Announcing the new 2007 USMS Fitness Event: Go the Distance!
A new fitness event is being offered by the USMS Fitness Committee. The name of this new challenge is “Go the Distance”!
The objective of this event is for participants to track the distance they swim during the year 2007. When participants achieve specific distance milestones of 50 miles, 100 miles, 250 miles, 500 miles, 750 miles and 1000 miles – they will be recognized on the USMS website and awards will be available for purchase (for a minimal fee).
There is no cost to enter this event. Participants are requested to email (or use snail mail) to submit the total distance they swim each month. A list of miles per month and cumulative mileage will be tabulated for each swimmer. Once a distance milestone is achieved awards will be available for purchase. They will include swim caps, certificates, patches and t-shirts with the event logo and the distance of the milestone achieved. Details on these awards and how to purchase them will be available soon.
Each month the results will be updated on the USMS website in the Fitness Section. There will be lists to recognize all those that have achieved each distance milestone. Participants will also be able to look up their current total as well as view their progress toward the next distance milestone. In addition there will be graphs illustrating the participation for each zone, lmsc, age groups etc..
This event was designed to encourage folks to track the distance they swim in order to review their progress and to be recognized for their achievements. There is no time limit for the distance milestones (except that it must be in 2007) so speed does not count – just the effort to attain the next goal. We wish to recognize participation and achievement of goals with this event.
There will be an entry form, monthly results, award request form and a “distance tracking log” available on the USMS website (fitness section) soon. The log can be used to track one’s daily distance swum but is not required.
The Canadian Masters have a Million Metre Challenge that is quite successful. This event is similar in design but will be implemented a bit differently in the beginning. And of course, our goals will be in miles instead of meters!
I would very much appreciate it if you could spread the word to folks and consider participating yourselves! If you need any more information or would like to comment and make suggestions please contact Mary Sweat at gothedistance@swimoregon.org
Wishing you lots of fun swimming in 2007!
Mary Sweat
For the USMS Fitness Committee
Mary - How about a running total of yardage/meters for the week, month and YTD? Anyone else like to see those stats?
Hi Jeff,
Let me tell you a little bit about what I was thinking for the results so far ..... and then everyone can help with suggestions on things they would like to see.
I hope that at the end of January lots of folks will enter and send me the distance they swam during January! I've actually already received some entries - woo hoo! I intend on compiling the results and posting them on the website on a monthly basis. I know some of you are interested in weekly data - but I'm not sure the web folks are up for weekly updates (!) and we will have to see how much email I get (!) - more on this later.
I will keep the monthly and ytd running total of miles swam for each participant. These will be listed and I hope to be able to provide a graph of your progress per month - anyone interested in this?
The main feature will be the lists of folks who reach each distance milestone.
There will also be some graphs showing how far participants are swimming from groups around the nation. I'm thinking of breaking it down by Zone and LMSC at this point. So, let the friendly competition between zones and lmsc's begin!
And ... we can also have a look at the progress per age group and sex.
So, there's lots of things I can provide - I just need to know what you would like and make sure those items are provided.
My biggest curiosity (and biggest unknown so far) is the level of participation for this event. I would love to see lots and lots of folks participating! But this means tons of email and a bunch of files to post on the website each month. However, with any luck, we will have to solve this problem!
Maybe some day we can have daily on-line tracking and data compilation - whoa! But this will require extensive effort, energy and time for our web folks. So at this point, I'm thinking this might be feasible but it is really dependent on if the level of participation warrants it.
So please let me know the kind of results you would like to see (and stuff you don't care about too!). We can January as a test run and modify things as we go into February!
Mary
Mary - How about a running total of yardage/meters for the week, month and YTD? Anyone else like to see those stats?
Hi Jeff,
Let me tell you a little bit about what I was thinking for the results so far ..... and then everyone can help with suggestions on things they would like to see.
I hope that at the end of January lots of folks will enter and send me the distance they swam during January! I've actually already received some entries - woo hoo! I intend on compiling the results and posting them on the website on a monthly basis. I know some of you are interested in weekly data - but I'm not sure the web folks are up for weekly updates (!) and we will have to see how much email I get (!) - more on this later.
I will keep the monthly and ytd running total of miles swam for each participant. These will be listed and I hope to be able to provide a graph of your progress per month - anyone interested in this?
The main feature will be the lists of folks who reach each distance milestone.
There will also be some graphs showing how far participants are swimming from groups around the nation. I'm thinking of breaking it down by Zone and LMSC at this point. So, let the friendly competition between zones and lmsc's begin!
And ... we can also have a look at the progress per age group and sex.
So, there's lots of things I can provide - I just need to know what you would like and make sure those items are provided.
My biggest curiosity (and biggest unknown so far) is the level of participation for this event. I would love to see lots and lots of folks participating! But this means tons of email and a bunch of files to post on the website each month. However, with any luck, we will have to solve this problem!
Maybe some day we can have daily on-line tracking and data compilation - whoa! But this will require extensive effort, energy and time for our web folks. So at this point, I'm thinking this might be feasible but it is really dependent on if the level of participation warrants it.
So please let me know the kind of results you would like to see (and stuff you don't care about too!). We can January as a test run and modify things as we go into February!
Mary
