Saturday, June 13, 2009

Torres: On why I love swimming .. and on aging

Excerpts from Dara Torres, Age is Just a Number

"I also remembered the straightforward nature of life in the pool. You know exactly where your're coming from. You know exactly where you're going. It is easy to state your goals. Tasks and obligations are well defined. Life outside the water is so maddeningly full of complexity and nuance. I liked being back in the pool. The lines are clear and straight."

...lifestyle, not genetics, is the primary reason older athletes tend to slow down... Most people, as they reach their thirties, place more piroity on their jobs and famiies, as well they should. but as a result they downgrade their worout goals from achieving peronsal bests to stayig in shape. this might be the right decision or many. But if you still have athletic ambiitions, ifyou still want to compete and win, there's no reason you have to give up.

"So how long can peak athletic performance last? Accrding to the Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, both eleite and non-eleite runners and swimmers can maintain personal bests until age 35, after which point (for most people, and the most is important) performance delcies in a gradual, linear fashion until about age 50 to 60 for runners, or 70 for swimmers. Deterioration is the exponential from there. The Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory also found that swimmers experience more modest declines than runners, and that swim sprinters, like myself, experience the smallest declines of all. "


Oh yeah, I like that last sentence!

3 comments:

GetBackJoJo said...

"Most" is the key word--but not all!! :)
Did you know that Andy's X from high school wrote this book? He's still in good touch with her.
And I love that Dara's sister is Lara. Too perfect.

Nitsirk said...

No swimming for me yet. I just can't make the 6am workouts and no way can I fit into my wetsuit. I have been running very slowly 3-4x a week on the treadmill and that's it. I miss swimming terribly though. I may have to just go to general lap swim on the weekend sometime. I'll be at Peaks cheering though!

Swimming for ME said...

Nitsirk :( , but I totally understand your circumstances. Hope to see you out there soon and hope to meet you at Peaks.