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 don't agree with everything about USRPT, but some of Rushall's ideas make sense to me. First, that training the neuromuscular system is very important(he would say most important.) This means that what you train is what the system learns, so that training to swim slow trains to swim slow. Second that adaptation comes from going to failure.He defines failure as not making the interval.For myself I have expanded that to not keeping my stroke count. If you are not able to make your interval you are way past failure. Rest is where the adaptation happens,without enough rest you are breaking down, not adapting.
The "you have to keep your heart rate up" idea makes some sense, up to a point, but as the only measure of work it certainly has limitations. How much does your heart rate drop during the rest, probably not much.
My way of training is different from most peoples in that I focus mostly on the race pace. If I can't make my goal time I increase the rest and or shorten the distance(like goal time for 100 at 200 pace is 1:18, if i don't make it I rest longer, if I still don't make it I change to 50s shooting for 38.) I have found I need more rest than I did when younger. This irritates me, but it is part of adapting. I recently was having more shoulder and knee problems than usual, so I increased my warm up 50% and that helped.
I was not satisfied with my starts and turns at my last meet,so I decided to do them until I do them right. When I am doing sets with a start, if I don't do the start, pullout,and breakout "good enough",I flip and swim back to the wall, get out and go again.If my turn is not "crisp", again I flip and do it again. This, of course, blows my intervals, but my starts and turns seem better, and they are much of the race in SCY.
I don't agree with everything about USRPT, but some of Rushall's ideas make sense to me. First, that training the neuromuscular system is very important(he would say most important.) This means that what you train is what the system learns, so that training to swim slow trains to swim slow. Second that adaptation comes from going to failure.He defines failure as not making the interval.For myself I have expanded that to not keeping my stroke count. If you are not able to make your interval you are way past failure. Rest is where the adaptation happens,without enough rest you are breaking down, not adapting.
The "you have to keep your heart rate up" idea makes some sense, up to a point, but as the only measure of work it certainly has limitations. How much does your heart rate drop during the rest, probably not much.
My way of training is different from most peoples in that I focus mostly on the race pace. If I can't make my goal time I increase the rest and or shorten the distance(like goal time for 100 at 200 pace is 1:18, if i don't make it I rest longer, if I still don't make it I change to 50s shooting for 38.) I have found I need more rest than I did when younger. This irritates me, but it is part of adapting. I recently was having more shoulder and knee problems than usual, so I increased my warm up 50% and that helped.
I was not satisfied with my starts and turns at my last meet,so I decided to do them until I do them right. When I am doing sets with a start, if I don't do the start, pullout,and breakout "good enough",I flip and swim back to the wall, get out and go again.If my turn is not "crisp", again I flip and do it again. This, of course, blows my intervals, but my starts and turns seem better, and they are much of the race in SCY.
