If not, you may want to consider it

While there are multiple factors that determine whether you improve at swimming, a key one is consistency. Swimming frequently and regularly lays the foundations for your fitness and feel for the water. 

Setting an annual distance target can be a great motivator to keep you swimming. It may incentivise you to increase your swimming volume, and that alone can be beneficial.

It also gives you a quiet sense of accomplishment at the end of the year, different to the buzz you get from completing a one-off swim challenge, but perhaps more satisfying.

A few years ago, I set myself the target of swimming 1,000,000m in the year – equivalent to just under 20km a week. It was an ambitious target but it helped my performance at several long-distance events during the year.

Use with caution

But there are a couple of downsides.

Distance covered isn’t the only factor impacting your swimming development. You will benefit too from doing drills, short technique focus sessions, and high-intensity sprint sessions with lots of rest.

An obsession with distance may lead you to neglect these other important aspects of your training.

Also, if you set your target too far above your current training level, you may risk injury or burnout.

So, if you do set an annual distance target, make sure it’s at the right level to minimise injury risk and allows time for shorter technique and speed focus sessions.

Keeping track

Having a way to track your distance, and how far you still have to go, will help your motivation. You can obviously use a fitness watch if you have one.

Alternatively, you could use this Distance Tracking Spreadsheet I created. It’s set for 1,000,000m as a default, but change this to suit your own target for the year.

This short video explains how to use it.

I hope you find this useful. Do let me know how you get on.