middle age slowdown

C.C. - wait 'till you hit 60 !!! Disappointments galoor............

500 free age 20 in 1969 5:37.5 500 free age 52 in 2002 5:35.34 What middle age slow down! Work outs are better, more intense, better quality, better technique. I am working harder and swimming more than I did in HS or college. Don't give up!! Glenn

I started swimming again because I'm overweight. I'm still overweight but have lost 20 pounds. The freestyle and breastroke and backstroke range from 3 to 5 seconds slower in 50 yards. The butterfly 15 seconds to 20 seconds slower. But I don't do that much butterfly today to avoid injury. As a kid I was made a fair butterfly from all those meets and butterfly I did in workouts. If I started back in my 30's there probably wouldn't be as much deteroration. That's life.

I also know of Jim Thornton in this forum, who at age 49 is in his prime because he just did 1:55.xx compared to a previously best 1:56.xx from teenage years, and I have heard of Laura Val who swims now lifetime bests in sprints. Originally posted by Glenn 500 free age 20 in 1969 5:37.5 500 free age 52 in 2002 5:35.34 What middle age slow down! Work outs are better, more intense, better quality, better technique. I am working harder and swimming more than I did in HS or college. Don't give up!! Glenn Wow, your recipe works for you...

I understand some people do better. But if one looks at nationals qualfying times for 45-49 women they are similar to A age group times for 11-12 year old girls. In fact when I was 12 years old I swam a 44.0 butterfly. I clock around a 1:00 a couple times one I swam very slow and another I was tired. I know that some workout times can be as much as 10 seconds off depending upon the circumstances. But if I swimming 50 seconds at age 45 at a 50 yard butterfly versus 30.0 at 19 years old that is like a 20 second difference. Granted I rarely swim fly more than a 100 yards now. And the most was probably300 yards but that is a big slow down. I swam a 46 in breastroke in workout. I probably was a litle tired, but if I swim between 40 to 43 seconds in a race, I also did that at 12 years old.

I guess Cynthia, after seeing my posts about workout styles that you can guess this is also my recipe for avoiding slowdown. Originally posted by Glenn ... more intense, better quality, ...I am working harder and swimming more than I did in HS or college. Don't give up!! Glenn Note, that I took out "...better technique..." from it, because as I practice the recipe under coached workouts in many USMS clubs, I experience less than 10% as being drills, and working on one-on-one in technique in order to add more drills, doesn't make me believing in a breakthrough. However, in spite of this recipe by Glenn, expect like me, the slowdown: I believe that as we age, the maximal heart rate decreases and the aerobic follows. I simply don't understand exceptions like Glenn's, Jim's, Laura's, but they are not 'normal' and me I am.

Since I didn't swim my first lap until my 31st birthday, I don't have any age-group times to compare with my "middle-age" times, for which I am grateful. Next month I will mark my 10th anniversary as a swimmer and about all I can say is I'm faster, and more importantly, fitter, today than I was ten years ago. The long-term health benefits of swimming are so much more important than any pace clock or stop watch. To all of us gray-hairs, keep up the diligent effort in the pool and use the pace clock as an incentive, not a measure, of good health.

Cynthia, Having read your post, I must admit that being a clock watcher during workouts is unaviodable. My memory banks can easily recall some of the average times performed during training sessions. I wonder sometimes how it was humanly possible to maintain some of the paces that we underwent during the college years. But I do find it very encouraging to be able to approach within several seconds of the "glory" day repeats. All I know is that twenty years and twenty pounds ago that it was possible to use brute force to go up and back with only one breath (I'm a sprinter). I wonder if I tied a five pound sack of sugar to each arm and leg on my former self and had a time trial. I bet the younger guy wouldn't do so well. Being competitive though is in all of us. And having said that I've come to realize that honing in on stroke mechanics and technique is slowly closing the gap between the swimmer I am today and the one that I was last century. Thanks for the post!

Well, there are factors, mainly I don't do butterfly as much as I did when I was younger. Good thing I don't. Mainily my strength wasn't in the kick but the arm pull when I was younger in butterfly. That is much weaker. Also, the yardage has been on the low side. I'm trying to work to more yardage. I probably could do 3,000 yards plus workouts if I stayed in the water longer and did mainly freestyle. But I enjoy doing breastroke and a little bit of butterfly and backstroke. This is the main reason why my times are simlar to when I was 12 years old. I think that the freestyle is more like when I was 13 years old.

I think most of the good times have been in freestyle not butterfly or backstroke or breastroke and eventually all three will slow down in their mid 50's. I remember one master swimming doing a 1:05 in 100 yard butterfly doing the same event around 60 at 1:18. Laura is interesting because another ex-swimmer of national ability in her group Lynn Bell swims 100 meter breastroke and fly about 15 seocnds slower than she did in the 1970's. Maybe, because Laura started back working out in their 30's versus Bell taking up swimming again more recently that she is able to swim times faster or closer to her early days.