Injuries Don't Stop Masters Legend Penny Noyes, EP 228

Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo hosted by two world record-holding athletes. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your hosts, kelly Palace and Maria Parker.

Hello friends, welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast. I am your host, kelly Palace, and, as usual, I am with my co-host, maria Parker. Hey Maria, hey Kelly, it's great to be with you here today. Yes, and Maria, this is a special edition of Champions Mojo from the pool deck and we have a great interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful.

Yeah, and we. I wasn't there, but I was able to listen to the interview and some great takeaways.

Yeah, we hope you'll stick around and catch the takeaways. And here we go. We're on deck at the Raleigh Area Masters Last chance meet. It's the long course meet in August and I'm on deck with Penny Noyes and I have been wanting to be Penny in person for decades, literally decades. So, penny, welcome to Champions. Mojo, hello, how are you doing? Doing great. I got to tell you the first time that I really tuned in to how fast you were swimming for being a 65,. I'm 69 now. Oh, okay, so you're at the top of your age group, 69. I was in a heat after you at the Minneapolis Long Course Nationals and you were in the 60 to 64 age group. I was in the 55 to 59, and you swam a 106. It might not even been your fastest 100. But I remember all of us 55 year olds went wow, a 60 plus person swimming a 106, long Course, hundred, free. But you set nine world records, 14 national records. So tell us, what is the secret to Penny?

Noyes, I just feel like I'm not the age I am, I guess, and I swim, partly because of some family history and illnesses and health timers, and I have peripheral neuropathy and have difficulty balancing and swimming seems to help you a lot. My neurologist said keep doing what you're doing.

I recently noticed you used to swim for Sky right or Kentucky, kentucky, yeah, and then what are you doing now?

Where are you? I live in Bowling Green, kentucky, which is actually closer to Nashville, and so I switched over from the Kentucky team over to a Nashville team called Ennsworth.

Okay, great, wonderful to have you in our zone. Darn it, because all the records are getting broken. Just kidding, tell us a little bit about your training schedule.

I actually in 2018, I was trying to break 53 record and one of the USA coaches in town. I asked him if he would just watch me because I kept missing it by three 100ths of a second and he tweaked my start a little bit and I broke it the next time I swam it. I said God, I think I'd like to go for some more. And he said why don't you train with us? So since fall of 2018, I've been training with the 14 to 17 year olds on the Southern Kentucky swim club team.

Wow, Okay, that's wonderful. Awesome to hear. Now, what does that schedule look like? How many days a week?

It's at least six times a week, two days a week. We usually swim twice a day and then I do some weights at home, pretty light stuff, and I also cycle and do traplons. But I have a torn hamstring right now, probably need surgery this fall. I can swim, but I can't bike and run right now.

So that was my next question. Have you had a lot of injuries or not?

I've had four shoulder surgeries. I've had both ACLs replaced since 2010. I've had really good recoveries from them. They're long recoveries but I get in the water after three or four weeks and I swim with one arm for six months and I get back to it. It actually helped my fly because I did so much one arm glide when I was recovering from one of them.

So you're coming into a new age group 70 years old You're going to be next year. What are some of your roles for your next stage?

group. I think after this surgery I'm pretty sure I'm going to be having the surgery later this fall. I'll have a pretty long recovery but by next summer I'm hoping to be back in there. I'm really a drop dead sprinter but because I'm swimming with these kids it allows me to do things like 200 fly and 400 IM that I've never done before. So I just hope to get back into those after the surgery.

So have you felt like, as you've aged, do you feel like you're slowing down a lot, a little, or do you always think, hey, I can still do my best times in the top of my age group?

I feel like from 65 to 69, I definitely did slow down quite a bit. I was in a pretty bad car accident just before COVID and as soon as the ASCs opened up I had shoulder surgery and I haven't come back to the times I was doing at 65. But interestingly you mentioned a 106 that I did. My brother sent me a newspaper article from our whole hometown newspaper 50 years ago today, the date that I swam when I was in the 13 at Coinclair, canada, and I did a 106 then. So I thought that was really ironic that in the same year that I got this article about 50 years ago today, that was in there.

That is really cool. Okay, second to last question Do you lift weights?

I do lift weights, but nothing heavy. I don't do anything heavy. I do really like stuff, Do planks and things like that. And for the shoulders I actually do the PT that I did after the surgery is just to keep them in shape with vans and stuff, just to try to keep them from going out on me again.

Awesome, awesome. Last question we ask everybody when you dive in the water, either in practice or in a meet, spiritually, what do you say to yourself? When you dive in the water?

Well, if it's 200 fly, I say what the hell are you thinking? But 50 free. I just I really have a plan, usually as far as like when I'm gonna take breaths and stuff. So I'm focused on that sort of mantra of what I'm gonna do. And then if I'm doing something like a 200 fly, when I get to the second, for the back half of it I'm saying, hips up, just over and over broken record, how about in practice, just for relaxation.

For relaxation, yeah. What do you say when you just dive in the water?

of practice. I don't really play it, really space something to myself. It's just like stretch, just a stretch, especially on the warmup. Just get a really good warmup. I do need a long warmup, okay.

Thank you so much for your time, penny. You're such an inspiration. Thank you, hey there. Fellow swimmers and water enthusiasts Dive into the pool knowing you can confidently remove the chlorine after you swim with tri-swim. This gentle chlorine out hair and body care line is the perfect addition to your post-swim routine. Say goodbye to the dry, itchy scalp and say hello to tropical scents and moisturized hair and body. Made with botanicals, proteins and aloe, this product will leave your hair and skin strong and healthy. Tri-swim is the official chlorine out personal care sponsor for master swimming. Head over to sbrsportsinccom and use code mojo23 for 23% off tri-swim today. Penny Noise Wow, she is so amazing, maria. I was so happy that I got to talk with her because I've just admired her for decades. World record holder, national record holder Just an amazing career. She's at the top of her age group, at age 69 and still, if you know what swimming a sub 1,100 meter free is, think about the length of a football field. That's amazing. So what was your first takeaway?

My first takeaway is that she's still at it even though she's had a lot of surgeries, obviously lots of injuries four shoulder surgeries, two ACL repairs and now she's having another surgery because of a bad car wreck, and she just keeps coming back. I think, as we age, we can tend to think of ourselves as, once we have the big surgery, I'm gonna retire or I'm gonna do less. Your pond gets smaller, but not Penny. She just keeps swimming at the edge there and will not allow these circumstances of injuries, which are gonna happen as we age, keep her from being amazing in the water.

Yes, we tend to think, okay, I've had a shoulder problem or I've had a knee problem and I'm not gonna be able to come back, but she does come back Now. My takeaway, which is pretty obvious, is that she does get really fit by swimming with youngins, as I call them, or the kids. So she's training six days a week with the 14 to seven year old age team, and sometimes she even swims twice a day, and we talked about this a little bit before we started recording. That's seven workouts a week. That's a lot. I myself do about three, maybe four a week. She's not letting age get in the way of saying I'm gonna work out, I'm gonna work out a lot, I'm gonna work out when I'm recovering from a surgery, I'm gonna work out when I tired or I just love that. She's just like the energizer bunny she just keeps going.

Yeah, she has incredible discipline. I like that too. She's still doing the shoulder surgery PT exercises. She's keeping her shoulders strong. She's amazing.

Yes, and the one really cool stat which I think she pointed out but I just wanted to circle back is that she, at 50 years later so when she was 13, I think, she said she went 106 and the 100 free and then 50 years later, she still went 106 and the 100 free and that's the long course meters. She's maintained the speed and I imagine there were probably times in there when she was way faster than 106, but maybe in her 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s. But still to go that time 106 when she was 13 and then do it 50 years later is really a testament to how she has maintained her fitness. Yeah, she's phenomenal Inspiration. All right, maria, another great one in the book. Great, great Thank you, love you, kelly. Bye, love you too, bye.

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