I tried doing a search in the forums on this and couldn't find anything. I am curious to know how many yards people in Masters are swimming a practice. I swim on average 3000-4000 yards a practice, 3 times a week.
Former Member
I had heard of the infamous "Ion" before but I never really understood what people were talking about. I wish I could go back to that space in time.
Originally posted by aztimm
To be fair, I'd have to give Ion tons of credit. For starting swimming so late in life, he's made tons of improvements.
When I looked through my recent copy of, "USMS Swimmer," it seems focused on people who've been swimming forever, or maybe returned after swimming in high school, college, olympics, etc. Would be nice if there was some focus on those of us who started later in life, especially someone who is able to catch back up.
I agree Tim.
It is brought in here the example of the Bulgarian who escaped thru an open water swim.
The article doesn't focus on a late bloomer who became a competitive swimmer as an adult.
The article harps on escaping Bulgaria thru a swim, and that's it about what swimming it notes.
The article is about politics, with swimming as an aside.
My posts are about starting swimming late in life and becoming competitive as an adult.
And by the way, in line with the article's focus of escaping Bulgaria -and not at all on swimming competitively later in life- I was born in communist Romania, and escaped it at 18.
I went to France for 11 years where I studied.
Then I went to Canada for 6 years with the skills I developed in France.
Then I went to U.S. for 9 years with the skills I developed in France and Canada.
But my posts are primarly not about escaping Romania, they are about starting swimming late in life and becoming competitive as an adult.
Originally posted by art_z
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hey, what about weight penalties. i'm probably significantly larger than most of my competitors at 240lbs. do i still get at break? or maybe I should put everyone on the same conditions and make them wear lead vests so that we all compete on even terms? its not fair for someone at 180 lbs to race against me.
Artie,
in my example of the truck driver, it is the driver's responsability to address the conditions of the road.
When you are 240, it is your responsabilty to not be like that.
It is your irresponsability to not address it, and be 240.
When I am a late bloomer, it is my responsability given fact A to address it.
When you disregard late bloomer, you disregard fact A.
I don't disregard fact A, late bloomer.
Me, I address fact A, late bloomer.
Your 240 pounds, they are your irresponsability, you don't address them and that's being indecent.
I'm surprised no one has brought up the issue of how much yardage is sufficient. I suppose it depends on your goals. I have found that I seem to require a lot of warmup, including a "pre set" before the main set. In the past year my times remained unchanged, which my daughter tells me is an indication of improvement since I am a year older (but didn't get slower). So does that mean I need more yardage to lower my times, or should I just swim the same sets at a faster pace or with a faster interval? How do you know if you have reached some sort of limit in terms of improvement?
I would say, Craig, slightly lower the volume and increase the intensity.
Also -from painful personal experience- rest more than last year.
Swim in an almost constant state of semi-taper, for fast workouts and confidence boost.
It's not really so much about arguing with Ion that I am complaining about....it has more to do with the fact that I feel Ion has hijacked a number of decent threads here on the discussion board spanning over a time period of who knows exactly???(many of these were threads that I once enjoyed visiting and posting comments on that were about the the original thread title).......and as others here have pointed out....As soon as Ion joins a thread it then transforms from being the thread associated to it's original topic into a new thread which is always pretty much the same thread then....some have referred to it as "The Ion Beza Thread"....the only real substantial difference between one hijacked Ion Beza Thread and the next is the exact nature of the insults offered up by Ion and the targets of his insults.....for example, the reference to genetics here as an attempt to belittle someone's intelligence was a new one.....the insults do share common themes though....and like I said ....the main focus is of course Ion Beza and his times and how he's better than everyone else in almost every way.
Sure I could just ignore it...and I probably should...sometimes it's humorous as Sam pointed out in another Ion Beza Thread .....and like a car wreck you can't seem to avoid reading it and joining in on some level.....but of course anyone here who complains about people arguing with Ion should point some of those same complaints at themselves since they also could simply avoid the thread all together as well right?....No one is making those people chime in with thier two cents worth either....It is futile though no matter how often I or anyone else keeps falling into the Ion Beza trap again.
Newmastersswimmer
I have found that my yardage needs are actually much higher than I first suspected....but I am a distance swimmer now (newly proclaimed in fact)....I have been swimming around 8000 - 10,000 yards a day on MWF and around 7000 - 8000 on Saturday mornings....I have really noticed a difference in my conditioning level lately as a result....I can now hold times on sets with much less fatigue than I was able to do just a month or two ago....I am feeling a little sore from it...but not too sore.....I would say my yardage needs are problably much higher than most of the other swimmers here though.
Newmastersswimmer
Artie,
van den Hoogenband (Ned.) is 6'4" and 162 pounds.
He has the World Record in 100 meter free, and top times in 400 and 1500 free.
You wrote yourself that an 180 pounds has an advantage on you being 240.
Your aerobic has room to improve by trimming down.
Ion:
That 3:06.17 was swam doing backstroke in the event 200 Free because they did not offer the 200 backstroke as an event at the meet. The whole point of my statement was that you attacked a swimmer who was making a point about TI. That he was confused by your explanations and the reference materials that you were quoting being obscure to him. There was no putdown or criticism in his tone. Then you made the outrageous statement "You can't do much about it, its in the genetics" and I used an example of how that could be applied to yourself.
The other point that Bill S made was that he gave up TV and that he was actually better for doing it. Again he made no putdown or criticism by using "he whose name must not be mentioned".
Sam is right, there is always going to be someone faster and if he said my statement was uncalled for I would agree with him. I used my example to let you see that making outrageous statements are totally uncalled for.
