I just got back from the SPMS meet and I am in a funk. I have talked to several of my contemporaries who share my dysphoria at getting slower. From age 50-62 I slowed down very little. Ages 63 and 64 were one injury or illness after another, but at least there was a cause and I felt I would do better. Age 65 I aged up and for most of the year was healthy. That was a great year,but my times were all significantly slower than at 62. Since then it is very unusual to have one swim that is faster than I did the previous year.At 67(almost 68) I am notably slower than at 65. I have seen the graphs of how times slow with age, intellectually, if I am staying at the same rate of decline as my peers I should accept it, but I don't like it. I know most forumites are much younger and what I am saying may seem like something natural that I should just acknowledge and go on, that is what I thought until I was 63. I know that our having age groups every 5 years is a partial solution to the problem, but there is more difference between a 65 year old and a 68 year old than between a 40 year old and a 50 year old, in my experience. How do the other older swimmers out there cope and have a good attitude? The common saying in Masters Swimming is that "you are only competing against yourself",but my slightly younger self is kicking my butt and I am tired of it.
I agree. USA Swimming does this with their "Power Points" system. Quite similar to Chris' rating system except they use 1000 for a record level swim rather than 100.[/QUOTE
Chris points out a couple difficulties with his system, one of which is that as records fall, the ratings would necessarily go down for previous swims. He also says that since there are so few times and records in 80+ age groups, it's harder to have accurate curves.
Both these, I think, can be overcome with the right mathematical approach. Once set up, it seems to me it wouldn't be that difficult to automate the calculations and add a new column to our meet results.
I just checked out my 500 (5:31.57) from last year at age 63, and compared this to my 500 (5:15.49) from 2003 at age 50.
Youngish Jim earns a 90.9; olderish Jim earns a 95.6. Both of these, to be sure, are well below Allen Stark's 100 and 100.4 *** strokes! Nevertheless, seeing my improvement makes me feel a bit like a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild!
I agree. USA Swimming does this with their "Power Points" system. Quite similar to Chris' rating system except they use 1000 for a record level swim rather than 100.[/QUOTE
Chris points out a couple difficulties with his system, one of which is that as records fall, the ratings would necessarily go down for previous swims. He also says that since there are so few times and records in 80+ age groups, it's harder to have accurate curves.
Both these, I think, can be overcome with the right mathematical approach. Once set up, it seems to me it wouldn't be that difficult to automate the calculations and add a new column to our meet results.
I just checked out my 500 (5:31.57) from last year at age 63, and compared this to my 500 (5:15.49) from 2003 at age 50.
Youngish Jim earns a 90.9; olderish Jim earns a 95.6. Both of these, to be sure, are well below Allen Stark's 100 and 100.4 *** strokes! Nevertheless, seeing my improvement makes me feel a bit like a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild!
