Ok, I know that swimming like Michael Phelps, or any of the other Olympic athletes is no small feat. There are ways though you can gain an edge without spending 8 hours at the pool or consuming 12,000 calories.

• Don’t Breathe - You shouldn’t have to breathe in a 25 meter race, but you can significantly improve your times the longer you successfully hold your breath.
• Don’t Look Around - Every glance left or right disrupts your form, creating more water resistance and subconsciously causes you to slow down ever so slightly.
• Respiratory Training - In a pioneering study, subjects who followed a resistance-breathing training protocol (breathing load) improved their respiratory muscle strength. Subsequently, swimmers can improve their swimming endurance and breathing capacity through targeted training of the respiratory muscles, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown.
• Try Some Baking Soda - researchers in the UK have discovered that supplements containing sodium bicarbonate reduce the amount of lactic acid produced by exercising muscles. The swimmers taking sodium bicarbonate supplements in the study shaved an average of 1.5 seconds off of their times.

Using the techniques above you can effectively shave 3-4 seconds off your best times by actually doing less. It might not take you to the Olympics, but you might fare better at your local community recreation center.