Dara Torres-Amazing

Like others on here have said already.....How many others have tried the regimen that she is doing? Not many from what I know......so who is to say that the Smiths, Fort, Jeff or anybody else in here could not have some surprising results using her formula. I have read a lot about what she is doing. There is some interesting stuff but I wouldn't say the individual bits are "never been done" type of innovation. Putting them all together? Maybe there is some kind of synergy, I guess. I even bought a DVD of the meridian stretching method and tried the partner-less stretches a few times. I wasn't impressed, and that guy seems pretty flaky. Granted, I do not have the luxury of quitting my job, hiring a nanny and a support staff of coaches, personal trainers, stretchers, and masseurs. But I work out pretty much, have never taken an extended vacation from swimming, and can reproduce most times from my early 30s (granted, I was less into masters swimming back then). So I think I have a reasonable basis to predict what is POSSIBLE if I were chuck it all and train full time. I am 43 years old, and it is EXTREMELY unlikely that I can equal or better my college times even if I made it my life's mission. Believe me, it galls me to say it because I train much smarter and know more about swimming and competing than I did back then. And I retired when I graduated at 21; I think I would have been swimming faster in my mid- to late-20s if I had continued to train full time, much less used modern backstroke turns and SDKs. But I watch the young kids train and compete against them enough to see the difference. They recover so much faster than I do and can step it up 2 or 3 extra notches in races. It just isn't something I believe I can replicate at my age. I can only speak for myself. I think the Smiths are on record as saying pretty much the same for themselves. John made an interesting comment that the more elite swimmer one was, the more difficult it would be to accomplish the feat of equalling or bettering lifetime bests. Maybe it is true. Dennis Baker trains about as hard as I can imagine a 40+ swimmer can train. He accomplished an amazing feat in the 200 fly (for his age)...and was still quite a few seconds from his lifetime best (I believe he was a sub-2:00 in his prime, or somewhere close to that). I wonder if SVDL could come close to her old times if she did what Dara did...but I think that would still not be enough to make the current Olympic team, much less set a new AR. I have no idea if DT is using PEDs. I saw a TV special on her a few months ago, and I was a little taken aback by the many pills she did take (OTC stuff, I guess). Nothing illegal, I would assume -- didn't she say she was taking creatine at one point? -- but the mindset was a little disturbing to me. (I use the occasional Advil for pain/inflammation and sometimes drink chocolate milk for recovery, that's pretty much it.) But I do applaud DT's aggressive testing protocol. I don't know what else she could do. I doubt we will ever know the full truth behind her amazing performances so it is just a matter of opinion or faith.

Like others on here have said already.....How many others have tried the regimen that she is doing? Not many from what I know......so who is to say that the Smiths, Fort, Jeff or anybody else in here could not have some surprising results using her formula. I have read a lot about what she is doing. There is some interesting stuff but I wouldn't say the individual bits are "never been done" type of innovation. Putting them all together? Maybe there is some kind of synergy, I guess. I even bought a DVD of the meridian stretching method and tried the partner-less stretches a few times. I wasn't impressed, and that guy seems pretty flaky. Granted, I do not have the luxury of quitting my job, hiring a nanny and a support staff of coaches, personal trainers, stretchers, and masseurs. But I work out pretty much, have never taken an extended vacation from swimming, and can reproduce most times from my early 30s (granted, I was less into masters swimming back then). So I think I have a reasonable basis to predict what is POSSIBLE if I were chuck it all and train full time. I am 43 years old, and it is EXTREMELY unlikely that I can equal or better my college times even if I made it my life's mission. Believe me, it galls me to say it because I train much smarter and know more about swimming and competing than I did back then. And I retired when I graduated at 21; I think I would have been swimming faster in my mid- to late-20s if I had continued to train full time, much less used modern backstroke turns and SDKs. But I watch the young kids train and compete against them enough to see the difference. They recover so much faster than I do and can step it up 2 or 3 extra notches in races. It just isn't something I believe I can replicate at my age. I can only speak for myself. I think the Smiths are on record as saying pretty much the same for themselves. John made an interesting comment that the more elite swimmer one was, the more difficult it would be to accomplish the feat of equalling or bettering lifetime bests. Maybe it is true. Dennis Baker trains about as hard as I can imagine a 40+ swimmer can train. He accomplished an amazing feat in the 200 fly (for his age)...and was still quite a few seconds from his lifetime best (I believe he was a sub-2:00 in his prime, or somewhere close to that). I wonder if SVDL could come close to her old times if she did what Dara did...but I think that would still not be enough to make the current Olympic team, much less set a new AR. I have no idea if DT is using PEDs. I saw a TV special on her a few months ago, and I was a little taken aback by the many pills she did take (OTC stuff, I guess). Nothing illegal, I would assume -- didn't she say she was taking creatine at one point? -- but the mindset was a little disturbing to me. (I use the occasional Advil for pain/inflammation and sometimes drink chocolate milk for recovery, that's pretty much it.) But I do applaud DT's aggressive testing protocol. I don't know what else she could do. I doubt we will ever know the full truth behind her amazing performances so it is just a matter of opinion or faith.