Any ideas on how to adopt training setup for different age groups in masters?

My goal for the next 5 months (until SCY nationals) is to swim 5-6 days weekly and do weight training 2-3 times per week. My typical workout averages 3000 y.

I've started swimming masters in the early 80's while I was living in Texas. I trained three or more times a week and put in just 2000 yards. I was satisfied with my times. Now I put in less yardage and still swim the same times. My point is, times and not age is important. I can still beat some 20 year olds while some 60 year olds can kick my posterior. So, your workouts revolve around ability and not age and that usually is a given. Other variables revolve around work/training ethic, pain toleance, endurance threshold, sprint speed vs. long distance ability. Good luck, Coach T.

One aspect of training worth considering is work:rest ratio. As we age and our max HR slows down, it suggests that more recovery time might be advised in higher intensity sets. Let's assume that I (a 55 y.o.) swim a set of 10 x 100 on 1:30 alongside a 30 y.o. teammate and that we both average 1:12 for the set, giving us the same 18 seconds of recovery after 72 sec of swimming - for a work:rest ratio of 4:1. Because my teammate is a quarter-century younger, his (or her) heart will beat many more times during that 18 seconds, moving a greater volume of blood through the liver to process out waste. So even if I get the same duration of rest, I probably will not experience as much recovery during that interval. Ok, here's a question. I've always been curious about pulse/heart rate and how it relates to activity. I remember swimming in high school, and after a tough set my heart rate was about 180-210. I also noticed that larger swimmers tended to have lower heart rates, even though it seemed that the same amount of effort was applied on their part and mine. Is there anything to the idea that a larger heart muscle will beat slower when under stress than a smaller one? The comparison made was an 8 cylinder engine vs. a 4 cylinder engine. This is assuming that both persons are at equal fitness levels. Any thoughts?

trying to clear as much "gunk" from my muscles and bloodstream as possible. i do believe the pun will be lost on most of these readers

I have been told by some cardiologists and physiologists that the efficiency of the heart (read volume per beat) increases until the heart rate reaches about 180. After that it remains constant. Similarly, I have been told to, if you can and you don't have heart problems, getting your heart rate above that is good since it isn't going to be a factor limiting the amount of work one can do. (I have also been told to follow the silly .80*(220-age) but I would be in the 130 range now at 53 YOA :) ) I am getting back into the water after a couple of tough years of not being able to do so. I am pleased that I have been able to get my heart rate up in the mid 190's during a hard set that I really push at the end. 10 years ago, I would push it up to about 220. Recovery isn't what it use to be but it is getting better.

hmmm well I don't know... There are two types of intervals : - Intervals - Broken distance We, swimmers, tend to make a very extensive use of the latter. A broken distance is simply a endurance set broken into small chuncks. 10x100 off 1:30 (having 15s or rest) falls in the broken distance interval category. Terry, are you suggesting that we should make the "off" periods of broken distance sets longer for older swimmers? And what about making them shorter by slowing down the pace (if the pace is too difficult to hold)? I mean my point is. The main purpose of rest periods during a broken distance set, is to allow for partial muscular recovery in order to keep a better technique throughout the set. I don't see how HR fits in this equation. As for the real interval work, it applies more to VO2Max (and higher) intensities. Unexperimented coaches tend to allow rest periods that are way too short during these, no matter the age of the participants. Work/rest ratio for these should be at least 1:1, going up to 1:10 (1 minute on, 10 minutes off). Recovery should be complete. Work/rest ratio governed by the total available training time. Well that was my :2cents:

Is there anything to the idea that a larger heart muscle will beat slower when under stress than a smaller one? It's not quite as simple as that. In part, the answer depends on whether the larger heart contracts normally. Cardiac output is the product of stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped out of the heart in one cycle) and heart rate. That is, CO = SV x HR. If your stroke volume is greater (because you have a larger but normally contracting heart), you can achieve a given cardiac output (expressed in liters/minute) at a lower heart rate. Typically we increase our cardiac output by increasing our heart rate. Unfortunately, the max HR you can achieve declines with age.

Glad to see a cardiologist step into this discussion. Given this phenomenon, what would you say about my supposition that a 55 y.o. will experience less recovery in an 18-sec rest interval than a 25 y.o. even if they are capable of swimming the repeat set at the same speed, bcz the 25 y.o. will circulate more blood volume through the liver during those 18 seconds. And, even if we're capable of swimming on shorter rest intervals (and it's obviously great for one's ego when this is so) would aging swimmers be advised to adjust their rest intervals gradually over time in order to achieve the same training effect that shorter intervals produced at a younger age? Great exercise physiology question. I'd have to research that. There does seem to be a difference in recovery time which I believe is independent of conditioning (and clearly related to age). Masters coaches should take this into account when planning workouts, don't you think?