Unfinished business in the pool??

Hi everybody, I am a new contributor to the forum, though I have been reading the threads here for a long time. I am interested to hear stories from masters swimmers who are competing because of 'unfinished business' from their high school swimming days/college swimming days.etc I swam in college and graduated in 2006. The college was D1 but one of the slower conferences. I was not close to making NCAA's. I have swam a little bit of masters on and off since then. It's been on my mind for quite a while but recently I realized how much 'unresolved swimming regrets' I have. I have decided to up my training and see what I can do. So I guess my question is, for all of you who have returned feeling like you have some gas left in the tank, how has your experience been? Any words of advice or wisdom to share? And the ultimate question, have you managed to exorcise any of those swim demons by returning? Thanks in advance for reading this. Welcome to the forums! I swam D1 as well and my quick,short advice is separate the two (Masters and previous swimming) as far as times, expectations, etc UNLESS you can train like you did back then. Otherwise, I think you'll be frustrated. For me, Masters is about pushing myself for me, no other reason. Nothing to prove. With 17 years out of the pool between college and Masters its quite simple to separate my current and previous swimming lives as well. Its now about health, pushing myself from within (I train alone as well so that alone is a HUGE challenge), setting goals, making friends, competition. As you get older the health benefits will probably become a bigger factor and all the other stuff just added benefits.

Hi everybody, I am a new contributor to the forum, though I have been reading the threads here for a long time. I am interested to hear stories from masters swimmers who are competing because of 'unfinished business' from their high school swimming days/college swimming days.etc I swam in college and graduated in 2006. The college was D1 but one of the slower conferences. I was not close to making NCAA's. I have swam a little bit of masters on and off since then. It's been on my mind for quite a while but recently I realized how much 'unresolved swimming regrets' I have. I have decided to up my training and see what I can do. So I guess my question is, for all of you who have returned feeling like you have some gas left in the tank, how has your experience been? Any words of advice or wisdom to share? And the ultimate question, have you managed to exorcise any of those swim demons by returning? Thanks in advance for reading this. Welcome to the forums! I swam D1 as well and my quick,short advice is separate the two (Masters and previous swimming) as far as times, expectations, etc UNLESS you can train like you did back then. Otherwise, I think you'll be frustrated. For me, Masters is about pushing myself for me, no other reason. Nothing to prove. With 17 years out of the pool between college and Masters its quite simple to separate my current and previous swimming lives as well. Its now about health, pushing myself from within (I train alone as well so that alone is a HUGE challenge), setting goals, making friends, competition. As you get older the health benefits will probably become a bigger factor and all the other stuff just added benefits.