getting slower with age

...(can someone find the thread about times and age from a few months back.) is it one of these? life time best times and best times in each age group Mindset for a Maturing Swimmer Why so many 45-49 swimmers? Aging Well?

Thanks for that excellent thread! It begs for a nice table that I can use! :D It is an idea that I can ask rowers over at Concept2.com to see if we can come up with that table as well.

Thanks for that excellent thread! It begs for a nice table that I can use! It is an idea that I can ask rowers over at Concept2.com to see if we can come up with that table as well. Christine, go to the competition tab on the USMS home page and click the Top Ten link. This is not a simple table but rather a database of all top 10 swims in each age group for the past many years. It is similar in principle to the Concept 2 tracking except that the usms table is meant to include ALL sanctioned meets whereas the Concept 2 tables only list those who have entered data. If you want to see times further down than the first 10, then click the Current Top Times link on the competition tab. This will get you to a much larger database for the current swim seasons. You can browse through the age groups separately to see how it changes with age.

Meldyk, :bow: Thanks for taking me to the place where I could get to see how I'm comparing to the others in my age group. I'm a hippo compared to those women completing at 28 seconds free 50 SC. I'll need to shave 28 seconds to get there which I see is an impossible feat. :( But, I'll find the workouts to help me get there just like I did with Concept2 - row 2k at 2:10 or better from 2:30. Thanks!

Yes--if you can swim your age for the 100 free, your name is Smith. In Minutes?:cane: or seconds!:rofl:

Yes--if you can swim your age for the 100 free, your name is Smith. This is true - almost any of us Smiths can do this ;-) I can vouch for it - even in LCM now I'm old enough. A round of golf under your age is much tougher - I'll never be old enough. Rich must be the youngest to do a 100 LCM in less than his age?

If you can swim more than 10 sec under you age for 100 free your name is Abrahams.

Perusing the USMS Top Ten (back to 1993), the youngest to “swim under your age for the 100” were (assuming no errors on my part): SCY 2004 Jack Groselle (49) 47.85 SCM 2004 David Quiggin (60) 59.90 LCM 2005 Rich Abrahams (60) 58.61 2005 James de Lacy (60) 59.66

Perusing the USMS Top Ten (back to 1993), the youngest to “swim under your age for the 100” were (assuming no errors on my part): SCY 2004 Jack Groselle (49) 47.85 SCM 2004 David Quiggin (60) 59.90 LCM 2005 Rich Abrahams (60) 58.61 2005 James de Lacy (60) 59.66 I get the same results as you. But don't forget the women: SCY 2007 Laura Val (55) 54.83 2000 Gail Roper (70) 1:09.79 These are the ONLY two such swims I found.

great points as these younger faster generations of swimmers age and if they continue training they will totally redefine what is possible we're now seeing swimmers compete at a world class level into their late 30's and early 40's the most important parts of all of this is proper TRAINING, talent and keeping injuries in check swimmers have to figure out how to train guys like Rich Abrahams and Trip totally get it it takes dedication and consistency their results are proof how fast were you at your peak? how many years are you from your peak training? how bad of shape are you in right now? how much and how well have you been training recently? The fact is that you will slow down at some point. But I think we are not even close to what may be possible in terms of performance levels at an "older age". But we can still try to figure out what exactly "slows us down" as we age - here is my top 5 list (this is meant for swimmers that used to train at a high level): - time spent working out: I work out quite a bit right now, but it is less than 1/2 in terms of time spent working out as a youngster. - simple body weight: are you the same weight as in college ? Just 10 pounds can be a big difference. - flexibility: this is very underrated, but coming back from a shoulder surgery, I noticed the HUGE difference between having full shoulder flexibility and maybe 98% -- and "full flexibility" now is still much worse than 20 years ago. - Recovery rate: It just takes me a lot longer to recover from a hard workout. It is no surprise that Dara Torres spends so much time on massages and stretching. - Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results: this really applies to all levels of swimming - if you keep doing the same thing, you will actually get worse over time. If you keep doing the same intervals, the same sets, the same intensity, the weights, you may stay at the same level, but I think you will actually get worse over time. Your body and mind always needs new challenges - you need to push further, smarter, push yourself in different ways in order to improve.