Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
The award-winning podcast for Masters swimmers, adult athletes, and health and wellness seekers striving for personal excellence. Join your host, world-record-setting Masters swimmer, former NCAA Division I swim coach, best-selling author and health coach Kelly Palace, as she dives into inspiring stories, expert insights, and proven strategies to help you unlock your champion mindset. A podcast that champions you!
Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
90-Year-Old Tech Whiz Who Tracks His Swims With Smart Goggles, EP 274
Cal Beattie defies expectations at every turn. At 90 years old, he's not just surviving—he's thriving as a competitive Masters swimmer who only started racing four years ago and trains alone in a small town in Virginia. He swims unattached with no team members and is amazingly disciplined. His journey from recreational swimmer to competitive athlete began after his wife passed away, when swimming became his solace and strength.
What makes Cal's story remarkable isn't just his age, but his approach to training and technology. Despite being born before World War II, Cal uses Form smart goggles to track his performance data with precision that would impress swimmers half his age. His methodical training regimen consists of swimming every other day, always timing his 400-yard freestyle and analyzing the results afterward on his smartphone. "I'm a one-act pony," he admits with characteristic humility, but this singular focus has yielded extraordinary results.
Cal Beattie shares his incredible journey as a 90-year-old Masters swimmer who only started competing four years ago after discovering he ranked fourth nationally in his age group while swimming recreationally after his wife's passing.
• High school swim team co-captain in 1953, swimming 19.2 seconds for 20 yards freestyle
• Swims every other day, focusing on a timed 400-yard freestyle using Form smart goggles that track his performance data
• Eliminated his atrial fibrillation through swimming after doctors wouldn't give clear guidance about exercise
• Maintains a heart rate of 134-150 during swimming and a resting heart rate of 58
• Credits exercise, diet, and 8 hours of sleep as his secrets to longevity
• Follows a disciplined nutrition regimen including a breakfast of grapes, flaxseed, lemon juice, olive oil, and baby spinach
Perhaps most inspiring is Cal's health transformation through swimming. Twenty years ago, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and put on blood thinners. When doctors wouldn't give him clear guidance about exercising, Cal made his own decision to start swimming regularly. The result? "After a year and a half, I went to the doctor. He said you no longer have AFib." Two decades later, his resting heart rate is an impressive 58 beats per minute—a testament to swimming's cardiovascular benefits at any age.
Cal's disciplined approach extends beyond the pool. His meticulously consistent diet includes a daily breakfast of grapes, flaxseed, lemon juice, olive oil, and baby spinach. He prioritizes eight hours of sleep, recognizing its direct impact on his swimming performance. "When I get a good sleep, then I go to the pool and I usually get a much better outcome," he explains. These habits form the foundation of his longevity strategy, which he succinctly summarizes as "exercise, diet, and lots of sleep."
Ready to be inspired by Cal's remarkable journey? Listen now and discover what's possible when you commit to showing up, regardless of your age. Whether you're a Masters swimmer yourself or simply curious about extending your prime years, Cal's story will change how you think about aging and athletic performance.
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
Welcome to Champions Mojo. Join us for conversations that inspire and empower you as an adult athlete, fitness enthusiast or master swimmer. Our goal is to make each episode insightful and inspirational and to discover what it takes to build or keep a life of personal excellence. I'm your host, kelly Pallas, and we're here to champion you. I'm doing an on-deck interview with Cal Beattie. He's 90 years old and we are just having a snack in the hospitality during the Virginia Short Course State Championships for Masters and, I course, state championships for masters and I love your shirt that says show up age up, swim masters. Cal, you did this meet last year and this year you're swimming three events and tell us what you're feeling now that you're 90.
Speaker 2:I feel wonderful. I mean I keep on swimming. I started actually swimming every other day after my lady passed away. My wife and I was swimming then every other day and then about four years ago somebody at the YMC asked me if I knew anything about master swimming. I said no, but I've been timing myself from the 500 while I was working out so I knew what my time was for 500. So I went to the internet and I said let me see the top 10 swimmers in my age group and what their time is. I said lo and behold, I was coming in fourth. I said lo and behold, I was coming in fourth and I thought the word master meant that it was a pretty fast group, you know. And it turned out that I went to several of these meets over the last four years and in my age group I usually come in first because nobody else shows.
Speaker 1:I usually come in first because nobody else shows Well. So prior to four years ago, when you started into your master's career, were you swimming? Were you an athlete? Did you swim in high school? Did?
Speaker 2:you have any background? Yeah, I was a co-captain on my high school team in Pontiac Michigan. I was the best freestyler there, but that was many, many years ago. I didn't improve. With the muscle strength that you lose over time, Then you lose the good times. It was interesting. Our pool was a kind of unusual pool. It was a 20-yard pool and in 40, we had a 40 instead of a 50. And in the 40, I was swimming 19.2 seconds. I was swimming 19.2 seconds. So how that equates? Possibly, if I was swimming a 50, then that might equate to about a 23, something along those lines. And that was back in 1953.
Speaker 1:Very nice. So did you stay in shape? You look pretty lean and pretty fit now at 90. During the time that you weren't a swimmer, did you stay in shape and do any other sports? Or did you have a career or a family, or what did you spend six decades doing before you came to master swimming?
Speaker 2:Well, I came out of high school and went to a college in Michigan called Olivet College. They had no pool. So the cross-country coach talked to me and said why don't you go ahead and try this cross-country? And he said well, follow this gentleman here who's got a scholarship to Olivet for cross country and just follow him around the five mile course. And I remember I had these shoes. I didn't have any track shoes, but I had some big old fat kids they called them with some thick soles, and so I followed him along and I got to four miles and then he sprinted the last mile. I went the whole five miles without ever having to run at all in high school or anything. So then once I got in shape, then I did pass him. It was quite interesting.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great, and it looks like you're registered for an unattached team. Do you still swim alone, or do you have teammates, or what is your training like?
Speaker 2:any scheduling. So that fits me very, very well Usually go to the pool, maybe around 10 in the morning, swim warm up and then I time myself on a 400 every time I go to the pool, and that's every other day. So I try to get a better time each time that I go to the pool, but it doesn't work that way, you know.
Speaker 1:So you're swimming every other day, and about how much yardage are you doing?
Speaker 2:Not much. I warm up and then I do 16 lengths, which is 400 yards, and I have these goggles that have a computer in them. They're called form goggles and I wear them every time and they sync all of my data to my cell phone. So when I come out I can compare that I've had these goggles for five years. I've got a dramatic amount of data and it projects to my right lens when I swim one length and it tells me right now what it was and all kinds of interesting data that the swim gives the computer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love form goggles. I own a pair of form goggles. They do give you incredible data. I am blown away that a 90-year-old, technologically, is using form goggles, which a lot of people just find even too difficult. So you actually take your goggles, connect them to your Bluetooth, upload the data. How do you look at the data?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you, it's quite interesting my last swim, my 400 swim, I'd been doing the 12 minutes and then I was doing 11, kind of constant, about a 12 minute and 25 seconds. I'm sorry, 11 minutes and 25 seconds. Then the last one I did, I did 11.07, which was my was my best time. Prior to that it was 1105. And I was really thrilled with the last time at 1107.
Speaker 1:Do you ever research how to get faster or what other sets you might do, or are you just really sold on this approach to year 400?
Speaker 2:I'd say I'm a one-act pony, I guess, because I just do the same thing every time and hope that I get a better time, you know.
Speaker 1:Okay, we got to talk after this because I think I can give you a set. That might be good. That'll speed you up. What I would recommend is doing 550s at a faster pace than you're holding. So if you're, do you know what your 50s are? For your 11 minute 400?.
Speaker 2:No, I can't remember what that is. I think I do about 41 seconds for a 25.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay. So that's what I was going to say. So if you're doing a minute, 20-ish, 50s per, so, that's 240 per 100. And then if you multiply that, so what would make you faster, and also make you have endurance as well, is to do 550s with two minutes rest and hold way faster than 120s for that 50. So if you did 550s with two minutes rest in between each one and you held 110s instead of 120s, your body would adapt to that pace over time and you would break 11 minutes for your 400 free.
Speaker 2:All right, I could give that a shot.
Speaker 1:I think that that might be something you want to add, maybe once a week.
Speaker 2:Okay, I will give that a shot, but I forgot to tell you about 20 years ago I had AFib. I went to the doctor and he says you have a poor heart rate. So they put me on Warfam, a blood thinner, and I was on that blood thinner. But when I went to the doctor I asked him can I exercise? I went to my heart doctor and I went to my regular doctor and they would not give me a straight answer. So I said, well, I'm going to just start swimming. So 20 years ago and after a year and a half I went to the doctor. He said you no longer have AFib. So that meant that I swam myself out of AFib and I haven't had. And I have my check, you know, once a year, sometimes twice a year, and I still do not have AFib.
Speaker 1:Exercise is such a great tonic for so many things that we humans get so your heart rate. Then, when you're swimming, like you've got two more races, so we probably should let you get going here. But when you're swimming, even in practice or in a meet, how much are you pushing yourself?
Speaker 2:Well, I try to push myself, but my foam goggles give me a reading reading, and most of the time. An average reading of heart rate is 134, and a high heart rate is 145 to 150, and that's pretty constant.
Speaker 1:That is a very high heart rate for 90 years old. So 220 minus your age is supposed to be your max heart rate. Did you know that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's supposed to be high, maybe around 130.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's beautiful. Do you know what your resting heart rate is?
Speaker 2:I take my blood pressure every morning and this morning my average for the 30 days my heart rate is 58. 58. Wow, that's so nice and low. Now, besides swimming, do you do any weightlifting or sit-ups or stretching or yoga? And then I do stretching and planks and push-offs off the wall. Yeah, and some several other things you know.
Speaker 1:Are you doing a full plank?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure I understand what a plank is.
Speaker 1:Okay, like a plank, you're saying, you're saying Push-off holding, yeah, yeah, where you hold yourself up.
Speaker 2:Okay well, no, I don't do that, I just do the push-off at the wall.
Speaker 1:Oh, gotcha Okay. So what about your support system? You swim alone, but do you have family or friends around?
Speaker 2:No, my daughter is in Texas and then my sister is in Michigan, so I haven't seen them. I did go to a meet. It was a national meet up in Ohio when my sister I saw her after 18 years and I went from Ohio to. She lives up in Michigan so I traveled up there and we had a nice little get together. It was during AFib, though you know we were far apart most of the time.
Speaker 1:Right, right, you mean during COVID?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes. So if you're 90 now, what kind of goals do you have for your swimming for the future?
Speaker 2:Looks like a century to me.
Speaker 1:That's great, and other than breaking 11 minutes in your 400 free during practice, that would be sweet. How about your 500 free today in the meet? What's your goal for that?
Speaker 2:Well, it won't be a 500. It'll be a 200.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sorry You're doing the 200. That's right. What's your goal for your 200 free?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you the very truth. Whatever it is it is, I try to go as fast as I can, pull as hard as I can and see what the outcome is.
Speaker 1:Now, I haven't had the good fortune of seeing you swim yet. I will watch you today. Do you do flip turns?
Speaker 2:No, I don't do flip turns.
Speaker 1:Do you know or have you heard of the swimmer Charlotte Sandahl? She's 100 and she did the 500 free at senior games a couple of years ago and she did all flip turns and her 500 free at the age of 100.
Speaker 2:That is wonderful, that is amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, any desire to learn to do flip turns?
Speaker 2:Well, I've tried, I don't know on a couple of occasions, but I can't seem to get my position right. You know, and with a grab turn you absolutely can put your feet on the wall, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you get some good air as well, which is always nice. What do you think your secret to longevity and health are?
Speaker 2:Exercise, diet and lots of sleep. Now I'm really counting on my sleep lately. I want to get definitely an eight-hour sleep and that I can tell. When I get a good sleep, then I go to the pool and I usually get a much better outcome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I heard you say you love frozen blueberries and what other healthy eating do you do?
Speaker 2:Well, I eat breakfast. I eat 15 grapes breakfast. I eat 15 grapes flax seed, a cup of water, two tablespoons of lemon juice and olive oil, one tablespoon of that and then I heat that up and I put the baby spinach on top of that and that is my breakfast every morning.
Speaker 1:And then I try to stay away from those foods that are packaged in. Can you eat all of that together, the 15 grapes and the lemon juice and the olive oil and the baby spinach and flaxseed, every morning?
Speaker 2:No, I don't heat it all together, I heat it in parts, and I do put a package of ready-made grits. I put that in as a kind of a body. I heat that up, then I put the grapes in and the baby spinach, and I've been doing that for, I guess, about four or five years.
Speaker 1:Wow. So that is very healthy and overall, do you feel like you're always that disciplined Because that's so disciplined to eat like that, Like what in your life gave you such discipline?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that, since I live alone and I can choose my time and then my diet, and I get used to the habits and the simplicity of the food that I eat because I don't spend a lot of time cooking Since my wife passed away, I've never opened the oven, but me and my microwave are really good friends. Do you eat meat? I do eat chicken. Yes, Now what I've been doing is I'll cook chickens from Walmart and I pull the meat off from there and I get two or three of those for the next day. That'll be my lunch or my dinner.
Speaker 1:Very good. Well, I really appreciate you spending this time with us, and is there anything I haven't asked you that you want to share with our listeners?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think I have anything at this moment. I think you've covered it pretty nicely.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much, Cal, and good luck in the rest of your meet today.
Speaker 2:Thank you much.
Speaker 3:Thank you for listening to the Champions Mojo podcast. Did you enjoy the show? We'd be grateful if you would leave us a five-star review on iTunes to help others find us, and we'd also love to hear from you. We're on all social media platforms or you can reach us at championsmojocom.
