Hi! I'm new to this forum. I swam competitively in college and continued to swim on my own for exercise since then. I'm now 43 years old. I don't compete; I've always been kind of a workout swimmer and measured myself based on the intervals I can make and how fast I can repeat a distance consistently on a particular interval. I've spent many years training on my own, and the last few years working out with a group. Up until I was about 40, I pretty much stayed the same pace and was able to make certain intervals on my own, and could make even harder ones when swimming with others. I've noticed that in just the past year, I've gotten significantly slower. I can't make the intervals I used to and my pace time for a 400 yds. is about 10 seconds slower than it was just a few years ago. I haven't changed anything in my training, but I must admit that all I do is aerobic work and anaerobic threshold work - no quality or sprints. Has this happened to anyone else? Any way to change things and get my faster self back? Thanks!
I actually checked some of the results of many of the top swimmers here on this board and a few were actually faster at around 50 than they were at about 45 and so fast that I can only envy them:bow:
43 is still relatively young if you imagine that Dara Torres beat swimmers half her age and won silver so maybe it has other reasons why your performance got worse.
I would be curious what the top swimmers on here who are over 60 would say to how much their performance gets worse with age.
I always find videos like this really inspirational and it shows how fit you still can be when you're over 70: www.youtube.com/watch
I actually checked some of the results of many of the top swimmers here on this board and a few were actually faster at around 50 than they were at about 45 and so fast that I can only envy them.
43 is still relatively young if you imagine that Dara Torres beat swimmers half her age and won silver so maybe it has other reasons why your performance got worse.
I would be curious what the top swimmers on here who are over 60 would say to how much their performance gets worse with age.
Unlike running where the more you do and the longer you can endure, the better get, swimming relies heavily upon technique. Over the course of a few years one could address so many areas for potential improvement...better form, tighter streamlines, improved flexibility, etc. etc...the list goes on.
But to answer your question, by the late 50's performances may have reached their crescendo, and at that point it's no longer about getting faster, but avoiding the inevitable slowing down process. My guess is that the sprinters will be able to stave off the slowing down process better than the distance athletes. (The 50 free times in the 60 plus age groups have much less fluctuation than the 200 free for example.)
If you go by the formula for maximum heart rate of 220 minus one's age ...the max heart rate of a person 60 years young is supposedly 160 beats per minute. That's kind of like running a car on five cylinders instead of eight.
