At the risk of sounding like a shameless self-promoter, which I suppose I am, there is an article in the Winter 2004 edition of Men's Health--Best Life magazine (the guy from CSI is on the cover) that I wrote about masters swimming. It's set at the Rutgers meet last summer and profiles a couple guys in my age group along with Bill Volckening, the editor of Swim and a super nice guy.
If you have any friends who are sitting on the fence about possibly returning to the water, the people I profiled might help inspire them to check out our sport's considerable benefits.
Best Life is a trial magazine of sorts that Rodale (publisher of Men's Health, Runners World, etc.) is currently selling only on the newsstand, four times a year, but is considering "launching" as a monthly. It goes against the current grain of men's magazines a la Maxim and its ilk, concentrating less on babes and beer than thoughtful analysis of subjects of interest to a somewhat older more reflective audience (40ish+) as opposed to youth oriented (18-34) demographics. I would sincerely appreciate anyone who has a bit of spare change grabbing a copy on the newstand near you!
For what it's worth, I do think you might enjoy my article--and lots of the other pieces in this issue. Thanks.
Ian and Jack, I actually wrote about Paul in my article, but he was trimmed out of the final cut for space purposes (plus the fact that he didn't make it to the Rutgers meet.)
Anyhow, I will paste in the Paul Trevisan excerpt below. I'm not sure exactly how much he works out, but it's pretty intense quality, from what I understand.
....Consider the nearly mythic case of Paul Trevisan, a 51-year-old suburban Philadelphian who made All-American as a high school sprinter. After a distinguished college swimming career--Trevisan was one of the nation's top sprinters during the Spitz era--he found himself heartily sick of training and gave up laps for links.
Flash forward a quarter century to 1997. While practicing his back swing on a local golf course, Paul heard a sickening crack in his spine and had to literally crawl to his car. Two days and one MRI later, his doctor informed him he had two herniated disks in his lower back. For the next year, Paul avoided the knife, attempting instead to quash his considerable pain with pills, cortisone injections, epidurals, and a smorgasbord of conventional and alternative therapies--all to no avail. His gait resembled that of an old man; he couldn't even bend over to tie his shoes. His weight ballooned from 200 to 240, and his energy level plummeted.
Nearing 50, Paul found himself snowballing fast down the back slope of life's Continental Divide.
It was at this point that his teenage daughter recommended he get back into the pool. His first forays into the water were hardly auspicious. "I couldn't even swim," he recalls, describing a back so painful and inflexible it was impossible to get horizontal. "I would walk some, then stand. I was just getting wet."
Nevertheless, he refused to give up, and after a year of daily 5:30 a.m. "workouts" he found both his energy and flexibility slowly coming back. A few of his fellow lap swimmers, impressed by his dedication, told him about an upcoming local masters meet. He entered this on a lark, and to his amazement, won both the 50 and 100 freestyle in his age group. The lure and thrill of competition would prove a fountain of youth for Paul, and since then, he's never looked back. Shortly after entering the 50-54 year old age group, he began setting world and national records in the freestyle sprints, accomplishments he hopes to better in the future.
"What started out as 'just trying to get healthy' has turned into a commitment to find out has fast I can swim," Paul recently told me. "I set goals each year, and this season I have set some aggressive ones. For instance, in the 50 yard free, I plan to do a 21.5, and a 47.5 in the 100. Is this sick or what? But it's a lot of fun, and I am so glad I was able to work my way through the difficult years."
Note: swimming has even allowed him to get back to golf painfree. Paul's now shooting in the mid-70s, playing better than before his injury. "But I play golf purely for entertainment," he says. "Unlike swimming, I don't plan to let it become a competitive situation."
For Senior Tour members, that's got to be a good news.
Ian and Jack, I actually wrote about Paul in my article, but he was trimmed out of the final cut for space purposes (plus the fact that he didn't make it to the Rutgers meet.)
Anyhow, I will paste in the Paul Trevisan excerpt below. I'm not sure exactly how much he works out, but it's pretty intense quality, from what I understand.
....Consider the nearly mythic case of Paul Trevisan, a 51-year-old suburban Philadelphian who made All-American as a high school sprinter. After a distinguished college swimming career--Trevisan was one of the nation's top sprinters during the Spitz era--he found himself heartily sick of training and gave up laps for links.
Flash forward a quarter century to 1997. While practicing his back swing on a local golf course, Paul heard a sickening crack in his spine and had to literally crawl to his car. Two days and one MRI later, his doctor informed him he had two herniated disks in his lower back. For the next year, Paul avoided the knife, attempting instead to quash his considerable pain with pills, cortisone injections, epidurals, and a smorgasbord of conventional and alternative therapies--all to no avail. His gait resembled that of an old man; he couldn't even bend over to tie his shoes. His weight ballooned from 200 to 240, and his energy level plummeted.
Nearing 50, Paul found himself snowballing fast down the back slope of life's Continental Divide.
It was at this point that his teenage daughter recommended he get back into the pool. His first forays into the water were hardly auspicious. "I couldn't even swim," he recalls, describing a back so painful and inflexible it was impossible to get horizontal. "I would walk some, then stand. I was just getting wet."
Nevertheless, he refused to give up, and after a year of daily 5:30 a.m. "workouts" he found both his energy and flexibility slowly coming back. A few of his fellow lap swimmers, impressed by his dedication, told him about an upcoming local masters meet. He entered this on a lark, and to his amazement, won both the 50 and 100 freestyle in his age group. The lure and thrill of competition would prove a fountain of youth for Paul, and since then, he's never looked back. Shortly after entering the 50-54 year old age group, he began setting world and national records in the freestyle sprints, accomplishments he hopes to better in the future.
"What started out as 'just trying to get healthy' has turned into a commitment to find out has fast I can swim," Paul recently told me. "I set goals each year, and this season I have set some aggressive ones. For instance, in the 50 yard free, I plan to do a 21.5, and a 47.5 in the 100. Is this sick or what? But it's a lot of fun, and I am so glad I was able to work my way through the difficult years."
Note: swimming has even allowed him to get back to golf painfree. Paul's now shooting in the mid-70s, playing better than before his injury. "But I play golf purely for entertainment," he says. "Unlike swimming, I don't plan to let it become a competitive situation."
For Senior Tour members, that's got to be a good news.
