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Uh, oh...

:confused: Okay, I'm kind-a new here, I need more of a clue as to what you guys mean ??? With two-two letter posts, this is saunding ominous, and I have no idea what's going on??? Could someone be nice enough to bother to clue me in? My question was a serious question. I apologize if I unknowingly stirred up an old controversy. :confused: :(

cinc310 , How long have you been swimming? I'm 34, just startred this summer... about 30-40lb overweight and very out of shape. - I take that back, round is a shape! ;) I'm 5'9" tall - don't know if that matters... I've been swimming almost every day, with my team for about 9 weeks now. Lost about 10-12 pounds so far, getting in shape, slowly. 3 weeks into it we had the zone meet, I signed up. Did 50 free in 0:48 (in a relay), and I think 0:51 or something in my event. Did 100 free 1:58... now is week 9, and I just did 1:55 in training, with a drag suit, not going off the blocks, not the smoothest flipturn, not sprinting and not having a clue that the coach was timing me (otherwords, not my best effort)... this is all LCM. I was flipping put (happy), and my coach was very surprized (pleasantly). I'm told I'll "get fast"... whatever that means... But, yea, I'm very competetive, if there is someone I can overtake without dying in the process, I will. It looks like out team *might* get to host the 2005 Nationals, so I'm thinking, that's 2 years out... I remember in my early to mid 20's it took me about a year to go from zero to athletic shape. So, I'm thinking, barring injuries etc... do I have a snowballs chance in hell qualifying for at least one event in the nationals by then, or am I just full of it? My best friend, who has been swimming since age 6 (also 34 now)and can qualify for nationals in her sleep tells me that it'll happen. I'm trying to figure out, has anyone done something similar, am I thinking realistically here, or am I totally out in the left field? What do the statistics say? There is still so much about swimming I don't know.... But when I set my mind on a realistic goal, it happens!

Its long story. I swam as a kid way back in the 1970's. I rarely was in the water for over 23 years. In 1999 I started to workout in a health club twice a week around 1,000 yards. Last summer I notice that I still have a fair breaststroke, so I started to workout around 3 to 4 times a week, once in a while 5 times a week between 2,000 to 3,500 yards in the health club pool and a rec pool during lap swim hours.

Well, the national standards, I didn't make in the short course too many good swimmers. But in the long course both the 50 meter breaststroke and the 100 meter breaststroke I made. I have trouble with the 200 meter breaststroke,according to the results, I did a negative split. Went out real slow at 2:00 and came back at 1:57 and I swam at 3:58 since it was some many tens of a second. That I missed by 11 seconds national qaulifying for my age group and sex. The long course standards are easier to make. And if you get better in one of the other three strokes than freestyle, they are usually easier because less people swim breaststroke or backstroke or butterfly than free.

Don't forget, swimming is a skill. While we get caught up in how much physical conditioning we lose as we grow older, our swimming technique improves. (Or at least it does in theory... :) ) It might be interesting to compare people with a similar experience level. Find a group of swimmers who have been at it 2, 5 or 10 years, of all different ages (30s, 40s, etc.), and see whether they've had a similar learning / speed curve.

Thanks Cinc :) Wow, good for you for picking it all up again!!! I like Long Course, and we train mainly in the LC pool... Sounds like that might be a good thing. When we have a day in a SCM or a SCY pool, I think to myself, ugh, a flipturn practice! I haven';t learned the fly, the arms part. I have the chest-down motion for the fly down okay (for a beginner). It feels very natural. So does the backstroke. I love the backstroke. I feel a lot more at ease doing backstroke than any other. Things just seem to fall into place. I'm a tad faster on a backstroke than a freestyle too. Partially probably because my kick works better, and partially I'm guessing because of my weak cardio. A funny little thing that happened couple weeks ago, the coach wanted us to do 2x100 fly kick on out backs (which was out of ordinary), and couple of out darn good and competetive swimmers exclaimed "I don't know how to do that". I watched that happen as I pushed off the wall, and just fell into it, for the first time. I was thinking... what do you mean you don't know how to do that??? In my little head it just didn't compute how come someone can't put thse two together and just go. It fels so natural even the first time. (yea, they were serious about not knowing how to do that) So, I'm discovering little things that I have a knack for, and others (like a breaststroke) that are going to take a lot more work. Anyway, sorry I'm getting long winded here... being that I'm new... this is all very exciting for me, and I still have that newbie overdrive. Thanks for bearing with me :)

Oh, mattson, what you said is very true! I keep saying... It would be mich simpler had I decided to taken up golf, when it comes to the skill required. I usually fo good in sports that require a lot of skill. My big weakness right now really is cardio conditioning. I'm coming out of 5-6 years of being completely sedentary, started of being 30 or 40 lb overweight about 10 weeks ago, with a short exception of swimming laps on my own, about 2 summers ago, for a stretch of several months. I started out with being as out of shape as it gets. Even right now, make me do 2x100 on 2 minutes (which would give me just a few seconds rest in between), and at the end of the second one, I'm over 2 minutes and panting and gasping for air... to a point that the coach usually asks, are you okay... I just go, yea *pant* I'll be *pant* okay in *pant* 30 seco*pant*nds or so *pant*gasp*pant* my cardio *pant*gasp* sucks... he just smiles, says, take it easy... :) I'm yet to get in a good enough condition to keep the form I thing I should be keeping past the warmup.

Everyone varies but it appears that people in their late 20's and early 30's can drop a lot of time. Me I'm 46 years old and batting up hill.