do you have an off season

This is interesting because I've been thinking about it lately. Most of the year I swim 2-3 x/wk and do weights/cardio workouts 2 x/wk. (I didn't start swimming at this level until age 49. I didn't know how to do fly or a flip turn and the thought of competing ina meet would have struck me as absurd 3 years ago. Even now the 5000 yard workouts people talk about are not something I ever expect to do.) But here in Minnesota summers are short and I have to fit in golf and biking and gardening and time at the lake cabin and watching kid softball games. . and . . and. So in summer I tend to swim 1 or 2 x/wk and do the weights/cardio workout once, twice if I'm really lucky. The once is with the swim trainer and she doesn't let me slack off. But my swimming is continuing to improve in spite of less practice. I just did a 400 IM for the first time last week. I've never managed to do more than 50 yards of fly, but in spite of less training, I suddenly can do 100 - very slow with a couple extra breaths at the turns but still 100! For an older, overweight woman this is an achievment! I think it is the mental break that got me past my fear of the second 50. I expect I've had the stamina to do it for a while I was just afraid to try. So I believe that breaks are helpful - and for folks like me - vital.

This is interesting because I've been thinking about it lately. Most of the year I swim 2-3 x/wk and do weights/cardio workouts 2 x/wk. (I didn't start swimming at this level until age 49. I didn't know how to do fly or a flip turn and the thought of competing ina meet would have struck me as absurd 3 years ago. Even now the 5000 yard workouts people talk about are not something I ever expect to do.) But here in Minnesota summers are short and I have to fit in golf and biking and gardening and time at the lake cabin and watching kid softball games. . and . . and. So in summer I tend to swim 1 or 2 x/wk and do the weights/cardio workout once, twice if I'm really lucky. The once is with the swim trainer and she doesn't let me slack off. But my swimming is continuing to improve in spite of less practice. I just did a 400 IM for the first time last week. I've never managed to do more than 50 yards of fly, but in spite of less training, I suddenly can do 100 - very slow with a couple extra breaths at the turns but still 100! For an older, overweight woman this is an achievment! I think it is the mental break that got me past my fear of the second 50. I expect I've had the stamina to do it for a while I was just afraid to try. So I believe that breaks are helpful - and for folks like me - vital.