Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Boomerang — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 04:36:49 GMT

Actually I never understood this tradition of extreme workouts after or before some celebration. IMO it actually causes extra unhealthy load on viscera. I prefer to do same yardage as usual but something easier aerobic and something I like to swim. Holiday should be holiday - in the water as well. You should enjoy holiday in the pool not torture yourself. If there's possibility to play some game like water polo instead of usual workout or just to have fun I think that can help recharge your swimming batteries. Btw today I hit 500 miles for this year and I'm glad about that. In general I don't set annual mileage goals otherwise I feel bad and guilty if I can't achieve them even if I couldn't achieve them due to reasonable reasons. I prefer to set goals for certain annual meets to improve my PBs. That takes to make good planning of the macro-cycle which should include different methods like drills, speed sets, intervals and mileage as well. This year I could swim 50 LCM br in 34.07 (my PB last year was 35.08) and 100 SCM br 1:15.71 (last year PB was 1:19.38) so this approach works great for me and I don't feel guilty for overcelebrating and don't need to punish myself for it by some extreme workouts. :banana: Totally agree! Great job on your PB's!

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

jgale — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 12:38:53 GMT

ElaineK, It is funny that you brought up the 1000 fly challenge. I was thinking that I needed to try to sneak at least 1000 fly in on New Years eve. Our coach gave us a 12 days of Christmas sprint workout. After a 1000 warm up, we did the following sprint set: 12 x 25 fly on 40 11 x 25 back on 40 10 x 25 *** on 40 9 x 25 free on 40 8 x 25 IM (two of each stroke) on 25 At the half way point, we switched to fins 7 x 25 kick on 30 6 x 25 fly on 30 5 x 25 back on 30 4 x 25 *** on 30 3 x 25 free on 30 2 x 25 kick on 30 1 x 25 choice on 30 c/d 300 I am not a sprinter by nature but it was fun.

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 02:24:31 GMT

ElaineK, It is funny that you brought up the 1000 fly challenge. I was thinking that I needed to try to sneak at least 1000 fly in on New Years eve. Go for it! :cheerleader: Then, join me as a Butternut! www.grinswim.org/.../butternuts.html 8201

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 12:57:42 GMT

Elaine - I did a thousand fly, but was not in your challenge. Butternuts forever!!! :bliss:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

orca1946 — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 12:36:14 GMT

Elaine - I did a thousand fly, but was not in your challenge. Butternuts forever!!!

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

flystorms — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 10:27:39 GMT

Oh Swimosaur, you've delighted my inner geek! Thank you!!

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Debugger — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 11:20:19 GMT

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 09:05:12 GMT

Ok, Elaine, this one's for you. Did this today ... Fibonacci IM set Merry Christmas! :carolers: Bruce's degree from SDSU is in mathematics, so this is a set he can relate to for sure, even if he is a non-swimmer. Way to go, Swimosaur-us Maximus! We both wish you a very merry Christmas as well! :santa3:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Swimosaur — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 08:08:35 GMT

My 800-400-200-100 IM swim is as extreme as I am going to get. Ok, Elaine, this one's for you. Did this today ... Fibonacci IM set The Fibonacci sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ... 100 IM on 1:40 (100 sec) 100 IM on 1:40 (100 sec) 200 IM on 3:20 (200 sec) 300 IM on 5:00 (300 sec) 500 IM on 8:20 (500 sec) 800 IM on 13:20 (800 sec) 's your 800 IM! 1300 IM on 21:40 (1300 sec) 3300 Total (by chance, 2*1650) Made all the intervals, too! Though not by much! What does this have to do with Christmas? Fibonacci is Italian for Father Christmas, dontcha know? I'm just happy to be able to swim at all!:bliss: Merry Christmas! :carolers:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Swimosaur — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 12:36:12 GMT

These are the swimmers who took up last year's challenge: So what's this years challenge? (NOT 2000 fly!)

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 10:25:17 GMT

Post #583: forums.usms.org/showthread.php Thanks, rx! My memory is :cane:. These are the swimmers who took up last year's challenge: That Guy- post #506- 13:56 :bow: pmmcoy- post #528- 15:23 rxleam- post #539- 16:59* (including :57 break in between 500's) Swimosaur- post #526- 17:52* (1000 split of a 1650! :applaud:) jgale- post #550- 18:29 Yosemite- post #523- no time reported Me- post #522- 23:07 :blush:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

rxleakem — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:25:55 GMT

Post #583: forums.usms.org/showthread.php

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:13:52 GMT

I think I was the other one. That was painful! Friday, we did a "make it up as you go" set. Roger picked a set first: 1000 yards of IMs. Everyone got to choose how they wanted to do it (e.g. 10 x 100 IM, 5 x 200 IM, 3 x 300 IM + 100 IM, etc.). I went ahead and just did 1 x 1000 IM. The goal time was 14:00. Nobody made it but I was close at 14:10. I probably would have made it if I had split up the fly but it was a fun set anyway. How could I forget about you? Merry Christmas! Way to go on your IM! :applaud: Will you and the Dave's be going to Auburn in February? If so, I'll see you there! :cheerleader:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 02:56:57 GMT

So what's this years challenge? (NOT 2000 fly!) I'm playing it smart this year. ;) Doctors orders were to lay off doing any extreme swims. As much as I would LOVE to beat my 2,000 fly record and throw that out as a challenge, I'm going to have to give it a miss. :cry: My 800-400-200-100 IM swim is as extreme as I am going to get. Same goes for annual miles. I had originally set 475 as my goal this year after hitting 454 last year; however, I scaled it back to a goal of 425 for this year. I'm at 421 and will probably hit 430 or so for the year, so I'm keeping a max of 425 for future annual goals. Unfortunately, my days of extreme swims are over if I want to keep off the surgery table and stay in the pool; BUT, I'm just happy to be able to swim at all! :bliss:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

pmccoy — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 11:00:32 GMT

Last year, I challenged other Forumites to a 1,000 yard butterfly swim before the end of the year. That Guy and Yosemite took up the challenge, and the three of us accomplished the challenge. (I can't remember who else joined in.) Can you guys believe it has been a year since we did that? Time :bolt:! Today, in honor of those who count down to Christmas Day, I started with an 800 IM and worked down the IM's (400, 200, 100). It wasn't that grand of an accomplishment; however, I did attempt these at race pace, such as it was. :blush: I think I was the other one. That was painful! Friday, we did a "make it up as you go" set. Roger picked a set first: 1000 yards of IMs. Everyone got to choose how they wanted to do it (e.g. 10 x 100 IM, 5 x 200 IM, 3 x 300 IM + 100 IM, etc.). I went ahead and just did 1 x 1000 IM. The goal time was 14:00. Nobody made it but I was close at 14:10. I probably would have made it if I had split up the fly but it was a fun set anyway.

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Former Member — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 10:36:55 GMT

On Christmas Eve, we used to a different version of the "12 Days of Christmas" and it went like this: 12x25 warm up 11x50 10 x 75 9 x 100 8 x 125 7 x 150 6 x 175 5 x 200 4 x 225 3 x 250 2 x 275 1 x 300 warm down If my math is correct, I think that is 9,300 yd. I don't remember what the specific parts of the set were but you can get painfully creative...

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

rxleakem — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 07:35:25 GMT

swimsuit addict has gotten many of us craving a Turducken this time of year :turkey:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Elaine Krugman — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 02:07:49 GMT

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Former Member — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 17:30:18 GMT

Xmas Sets: Warm-up 100 up to 1000 back down to 100 Warm-Down A 10,000 for time. This is one of the most boring swims possible. I couldn't keep enough songs in my head. My senior year of high school, 1994, we did 94x200's(not counting warm-up and down)

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

sunruh — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 12:53:11 GMT

i think it was '81 when we did the marathon swim-a-thon (tm) 1hr swim 1hr rest repeat 6 times for 12hrs total. i averaged 5k each hr for a total of 30,000 that day.

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

knelson — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 12:05:05 GMT

Long Beach Swim Masters...they have duty workouts in the pool. Better than doodie workouts in the pool. :bolt:

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

kmoehumphreys — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:47:28 GMT

We have a December kind of pagan ritual. We add one 25 butterfly to the end of each practice for each day, from December 1st until the Winter Solstice on the 21st. It starts off feeling pretty easy but if you swim 5-6 days a week by the time you get to 18x25s fly followed the next day by 19x25s etc. it takes its toll. But at the end we can celebrate accomplishing some tough swimming and look forward to longer days again. And IMHO for old folks it is way more sensible than 100x100s.

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

flystorms — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:32:46 GMT

robertsrobson and this thread of folks, you saved my bacon this morning, thanks! Our coach was sick this morning and asked a couple of us to fill in. I'd written down the 12 day countdown, tweaked it slightly, and stuffed it in my bag. It was funny how people said it looked easy on paper, but in actuality it was a tough! Thanks for the great ideas, all! Tomorrow if he's sick again, we have a backup plan of doing some warmup for 20-ish mins, then play around with fun relays. It'll be a good way to end the month on the last day before the pool closes.

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

sunruh — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 08:39:24 GMT

12/24/13 - Belmont (above ground) Pool - 100 x 100. Begin swimming at 6:30 am icing and ibuprofin on the finish. 12/25/13 off - too sore 12/26/13 off - ditto 12/27/13 off - see sports rehab 28th - 30th off and rehab 31st see orthpedist for that end of year insurance claim and why those shoulder hurt so much 5.68 miles is not something you just jump in a do bill, i wish the safest and best swims for all. really enjoy all of the info you print about the pools

RE: Holiday Traditions and Swim Challenges. What's yours?

Former Member — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 14:47:32 GMT

We did something similar last night - Whole session 3125m (it was meant to be 3000m but I changed a couple of bits around) 12 lengths of front crawl 11 singles fly kick 10 50s free pull 9 singles fly swim 8 50s backstroke 7 singles *** drill 6 half length form sprints (drift to 25) 5 hundreds IM 2500 4 doggy paddle 3 50s build 2 singles fly and 200 metre swim down Quite a tough challenge - our top lane did it in ~65 minutes, metres. We let the lanes manage their own rest and didn't give too much instruction otherwise (to fit the song!)