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?
You should experiment with some "real" speed work as well like 25 yard sprints and less. Why? Doing a 1:10-1:12 for a 100 free is much easier if you can do a :15 or better for a 25.
Doing 25s for time made/makes sense for me as well. If you think about superfast swimmers who go :46-:44 in a 100yd free, divide those times up into 4 length intervals (:11-:11.5 per 25), then you have some idea of what you'd need to do to swim a faster 100. Once your speed is good for a 25, then you start adding to that. I'm guessing a lot of the folks who swim below :48 for a 100yd free can swim 25s at and below :11).
:)
I liked to do my 25s in endless relays teams, every 25 was contested and as fast as you could swim a 25. If you slacked off and did not swim fast enough the others on your team would get after you. This way you practiced diving streamline and and the touch at the end of your 25. The more people on your team the longer the rest period.
The first thing I thought when I read the last paragraph of your post was "overtraining". One of the first signs of overtraining is declining times despite increased training. To check whether this is the case, I would start logging your heart rate. If after training your heart rate declines on a course run at the same distance & same speed, then you are still improving. However, if your HR increases swimming same course & same time then you've gone past your limit. Ideally you should train right before your limit, so this might be a good opportunity to identify it.
Usually people set personal bests during their taper phase, and it sounds like you are not tapering. I would start by setting some long term goals (defeat teenage times) and then some short term goals (ideally, pick a meet in the future and aim for a realistic time that you think is likely and will make you happy to beat). Then taper properly for your meet. You might not get it on the first try, tapering is an individual science, so you have to keep track of what occurred and adjust things in the future. Usually a taper follows a period of intensive build up (like what you are doing now) where times do not improve noticeably. Then to taper you lessen the yardage, increase your rest, and increase your intensity. You should do a moderate warmup, then things at race pace, near race pace, or above. If you are aiming for the 200 and 400 I would NOT do a full race in practice. It will be better mental preparation to do 150 or 300 above race pace. Make sure you also do some shorter trials at race pace so you have it internalized, and do some full length trials while consciously holding back just a little. (A big part of tapering is preparing your mind to give that maximum effort, to convince it that it can, and to prepare it to give that effort despite the pain.)
If you can compete once or twice during the lead-up to your short-term-goal meet then that would be perfect to assist your taper. Racing a personal best is as much mental preparation as physical, and that seems to be what you are lacking most. If you train your brain properly you are sure to beat your relatively inexperienced teenage self.
Infinitely more knowledgeable swimmers have given you superb answers, so I'll only add some 47 y/o guy stuff. Our stories are the same: same age, same frustration at getting slower.
1. It's all about fitness and health. Hold onto that perspective tightly. BUT, one way to keep the excersise interesting and enjoyable and repeatable is to see improvement. To work hard and see regression in your times is terribly discouraging. I hear you. Been there, and it really sucks. So, you need to:
2. Build a Better Boat. There is no better advice for a 47 y/o who has been training hard enough. You've maximized your returns from effort. The results from switching from flailing through 'survival' practices, to instead being a better swimmer, were huge for me. And more fun.
Swim On.
