I hope this post rings true with many of the swimmers out there, and I hope one of you has a solution for this issue.
Just as an introduction:
I am a 47 year old man who came back to swimming as a sport five years ago after a twenty year hiatus from the pool. At one time, in my late teens and early twenties I was pretty decent swimmer: placed in the top twelve at Canadian Nationals in both backstroke events, but realistically that was about as far as I was going to go. I was never going to be an Olympic contender and I was Ok with that.
I left swimming to get a life and here I am nearly thirty years later with a wife, daughter, carreer and all the debt that comes with those responsibilities. My mid-life diversion is now swimming, or more specifically, trying to regain some of my youth from the wreckage that mid-life seems to leave us.
I am now training as well as I ever did really. I seem to go from one work-out to the next with brief rest stops in-between for my carreer and my family. I do dedicated resistance training three to four times each week in my private weight lifting gym in my basement (actually a pretty nice set up, and this is coming from a man who dabbled in body-building for ten years). I teach and train karate a minimum of three times a week right now (just competed, for the hell of it, in the ITKF Nationals last weekend). I do five ninety minute pool sessions each week, logging between twenty to twenty five thousand meters per week.
Today was a typical session:
Warm-up 5 X 100 on 1:40 concentrating on my stroke. Descended down to 1:20 on the final 100.
Pull: 5 X 200 on 2:45, maintaining 2:35 or faster for each rep. No sweat to complete.
Kick: 6 X 100
Swim: 16 X25 on 25 pacing to get at least 7 seconds rest
8X 50 on 45 pacing to stay below 37 seconds per 50
Kick: 6 x 100
Swim: 5 x 100 on 1:30 maintaining at 1:15 to 1:16 on each rep.
Pull: 8X100 Backstroke on 1:40 half with PB, half without. (trying to get my legs more involved.
The point of all this is that, despite training at pace times that should deliver my fairly moderate goals of breaking a 5 minute 400 and a 2:20 for the 200 and maybe pulling my 100 back under 1:10, I am just not getting anywhere near that. In fact, I am getting slower each time I race. Lately my 400 time has gone from 5:02 (felt freaking great) to 5:04 (racing teen agers; I thought I was going to throw up) to 5:05 (felt easy and strong). I am pretty sure, given the right day and rested properly, I could go sub 4:50, which I could really be proud of.
Meanwhile my training has done nothing but intensify. More speed sets, more short interval sets, more stroke correction, more meters. I have lost ten pounds this year and am now UNDER my teen-age racing weight. This is from being a 250 lb blob just over ten years ago. The failure to succeed in what, by any measure, are very moderate goals is just spirit crushing.
This last weekend I had the great indignity of racing a 39 year old who managed to clock a 1:57:06 on the 200 free. I nick-named him "Bubbles" because, throughout the race that is all I got to see of him. He turned around an hour later and logged a 58:10 on a 100 back. He was disappointed because his best time in sub 57. Spririt crushing.
Any suggestions?
Great advice & Wow Mike, what an honor!
Thanks for mentioning and linking swim faster faster.
Build a Better Boat kinda sums it all up,
though for you it should be:
Build a Better Boat (and submarine)
Swim Faster Faster!
Ande
Good advice. It is difficult not getting caught up in comparing our 40+ selves with our 20+ selves, but in many ways age is like an accident. Just as you might lose flexibility and strength following an accident, so too one can lose these things with age.
This is not to say that you shouldn't try to improve, however.
First, I would recommend that you read some of Ande's posts in Swimming Faster Faster. One that comes to my mind when I read you post is Tip 159: Build a Better Boat.
Second, 2:20 in the 200 requires some speed. I would argue that a good 400 also requires some speed. I didn't read much information about you working on your speed. Aerobic work is fine, but alone it will not make you a fast swimmer.
Third, have you videotaped you swimming? This is related to the "Build a Better Boat" concept. Improving technique can have a much more dramatic effect on your swimming speed than conditioning.
Fourth, are you resting enough for meets? Several have suggested this, but really. What have your in-season times been like compared with your rested times? If you are not showing significant improvements when resting, then I would argue that there is something wrong with the way you are resting.
Great advice & Wow Mike, what an honor!
Thanks for mentioning and linking swim faster faster.
Build a Better Boat kinda sums it all up,
though for you it should be:
Build a Better Boat (and submarine)
Swim Faster Faster!
Ande
Good advice. It is difficult not getting caught up in comparing our 40+ selves with our 20+ selves, but in many ways age is like an accident. Just as you might lose flexibility and strength following an accident, so too one can lose these things with age.
This is not to say that you shouldn't try to improve, however.
First, I would recommend that you read some of Ande's posts in Swimming Faster Faster. One that comes to my mind when I read you post is Tip 159: Build a Better Boat.
Second, 2:20 in the 200 requires some speed. I would argue that a good 400 also requires some speed. I didn't read much information about you working on your speed. Aerobic work is fine, but alone it will not make you a fast swimmer.
Third, have you videotaped you swimming? This is related to the "Build a Better Boat" concept. Improving technique can have a much more dramatic effect on your swimming speed than conditioning.
Fourth, are you resting enough for meets? Several have suggested this, but really. What have your in-season times been like compared with your rested times? If you are not showing significant improvements when resting, then I would argue that there is something wrong with the way you are resting.
