THE FREESTYLER
Neil Mackinnon – 75
How did you get into swimming?
It was a hobby at first. When I was much younger I swam for my local club, then went on to swim for Cheshire county. I was always a good way off the internationals, and didn’t get that far until I decided to give the British Masters Championships a go, aged 40. Strangely, my time had not improved much since I was 20. Somehow it was my lucky day.
How do you maintain such unvarying fitness?
It’s down to consistency with my training. I’ve basically kept to the same routine all these years but just got better and better at doing it. I got my first British record at 60. At 65, I got a British record that was a 10th of a second faster than I did it at 40, which – because it’s virtually equivalent to what I did at 20 – means I’ve had no fall-off up to age 65. Now, at 75, I’m just two seconds slower than I was at 65. And, on backstroke, I did a lifetime best at 68. It’s weird, but it’s all through holding performance.
What does a normal week’s training look like?
I train four to five times. I do a 30-length warm-up then 10 x 50m butterfly sets. I throw in a few front crawl sprints, but usually I don’t do much over an hour. I also swear by bodyweight exercises: pullups, dips, press-ups. Having a new goal to work toward is vital; I either want a new PB on something or to win the next medal. You can never rest on your achievements.
What else gives you an edge?
There are a lot of Youtube videos you can learn from to keep pushing yourself. At the moment I’m trying to learn the muscle-up. Diet-wise, I eat a lot of vegetables and not much meat, although I do use whey protein once a day. I also avoid processed foods. Miraculously, living this way has meant I have no joint problems and I’ve stayed at around the same weight – 10st 5lb – all my life.
What advice do you have for younger swimmers?
I tell them that sport has got to be a way of life, just like going to work. You shouldn’t think, “Oh, I’ll have a day off today.” It has to be automatic, and you’ve also got to enjoy doing it. And you should avoid stress like the plague. I never stand up when I can sit, and I never sit when I can lie.
Who impresses you in the sport at the moment?
[Olympic gold medallist] Adam Peaty put a video online where he does this explosive, super-human press-up. I gave it a go the other day. I couldn’t do it, but I did do 59 press-ups in a minute. And I can still do a one-armed press-up, too. What’s the biggest difficulty you experience when it comes to training at 75? Recovery takes a lot longer because I don’t train easy. I never plod up and down the pool. I’m a sprinter so everything has to be high intensity. I even push the warm-up too hard. But I’ll never say, “I’m old now, I need to slow down.” Never. If the 20-year- olds can do it, I want to do it too.