I was just looking over the schedule for long course nationals in Auburn, AL and I see the 800 and 1500 are on the same day, as were the 1000 & mile in Mesa. Please have one race at the beginning of the meet and one at the end of the meet so distance swimmers can do all their races, thanks!
There are a lot of good pro and con arguments on this thread but this is the one I basically side with. Waiting until the last day to swim the hardest event would be awful. I look at it completely in reverse -- why screw up the rest of my meet by trashing myself on the 1650 on the 1st day of the meet? When I return to distance events this fall and spring, I'll almost for sure enter the 1000 on the 1st day of Nationals because it takes so much less out of me than the 1650 (primarily because I still don't train enough to effectively race either!). My preferred 4 day race format at Nationals would be something like:
Day 1 - 1000 free
Day 2 - 400 IM and 200 free
Day 3 - 500 free and 200 IM
Day 4 - 1650 free
You can easily find USAS meets that have a format similar to this ...
There are a lot of good pro and con arguments on this thread but this is the one I basically side with. Waiting until the last day to swim the hardest event would be awful. I look at it completely in reverse -- why screw up the rest of my meet by trashing myself on the 1650 on the 1st day of the meet? When I return to distance events this fall and spring, I'll almost for sure enter the 1000 on the 1st day of Nationals because it takes so much less out of me than the 1650 (primarily because I still don't train enough to effectively race either!). My preferred 4 day race format at Nationals would be something like:
Day 1 - 1000 free
Day 2 - 400 IM and 200 free
Day 3 - 500 free and 200 IM
Day 4 - 1650 free
You can easily find USAS meets that have a format similar to this ...
