Yet...... another comment on "elitism" in masters swimming. This ongoing battle of two imaginary groups....... the selfish former elite swimmers and the non elite counter parts.
Yes..... The Evil Smith and I have taken great pleasure throughout the last decade trying to secretly split USMS into these two groups. Our efforts to perpetuate this divide and fuel our intolerance for "learners" is now being undermined..... :-)
One Big Happy Family: Marcinkowski’s Masters
reachforthewall.com/.../
"Butcher, Zerkle and others say numbers have soared because Marcinkowski has tried to strip the elitism from masters swimming, often thought to be populated with former competitive stars who have little tolerance for learners."
A lot of very good advice here, but I would dispute that the difference between a 7:30 time at 500 yards and a 9:00 time for 500m is not that great. When I do the math, that's a difference of 8 seconds per hundred yards.
Your time on 100 yards dropped by an impressive seven seconds in a year, but you were recapturing skills that you had developed in your teens. A lot of your improvement is probably attributable to developing your aerobic base again. Rtodd's times dropped by 12 seconds over three years, which is probably more realistic for a person who is relatively new to swimming.
I don't want to sound like I'm busting your chops - your strategy is detailed and sounds like it works. But I wouldn't want someone to read your very sound advice and feel like a failure if they don't drop 8 seconds off their hundred in six months or a year. If they do it over two years, it will still be pretty darn impressive.
I totally agree, and didn't mean to imply that it would work for everyone the same way. The intent was to get a focus that distributes gains across the workout spectrum, and get that heart rate up when you feel like slowing down -- with enough recovery in between. I agree that someone without a background in swimming getting their times to drop 8 seconds over 2 or even 3 years is pretty darn impressive. I actually only swam two years as a teenager and then for a year each when I was 23 and 27, but I do agree that even that short history helps. What I wanted to try to get across is the thing that is really hard to learn without having been on a swim team when you are young -- namely that you see gains when you push yourself at precisely those times that you'd rather not. The pressure of the other lane swimmers, and the coach, do that for you when you're young (and you recover quickly). Trying to replicate the situation (with expanded recovery) when you're older, across the aerobic and anaerobic spectrum, may help you improve as fast as you are able. So I was just trying to note that if you practice in a rut, you'll stay in a rut. Try to push yourself in different ways, and the body will respond better (maybe not in a single year, but as fast as you can progress.)
A lot of very good advice here, but I would dispute that the difference between a 7:30 time at 500 yards and a 9:00 time for 500m is not that great. When I do the math, that's a difference of 8 seconds per hundred yards.
Your time on 100 yards dropped by an impressive seven seconds in a year, but you were recapturing skills that you had developed in your teens. A lot of your improvement is probably attributable to developing your aerobic base again. Rtodd's times dropped by 12 seconds over three years, which is probably more realistic for a person who is relatively new to swimming.
I don't want to sound like I'm busting your chops - your strategy is detailed and sounds like it works. But I wouldn't want someone to read your very sound advice and feel like a failure if they don't drop 8 seconds off their hundred in six months or a year. If they do it over two years, it will still be pretty darn impressive.
I totally agree, and didn't mean to imply that it would work for everyone the same way. The intent was to get a focus that distributes gains across the workout spectrum, and get that heart rate up when you feel like slowing down -- with enough recovery in between. I agree that someone without a background in swimming getting their times to drop 8 seconds over 2 or even 3 years is pretty darn impressive. I actually only swam two years as a teenager and then for a year each when I was 23 and 27, but I do agree that even that short history helps. What I wanted to try to get across is the thing that is really hard to learn without having been on a swim team when you are young -- namely that you see gains when you push yourself at precisely those times that you'd rather not. The pressure of the other lane swimmers, and the coach, do that for you when you're young (and you recover quickly). Trying to replicate the situation (with expanded recovery) when you're older, across the aerobic and anaerobic spectrum, may help you improve as fast as you are able. So I was just trying to note that if you practice in a rut, you'll stay in a rut. Try to push yourself in different ways, and the body will respond better (maybe not in a single year, but as fast as you can progress.)
