Here in the DVLMSC we area a little thin on meets this time of year. I imagine that this is true in many other places as well. Therefore, for fun, and to help sustain the motivation to train, I set forth this Independence Day challenge: Swim an 800 IM, time yourself and report your result here.
To kick off this challenge, (and since I know that someone would call my bluff on this if I didn’t do it myself) I did my 800 IM today (SCY) and swam it in 11:50. Splits were:
2:55 (fly in 2:55)
5:44 (back in 2:49)
8:13 (*** in 3:29)
11:50 (free in 2:37)
(Next stop, :bed:)
To compare swimmers of different ages and genders, compute your rating as follows:
1) Go to the Australian Masters Swimming records and find the record for the SCM 800 IM for your age group and gender.
www.portal.aussi.org.au/.../records.php
For example, for my age group, M45-49, the record is 10:53.34, held by someone named Mark Smedley. (What a great name for an IMer!)
2) Convert the Australian SCM record to SCY with the swimming world time converter.
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../conversions.asp
(Just use the 400 IM conversion. Hey, this is for fun, we don’t have to be precise here.) For example, Mr. Smedley’s time converts to 9:45.39 SCY.
3) Convert both your time and the record time to a total number of seconds, and take the ratio of the record time to your time. For example, Mr. Smedley’s record time is 585s and my time was 710s, so my rating is 585/710 = 0.82. In other words my speed is 82% of that of the record swim for my age group and gender.
4) If you swim it SCM you won’t have to convert. If you swim it LCM, you can use the Austrailian LCM record and you will also not need to convert.
Anyone who completes this challenge gets a :banana: .
The highest overall rating gets a :bow: .
If you complete this challenge LCM, you are :weightlifter: .
So are there any takers? tjrpatt, That Guy, pwb, jaadams1, gdanner, couldbebetterfly? I know that there are some distance fly/IM types out there just itching to do this, so find a pool and celebrate the holiday! Any non-US swimmers, here is your chance to show that your motherland outshines the ‘States.
'didn't expect that you would take it up, but you will no doubt want to participate in Jim's "forum 50," if he does that again.
Do you happen to have a link to this "forum 50" by chance? I tried every which way, and because of the stupid 4 character limitation for searches, I really can't search on it easily. I'd look by username but I have no idea who "jim" is, and you can't search jim either :( Sorry for my unrelated post, carry on.
I agree with you on this...200 *** is the worst...it feels like it will never end!
Funny, I like the 200 breaststroke... LCM even more so. 200 back on the other hand, is like slipping into a mobius (where time becomes a loop. ti-ti-time becomes a loop..) I always seem to end up desperately looking behind me for the flags.
Here is is:
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
I had a heck of a time finding it again too because the thread was stared by qbrain, not Jim Thornton as I had (wrongly) remembered. I plead for forgiveness.
Thank you!
Swim an 800 IM, time yourself and report your result here ... Convert both your time and the record time to a total number of seconds, and take the ratio of the record time to your time ...
I did this July 3rd SCM as part of my favorite "Aussie Power IM Workout". It is such a favorite that I've failed to complete it twice in the last 6 months. Aussie, because it includes an 800 IM. Power, because everything is a power of 2.
Aussie Power IM Workout
800 warmup + swimdown, choice, surrounding the main set.
Main Set:
1 x 800 IM on 16:00
2 x 400 IM on 8:00
4 x 200 IM on 4:00
8 x 100 IM on 2:00
Main set is 3200 SCY/M and takes 64 minutes.
Did this SCM. 800 IM was 13:40, 400s were 6:40 & 6:45, 200s were 3:15's. Just like last time, I gave up after the 200s, could not face the 100s! Someday I will do it! Ratio of the 800 vs. Aussie record for 8IM in M50-54 is 11:49 vs. 13:40 or 88.6%
If I ever get the chance to go to Australia, I'd love to find a meet & swim an 800 IM. What a blast!
I did this July 3rd SCM as part of my favorite "Aussie Power IM Workout". It is such a favorite that I've failed to complete it twice in the last 6 months. Aussie, because it includes an 800 IM. Power, because everything is a power of 2.
Did this SCM. 800 IM was 13:40, 400s were 6:40 & 6:45, 200s were 3:15's. Just like last time, I gave up after the 200s, could not face the 100s! Someday I will do it! Ratio of the 800 vs. Aussie record for 8IM in M50-54 is 11:49 vs. 13:40 or 88.6%
If I ever get the chance to go to Australia, I'd love to find a meet & swim an 800 IM. What a blast!
Great going! Following an 8IM with 2x4IM and 4x2IM must be brutal. I can imagine that looking into the face of 8x1IM after that has got to be tough.
:banana: :cheerleader:
OK, I just "sucked it up" and did it tonight after work. Here's how it went:
800 IM for time (all splits are rough estimates from looking at clock during the turns)
Fly 2:25 (2:25)
Back 5:05 (2:40)
*** 8:00 (2:55)
Free 10:17 (2:17)
That's it. Pretty good considering that I'm not swimming too much right now.
OK, I just "sucked it up" and did it tonight after work. Here's how it went:
800 IM for time (all splits are rough estimates from looking at clock during the turns)
Fly 2:25 (2:25)
Back 5:05 (2:40)
*** 8:00 (2:55)
Free 10:17 (2:17)
That's it. Pretty good considering that I'm not swimming too much right now.
Great swim! Rates 94.7 % on the Aussi scale. You are dangerous when you don't train too much!
:banana: :cheerleader:
Great swim! Rates 94.7 % on the Aussi scale. You are dangerous when you don't train too much!
:banana: :cheerleader:
Thank you...maybe I'll attempt this again in September near the end of the month when I get all my endurance base built back up again. :applaud:
...my favorite "Aussie Power IM Workout". It is such a favorite that I've failed to complete it twice in the last 6 months. Aussie, because it includes an 800 IM. Power, because everything is a power of 2.
Aussie Power IM Workout
800 warmup + swimdown, choice, surrounding the main set.
Main Set:
1 x 800 IM on 16:00
2 x 400 IM on 8:00
4 x 200 IM on 4:00
8 x 100 IM on 2:00
Main set is 3200 SCY/M and takes 64 minutes.
Today I based my workout on this concept. In SCY I did:
800 wu BE3,
1x(800 IM + 200 AR)/16:00,
2x(400 IM + 100 AR)/8:00,
4x(200 IM + 25 AR)/4:00,
8x(100 IM)/2:00,
200 cd
Since the intervals are generous for SCY I added some AR, which I am sure makes this a lot easier.
800 IM@11:48
This is 2s faster than the only other time I did and 800 IM:
U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums - View Single Post - Independence Day challenge
This time my splits were:
200 fly@3:00
200 bk@2:50
200 br@3:18
200 fr@2:40
Last time my splits were:
2:55 (fly in 2:55)
5:44 (back in 2:49)
8:13 (*** in 3:29)
11:50 (free in 2:37)
So by loafing the fly this time, I was able to punch a much better breaststroke leg.
Last time I pushed the free a lot harder, but last time I didn't follow it up with another 2400 yds of IM.
Now I need to :bed:
Anyone else game for a shot at the 800 IM?
