Unrewarded Training

Ah, a fellow type A++++++++++ :banana: Take it easy on yourself, sure we all want to get better, stronger, faster but 90+% of the human race is still sitting on the couch dreaming about it while you're busting your chops doing it. Folks have given you some very good advice and all I'm going to add is: don't focus so much on the destination that you fail to enjoy the journey.

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. This doesn't seem to leave you much time to balance the other areas of your life. Maybe you are significantly over-trained and your body just can't keep up with all this anymore? I don't see a whole lot of down time here to allow your body to recover/repair. Plus, reading this, I don't get a sense that you are enjoying it. I get a sense that this is just drudgery for you. Hey, it's the written word and I could be wrong. But that's the impression I get.

Actually, this seems to me like a fairly typical case of overtraining. Between your swimming, lifting, and karate, you're not leaving yourself enough time to recover. Try pulling back for a little while, then gradually begin to increase your training at a slower rate than before. Am I an expert on this stuff? No, but I've found that it's very important not to underestimate the power of rest.

While I took up swimming again four years ago after a long hiatus mostly for relaxation and daily meditation, I also need to improve somewhat to stay motivated to do it. I probably won't enter any meets, but have instead concentrated on training for a handful of open water events each year. I started to get bogged down in self-training as my average 100 split never seemed to get much less than 1:28 or 1:30 over a 3K swim. Then I realized that at the pool I was training at, I was by far the fastest swimmer. I've since started mixing up where I swim and ensuring that I hit some places with swimmers faster than I. It's a real motivator especially when they are visibly older (I'm 39). I'm finally starting to see my distance times drop a bit.

Enjoyed your first post. Could have been my story exactly...but I started back at 40 years old...a little over 6 years ago. At the end of the day, it's hard not to be competitive. We all have this inherent quality by nature. (Swimmers that is.) But with age we are often humbled by not reaching our high expectations within a certain time frame. Don't get frustrated. Having a new perspective is key. It looks as if you discovered it. The swimming is the final step in a very long path to sensible living.Beyond this, welcome to the forum, and if you want to swim faster...do read ande's tips. :) But most importantly, enjoy your pool time and never turn it into work.

Hey Human, You're frustrated. You have goals you haven't reached. You feel like you've hit a wall. Everyone can improve. It's just a matter of determination, proper training, & time. Train through it. Your goals are 400 fr 4:59.99 or better 200 fr 2:19.99 or better 100 bk 1:09.99 or better Use your frustration to train smarter, more often, faster, & more intensely. Here's a thread that's similar to yours. Last 150 of my 500 falls off Here's my response to him Here's his results looks like you're also doing a some Comparing and Desparing here's what I wrote about that Tip 80 Comparing and Desparing As far as quick improvement ideas. What suit did you wear in the meet? Tip 201 Which Suit Suits you? More info On Racing Suits How tall are you? How much do you weigh? Tip 08 Lug Less Lard How did you split your swims? How's your SDK? How fast is your flutter kick? I know you can swim faster faster, answer these questions and keep working on improving. Ande read and apply ideas from: Swim Faster Faster INDEX 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.

Sounds a little familiar - I got back in the water a year ago after 25 years out and we are the same age. At first after about a month of workouts, I was dismayed with how slow I was. But you can't compare your 45+ year old self to your 20+ year old self, and then not against some one a decade younger - and yet you are probably faster than someone who is 25 or 30 at the same time. Maybe you are training too hard or too often like Ranic and PW state. Your workouts are pretty intense and maybe if you seim 5 X week, you back off on a couple of them to give yourself more recovery time. The goals you have set should be yours and not against some teenager - pull back a bit, do some all kick workouts to give your upper body a rest, read Ande's tips. Then one day soon you'll jump in and smoke one of those teenagers in a set of 200s or something like that, and your 400 time will take a nice drop. You've done a lot of hard work the results will come. Good luck.

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. I am a 47 year old woman who came back to swimming about 4 years ago after a 24 year break! Unlike you, I'm a sprinter, though we have the 100 back in common (my last one in SCM was 1:10). I'm swimming better than I thought I would at this age. But I train unconventionally -- very little short rest interval training (blech!) and aerobic work, lots of speed and race pace work, lots of kicking. Perhaps a key weapon was for me to learn to SDK effectively. I also use a shorter training cycle than many and try not to get into an extended fatigue trough. I rest for all meets, though sometimes just a few days. I've tried continuing with another sport I love, running, but I just can't do it if I want to compete in swimming. It wears me down too much. So I'd guess, as others have noted, that you are simply doing too much with competitive karate added to the mix. Cut back and rest more if you want to improve in swimming. (As I read recently, ask yourself, are you training to train or training to race?) If you want to continue in both sports, you need to adjust your swimming expectations. Do what makes you happy.

Hi. Its Juszczec from from the Karate Underground. I think you are being waaaay too hard on yourself. First of all, you're what, 47? You're 47 and doing everything you said in the list: physically, career-wise and with your family. Dude, I've got relatives just a little past 47 (I'm 42) who can't get down on the floor. So what that teenagers are faster than you? So what that some guy 8 years younger is faster than you. For every person that can outperform you in the pool, I can pull out 10 that can't come close to what you are doing. Now that we've got that in perspective, someone suggested you might be overtraining and I've gotta agree: weights 3-4x a week karate 3x a week swimming 5x a week (90 min per session) That's alot. This is me: swimming 3x a week (1k, half hour) weights 2x a week karate 6x a week (I vary these sessions from easy to exhausting) I think mine is ambitious, but its a walk in the park compared to yours. Mark