I just wanted to post my short and long term swim goals, in addition to how I intend on acheiving them. I'm not sure if we have a thread for this already. Regardless, here are mine. Feel free to post yours.
Short Term Goal:
I've been keeping a regular swim schedule, swimming 4-6 days per week. I average about 3500 yards per session, 2500 on the low end, 4000 on the high end. I think it is reasonable and the distance is primarily based on what I have time for. I feel like I have been in the groove of things for the past 4 months (comfort in water, energy, endurance, etc). That said, I'm beginning to find I'm losing passion with my swimming, I'm becoming bored, and I'm not pushing myself to excel. I'm "dead in the water" so to speak... I've plateaued. Its not to say I don't enjoy it though, I do.
So my goal is to push myself to focus more on critiquing my stroke, increasing my endurance, and increasing my speed- basically make better use of the time I'm swimming and make some form of improvement. To do this, I must innately push myself to work harder, but I also want to find some new regular swim partners and maybe join a team to have some social stimulation and competition. Over the past few months my swim buddies have been disappearing to other activities or places. I feel this has made swimming monotonous and has removed incentives to routinely focus on improvements.
Long Term Goal:
My long term goal is seriously start competing again and beat my high school record of 23.1 in the 50 Free (for starters). The sad truth is I feel like I will never be as good as I was in high school (4 years ago). I know it's ridiculous since I'm only 21 years old, but I don't think I will ever have the structure in my life or possess the same will power bolstered by my friends and amazing teammates. I cannot see myself swimming 6k, 8k, 9, even 10,000 yards daily again. At the time, I thought 23.1 was decent considering my size (5'10"-5'11 depending on my back situation) and the pain from the back injury I received in 2007. In the big picture, 23.1 isn't great, but it was quite good in my tiny HS division.
To beat 23.1 and get into the 22.x's I will have to join a team and start competing again. I definitely believe I can do it, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. I haven't timed myself since then, but I imagine my 50 right now would be 26-27, if I'm lucky. I was so devoted to swimming and pushing myself back then, I feel like I will never have that passion back, and that passion is what made me a better than average swimmer. Joining a team will be another obstacle- finding one, time, commitment, fitting in, etc. There are always those people who join the team late and never quite integrate into the team quite the same way. That would be very disappointing for me. But that's part of the challenge I guess. Once I beat 23.1, I can focus on besting my other event times. 23.1 is the one I need to focus on first though.
