I've been swimming masters now for well over a decade and I've hit a bit of a lull. Last year I set my Go The Distance goal at 550 miles and missed it, so this year I revised it downward to 500 miles and as of today I'm 66 miles behind the pace I need to be at to hit that goal. I just don't have the desire to get to the pool as often, or stay in as long, as I usually do.
With that introduction my question really is: how do YOU train long term? Do you try to stay consistent or do you vary from year to year? Historically I've been very consistent, but I wonder if intentionally varying things is a better long term strategy.
I have been doing Masters for many years and the reasons or why I have stayed engaged have changed over the years. Originally it was just to stay in good physical condition. Eventually racing, gave way to having fun and working out with friends. After moving for a job and finding a very little Masters team where I moved to, I started coaching to help build up the team so I could swim on a larger team. This actually kept me from burning out and engaged during my ups and downs (injuries, surgeries, kids activity time hogs, etc.) By seeing improvement in people I was coaching it seemed to take some of the pressure off of me to perform as well in competitions. I still race and enjoy it. The other thing that has kept me swimming is all the changes they keep making to all of the strokes. It is fun to try to stay up with the new techniques since I swim breaststroke. Hope this helps!
I wish I had this problem! I'm about 60% of the way there. With that disclaimer,
I have some pwb-like longer range goals. As a kid, the longest range goal you get is "kill the focus event(s) at the taper meet at the end of the season". Maybe "make trials cuts". As masters, we have the luxury of thinking bigger.
I want to swim every event in competition. Even the 50 ***, eww. The specific goal is, "swim every event at least once in each course in each age group". So, at the end of the age group, I should have at least one stupid time in the 50 *** in SCY, LCM, and SCM. A supersized checkoff challenge.
Simpler and shorter-range: "Swim at least one meet in each of SCY, LCM, SCM, and OW every year". This weekend I'm swimming a 5K OW near Atlanta. That will be it for OW this year, but I'm doing it.
More complex and longer-range: "Swim in a FINA Masters World Championships" (done); "Swim the Borboleta" (a 1650 butterfly event offered every spring by the Riconada Masters); "Swim a 1500 LCM backstroke in Australia" (and as many of those ridiculously long events as possible); "Go snorkeling in the Great Blue Hole in Belize"; and "Swim in a finswimming meet". That may require another trip to Europe. Oh, too bad.
You'll notice that "swim the English Channel", "swim an ice mile", and "swim an OW 25K" does not appear on any of my lists. That's very much on purpose! I don't want to do any of those crazy things!
That's my 2 cents.
Not only did Swimosaur swim the 5K and win a silver medal, he also swam the 1K and won GOLD. CONGRATULATIONS, Swimosaur! :applaud:
(I happily won gold in the 3K and silver in the 1K.:D)
One more tip to long term happiness and continuity: don't ever get in really good shape. If you just trundle along at moderately good shape, taking the inevitable break (forced or choice) won't end up having a huge impact on your performance ;)
I made the mistake of really focusing in late 2011/early 2012 and was really consistent with my training ... now it's like climbing Everest or swimming the Channel to try to get back to that level of fitness and speed.
In short, embrace the joys of semi-fitness, moderation and "good enough" times :bolt:
In short, embrace the joys of semi-fitness, moderation and "good enough" times :bolt:
Good point. It would be a shame to reach all my goals. What the heck would I do then? :)
