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.
Does anybody else feel like a major part of a decline in performance is mental rather than physical?
I'm not in the same category of swimming eliteness as most folks here, so my experience might not be typical. I started swimming masters at age 50, and had a nice run of eight or nine years, then I started being plagued with shoulder issues. I've been in and out of the water for much of the past five years. The first two or three times I tried to get going again, I fairly quickly hurt my shoulder and was back out of the water for an extended period. (I was mentally prepared for surgery, and the orthopedic surgeon was sharpening his scalpel. Then an MRI failed to show the expected rotator cuff tear.)
This year, I started very slowly, after concentrating on rotator cuff exercises for several months. I've managed to be in the water for the past year (FLOG goal in 2016 was 50 miles, 100 for 2017). Even though I'm back in the water with some regularity, I no longer consider "garbage yards" to be garbage. Yards are yards. :) I warm up carefully, don't get carried away trying to build back up to anything like "speedy" (not that I really ever was), and my workout distances are much shorter. I think I hit 2500 yards once or twice last year. 1000-1500 is more typical. That's okay. I have a bike and know how to use it.
I have no idea how much of that is mental, but I'm pretty sure a sizable chunk of it is.
Does anybody else feel like a major part of a decline in performance is mental rather than physical?
I'm not in the same category of swimming eliteness as most folks here, so my experience might not be typical. I started swimming masters at age 50, and had a nice run of eight or nine years, then I started being plagued with shoulder issues. I've been in and out of the water for much of the past five years. The first two or three times I tried to get going again, I fairly quickly hurt my shoulder and was back out of the water for an extended period. (I was mentally prepared for surgery, and the orthopedic surgeon was sharpening his scalpel. Then an MRI failed to show the expected rotator cuff tear.)
This year, I started very slowly, after concentrating on rotator cuff exercises for several months. I've managed to be in the water for the past year (FLOG goal in 2016 was 50 miles, 100 for 2017). Even though I'm back in the water with some regularity, I no longer consider "garbage yards" to be garbage. Yards are yards. :) I warm up carefully, don't get carried away trying to build back up to anything like "speedy" (not that I really ever was), and my workout distances are much shorter. I think I hit 2500 yards once or twice last year. 1000-1500 is more typical. That's okay. I have a bike and know how to use it.
I have no idea how much of that is mental, but I'm pretty sure a sizable chunk of it is.
