Some elite masters swimmers appear to be almost quasi "professional" in terms of the time and energy they devote to the sport and my impression is that there are more and more of such swimmers competing in masters now. At least in my two masters age groups to date, women's 40-44 and 45-49, there is a true professional swimmer (KPN), past Olympians swimming amazing times, professional triathletes and professional engine builders. (My spies tell me about their yardage.) Times across the board in my age group were much faster this year than last year. Not sure about the men's times or other women's times. Is it similar?
It seems like a massive amount of time is involved to put in all the yardage, weights, drylands, stretching, RC exercises, cross-training necessary and to go to all the PT, ART, orthopod and massage appointments. Their dedication is admirable. But I have difficulty fitting this all in. :violin: I'm sure most others must too. Life and kids definitely interfere with even getting to practice, wholly apart from a total devotion to swimming. So I can't out-train anyone.
Am I only imagining that masters swimming is getting more competitive? The phenoms are all just genetically talented swimmers? Thoughts anyone?
JUST TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, I AM NOT CRITICIZING ANYONE, JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.
the Valley Forge Masters team trains at Villanova university on Sundays for 2 hours and they have a pretty diverse group. The fastest group there, which I join frequently, will do between 6,500 and 7,000 on average. As a matter of fact, we recently had a set of 20 x 100 on 1:10. Vibeke was the only one who made all 20, the rest of us did 10 and knocked it back to 1:15 for the remaining 10. Personally, I'd rather to 10 200 IMs or 5 400 IMs but to each his own :2cents:
Once college swimming starts up again I'll usually train with the Lafayette college program 4 to 5 days a week and then a day or so solo. I think I average around 25 to 30k yards a week from September through February. Most of the other time its closer to 15k to 20k a week. I hope to taper for SCM zone championships in December and maybe get some good swims.
The toughest part about training where I live is the masters programs themselves aren't very competitive. The VFM team is great, but I go there once a week, and its close to an hour drive one way. The college season in no way lines up with Masters meets. They train and taper for championships in February, where zones and nationals for us aren't until 2 months later. I hope to be able to hit December right this year for a change.
the Valley Forge Masters team trains at Villanova university on Sundays for 2 hours and they have a pretty diverse group. The fastest group there, which I join frequently, will do between 6,500 and 7,000 on average. As a matter of fact, we recently had a set of 20 x 100 on 1:10. Vibeke was the only one who made all 20, the rest of us did 10 and knocked it back to 1:15 for the remaining 10. Personally, I'd rather to 10 200 IMs or 5 400 IMs but to each his own :2cents:
Once college swimming starts up again I'll usually train with the Lafayette college program 4 to 5 days a week and then a day or so solo. I think I average around 25 to 30k yards a week from September through February. Most of the other time its closer to 15k to 20k a week. I hope to taper for SCM zone championships in December and maybe get some good swims.
The toughest part about training where I live is the masters programs themselves aren't very competitive. The VFM team is great, but I go there once a week, and its close to an hour drive one way. The college season in no way lines up with Masters meets. They train and taper for championships in February, where zones and nationals for us aren't until 2 months later. I hope to be able to hit December right this year for a change.
