The 50 free and 50 fly are on the same day. I went back ten years and that's never been done. What is the sense of that? And they're only separated by a single, 100 yard event. There are a lot of people who swim both.
I am not sure if your concern is over the choice to have these two events on the same day or your concern about rest between these two events.
FWIW I just took entries from Oregon and seeded them using the Minn Order of Events to use as a crude estimate. There is 2 hours and 58 minutes between the first heat of the Men's 50 fly and the first heat of the Men's 50 free (or roughly 3 hours between the two swims for anybody in the same age group). Granted Oregon was an unusually large meet, but I would think there should at least be a couple hours between those swims. Keep in mind for Summer Nationals having two events separated by "only a single event" actually means separated by 2 because we have to alternate genders.
Jeff
Sure you can swim any events in a given time frame if your goal is to simply complete them. But if you're looking to maximize your performance at Nationals, you don't want your two best events on the same day with only one event between them. For those of you who don't know Doug, he will most likely be in the top three and can possibly win both of those events. If I were Doug, I wouldn't be thrilled with the event lineup either.
I'm sorry, but we're talking two 50's, roughly an hour and a half apart. If you can't recover from a max-effort 50 in an hour and a half, you don't deserve to win both.
Probably 80% of competitors have at least two events closer together than they'd like. Last time I went, it was the 400 and 100 free back-to-back. PR'd both, and that 100 was statistically my best swim of the meet. Looking at the schedule for this year's meet, they're back-to-back again. My plan is to suck it up, give my max effort on the 400, do a good cool down, get some recovery nutrition immediately, rest, and go give it hell again in the 100. I only wish my worst combo was two 50's with ~30 heats of 100 *** in between.
The 50 free and 50 fly are on the same day. I went back ten years and that's never been done. What is the sense of that? And they're only separated by a single, 100 yard event. There are a lot of people who swim both.
I expect you will have enough time between events to do your best, but I really understand your frustration.Sprints require more warm up and more cool down than distance events. You have to be able to go all out from the start and, for me, sprints require more mental focus, every move must be fast and near perfect from the start.
I have my own frustration with the event order. Probably my best event is the 200 BR, but, depending on who enters, my second best may be the 200 Fly. They are the same day with the 200 Fly first. The approximate minimum time for me to completely recover from a 200 Fly is 4 days.
You should see what USMS "made" me do at Spring Nationals. 1650 (33x50s) and 1000 (20x50) "back to back." Whilst I was extremely fortunate to have won both, I believe it to have been a deliberate and personal attack on my swimming happiness.
Does anyone know how the light rail passes will be dated? I will arrive on 8/2 and depart on 8/8 (extended for a mini-vacation). All the site says is they are weekly passes.
The Metro Transit website has a lot of great info. You might want to consider purchasing your passes through them, because they offer all-day passes starting at $3.50 and 24-hour passes for $6. Depending on what your travel needs are during your time there, it may be a less-expensive option. Alternatively, at the price of the weekly pass, you may be better off purchasing the pass, even if you won't be there a full week.
Here is a link to the Transit Guide For Visitors: www.metrotransit.org/.../minneapolis-visitors-map.pdf
You should see what USMS "made" me do at Spring Nationals. 1650 (33x50s) and 1000 (20x50) "back to back." Whilst I was extremely fortunate to have won both, I believe it to have been a deliberate and personal attack on my swimming happiness.
And now they are making us swim the 800 free and the 400 IM on the same day.
Does anyone know how the light rail passes will be dated? I will arrive on 8/2 and depart on 8/8 (extended for a mini-vacation). All the site says is they are weekly passes.
Details of the week passes are being confirmed with Metro Transit. We hope to have an answer for you early next week. Best guess is that the passes will run from Tuesday, August 1 through Monday, August 7, but we will confirm.
