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
:)
RANT: not only didn't I have the pool to myself it was filled with noodlers and Triathletes! Arrrrggg:frustrated:
Oh that right, I'm a triathlete. Then, I guess there weren't any real swimmer that at all!:lmao:
After watching the Chicago Triathlon, I'm thinking there are a fair number of triathletes who would never have learned to swim (even at a survival level) without it being part of the race. So it can't be all bad for these people to develop a basic skill that could save their life.
This is the start of my 3rd week swimming with the Kids team (SST) in town, rather than the Masters(mostly Tri's) and I can already see a difference in my ability to sprint, something that I used to be good at. We do much more kicking, drill work and variety. I also have to do timed swims at the end of atleast one practice per week and I have tied or beaten my times thus far, from a push.
The coach does give me just enough distance work to help me keep my pace for the longer races. I am hopeful to see my shorter races get closer to some of my kid times. My distance is already well below my kid times.
I still go to breakfast on Friday's with the Tri team and most of them realized that I need a different type of workout than they do, so this is working out for all of us. We used to have lanes on a base interval of 1:20, 1:30, 1:40, etc. and the 1:40's have too many in their lane so now they can take over my 1:30 lane since I was the only one really holding 1:30's.
It's sounds to me like you are really more interested in doing your own thing versus fitting in with a team. I don't think anyone cares if all you do is freestyle as long as you aren't disrupting your lane mates who are doing other stroke sets. Same with flip turns, fine if you don't do them but realize not doing them can majorly disrupt other swimmers. If all you are doing is 1:30 100s and the lane is doing sprints or drills, just make sure you are either keeping up or staying out of the way.
On the other hand, what is really the point of just doing a bunch of pace swimming? More fun to mix it up and try new stuff.
Hoosier,
It doesn't sound like you guys get much coaching up there, but I bet if you had a very energetic coach who worked with you a lot that you'd at least be attemptingturns, more ***, and some fly and back on a more frequent basis. Sounds like you probably do already. Most folks on this thread are just venting about the monotony of all-freestyle workouts.
Like Geek said, you seem to be doing just fine with your group - keep it up! Btw, congrats on the weight loss!
hrietz "The SWIMMERS can't swim with the triathletes because all the tris want to do is freestyle."
The GoodSmith "If you come to Masters swim workouts, learn to do more than just pace freestyle"
Nsiceman "Is it so hard to actually do flip turns? It is for about 70% of the tri's that swim with our master's team. We are thinking of creating a rule requiring flip turns or a 25 push up penalty for everyone not done."
Hmmm......wonder where my post came from..
P.S. not a "Tri"
I swim almost entirely freestyle and don't get any grief from our other swimmers. I'll swim *** from time to time but back kills my shoulders and fly is not my forte. It would seem far more important to swim in a lane that is at your pace rather than worrying about mastering all 4 strokes.
If somebody told me to learn other strokes if I wanted to swim on a USMS team I would tell them to pound sand.
Funny you should use that expression, Matt: I've been pounding sand all holiday weekend, reinstalling a vast area of pavers in our back patio which were flood damaged. I'd rather do butterfly...
To Hoosier,
I doubt your training and experiences are going to be as affected by intolerant or ignorant posters as you threaten, but you made a good point.
Many of the posters on this DF are well intentioned and helpful, but there are some who think this is their very own space for venting and/or gossiping. And do it with astounding frequency. Please adjust your personal (spam, junk, drivel, spew, dreck) filters accordingly before reading any threads and you will be pleasantly surprised.
