Hour Swim: What Do You Think About?

i count strokes. Why would I need ot do anything different?

ps.. strongbad... how can you type with boxing gloves on? ;) love it!

in the last hour swim i did which was years ago circa 1990 maybe I was thinking about Why did i take this out so hard? Ande

Now are we referring to just like....swimming for an hour? Or doing an hour long workout? Because they're two very different things...

Originally posted by hmlee Now are we referring to just like....swimming for an hour? Or doing an hour long workout? Because they're two very different things... Hi, We are referring to the USMS One Hour Championship, a USMS long distance national championship event contested each January. The objective is to swim as far as you can in one hour. For more details on past events, visit the long distance section of the USMS web site at: www.usms.org/.../ldchamps.php Bill PS: Thank you to everyone who has responded. We have received enough material to do the piece, so no need for more responses at this time.

Huh...learn something new everyday. Never even knew that existed, thanks for the link. :)

First of all, i couldn;t make it through wothout someone counting, not necessarily dropping the lap counter every lap, but just keeping track of it. Maybe dropping the counter in every 10 or so laps. I start off with hopping in and loosening up first few laps, then building up during the warmup, till I settle into a pace that I feel like I could hold forever. Then I take account of all the body parts, make sure they're still functioning and in the right places. See if anything is getting too sore or too tight, whether I need to change up the stroke a little bit to not cramp up. I try to break it up into sets of 500's where I build 1-4, take a 100 moderate breather, then go at it again. Every 2-3 laps I spend most of the lap trying to figure out whether I miscounted or not. 35 minutes into it I start losiong track which side of the pool I'm at. 40 minutes into it I start contemplating whether to stop and loosen up my goggles or just tough out the headache, and hope I don;t have to go to the bathroom before it's all over. ...50 minutes into it I'm wondering if they'll tell me to stop when the hour is up, or if my pals will just let me swim up and down for a while longer and laugh. ;) Then when it's all said and done, half the times I forget to actually mail in my form.

I just keep hitting my finger counter at each flip and listen to my SwiMP3 which I load up with my favorite songs to swim by, such as...Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here (great warm up song), The Kinks Picture book - that one really is great for rhthm, a bit of Sheryl Crow, No Doubt, Train, Nickelback, etc. Before the finger counter I'd go 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 (etc) Now if my allergies would quit kicking my petooty, I'll be happy. With Convention just 2 weeks away, I know I'm a whuss at this point. Had to lay off swimming for 4 months because my allergies would not leave me alone...

The two times I've done it my strategy was to get into a groove where I could maintain a good pace and more or less zone out. I failed both times! In both cases I ended up thinking about every stroke and that's a loooong way to do that. The one thing I don't want to do is keep track of my yardage, or really where I'm at in terms of time. There's nothing more depressing than thinking you must be getting close to finishing and you look at the clock and it's at 20 minutes! I decided not to do it this past January. Maybe I'll give it another try in 2006. Time makes you forget just how painful it is :)

Originally posted by Kevin in MD Under rule 102.15.9 in the disqualifications section or part 1 of the rules both of these devices would be illegal. "Swimmers are not permitted to wear or use any device or substance to help their speed, pace, or buoyancy during a race..." Just put Schoenberg on your iPod. I defy anyone to say that listening to his atonal music will help your pace. ;)