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.
I can only speak for myself, I've got 3 kids, ages 9, 6 and 2. They have all of their activities going on which I attend, I work 40 - 50 hours a week, play in a band, etc. I still do whatever I can to make swimming a priority. If it means getting to work at 6 or 6:30 in the morning so I can get out by 3 or 4 to get to a workout, so be it. If it means I swim at 8 or 9pm at night, so be it. My wife is cool with it for the most part as it keeps her husband healthy and happy.
The funny thing is, I put it in all of this time and effort in the pool, yet I rarely compete. I haven't done a meet in two years, and I think the last zone meet I did was 4 years ago. I get much more satisfication after a long hard workout, where I turned in great repeats or whatever, than swimming a race. I guess thats the downside of getting older, I'm not getting any faster.
I can only speak for myself, I've got 3 kids, ages 9, 6 and 2. They have all of their activities going on which I attend, I work 40 - 50 hours a week, play in a band, etc. I still do whatever I can to make swimming a priority. If it means getting to work at 6 or 6:30 in the morning so I can get out by 3 or 4 to get to a workout, so be it. If it means I swim at 8 or 9pm at night, so be it. My wife is cool with it for the most part as it keeps her husband healthy and happy.
The funny thing is, I put it in all of this time and effort in the pool, yet I rarely compete. I haven't done a meet in two years, and I think the last zone meet I did was 4 years ago. I get much more satisfication after a long hard workout, where I turned in great repeats or whatever, than swimming a race. I guess thats the downside of getting older, I'm not getting any faster.
