can help motivate you to get your workouts in regularly and also will help you make the most of your workouts. And Masters groups are just plain fun.
Just start – sometimes all it takes is just taking one small step.

What strategies do you use to achieve your goals in swimming or in life?