Last weekend I swam at the Ithaca Masters swim meet at Ithaca College. This meet marked my one year return to competitive swimming after 30 odd years. I pretty much entered the same events I swam last year, except that I didn’t swim the 50 butterfly and ended up swimming only four events. I had hoped that one year and some pretty intense training up to this meet would have allowed me to see some sort of improvement in my times. Well, not only didn’t I see any improvement, I actually got slower. A lot slower.
So, I’ve decided to go back to the drawing board. It’s roughly 16 weeks until the next swim meet I want to consider. I am going to have a more focused and prescribed approach to how I train. The first 4 weeks are going to be mainly on strength training. I’ll be away for a portion of this time period, so it makes sense, logistically and otherwise, to do my strength training. Plus, I just need to get stronger.
The second 4 weeks will be spent pulling back a little on my strength training and re-entering the pool. I’ll try to swim at least 3 times per week focusing at least 2 of sessions on IM strokes and stroke drills. A lot of zone 2 training to build up my swimming base while also putting more time on the IM strokes than I have in the past. I’ll also toss in some running and biking as weather permits to build up my cardio-vascular endurance.
the third 4 weeks will still have 1-2 days of strength/core conditioning, though I’ll probably dispense with the weights since they seem to really hold back my swimming if I am recovering from strength training. I’ll ratchet back on the distances, still maintain the focus on the IM strokes, and ratchet up the intensity….so more zone 3 training. I need to get faster by building my endurance and stroke turnover at the same time.
The final month will be almost all taper. Focusing on intensity, but not so much distance, and continuing stroke technique work. By the second week I’ll dispense entirely with strength/core work. And the last week before the meet I will put in 2-3 good sessions of intensity spring work, but making sure I have adequate rest for at least 2 days before the meet.
I had also focused very intently on my diet. I had cut back on grains, sugar, and alcohol, and was eating a primarily plant-based diet. In all likelihood I will continue with that program while cutting even more grain-based and sugar based foods out. Not totally vegetarian, though that is the direction I’ll head, but more pescatarian, though my fish consumption is not very high anyway so this shouldn’t really be more than just an added source of nutrition when I do decide to eat fish.
At 50 years old I’d love to think I could compete successfully in the pool. This may or may not be the case since I don’t think I’ve really pushed myself to that next level yet. Hopefully, this 16 week program will get me there. If not, I’ll have to step back once again and reevaluate. Either way I don’t want to lose my love for swimming because I’m so hell-bent on being a competitive masters swimmer. I lost that love once, never again.