Just been looking through old posts here from when I first started exercising, back in 2003.

Back then it was just 6 years since I’d finished proper swim training and I was complaining about struggling to swim sub 1:30 pace in the pool. Currently, 1:40 is more like it when I get back in the pool and I appear to be quite one-dimensional as I only really have one pace, ± 5s.

As for running, I seem to be about the same. Back then I was aiming to keep my HR under 150 on runs and holding about 10km/h on longer runs, which seems fairly similar to now. Typically now though I aim to keep my HR much lower, typically under 135 or so. This morning’s 8km run averaged 9.3km/h at 125HR.

So swimming ability has definitely declined over the last 20 years, which isn’t surprising as I haven’t done any consistently.

Running is pretty similar. Again, I’ve done nothing, but back in 2003 I was starting from zero as well, never having done any running as a kid.