Major 1650 sandbagging by a forum member

At my taper meet I want to swim BR fast and don't care about other events.If I can swim some fly or IM at a time that doesn't interfere with my focus events I might.I really don't want to swim a bunch of events just to swim a bunch of events. I just finished our Assn. Meet where I swam 6 events plus 4 relays,swimming 3 events back to back twice ant 2 events back to back another time.I did this because our team needed the points and I tried to approach it as a workout/tune up for Nats with low expectations for times.Anyone who looked at my seed times based on my prior best times would have thought I was sandbagging,but I know my limitations and my predictions were pretty close.I had fun mostly and felt good about helping the team.The "mostly"part is that although my plan was to be paced and not over do,that is really hard for me,especially as a relay swimmer.By the end of the meet my left shoulder was hurting.It was worse yesterday.It is a little better today.If it doesn't get better by tomorrow I'll see a Dr and hope I'll be OK for Indy.

There is always the exception. I'm guessing the fastest sprinter in the nation is not a geezer. I've done 3-4 events on many occasions in a 4 hour period as well, including two days in a row at our recent Zones meet. That doesn't mean that I like "loading up" and wouldn't always prefer more rest. I also don't appreciate some distance swimmer telling me what my "challenge" is. I would prefer mutual respect. Just sayin". Also it depends on what your goal is at the meet. Most people aren't going to a meet to maximize points and some can still can get max points in every event without swimming times that are good for them. I am fine doing events close together if it is a mid-season meet. If it is a meet I am going for a record or trying to get a metal at Nationals it is completely different.

Sandbagging seems unquestionably to be a mis-representation, which is why I compared it to others examples that most would not consider offensive, like dyeing your hair. One enters a time that one fully expects is incorrect. How is that extreme? What would you call it? ("Mis-representation" certainly sounds less offensive than "sandbagging" to my ears, but maybe that's just me.) I imagine the moralizing wears thin. Owners of Hummers perhaps feel the same way about Prius owners. Hey, I love our new Prius V! We're getting 46.7 mpg! I'll bet those Hummer owners are envious of that gas mileage! :thhbbb:

Honestly, I think I'm more open minded on the topic than you. :). I can see both sides, though I concede I don't like the name calling. I'm not sure I've ever seen you agree that there could be a valid or acceptable reason for sandbagging. Probably; I don't always see both sides of an issue as equally valid. I'm pretty firmly against terrorism and infanticide too.

Probably; I don't always see both sides of an issue as equally valid. I'm pretty firmly against terrorism and infanticide too. And anything potentially causing a tragedy of the commons ... Fresnoid, I'm doing pretty well on the recovery imbibing. It's the lack of slow twitch fibers and the fact that I am a veritable hot house flower that does me in for swimming 5-6 events per day. :) The high point aspirants are all safe from me.

I don't expect to see Michael in my heat at Mission this summer. I will take that as an invitation. If you post your entry time here for all to see, I will be happy to enter the same time.

But things can be different when you're AARP eligible. .:cane: Hey, I'm 50. Perhaps you aren't as diligent as I am at maintaining levels of malt beverage recovery fluids.

Plus sprinters are very capable of operating the counters for the distance freaks too. I really don't think it is fair to put a derogatory label on distance swimmers. They are just as baffled by sprints as sprinters are unable to comprehend pace. Could be a reason for their disdain for sandbagging. My college roommate, team co-captain and good friend to this day is a distance swimmer. I told him that after all these years I finally found a way to swim distance so it is actually fun for me instead of painful. He has a tough time understanding my routine/strategy of doing a descending swim instead of an even pace. I have found as a side benefit that swimming a distance race in a meet (almost always the first event in local meets) doesn't preclude me from doing well in sprints later. It acts as an intense warmup that I would otherwise avoid in order to save my energy.

It's rather disrespectful for an individual to change the event lineup based on personal convenience. I was unpleasantly surprised to discover how big the drop off is for a second event the same day at my age, but isn't part of the challenge of swimming to do your best in multiple events? The last meet I went to my times were all over the board, but I thought it was kind of cool to do the 200,400,800,1500 Free and 200 Fly and have every swim make last year's Top Ten. Some of us swim all four strokes and aren't six pack freestylers. Meet line ups can be challenging. Fly and back are frequently back to back events, for example. It is cool that you swim a zillion events in one day and like the challenge. Truly. I respect that, and even admire it. But don't expect a sprinter to either think like this or attempt this. It's not in our DNA, it is definitely not "part of challenge," and we don't have the requisite physiology. Sprinters are all about getting adequate rest between events. You can malign us for this tongue in cheek, but that is just the way it is. You carry on with your approach, and we'll carry on with ours.

... isn't part of the challenge of swimming to do your best in multiple events? What makes you think that? Some of us rarely swim in meets. That doesn't mean we don't have swimming challenges (GTD, maintaining or improving fitness, etc). Not everyone races. While I like the concept of meets, I find them to be fairly boring affairs. Too much sitting around.