I train with people who train hard but never compete and I just don't get it. If I don't compete, eventually, I won't train very hard. That will lead to not training at all. I need to have goals and train for meets so this way, I will keep the training going.
For those of us who love to compete, it is hard to imagine not doing so. However, there is certainly nothing at all wrong with working out hard and not competing.
I know I get much satisfaction doing a descending set well or negative splitting a 400 or predicting my time on a repeat to within a tenth of a second. These of course are mini competitions or self competitions that make a swim enjoyable and challenging for me.
Of course there is the fact that swimming hard and swimming well just feels good!
All that said, I am looking forward to my next meet.:D
If you want to train hard but don't want to compete for whatever reason, there's nothing wrong with that. I like competing although I don't get to do it much. I find it helps motivate me on days when that motivation is lagging although there are days I really push it without a meet in sight! It's all about enjoying your time in the pool, do whatever floats your boat!
I compete with myself and the clock. That is why I like having "benchmark sets" at practice now and then.
I don't enjoy workouts near as much if I am at a facility without paceclocks when I forget my wristwatch.
It does help me to have a future focus meet to help motivation on feeling-lazy days.
