In every generation of swimmers, there are people who workout extremely hard. They set the bar for their contemporaries and for future generations to step up their game.

One former collegiate swimmer from Kenyon College Anton Janezich (@swimmeranton, shown above) has caught the eye of his fellow swimmers and many dryland fans.

The 31-year-old from Maryland explains some of his recent workouts and comments:

• June 24th 2024: Swam 46,150 yards yesterday (or 42.195 km) – which is equivalent to swimming the distance of a running marathon (26.2 miles). Main set: 115 x 400 alternating freestyle and pulling all on rest + 150 easy. Tough week of training. Swam 92,000 meters in the last 5 days. The long course and the heat from the sun have been a challenge. Time to rest up, recover, and go even harder next week. 
• Incremental progress repeated is virtually unstoppable. 5 years ago I could hardly do a flip turn. I couldn’t even swim 1500 meters. Today I swam my furthest long course distance workout ever. 35,500 meters in just over 9 hours.
• May 8th 2024: swam 45,000 yards (41.14 km or 25.56 miles) in 10 hours and 30 minutes on. Main set: 110 x 400 alternating freestyle and pulling all on rest + 1000 easy.
• April 24th – 24th 2024: swam 83,000 yards (75.89 km/47.15 miles). 44,500 yards on Day 1: 110 x 400 alternating freestyle and pulling all on rest + 500 easy. 38,500 yards on Day 2 with 95 x 400 alternating freestyle and pulling all on rest + 500 easy. A new two consecutive day high yardage total. Total workout time was just over 20 hours.
• Swam my first long course meters workout of the year. Which was also a long course meter workout distance personal record of 33,600 meters. Workout time was under 9 hours including breaks. Shorter swim than I was hoping for. But I guess we can just chalk up today, as a recovery day.
• February 6th 2024: 41,000 yards in just over 9.5 hours.

“I have always been impressed and inspired by swimmers like this and their incredible dedication and unfathomable work ethic,” said Steven Munatones. “Distance swimmers training under Jim Montrella at Lakewood Aquatics used to give 10 x 1500 @ 20:00 intervals on many Saturday morning workouts. Those were the same weekly workouts that Olympian and world champion John Kinsella used to do back in the 1960’s and 1970’s – but he swam much faster.

Montrella also told of Penny Dean’s legendary 36,000m long-course workouts on the same interval (20 minutes per 1500 meters). That really put some shorter workouts in perspective.

Olympian Greta Andersen – and others before and after her – set other standards. Andersen was known for her weekly 10-mile (16 km) ocean workouts – either kicking the entire workout with a kickboard – or pulling with pull buoy. She had a great kick throughout her famously prolific career where all those kicking workouts proved valuable.

The toughest workouts by open water swimmers are absolutely legendary.

• When Kimberley Chambers started her workouts in San Francisco Bay on Friday nights after she got off of her pressure-packed workout in Silicon Valley and then swam through the night and until sunrise on Saturday morning [read here].
• Christof Wandratsch would swim a fast set in a warm pool in Burghausen (Bavaria, Germany), run outside, and swim fast in water between 1-5°C…and then repeated over and over again.
• Olympian Allison Wagner did a non-stop 8000 meter individual medley (or 2000 meters butterfly followed by 2000 meters backstroke, 2000 meters breaststroke, 2000 meters freestyle) in a 50m pool.
• Lexie Kelly did a set of 100 x 100 five days in a row…several times during her competitive pool career.
• Diana Nyad did dozens of 18-24 hour non-stop training swims in a pool and in the ocean, in preparation for her Cuba-to-Florida crossing.
• Paul Asmuth did a hard 20,000-meter long course workout – followed by a set of 10 x 75 @ :45 in a 25-yard pool
• Penny Dean swam a 36,000-meter non-stop pool workout averaging faster than 1:20 pace per 100.
• Jack Fabian asked his swimmers to do sets of 200s followed by pull-ups at the side of the pool instead of resting.
• Thomas Lurz regularly did tough morning workouts followed by a fast 60 km bike ride and dryland training followed by another long afternoon pool workout.
• Greta Andersen did 10 km kicking with a kickboard in the ocean – followed by 10 km pulling with a pull buoy in the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, California in preparation for the professional marathon swimming circuit in the 1960’s.
• Ned Denison created the Cork Distance Week in Ireland with its signature Body Brain Confusion Swim where a team of coaches go out of their way to remove any mental comfort that the swimmers may be experiencing during training. The total amount of training time remains unknown, the swim course is never straight, and the feeds remain infrequent as every possible high mileage and significant psychological stress in 10-13°C water is tossed in the swimmer’s way to prepare them to handle the unexpected during their English Channel swims.
• Battle Training in Germany pit some of the fastest channel and marathon swimmers in the world at the time: Trent Grimsey of Australia, Chad Ho of South Africa, Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria, and Thomas Lurz of Germany under the stern coaching of Dirk Lange for unbelievable long-distance, fast-paced workouts for days at a time. By invitation only.
• HITtheWALL in Ireland with Pádraig Mallon of Infinity Channel Swimming or 4 days of swim endurance, night swimming, cold water tolerance, fatigue, time trials, distance, sea, lake, fire walking, physiological and psychological challenge all built in to 96 hours within the Carlingford lough.

Any workout can be judged to be difficult relative to the swimmer’s age, the water temperature (hot vs. cold), pace/intervals and various other factors: pool vs ocean, freestyle vs. butterfly, altitude vs sea level, waves and turbulence vs. calm water, number of days in a row, etc.

• Some of the fastest older channel swimmers include Hank Wise and Jim McConica, both of California. Wise’s go-to long-course meters workout in his 40’s includes the following 16,000m long-course pyramid workout at a 1:25 pace per 100 meters:

16×100@1:25 + 8×200 @ 2:50 + 4×400 @ 5:40 + 2×800 @ 11:20 + 1×1600 @ 22:40
1×1600@22:40 + 2×800 @ 11:20 + 4×400 @ 5:40 + 8×200 @ 2:50 + 16×100 @ 1:25

• McConica’s pool workouts in his 40’s, 50’s and 60’s are legendary, especially as the apparently ageless athlete continues to churn out mile after mile in the pool and channels around the world. He explains, “When I am training for a channel swim, most of my pool workouts are dependent on water time available. We typically have between one to two hours. Workouts will range from going 100s to 2000s for the full workout time on short rest. Because our channel feed breaks are usually every 30 minutes, we sometimes go “endeavors”. They are straight swims for up to just short of 30 minutes. During the break we will drink our Channel drink. To make it more challenging, we will try for more yardage on each swim. My longest set was a straight 32,000 meter workout in a long-course pool. My goal was to hold 1:30s including break time. My time was 8 hours 4 minutes. So I missed my goal time by four minutes. My biggest issues during the set was sunburn. 

• One of my other tough sets was going 100 x 200 @ 2:30 descending in a short-course yard pool. It was a 4 hour 10 minutes set for 20,000 yards (or 18,288 meters). It was a tough set. 

• One of my other games to get yardage was doing the USMS February Fitness Challenge. My goal was to swim 350 miles in 28 straight days. That is exactly 22,000 yards (or 20,116 meters) per day for a month. I made it, but there were several problems. Finding water time around my work schedules was tough. I had to eat five times a day. That was very tough.“

• Stéphane Lecat of France negative split a 25 km training swim in a 50-meter pool, where he swam the second half (2 hours 27 minutes) faster than the first half (2 hours 29 minutes). The 4 hour 56 minute workout was briefly – only very briefly stopped every 3-5 seconds at each 2.5 km mark to quickly drink – and he swam the last 100 meters in 1:01.

• Richard Broer of the Netherlands remembered some of his toughest workouts. “The toughest one I did myself was a training with the Dutch national swim team in 1978-1979. The national coach at that time was Bert Sitters who asked us to do the following set within 3 hours. I remember the last 50’s were partially without rest, paddling on with no energy left. We did not have sports drinks in those days; there was no time to pee, but nothing to pee either.“

· 16×50 start every 40
· 8×100 start every 1:20
· 4×200 start every 2:30 or 2:45
· 2×400 start every 5:00
· 1×800 start every 9:30
· 1×1500 – 20 rest
· 1×800 start every 9:30
· 2×400 start every 5:00
· 4×200 start every 2:30 or 2:45
· 8×100 start every 1:20
· 16×50 start every 40

• Edith van Dijk did high-altitude training where she swam almost twice every day during a 3-week period. One session was 10-12 km, but sometimes it was 15 km. She did not want to publicly share these workouts at the time so her competitors would not know what she was doing. She explains, “6 x 2000 meters was one easy to remember. 15 km non-stop for time too. But usually the workouts were more complicated and more varied. The 15 km swim was programmed: she predicted what her 1000m times would be. The time scheme would reflect the tactics for the next big race. I was able to keep to that scheme, swimmer no more than a few seconds off from the goal pace.” The multiple world champion explains further, “I like a training in open water of more than 10 km which I did frequently. I did as many as possible 1000m in variations [see below]. It was lovely to do when the sun is out with four active 18th century Dutch windmills.:

· 1000m whole stroke
· 1000m pulling no paddles
· 1000m kicking no streamers
· 10x100m whole stroke
· 1000m pulling with paddles
· 1000m kicking with streamers
· 5x200m whole stroke
· 1000m whole stroke with streamers
· 1000m whole stroke with paddles
· 1000m whole stroke (varying swim speed)
· 1000m whole stroke with paddles and streamers
· 1000m whole stroke cooling down

• “In the Netherlands, there is a tradition of doing 100 x 100m long course training sessions. We do them after Christmas. We call them oliebollen-training. After a somewhat greasy treat we have on New Year’s Eve, the swimmers swim 100x100m with about 5 to 10 swimmers in a lane. The swimmers swim in the lane they choose with starting every 1:20, 1:30, 1:40, 1:45, 1:50, 2:00 and 2:15. The swimmer chooses the challenge in advance and the organizers distribute them in lanes with the same rest. Within the lanes, there is some organization by the swimmers: 5 or 10×100 in the lead and then the next swimmer takes over the lead.

• Maarten van der Weijden and I swam our 100 x 100 workouts at a 1:15 interval for 100 meters. Maarten stayed under 1:10 every 100 meters. We did some extra 100s to finish with the other swimmers. This is done preferably in a 50m pool, but Dutch swimmers do these sets in 25m pools too where their knees and feet hurt more. A few years ago, we had 7 or 8 public 100x100m training sessions in the Netherlands. There are usually additional oliebollen-trainings during the rest of the year like at the opening of the outdoor swimming season. During the festive period around Christmas and New Year’s Day, doing 4 or 5 sessions of 100x100m sets can be planned if you have the time. In this trend a 5-10 km challenge like 5000 + 2×2500 + 5×1000 + 10×500 + 25×200 + 50×100 + 100×50 which is to be finished in a week’s time is also a challenge.”

https://youtu.be/13se37epKH8

• Leading up to his Molokai Channel crossing, South Africa’s Toni Enderli did a 24-hour pool swim [see above] and has plans in 2018 to attempt crossings of the North Channel in June, the Catalina Channel in July and the Tsugaru Channel in September.

• Dan Simonelli of San Diego, California recalled a tough 6-hour ocean training swim in December 2015 for his 13 hour 31 minute Catalina Channel crossing on January 16th 2016. “It was my last chance to get in a long training swim with Kevin Eslinger paddle support due to our tight schedules. So the day was the day. Our plan was to start at 2 am. The air temperature dropped precipitously that night and was high 30°F’s and with some wind. Water temp just happened to drop some too, lower than it had been all along around 16°C, down to 14-15°C. First thing I noticed was inhaling the cold air. I was OK for first hour or so, adrenaline I suppose. But, sucking in the cold air started taking its toll, and in the third hour I remember thinking I’m not even halfway, how can I do another 3+hours!?! And, I could tell Kevin was cold too, shivering on the board even covered in full neoprene head to toe. But he’s one tough [guy] and he wasn’t gonna quit, so I kept pushing. I continually tried different things to generate internal heat, primarily increasing pace, kicking more. But sucking in the cold air certainly didn’t help. And, the higher pace/effort and constant physical and mental focus on the cold kept me from being able to relax and get into normal relaxed pace and mental zone. That definitely caused early fatigue. Cold, tight, anxious…all made it so much harder. I was able to persevere until the sun came up. We went out farther, well over a mile offshore, so that the La Jolla hills wouldn’t be blocking the sun and it helped a little bit. Still, the air temperature was the major factor, and since we had started so early, we didn’t get much of the early morning sun warmth. Excruciating as it was, we finished at 6 hours 1 minute. Kevin is a master navigator and we hurriedly shivered to the car, cranked the heat, and sat there for over a hour. I got out and walked around a few times just to stretch out and get the blood flowing more. But otherwise, we were zombied in the car, laughing between chattering teeth at what we had just done and the ridiculousness of this sport.“

• When Bill Goding and his swimming buddy Rick Heltzel turned 50, they decided upon a long-term challenge. “We decided to do 50×200 freestyle in a 50m pool in Honolulu. That may not seem too hard, but we did the 200s on a 2:50 minute interval. That is pretty challenging. We continued that challenge in 5-year intervals. When he turned 60 and I was 64, our challenge has been kept up. We swam 60 x 200 long course on 2:50 interval. He still mad it, I have to use paddles and pull buoy about halfway through. He’s tough.” And they are still going at it in their 70’s.

• For his English Channel attempt, Jim Barber of Indiana and his training partner did a 2-person relay for 24 hours: 1 hour on followed by 1 hour off in a 50m pool holding 4500 meters per hour.

• Antonio Argüelles of Mexico City regularly goes a solo modification of the Barber 24: he swims for 4 hours and rests for 4 hours – then repeats that grueling set for 24 hours in the winter months off the La Jolla Shores in San Diego, California (known as Argüelles Ocean 24). That ocean workout was preceded by his 200×100 workouts at 2,240 meters (7,350 feet) in high-altitude Mexico City – where he convinced many others to join him.

• Eney Jones of Colorado remembered two tough workouts in particular of her career with Craig Beardsley and Keith Dickson. “On 1980 New Year’s Day at the University of Florida at the Swamp outdoor pool, we started a warm-up with 120×25’s underwater on 30 seconds followed by 6×1000’s on 12 minutes in a 25-yard pool. Then I did an open water swimming workout on Siesta Key Beach in 1984. It was a 1-mile swim and a 1-mile run back, then another 1-mile swim and another 1-mile run back, then a 500-meter swim and a 500-meter run, then a 200-meter swim and a 200-meter run.”

• Sal Minty-Gravett, MBE of Jersey has done 100x100m – twice in 2013 and once in 2016. “IF we had outdoor pools, I would train in them regularly; the first time I was truly so nervous of it. In 1975, I clocked up over 800 miles of pool and sea swimming. I was way overtrained. I could not move my shoulders after my first English Channel swim for 4 days – and I was only 18. So I was never overtrained since. But I always stayed swim/fit and cross-train until I could get in the sea on a regular basis – and then I build up my hours in the sea. My late Dad always said that as a natural swimmer, my fitness transferred over to the water – and I believe him. I have never had a problem with my shoulders since – even after my 36 hour 26 minute two-way English Channel crossing. I could lift my arms above my head immediately and had no shoulder issues afterward – at all.”

• Vasanti Niemz of Germany had several Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team swimmers trained with Dutch coach Corrie Dixon before Freda Streeter and the beach crews’s time. “Her husband Ray was an English Channel boat pilot, either in Dover, starting 1985, or using her weight training program at home. Swimmers used to come to Dover early for sea training and acclimatizing. English Channel waters were much cooler back in 1985 – like 13-15°C in early September and Corrie would hand out 3- or 4- or 5- or 6-hour swims building up day after day, usually watching and offering black tea with fruit sugar, swiss rolls or Mars Bars to her swimmers personally at each hour. But at least one time she packed a swimmer’s clothes in her trunk and disappeared with her car for a while, so the swimmer who did not like the allotted amount of time could not get out early. In those times qualifying swims for the Channel were 7 hours, not six. The double solo crossing of Lake Zurich to Rapperswil and back in 1986 by Prafulla Nocker, right after her failed attempt at the English Channel could be seen as a long training swim leading up to her successful English Channel solo in 1987. From this double crossing, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim Rapperswil-Zurich came into existence.”

• Surgeon and podcaster Peter Attia repeatedly did his favorite workouts leading up to his Maui Channel two-way crossing and was living in San Francisco so he needed mostly pool water in order to get used to warm ocean. “On Saturday and Sunday, I would do 10×500 descend, plus 1×16,000 holding the exact pace for entire 16,000, which I would aim for 1:23-1:24 per 100, then 6×600 fast broken at the 225, 175, 125, and 75.” Then he would repeat the workout the next day.”

• Evan Morrison of California created a 25,000-meter pool workout for his summer of marathon swimming in 2011 when he did a 25 km set of 1000 + 10×100 + 1000 + 5×200 + 1500 + 5×300 + 1500 + 3×500 + 2000 + 4×500 + 2000 + 5×400 + 1500 + 5×300 + 1000 + 5×200 + 1000 + 10×100, all at a 1:30 per 100m interval.

• Darren Turner of Australia described his Hell Week that included 113 km over 6 days of two workouts per day that included weight training and running. “We often would start each workout with 1 hour straight band only (i.e., legs tied without a pull buoy) followed by some respite of off stroke and then back into longer interval swims. The swimming session were up to 13 km. Every Friday afternoon session included 16×400 freestyle short rest sets usually around the 5-minute cycle. The drag sock also played a part of these workouts and there was always a 100×100 set during the Hell Week.

• What cannot be quantified is the intensity of the workouts, and the calibre of the other swimmers in the lane during these workouts. If coach (Dick Caine) thought you were not having a go or potentially not listening, the penalties would applied – usually 1-hour straight butterfly. You were expected not to ever miss a workout. If you did, you would be called by the coach’s wife and had 30 minutes to be on pool deck – or never return.

• My coach Dick Caine was old-school hard work and respect a coach who had no formal qualifications or affiliated was with Australian Swimming – Dick had his own unique approach. Dick was also a horse trainer. We would often pile into his horse float/truck with some 20-30 kids in the back to be transported like horses to the surf for additional training. One of his theories for recovery was that if we consumed a glass of stout beer, this would aid in our recovery by replacing red blood cells.”

• Bob Placak, founder of the RCP Tiburon Mile, did 83×100 on 1:05 when training at University of California Los Angeles, but also did 10×500 on 5:15 and ripped off a very fast 500-yard freestyle on the 10th 500-yard swim in 4 minutes 33 seconds.

• In the mid-1970s, former Harvard University coach Joe Bernal challenged his 16-year-old swimmer Bobby Hackett with a set of 100×100 on 1:00. He did it – and set off generations of others who followed the annual set of 100×100 at various intervals. Hackett went on to win the silver medal in the 1500m freestyle at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games at the age of 17.

• In 2012, Scott Zornig organized a 100×100 ocean workout in Laguna Beach, California with the Oak Streeters. “We started in chest-deep water right by the lifeguard tower on Main Beach and headed straight out to the outside buoy. This is 100 yards to the buoy, 200 yards round-trip. We tried to swim back and forth 50 times to get in our 10,000 or 100×100.”

• Pam Lazzarotto of Canada did a birthday set when she was 50 years old: 25 x 200 in a pool at a 1:10 base followed by a 50-mile bike ride and a 5-mile run on Pacific Coast Highway. At 52 years old, she is 52 x 25 meters butterfly on :30. “But everyone’s workouts all sound incredibly difficult & hard to top. I think the really wicked workouts I have blocked out of my memory, but I remember in my teens we were doing 10,000 meter workouts twice a day plus running and doing weights. A friend and I would finish with 5×200 butterfly.”

https://youtu.be/9-souEUkQD8

• Jamie Tout created a DEFCON training program that has helped him prepare for his multiple channel crossings. DEFCON is an acronym for defense readiness condition or a start of alert used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system prescribes five graduated levels of readiness for the U.S. military. “My DEFCON training regimen is a minimum of 12 weeks long with the goal being 5 months. DEFCON 5 is 5 weeks.  I think this training regimen is good for someone how has not swum a marathon swim in awhile or who has never swum a marathon.  I you have a few marathon swims under your belt, you can get by with a couple of months of 35,000 to 40,000 yards a week.  Although 5 months is the goal in DEFCON 5, I would say you made it if you complete 12 weeks at 50,000 yards plus the 8-mile swims.“

• DEFCON 1: First month of training: 4 weeks of 10,000 yards a week including a 4-mile swim with no days off.  “The training is very easy with an emphasis on the 4-mile swim.   This is the time you make financial and work/family commitments to do the swim.  This, in the long run, is the most important part of the training.  If you start off making some wrong decisions, they will only multiply later on in your training. If you train with a masters group stop training with them prior to starting DEFCON 1. “

• DEFCON 2: Second month of training:  4 weeks of 20,000 yards a week including a 5-mile swim with no days off and the emphasis still on the 5-mile swim.

• DEFCON 3: Third month of training:  4 weeks of 30,000 yards a week including a 6-mile swim with no days off, but the emphasis shifts to the weekly yardage.

• DEFCON 4: Fourth month of training:  4 weeks of 40,000 yards a week including a 7-mile swim with no days off with the emphasis continuing on the yardage.

• DEFCON 5: Fifth month of training:  12 weeks of 50,000 yards a week with eight 8-mile swims, nine 9-mile swims, one 5-hour swim, one 6-hour swim, and one 7-hour swim.  “If you come along too fast, you will fall apart at six weeks into DEFCON 5.   On the other hand, if you get through the 12 weeks of DEFCON 5, you are ready.  The last time I was able to complete DEFCON 5 was in 2015 when I swam across the Catalina Channel at age 62 in 11 hours 18 minutes, flew across the U.S., and four days later, swam my fastest Manhattan Island Marathon Swim of the ten circumnavigation swims I have done in 7 hours 31 minutes. Tip: try to negative split the 9-mile swims.  Do the first 3 miles in 29 minutes, then the second 3 miles in 28 minutes, and the third three miles in 27 minutes (each).” 

• 60-year-old Steven Munatones did a non-stop, no-water break, no-food 5 hours 8 minute 23 km ocean workout off the coast of Huntington Beach in Southern California on a rough day where his tow float was torn off his waist in the big surf, heading out past the waves. “I was training for my first major marathon swim in 3 decades so I figured I would swim as far as I could – because I knew when I got out of the water, I had another 3.5 km walk home. Boy was I thirsty and hungry when I finally got home“

Keep us informed of your hard workouts.

And stay hungry, my friends.

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