Are Triathletes worth the dues they pay toward Masters Swimming?
I say we force all Triathletes to spend one day a week in the sprint lane, one day a week doing stroke (i.e. IM) work, and then make them focus on their starts and turns.
This invasion needs to be controlled.... :-)
John Smith
:)
I've been off these forums for the last few months while I focused on triathlons...by continuing to train fly and medley in a pool!
There's nothing wrong with entering an event just to finish it. Back in February I saw one of the top triathletes in my area do the 50 and 100 meter fly in a Masters meet. She was a novice at fly (according to this web site, she had never raced fly before) but she completed both races with no DQ. I thought that was pretty cool.
Also remember that our nation has an obesity epidemic. Getting some exercise - any exercise - is a good thing. (With that in mind, this is good for a chuckle: www.slate.com/.../)
I do poke at the triathletes who debate tangential stuff like how well their practice times in the pool convert to open water times (subtopics: effects of flip turns, hard pushoffs, breathing on open turns, "fast" open turns versus slow ones, wetsuit.... SDK doesn't come up - until I bring it up :)) but then I steer the discussion into constructive territory like using pool swimming to improve conditioning and ingrain technique improvements that can be applied anywhere. Then I poke some more: "But training medley is a better all-around aerobic workout than just crawlstroke!" BTW the only toy at the end of my lane is a kickboard.
One of these days I'll do butterfly for the swim leg of a sprint tri just for the shock and awe factor :)
I've been off these forums for the last few months while I focused on triathlons...by continuing to train fly and medley in a pool!
There's nothing wrong with entering an event just to finish it. Back in February I saw one of the top triathletes in my area do the 50 and 100 meter fly in a Masters meet. She was a novice at fly (according to this web site, she had never raced fly before) but she completed both races with no DQ. I thought that was pretty cool.
Also remember that our nation has an obesity epidemic. Getting some exercise - any exercise - is a good thing. (With that in mind, this is good for a chuckle: www.slate.com/.../)
I do poke at the triathletes who debate tangential stuff like how well their practice times in the pool convert to open water times (subtopics: effects of flip turns, hard pushoffs, breathing on open turns, "fast" open turns versus slow ones, wetsuit.... SDK doesn't come up - until I bring it up :)) but then I steer the discussion into constructive territory like using pool swimming to improve conditioning and ingrain technique improvements that can be applied anywhere. Then I poke some more: "But training medley is a better all-around aerobic workout than just crawlstroke!" BTW the only toy at the end of my lane is a kickboard.
One of these days I'll do butterfly for the swim leg of a sprint tri just for the shock and awe factor :)
