Performance improvement comes when you continually add challenges as you increase your fitness and expertise. This process of escalation is called progressive adaptation. Once your mind and body adapts to a certain workload, you become stagnant if you don’t progressively force yourself to strive beyond your current level.

You’ve thought about it for a long time, and after much deliberation, you’ve decided to attend your first U.S. Masters Swimming National Championship. That’s great, but if you want to have a great meet, there’s a lot more you need to do than just sign up for the meet and book your hotel room. This groundwork begins months before you step up for your first race. Preparing early for the big meet will increase your chances of success tenfold.

Being a clock watcher in your office is probably a sign that you’re not loving your job. But in the pool, learning to use the pace clock is an important part of becoming a better swimmer. Here are five specific benefits you’ll earn:

We make a firm commitment to our swim practices and dryland exercise, and we work hard to improve ourselves during those sessions. But if we’re not careful, our other daily activities (or lack thereof) can completely undo what we accomplish during our workouts. We need a strategy to overcome the negative effects of commuting, sitting at desks, and mindlessly slaving away to satisfy the whims of our cruel corporate overlords.

Regardless of your fitness level, as you age you’re fighting a battle against muscle atrophy and a decrease in power. For many, these changes can seem to occur suddenly. Sports physiologist Amy Knab, an assistant professor of exercise and sport science at Queens University of Charlotte, breaks down the process:

The swimmers who set records in distance swimming typically split their races very evenly. In Sun Yang’s 1500-meter race at the 2012 Olympics, his 50 splits varied by only a few tenths of a second throughout the race, and his front and back half times were nearly identical.

Swimming on your own has its advantages and disadvantages. Some Masters swimmers have had great success by swimming on their own or with one other person from time to time. On the pro side, when swimming alone you can come and go as you please, do the sets you want to do, and not be annoyed with small talk between sets. This works for some swimmers, but ask yourself (and be honest!): how many times have you bailed on a set or interval because it was challenging? And did you bail because it was really too hard or were you just not being pushed?

This time of year, many of us reflect back on the past year and think about what we’d like to do in the year ahead of us. Sometimes we start off with by making a New Year’s resolution. We’ve all heard them many times and you’ve likely even made one or two yourself over the years. Resolutions typically address a desire for self-betterment, such as losing weight, eating better, exercising more, volunteering, learning something new, quitting smoking or another bad habit, and so on.

Although swimming is done in a horizontal position, it’s valuable to engage muscles in different orientations. Many people don’t realize that you can do core work in a vertical position. Remember, your core is primarily meant to stabilize your body as well as transfer energy from one part of the body to another. Although gravity is less of a factor in swimming, it’s vital to be strong in a standing position.

Swimming is a big part of our lives, but it’s not the only thing we think about. Thoughts about family, work, and what’s for dinner can float through our heads as we float through the water. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; swimming is a great way to relieve stress and relax, even while we’re working hard. Singing, thinking about to-do lists, and anticipating an upcoming vacation are all legitimate things to do as we crank out laps to get a good cardio workout.