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.
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.
I am one of those evil 45+ women.
Contrary to Art's observation, I have 3 kids, work part time and am very busy. I took 24 years off from swimming. I don't train nearly as much as other elite women I know. And I am mostly uncoached and have never had any video analysis. I also had 6 FINA top ten times last year. :P:P I have a couple women teammates with jobs and kids that pretty regularly grab a couple top ten times every year as well.
I attribute my times to quality sprint specific training 4-5 x a week, improving my SDKs, core work and staying fit most of my life. Quality over quantity is the ticket for me. Plus, I do a lot of drills and technique work. And I believe the fastskins help! I do cross train with some running and do moderate weights and core work. Otherwise, no secret formula!! I do use the John Smith cheater caffeine intake before racing. I have fun at meets though, and try not to worry about my times too much. The social part of meets is just as fun as the racing part.
However, I will say that some of the fastest chicks in my age group do not have children. That definitely gives them an advantage in terms of having more training time and flexibility. And I know some who put in serious yardage. They can also attend more meets. If I worked full time+, as I used to, I highly doubt that I would be competing right now. I have to train when my kids are in school or on the weekend.
As for the real elites like Susan VDL or Susan Walsh or Laura Val, that's just raw talent.
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 . . .
(S)he-Man, you are still young and strong. Your body is not falling apart yet like the 45+ crowd that Isobel was asking about.
However, I agree that quality over quantity works best for sprinters. If I did a 200, I would be stinky slow. From what I have gleaned, the women in my age group who excel at the longer distances put in much more yardage than me. I swim 4-5x a week tops and almost never put in more than 15,000.
Paul also appears to be referring to "quality over quantity" in the pool. He also does yoga, spinning, weights, plyometrics, tutu work. That all adds up to a LOT of working out and some "doubles."
My other "secret": the monofin.
Edit: I only swam for 1 year in college (at an Ivy league school, not UT or the like), so college experience is not really a factor or secret for me.
I think you can realistically swim pretty well with about five hours of training per week if you make the most out of those five hours. If you're a distance specialist you might need a little more, but probably not a whole lot more.
Here is a thought I think applies to most masters swimmers (Jim McConica and Dennis Baker excluded). When masters swim slow, they swim too fast. When they swim fast, they swim too slow.
Here is a set I like that helps to overcome this tendency.
All efforts on 3:00 (adjust based on your own speed/ability)
3 X 150 (first two very easy, #3 very hard)
3 X 125 (same protocol)
3 X 100 (same protocol)
3 X 75 (same protocol)
3 X 50 (same protocol)
As the rest increases and the distance decreases do not be tempted to speed up the slow ones. Instead, pysch yourself up for the fast ones. See how close you can come to pr's on the fast ones.
I'm following your advice, Mel! Well sorta. I'm mostly uncoached, swim mostly alone and like to go REALLY slow between fast swims. :rofl:
I could really use a stroke coach though. I have no idea what I'm doing and whether it's right. That's kind of a drag ... and that's why breaststroke is a lost cause. But now that the straight arm freestyle is back in vogue, I feel pretty trendy.
Is there anyone in the top ten for men 45-49 who did not swim in college? These guys all have strong swimming backgrounds and a lot of talent. Many were all Americans and swam for Division I schools. For us mortals, on the other hand, less isn't necessarily more. My experience has been very similar to (S)he-Man's.
BTW, George, "training smart" implies that you are actually doing some training!
Rich,
I have that problem and I have no idea how to slow down beyond a medium pace. When I swim by myself I try to swim 50 free as slow as I can and still maintain good form. The slowest I manage is 42 seconds for 50m. I can get it to about 47 by swimming with closed fists. Everyone tells me I need to slow down but I'll be durned if I can figure out HOW. Even doing descend sets, I swim the first at what I think is a slow pace (this morning first 75m was what I thought was slow, turns out it was 1:00, ugh). So I hear what you are saying but I have no idea how to put the brakes on.
Paul
