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)
Long Post, sorry!:
David,
I don’t know if I qualify, but I’m in the same place as you at this point. I'm 32 now, started swimming at the age of 6 on a team and quit when I was 19. I was never a Jr. or Sr. national qualifier, but I was close. I would usually place fairly high at the Zones meets. I was a distance swimmer and did a lot of over distance training. Unfortunately I never learned proper stoke technique until I was 17 years old. By that time I was pretty burned out already and only swam for two more years half heartedly. I still wonder to this day how fast I could have been.
Anyways, I started to gain a lot of weight (down 20 lbs now!) and my cholesterol is high so I decided to get back into swimming for health reasons. I’ve been swimming since February and am having fun working out on my own. I swim 3 times a week, 1 hour a night, usually about 3,000 yards per workout. Now I probably am not as serious as some, but I decided to sign up for a meet just to see where I’m at. There wasn't any masters meets in the Pacific North West this summer that I could attend. In fact I only found two, both in Oregon, but I was camping with the family both of those weekends. One of our local PNS teams was having a meet this past weekend and the registration form said I didn’t have to be registered with PNS as long as I completed the waiver from. I e-mailed the meet director and he said he would be glad to have me swim in the meet. Just this past weekend I did a 50M free, 100M free, 100M fly, and 400M free just for fun. I was the oldest one there by a few years (I’m 32, the oldest male was 17 I think…) and I got beet in my 400M free heat by a 15 year old girl! My splits in the 100 fly were horrible, I was out way too fast, but I still got 2nd place over all! I saw a few guys I used to swim with, they are now coaching for local clubs. It was fun to swim a meet again, but I don’t know if I will have time to train like I used to as a kid, but to be able to get some times for fun was great. I’m going to continue my three times a week for a while and might add some running and weights as time permits. I’m going to try and swim one or two short courses meets this year and maybe even PNS Champs.
If you are serious about working out and training hard again, I’d look for a local master’s team or US Swimming team that would let you work out with them. Most teams would be glad to have a person with your talent and would welcome you to a team. I’ve had one of the local master’s teams ask me to swim with them, but I just don’t have as much time as I would like to spend swimming with a wife and two kids. It would be easier to train with a team because you would have others around you and a coach to motivate you. You may never be as fast as you were as a kid, but it is fun to get out there and compete. You never know, look at Dara Torres, maybe at 33 you will put up some of the fastest times of your life. But you should know: workouts seems to hurt a lot more now than is used to and from one night to the next, I’m a lot more tired then I used to be. I’d guess it would take a few years for me to get back to where I was as a kid, if I trained for it, but I don’t plan on being that fast. Maybe in the sprint events, since I was always a distance swimmer in the past, but there is no way I’ll ever get back to my mile times, at least not until my kids move out and I have more time to train (which won’t be for 16 years!).
I hope this helps. Don’t jump in and expect to be as fast as you once were, it will take a lot of work and dedication, but if you work at it, I’m sure you can get there!
-Gabe
Long Post, sorry!:
David,
I don’t know if I qualify, but I’m in the same place as you at this point. I'm 32 now, started swimming at the age of 6 on a team and quit when I was 19. I was never a Jr. or Sr. national qualifier, but I was close. I would usually place fairly high at the Zones meets. I was a distance swimmer and did a lot of over distance training. Unfortunately I never learned proper stoke technique until I was 17 years old. By that time I was pretty burned out already and only swam for two more years half heartedly. I still wonder to this day how fast I could have been.
Anyways, I started to gain a lot of weight (down 20 lbs now!) and my cholesterol is high so I decided to get back into swimming for health reasons. I’ve been swimming since February and am having fun working out on my own. I swim 3 times a week, 1 hour a night, usually about 3,000 yards per workout. Now I probably am not as serious as some, but I decided to sign up for a meet just to see where I’m at. There wasn't any masters meets in the Pacific North West this summer that I could attend. In fact I only found two, both in Oregon, but I was camping with the family both of those weekends. One of our local PNS teams was having a meet this past weekend and the registration form said I didn’t have to be registered with PNS as long as I completed the waiver from. I e-mailed the meet director and he said he would be glad to have me swim in the meet. Just this past weekend I did a 50M free, 100M free, 100M fly, and 400M free just for fun. I was the oldest one there by a few years (I’m 32, the oldest male was 17 I think…) and I got beet in my 400M free heat by a 15 year old girl! My splits in the 100 fly were horrible, I was out way too fast, but I still got 2nd place over all! I saw a few guys I used to swim with, they are now coaching for local clubs. It was fun to swim a meet again, but I don’t know if I will have time to train like I used to as a kid, but to be able to get some times for fun was great. I’m going to continue my three times a week for a while and might add some running and weights as time permits. I’m going to try and swim one or two short courses meets this year and maybe even PNS Champs.
If you are serious about working out and training hard again, I’d look for a local master’s team or US Swimming team that would let you work out with them. Most teams would be glad to have a person with your talent and would welcome you to a team. I’ve had one of the local master’s teams ask me to swim with them, but I just don’t have as much time as I would like to spend swimming with a wife and two kids. It would be easier to train with a team because you would have others around you and a coach to motivate you. You may never be as fast as you were as a kid, but it is fun to get out there and compete. You never know, look at Dara Torres, maybe at 33 you will put up some of the fastest times of your life. But you should know: workouts seems to hurt a lot more now than is used to and from one night to the next, I’m a lot more tired then I used to be. I’d guess it would take a few years for me to get back to where I was as a kid, if I trained for it, but I don’t plan on being that fast. Maybe in the sprint events, since I was always a distance swimmer in the past, but there is no way I’ll ever get back to my mile times, at least not until my kids move out and I have more time to train (which won’t be for 16 years!).
I hope this helps. Don’t jump in and expect to be as fast as you once were, it will take a lot of work and dedication, but if you work at it, I’m sure you can get there!
-Gabe
