I assume that most of us believe that we could swim substantially faster, IF.
IF we won a huge lottery payout, or a IF some swim suit vendor decided that what they really needed was an ordinary masters swimmer to promote their product and paid us sufficient money to:
· Quit work.
· Hire an army of helpers to do yard work, clean the house, run the kids around, cook, do shopping, pay the bills, buy a reliable car etc.
· Hire a great coach.
· Hire a personal trainer.
· Buy access to our own lane at a great weather-proof pool to match our schedule - and that of a few great training partners.
· Hire a masseuse.
· Hire a dietician.
· ...
But that aint 'gonna happen, so I put forth this hypothetical:
Consider your best times in your two best events over the last two years.
Given the current constraints on your lifestyle, (training time, sleeping time, ...) if you did your best to improve in those two events, how much do you believe you could lower your times over the next year or so.
I'm still hoping for about 2% by Santa Clara in my best events (400 IM, 500 free), but I'm willing for FINIS to do a long term, longitudinal study of the impact of their training tools and suits on my performance over the next ~40 years by providing all the stuff you listed above to see if I could take the 2% to 5% or 10% and to see how long I could sustain it.
I used to believe something like this:
Speed loss due to normal aging and/or injury is inevitable.
Then I saw this:
W 65-69 LCM 50 Butterfly
Diann B Uustal
2013-06-05 (20130605panjunL)
67
GAJA
50 Fly
H4 / L4
34.56
<<<<<<<
All Judd has to do is shave down once a year for his big meet. He trains with a fullbody drag suit. He will instantly be faster.
Look who's talkin'! :bolt:
I used to believe something like this:
All Judd has to do is shave down once a year for his big meet. He trains with a fullbody drag suit. He will instantly be faster.
If I was independently wealthy, I believe I could probably improve about 5%. I was always just "pretty good," never "really good" or "elite." That being said, if I quit sleeping in, and had some real coaching, I think I could probably improve about 1 second off of my 100 free. At least I like to think I could.
All Judd has to do is shave down once a year for his big meet. He trains with a fullbody drag suit. He will instantly be faster.
Laugh it up, fuzzball. :bolt:
I chose the 8%, because I want to take 2 seconds off my 50m free. I've got some things working against me (work, pool too hot, gimpy shoulder, various stars out of alignment, etc...), but I also have a bit of denial in me that keeps me thinking that "yeah, maybe this year I can do it."
:banana: