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.
My targeted meet is in June, national senior games, so I have a few months to tweak how I'm training.
unfortunately, what I swam in the state games was all the 200 strokes, 500 free and 400 IM. So now I'm kind of stuck doing at least some distance at that meet. I'm able to enter shorter distances only if I do the event I qualified in as well. For example, I can enter 50 fly only if I swim the 200 fly also. So I'm thinking I should focus on 200 pace training and not add too many dimensions to what I have to practice. If I train for 200 strokes, I should be able to swim 400IM without too much suffering. So maybe I should focus on USRP as 50s at 200 pace, which wouldn't actually be sprint. What's the better adaptation if I'm not able to hold my dream pace at 20 sec rest? Accept a slower pace? Or give myself more rest?
My targeted meet is in June, national senior games, so I have a few months to tweak how I'm training.
unfortunately, what I swam in the state games was all the 200 strokes, 500 free and 400 IM. So now I'm kind of stuck doing at least some distance at that meet. I'm able to enter shorter distances only if I do the event I qualified in as well. For example, I can enter 50 fly only if I swim the 200 fly also. So I'm thinking I should focus on 200 pace training and not add too many dimensions to what I have to practice. If I train for 200 strokes, I should be able to swim 400IM without too much suffering. So maybe I should focus on USRP as 50s at 200 pace, which wouldn't actually be sprint. What's the better adaptation if I'm not able to hold my dream pace at 20 sec rest? Accept a slower pace? Or give myself more rest?
