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)
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Former Member
By the way, that's an extremely aggressive definition of "competitive". I wouldn't necessarily be expecting to break records or win your age group. There are many extremely talented swimmers out there. I think the record for the 50 free in your age group is about 20.15 (soon to be 20.08) so if that's what it takes to be competitive, you've set a high bar for yourself. The goal I would set, if I were you (and the goal I set for myself), is to try to get as close as possible to my personal best times from my youth. Don't worry so much what other people are doing!
I appreciate the perspective. I guess my point is I don't want to pay for meet registration and take up a weekend to finish dead last every time. I want to train to the point where at least I am keeping up with the pack and placing in the top half. I think I would be de-motivated if every meet I was last by a huge margin, so I am hoping to motivate myself in training first and go into the first meet with a reasonable feeling of accomplishment.
The bizarre thing is that I really dont care about "winning". The medals at this age really are not what motivates me, it's more about me feeling like I have paid my dues during training. I don't want to swim for a few years only to get the sense that I was wasting time "slacking off" or "doing just enough". Going to meets and placing is just confirmation and motivation that I am putting in a good effort.
Masters coaches dont yell and scream when you aren't going as fast as you should. Ahh the good old days. :P
Also, I did do a 50 YARDS (not meters, edited, sorry for the typo!) free in a meet about 9 months ago (after training for 1 month), my time was 25:42. I don't know if I have really improved much because up till now I have been off and on and my effort level has been more maintenance mode.
By the way, that's an extremely aggressive definition of "competitive". I wouldn't necessarily be expecting to break records or win your age group. There are many extremely talented swimmers out there. I think the record for the 50 free in your age group is about 20.15 (soon to be 20.08) so if that's what it takes to be competitive, you've set a high bar for yourself. The goal I would set, if I were you (and the goal I set for myself), is to try to get as close as possible to my personal best times from my youth. Don't worry so much what other people are doing!
I appreciate the perspective. I guess my point is I don't want to pay for meet registration and take up a weekend to finish dead last every time. I want to train to the point where at least I am keeping up with the pack and placing in the top half. I think I would be de-motivated if every meet I was last by a huge margin, so I am hoping to motivate myself in training first and go into the first meet with a reasonable feeling of accomplishment.
The bizarre thing is that I really dont care about "winning". The medals at this age really are not what motivates me, it's more about me feeling like I have paid my dues during training. I don't want to swim for a few years only to get the sense that I was wasting time "slacking off" or "doing just enough". Going to meets and placing is just confirmation and motivation that I am putting in a good effort.
Masters coaches dont yell and scream when you aren't going as fast as you should. Ahh the good old days. :P
Also, I did do a 50 YARDS (not meters, edited, sorry for the typo!) free in a meet about 9 months ago (after training for 1 month), my time was 25:42. I don't know if I have really improved much because up till now I have been off and on and my effort level has been more maintenance mode.
