Looking at one-hour results, and just finishing New England Masters SCY Championships at Harvard, how is it that older swimmers are getting faster and faster, and pretty much everyone is getting faster and faster compared to a few years ago when there seemed to be more mortal swimmers?
What are older (45+ women; at this point 65+ men) swimmers doing that keeps them at such elite levels? Weights? Extensive training? How much of both? How do they have jobs and families and train? The field of fast swimmers is getting deeper and deeper. Anyone have idea as to why?
I want to know the secrets. Are the people who race now self-selecting more and more as elite swimmers? Has everyone swum all their lives? I know to swim hard you have to train hard, but I am baffled by sudden increase in amazing fast times and so many records getting broken.
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Former Member
I need help with this philosophy. I need to first understand it. I keep hearing this from some of the top accomplished master swimmers (typically the ones who have an NCAA Div I background.) Although I will say that most of them have *just* come off their college years OR they still put in a heck of a lot of dry land and cross training on top of regular practices.
When I swam less, my times were significantly slower. When I swam more, I found 1. I was in shape to actually swim with better technique (still not perfect of course), but I found I could actually work turns and walls, SDK, throw in a good kick (develop a good kick first), swim more efficiently, etc.
So sure. We want to swim SMART. But don't you have to be in rather good shape to even try and accomplish that? Sort of the chicken and the egg question. . .
And 2. I had big time drops.
When I swam less, I was too tired/ out of shape to work all the proper areas.
No matter how much "quality" swimming I tried to do, it was not.
Second question is when I swam less, my 200s and above were really stinky slow. My 50s and 100s were near best times, but with more swimming, I still noticed big time drops in all distances including the sprints.
I admit in that *gradually* increasing swim time/ intensity was very key here.
Older people (myself included) will HURT themselves by upping things too quickly.
I'd love to swim less and swim faster. I don't understand how to do it. And what is considered "less" - specifically how much less yardage/ how much less intensity? And what are the goals - #1 in the nation/ world/ world record? Or just a top 10?
The women I spoke w/ who are in my age group and at the top do doubles and swim 6 to 10 sessions a week. :dunno:
So I hear that statement a lot but . . .
I need help with this philosophy. I need to first understand it. I keep hearing this from some of the top accomplished master swimmers (typically the ones who have an NCAA Div I background.) Although I will say that most of them have *just* come off their college years OR they still put in a heck of a lot of dry land and cross training on top of regular practices.
When I swam less, my times were significantly slower. When I swam more, I found 1. I was in shape to actually swim with better technique (still not perfect of course), but I found I could actually work turns and walls, SDK, throw in a good kick (develop a good kick first), swim more efficiently, etc.
So sure. We want to swim SMART. But don't you have to be in rather good shape to even try and accomplish that? Sort of the chicken and the egg question. . .
And 2. I had big time drops.
When I swam less, I was too tired/ out of shape to work all the proper areas.
No matter how much "quality" swimming I tried to do, it was not.
Second question is when I swam less, my 200s and above were really stinky slow. My 50s and 100s were near best times, but with more swimming, I still noticed big time drops in all distances including the sprints.
I admit in that *gradually* increasing swim time/ intensity was very key here.
Older people (myself included) will HURT themselves by upping things too quickly.
I'd love to swim less and swim faster. I don't understand how to do it. And what is considered "less" - specifically how much less yardage/ how much less intensity? And what are the goals - #1 in the nation/ world/ world record? Or just a top 10?
The women I spoke w/ who are in my age group and at the top do doubles and swim 6 to 10 sessions a week. :dunno:
So I hear that statement a lot but . . .
