breaking a plateau

It's hard to answer your question withouut information as to your abilities. Your plateau might be my goal time. Anyway, when I have felt I am no longer improving I try to isolate those things I know are weak. If I don't know those items off the top of my head, my teammates are a quality source of information on my faults. Then, I work hard on those aspects. Lately, I have noticed my streamline and breakout are horrible, at best. Improving those have improved my times. As I understand it there are a myriad of factors on how you improve, both physical and emotional. All those things can dramatically impact how you swim. You never know, maybe eating a banana on the way to the pool is all you need. Good luck. Let me know if you find the secret cure.

" a change is as good as a rest ", someone once said. You could just be in a rut. One year I noticed the same thing and just quit swimming those events for a couple of months. To my surprise and delight, when I came back to them, my times improved. Go figure !!! Bert

Keep doing your hard workouts and be patient. It can take a year to see results if you are already in good shape. I thought I was stuck at a certain time for my 50 free (two years at the same time!) in spite of an increase in workout intensity. Then just last week I just had a .93 time drop. So, my advice is to never give up. I think our bodies take a long time to process the changes, especially when we are older. Good luck.

I would check your flexibility. It is very likely that as you have been increasing your muscle strength your range of motion has decreased. When you do weights to where the muscle fibres strengthen, they will also tend to shorten. Increasing swimming distance & intensity would also cause this. To swim faster we need to keep our range of motion at as high as possible. Your Flexibility sets the limit to your Technique, which limits the effeciency and effectiveness of your stroke. Spend some time to stretch those muscles and your times should improve.