Okay... I know, this is perhaps a little bit of a tongue in cheek question...
So often I hear people complaining about not enough 'distance' swims in zone and national meets, or meets in general.
Just having been involved in organizing my firat more serious swim meet I have to ask... Almost noone, or very few people want to swim the 200 fly, or 200 Brast or 200 back?
Is that not 'distance enough?'
I just got a zone meet medal in 200 back, not because I'm fast, but because noone wants to swim it.
How about some real endurance testing events like 400 or 800 Fly? 800 IM? How about a postal 800 IM?
Or 30 minute stroke check off challenge? One for each stroke, rather than just freestyle?
Okay, now that I tossed this out there, I think I'm gonna duck and run. ;)
Former Member
My son had to do 1000 IM in practice. He said it was brutal!
Ooh, Emmett, you're gonna hear it for that post.
Ladies - for the record, my wife makes her own money and has her own credit cards. I'm purely along for the moral support of jean shopping. It is still the most miserable task to be asked to participate in. I'll fake any malady to get out of it.
You know, it is sort of strange. Most of us train nearly year-round, several days per week. Yet we get to a meet and decide a 400 IM is too much pain. Heck, you're done with it in 5 minutes, give or take!
One problem with distance events (200s of stroke, 400 IM, or 500 and above free) is you can't fake your way through them. Anyone who's a good swimmer could step up on the blocks and knock out a nice 50 even if they haven't been in the water for a couple years, but I'd like to see them try a 500 free :) So maybe that's part of the problem. In Masters many of us can't devote a huge amount of time to training and it's just to humiliating to swim the longer events where you come nowhere near the times you swam when you were 12 years old. So this might be one area where you "late bloomers" have an advantage!!
Originally posted by aquageek
... shopping for jeans with my wife and daughters is pretty awful also.
It is a little known fact that THIS was the EXACT inspiration and motivation behind the very first credit card...something a man could hand to his wife in the morning and send them on their way, all in hopes of escaping personal involvement in such an outing. The idea was that, upon return the dutiful, and now shopped-out, wife would return the slightly used card to the husband.
Things never work out as planned though, do they?
Originally posted by aquageek
Ooh, Emmett, you're gonna hear it for that post.
Likely only from those unaware that times and sensibilities were very different back then.
These days I can't even conceive of giving my wife free reign of MY credit cards. She has her own job, money, credit cards, bank accounts etc.
Originally posted by Scansy
Now that we are talking about shopping .... I recently had a miserable experience...
We were at Disney last week. After we checked out of the resort, my wife asked if we could go to "Downtown Disney". I made the mistake of saying OK.
I don't know...shopping in Mickey land?! That's heaven for me!
and now back to the thread's original topic...
ConnieKat has suggested events different than the sanctioned events; I think it's a good way to keep swimming fresh.
The themes of a. keeping our sport fresh and b. accomodating members' needs permeatess the "What's Wrong With Swimming" posts and linked article.
To keep our sport alive, we need to be open to change.
Lots of food for thought :)
Originally posted by knelson
You know, it is sort of strange. Most of us train nearly year-round, several days per week. Yet we get to a meet and decide a 400 IM is too much pain. Heck, you're done with it in 5 minutes, give or take!
One problem with distance events (200s of stroke, 400 IM, or 500 and above free) is you can't fake your way through them. Anyone who's a good swimmer could step up on the blocks and knock out a nice 50 even if they haven't been in the water for a couple years, but I'd like to see them try a 500 free :) So maybe that's part of the problem. In Masters many of us can't devote a huge amount of time to training and it's just to humiliating to swim the longer events where you come nowhere near the times you swam when you were 12 years old. So this might be one area where you "late bloomers" have an advantage!!
Yarg, I wish 5 minutes give or take. Of course I wasn't swimming as a 12 year old so have nothing to compare to. Just finishing the 400 IM was triumph enough!
I'll even swim a 1000 in boiling hot coffee from McDonalds in my clown suit if you agree to these terms.
GO ...GO...GO...Ronald Mc Donald..............lol
Now that we are talking about shopping .... I recently had a miserable experience...
We were at Disney last week. After we checked out of the resort, my wife asked if we could go to "Downtown Disney". I made the mistake of saying OK.
This was nothing more than a series of stores selling anything and everything with Disney logos, characthers, etc on it. After walking in and out of at least 20 stores all day, I realized how much I dislike shopping and my wallet smelled like burnt rubber. My wife said it was her favorite day of the whole trip though.... so I kept my mouth shut.
I would have rather swam an 8 mile open water swim wearing Geek's clown suit in molten McDonalds lava, while kids on noodles blocked my progress, Mr. Moose rode on my back working VO2Max shampoo into my hair and you know who swam alongside babbling about being a late bloomer.
Oh, and I would even do fly.
