celebration!

Ian, Interesting, but I don't merely suspect that I am in the toughest age group, I KNOW I am in the toughest age group. Please review the NQT's for 40-44 Men. You will note that the fastest NQT's, FOR ANY AGE GROUP, are the 40-44 men for 200-1500 free, all 3 backstrokes, and the 200 fly!! I first noticed this last year (when I was 40) when I reviewed the potential competition at LC Nationals, and I noticed it was FASTER than the 35-39 group I had just left! Aging up does not do me a bit of good. This also seems to be something that follows me. In the 1999 Pan-Pacs (when I was 38), the 35-39 age group was by far the fastest of the whole meet. It was particularly bad (or good, depending ou your point of view) in the 3K open water swim when my 10th place time in my age group was 28th overall, and would have been no worse that 3rd (!!) in ANY other age group. As I said last year, "I got me a case of the too damn many baby-boomers havin' themselves a mid-life swimmin' renaissance and glogging up my age group blues..." Matt

Originally posted by Matt S Ian, Interesting, but I don't merely suspect that I am in the toughest age group, I KNOW I am in the toughest age group. Please review the NQT's for 40-44 Men. You will note that the fastest NQT's, FOR ANY AGE GROUP, are the 40-44 men for 200-1500 free, all 3 backstrokes, and the 200 fly!! ... Matt Also, for the 2002LongCourseNationals to be held August 2002 in Cleveland, men ages 40 to 44 have the fastest qualifying times off all ages, in: 200 free (at 2:21.82); 400 free (at 5:05.62); 800 free (at 10:54.98); 1500 free (at 21:05.94); 50 back (at 34.62); 200 fly (at 2:56.57), and come close to the fastest in many others. That's six fastest individual events out of a total of seventeen, more than a third of the entire meet. I compete in this toughest age group, without having a teenage swimming background which would peak for my generation in 1984 of Ian's Olympic chart: in 1984 I was learning to swim by myself, and afterwards I trained alone in public swim for three years. It's an achievement for me if I can make now a National Qualifying Time in men ages 40 to 44.

OK, There are a lot more members out there now than then. I just did my PR in the 3000 yd Postal event this year after swimming it four out of the last five years (lowered it by 50 seconds). I'm 49, just for reference. Who else is getting faster as they got older? (Not necessarily All Time Bests, but faster since USMS?) JT--you are undoubtably right re: the mediocrity thing:D

Fisch: I'll reply to your question of "Who else is getting faster as they got older?" in the hope of giving others a little assistance in goal setting. I swam for a year and a half in high school and through 4 years of college. 1967 to 1972 inclusive. Approximate best times for scy swims versus current best times as a 50-52 year old are as follows: Event - Then (all college) - Now (Hawaii02) 500 fr --- 5:12ish----- 4:58.94 1000 fr--- 11:15ish--- 10:23.50 1650 fr--- 18:08ish --- 17.15.00 200 im --- 2:14+ ------ 2:10.00 (Indy2K) 400 im --- 4:33.5 ----- 4:32.85 200 br --- 2:23+------ 2:22.98 200 fly --- 2:02+ ----- 2:10.13 My shorter distance times all approach what I did 30 years ago but the above (with the exception of the fly) still kind of "blow my mind". A 30 year old goal of breaking 5 minutes in the 500 achieved.:cool: Now, for the last 3 years, I've trained year round. In college it was a different regimen. My first year back, I averaged 24000 yds/wk. After establishing that base, I've pretty much been able to scale it back to an average of around 18000 with ups and downs depending on competition schedule. I generally compete in ALL meets (pool). This seems to get me the intense quality effort required for speed. 5 events one day, all 100% effort. I've also discovered that a 3 week taper works better along with arriving at the major competition sites a day or two in advance to rest, check in and mentally prepare. The last thing (but probably most important) is the program. Our head coach, Brian Stack, and his assistants truly make the effort to put together a quality program for the varied levels of swimmers that we train with. It also certainly helps to have the fast training partners that we get to swim with on a daily basis. Jim Clemmons Manatee Aquatic Masters Oakland CA (Mills College)

I've been improving in the three years that I've been competing. I am still pretty far behind what I could do in High School though. The events that I never swam before, I have my best times in though (I didn't swim USS). A big difference between me now and in High School is 75 pounds of added weight/drag. My technique is definitely better and I'm approaching those times.

Thanks for that information, Jim. I wonder how many people are like Jim - I think he is very unusual. Most of the very good masters swimmers (all americans in middle-age age groups 30 - 60) were also very good as youths - swimmers who could at least qualify for NCAA nationals. Jim was not in that class (sorry Jim) but now he is one of our best. Definitely one of the most hopeful postings (for me) in quite a while!

That is pretty sweet... beating your high school times. Congrats on that one. As for John Wayne swimming.... Its a stretch to visualize "The Duke" in the 200 free. It would be hard for a Pilgrim like the duke to swim with revolvers on. Unless we talk about the real Duke... the *** Nalu! (personal hero.) Although, Clint,"aka Blondie, Harry Calahan" is a bad dood... he should have been a swimmer. "You gonna swim this race or whistle dixie..." shinob -out

I'm delighted to report that I am finally escaping our age group. so you won't have me to kick around for a few years ! Seriously, it is scary to see some of the younger swimmer's times. Some of those 40 to 59 year olds are going faster than I did when I was a kid. Thanks to Masters swimming we can all age up and go against people from our time......... A friend of mine told me that his goal was not to be the fastest swimmer, just the oldest one. Food for thought..... Bert ~~~^o^~~~