Training

Question
I swim 50 meter or yard free style, breaststroke, backstroke and 100 meter or yard breaststroke and backstroke. I am 86. I have participated in the the National Senior Games (Olympics) in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007 and will be competing in the Tennessee State Olympics on 22 and 23 July this year. I know that it is late to be asking about how to train, but maybe I can apply the advice to subsequent years.
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Answer
Hello Donald,
First of all let me say how much I admire your commitment to the sport.. or rather lifestyle of swimming and I have to admit with your background I am surprised you are asking for training advice. Well being that the meet is so close I would not exert yourself too much, before a big competition the bast thing to do is take is rather easy the week or so before hand. If you body is use to a fairly vigorous workout then the downplay in workout level will only contribute more to a better preformance because you have all that energy saved up. since you appear to be a sprinter I would suggest just doing some DPS (distance per stroke) swimming during practice... take a 2oo freestyle and count out how many strokes per each 25... try to elongate your body to increase that number... this is a good drill especially for that week of taking it easy. Since it is a couple weeks before the meet now you should practice with some timed sprints at the apex of your workout when your heartrate is at its usually max. But take those sprints in twenty-fives... whatever time your usual sprint is during practice* add 15 seconds for a rest and keep going... depending on your fitness level, do about 10 at a time or so and then some pace 100s in between. Always plan your workouts ahead and have plenty of mixed drills and strokes as well as some distance and sprint sets. I hope this helped a little bit and GOOD LUCK!
-Jessica