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 like to observe my age-group peers because they help me develop realistic standards, but it is the older people in the pool that I look up to. My goal is to be a swimmer for life, not to be the fastest man in the pool for 5 years and then walk away from it.
Some great observations Scales! I never thought of being “looked up to” by the younger oldguys. I’ll try to be a better role model from now on. Maybe even stop feeling like the “real” swimmers are laughing at me. :drowning:
Go Lobos!
I like to observe my age-group peers because they help me develop realistic standards, but it is the older people in the pool that I look up to. My goal is to be a swimmer for life, not to be the fastest man in the pool for 5 years and then walk away from it.
Some great observations Scales! I never thought of being “looked up to” by the younger oldguys. I’ll try to be a better role model from now on. Maybe even stop feeling like the “real” swimmers are laughing at me. :drowning:
Go Lobos!
