Losing enthusiasm for swimming

Mike, It sounds a bit like you are suffering from "same old/same old" syndrom with respect to your swimming. There are many great ideas in the previous posts, such as: work-out with a group more and try to do some social events with them (When I was a member of Coronado Masters, I looked forward to pizza on Fridays right after work-out. When I was a member of Reston Masters, doughnuts or breakfast after Sat morning workout was a social highlight of the week.), new goals or changing the focus to more fitness/less competition, try different events or open water swimming, or take a swimming sabatical (Dara Torres did pretty well with Tae Bo for a few years before she came back for the Sydney Games). I think the underlying theme here is try something different. Perhaps you have some assumptions about what events/strokes you swim, how you train, or what your goals should be (e.g. if you are measuring your success by how far off you are from your PR's, which you set in your 20's and you have no expectation of ever equaling, that could get a little old after a few seasons). Change 'em, and see what new frontiers you discover. One principle I follow is that my primary goal for masters swimming is to still be enjoying the experience 40 years from now. This is different than my primary goal when I was in high school and college, which was to lower my personal records as much as possible in the next 4 months. When I ask myself questions such as do I want to join this team, or go to this meet, or even finish this set (when I am having a bad workout), that long range goal adds a lot of clarity to my thinking. Please note that the answer to those questions is often "yes". I have looked for teams that have more members competing in pool meets, gone to large meets, and finished difficult workouts because competition does motivate me. The difference is I do NOT feel COMPELLED to do any of those things when I think the "burn-out" factor exceeds the "motivated" factor. As I have said in other fora, I believe the greatest obstacle to sustained exercise is boredom. I shape my swimming program with that in mind. Hope that helps, Matt

Mike, It sounds a bit like you are suffering from "same old/same old" syndrom with respect to your swimming. There are many great ideas in the previous posts, such as: work-out with a group more and try to do some social events with them (When I was a member of Coronado Masters, I looked forward to pizza on Fridays right after work-out. When I was a member of Reston Masters, doughnuts or breakfast after Sat morning workout was a social highlight of the week.), new goals or changing the focus to more fitness/less competition, try different events or open water swimming, or take a swimming sabatical (Dara Torres did pretty well with Tae Bo for a few years before she came back for the Sydney Games). I think the underlying theme here is try something different. Perhaps you have some assumptions about what events/strokes you swim, how you train, or what your goals should be (e.g. if you are measuring your success by how far off you are from your PR's, which you set in your 20's and you have no expectation of ever equaling, that could get a little old after a few seasons). Change 'em, and see what new frontiers you discover. One principle I follow is that my primary goal for masters swimming is to still be enjoying the experience 40 years from now. This is different than my primary goal when I was in high school and college, which was to lower my personal records as much as possible in the next 4 months. When I ask myself questions such as do I want to join this team, or go to this meet, or even finish this set (when I am having a bad workout), that long range goal adds a lot of clarity to my thinking. Please note that the answer to those questions is often "yes". I have looked for teams that have more members competing in pool meets, gone to large meets, and finished difficult workouts because competition does motivate me. The difference is I do NOT feel COMPELLED to do any of those things when I think the "burn-out" factor exceeds the "motivated" factor. As I have said in other fora, I believe the greatest obstacle to sustained exercise is boredom. I shape my swimming program with that in mind. Hope that helps, Matt