Does anyone know of a blog link to a successful Masters swimmer's personal training progression?
What I am looking for is a swimmer who, like many Masters swimmers, was out of the sport for a while, then came back to it having to start over.
My curiosities are:
- How long from getting started did it take to become competitive again. Competitive meaning you aren't necessarily breaking records, but are winning your age group a reasonable amount of time and when not winning, still finishing with the pack.
- During the progression, what was the workout schedule? Was it every day evenings + morning workouts? Only evenings? Saturday practices?
- Did your diet change, are you now eating more or less, different composition?
- Were you slim already or did you have to lose weight as part of your training?
I am trying to figure out how hard to train. I have been back in the water off and on for about 9 months, mostly casually 1-3 coached evening workouts a week (about 3500m each workout). I know I need to ramp it up if I want to compete. I am less concerned about winning, more concerned about just making swim meets worth the time to register and drive, etc. If this means morning and evenings and diet changes, I will do them, but dont want to burn out either, so would be nice to see what successful Masters swimmers have done.
If you are such a swimmer, and want to either share here or have a email conversation, just send me a message.
Me:
- Swam school and club teams from age 6 through a year in college. (Best time was something like 20.63 in 50 free yards in high school.)
- After college, didnt really do any kind of workout program until now.
- Age 32 (33 in a few months)
- My focus is on sprint events 50's and 100's.
- Height: 6'1", Weight: 218 (have lost about 20 lbs since I have started swimming again, hoping to lose another 20, but not shedding them as quickly with the same workout/diet as the first 20)
My bet is that you'd be competitive right now. For a sprinter, you don't need a ton of yardage to be fast. Training fast probably will help the most (do a fair bit of race pace swimming in your workouts). The 50 free is one of the most competitive races in Masters Swimming (for obvious reasons) but I think you will do quite well. Give it a shot!
Most masters swimmers can't train like they did in their youth (especially people in their 30s holding down full-time jobs), so you will be competing against people who also get in to train 3-4 times a week (for the most part).
For what it's worth (I'm 36--out of swimming since my junior year of college), it took me about 9 months of swimming, the last six of which were coached workouts with a team, to get myself to a place where I was happy with my swims (faster or almost as fast as I was in HS in 100s, slower in 200s but "competitive"). I train on average 3-4 times a week for about 3200 yards each time.
Good luck, and given that 50 free time I'm glad you're (for the most part) not in my age group!
My bet is that you'd be competitive right now. For a sprinter, you don't need a ton of yardage to be fast. Training fast probably will help the most (do a fair bit of race pace swimming in your workouts). The 50 free is one of the most competitive races in Masters Swimming (for obvious reasons) but I think you will do quite well. Give it a shot!
Most masters swimmers can't train like they did in their youth (especially people in their 30s holding down full-time jobs), so you will be competing against people who also get in to train 3-4 times a week (for the most part).
For what it's worth (I'm 36--out of swimming since my junior year of college), it took me about 9 months of swimming, the last six of which were coached workouts with a team, to get myself to a place where I was happy with my swims (faster or almost as fast as I was in HS in 100s, slower in 200s but "competitive"). I train on average 3-4 times a week for about 3200 yards each time.
Good luck, and given that 50 free time I'm glad you're (for the most part) not in my age group!
