The one thing that puts me in a grouchy mode over the holidays is the annual tradition in Utah to do 100 x 100 on New Year's Eve Day. After doing this set 4 times in college I just can't bring myself to doing this set again, no matter how excited all the other swimmers are about completing this set. We have a few swimmers here that have been doing this for more than a decade.
I would love to hear of other tradition sets and what people enjoy and dislike about them....
I may be a tile counter "distance swimmer" when I race, but this is one set I have counting tiles during.
Luckily since we only have an hour workout slot, I was spared the 100 x 100 this morning. However, the age group practice is right after ours. Only one girl showed up, and she was just getting started on 106 x 100 @ 1:20 as I left -- talk about boring! I don't know how she could tolerate it. I'm a distance swimmer, and I don't mind long sets in general, but that's a set needs company!
On other holidays...
4th of July: "Firecracker 400s" 4 IM
Halloween: Trick or Treat, draw pre-written sets from a hat varying from easy and fun to long and hard
Thanksgiving: Menu style workout i.e. instead of warmup, it's called appetizer; if you want gravy on your mashed potatoes, do butterfly
Christmas: The 12 Sets of Christmas
I love our New Year's Eve "I'll Never Do This Again" swim. I guess it all depends on how it's handled. Our tradition is to do 100 send-offs on 1:30. While it's true that quite a few of us will go for the 100 100s, we are encouraged by our coach to create our own set. So, some of us will mix it up with 100s, 75s, 50s, stroke, kick, pull. The main thing is that we are all sending off together and having a blast. Plus, the pot luck after is to die for!!
Our New Year's Eve Swim is tomorrow from 9:00-11:30. Back to planning my set! :D
Today two of us swam an Australian heart rate set--20x100s on 2:00, beginning at 20 below max HR, progressing to 10 below, then reaching max HR (and fastest repeats) at the end. Great set. May have to make it a New Year's Eve tradition.
Dennis- my main objection to such sets is if they are way out of the norm distance-wise for masters swimmers, then they are likely to suddenly bring on injury or 'overuse' ligament or tendon pain. Not worth the charge on gets upon the completion of such a set.
one of my favorite holiday traditions is ocean swimming. this year my husband and I were challenging ourselves to extend our time in the water so that we would be able to do the 5K on December 30th. We did 28 minutes on Dec. 24th, 58 minutes on the 25 and 1 hour 5 minutes on the 26th. We completed the 5K with no problem in 1 hour 19 minutes. The ocean temp. was 73-75. That is cool by south Florida standards, and the weather was perfect, lots of sun and no wind. The water was clear and there weren't any jellyfish.
Thought you might like to see what we all looked like after our New Years Eve "I'll Never Do This Again" Swim. Our Academy Masters Swim Team combined with the HPA HS Swim Team and we all did 100 send-offs on 1:30. Took us 2 1/2 hours with about half the group doing 100 100s. I ended up alternating 100s with 75s; can't quite hold that many 100 repeats on 1:30 yet. Next year!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
