How embarassing is it really?

Some, Not only is leaving early excusable, I believe that in some circumstances it is ESSENTIAL to pull the plug on a bad workout. - Injury avoidance: one of the most valuable lessons I learned as a masters swimmer was knowing when to back off. I had a very wise, former swimmer himself for a coach in my early to mid 30s. Up until that time, I went after every workout like I was back in college, max speed, lowest sustainable interval, work at the edge of tollerable pain threshold. He taught me when to recognize I needed to back off. Why? I ain't 21 anymore. My body could recover from a pounding then that would leave me incapacitated for weeks today. Listen to your body. As my yoga coach has pointed out, sometimes if you "ask it nicely" and work into it gradually, you'll be able to do difficult things. Conversely, when it says no, pushing through can get you hurt. Knowing routine, normal workout pain, from the kind that should tell you you're going to hurt yourself is difficult, but you got to recognize that the latter does exist. - Keeping mentally fresh: why are you in masters swimming, and how long do you plan on participating? Me, I'm in this for the VERY long term (think decades of swimming and enjoying it). If I have a lousy workout, the zest is not there, or I can't do today the work on my off strokes, I have two choices. I can gut it through, be in pain during and after the workout, wonder what I accomplished, and have a negative experience causing me to consider whether I still want to do this. Or, I can modify the work out to something I can do, or simply leave and try to do better next time. I sometimes chose the latter if it's a truly crappy workout, because that is easier to write off as a bad day, and I am happier about coming back for the next workout. My swimming is no longer about a personal record in the next 3 weeks (or it is not very often). It is about participating for the next 30 years. You are older; you will have crappy workouts for inexplicable reasons, and be perfectly fine in a day or two. Flush the bad before it becomes horrendous. Forget about "character building." You're a grown up and your character is pretty well set. - Seeing the warning signs: suppose you have one bad workout, and you gut it through, but the next couple of weeks you have one bad workout after another and you gut through all of them. Are you working yourself to a frazzle and you need rest, or is something else wrong? When Lance Armstrong had the first symptoms of testicular cancer, he assumed he was out of shape and just kept working harder. Finally, when he realized it was not conditioning and went to a doc, they found it had metasticized. In contrast, I went through a few months with about every other workout being so bad, I just got up and left. I knew I had enough rest between that was not the problem, so I went to see a doc. Tests indicated I was borderline anemic (duh, gee, that might acount for something in an endurance sport like swimming), and he told me to take some vitamins with iron. Worked like magic. - Not practicing lousy stroke technique: if you are tired, your stroke falls apart. If you don't have it today, and you are really stressed just keeping up, odds are high your stroke is falling apart as a side-effect. Don't practice bad technique. 'Nuff said. Please keep in mind you are in control of your participation. You get to decide what you are willing to do, and you (much more so than your coach) are responsible to yourself to do only things that are safe for you. You can chose to do that long fly set, but only because YOU want to. Once you realize it is about what you want, and not what is written on the dry eraser board, it is a very liberating feeling. Matt

Originally posted by Matt S Injury avoidance: one of the most valuable lessons I learned as a masters swimmer was knowing when to back off. I had a very wise, former swimmer himself for a coach in my early to mid 30s. Up until that time, I went after every workout like I was back in college, max speed, lowest sustainable interval, work at the edge of tollerable pain threshold. He taught me when to recognize I needed to back off. Why? I ain't 21 anymore. My body could recover from a pounding then that would leave me incapacitated for weeks today. Actually, this is a consideration for swimmers of all ages. About a week ago, I had the experience of coaching a 12-year-old girl who had had shoulder surgery earlier this year. I've even heard of competitive swimmers as young as 9 having shoulder problems. Hopefully, though, we who are adults have acquired enough sense to know that we shouldn't keep pushing our bodies even when they are telling us to stop. Bob