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
Former Member
:dunno: :dunno: :dunno: Thanks Mary, I did try to "brave it" and enter some distances into excel :rolleyes: I tried each area and kinda assume that the white area is for 2006, so deleted that and went on to the yellow area. I was guessing that I should put dates by days of the week, but apparently that is incorrect as the day of the week disappeared when I entered a date.
So :help: ---- Do I ignore the day of the week and simply start with the first cell and simply go down the column and add dates consecutively, ignoring the #2 cell which ends up saying something not relevant?
Perhaps I should be emailing you specifically about my lack of excel knowledge:wave:
Thanks again,
Nancy
Hi Nancy,
Hmmm ..... I would like to help if I can. Please email me at gothedistance@swimoregon.org .
Which "mileage tracking log" are you using? The one specifically designed for this event was just posted on the website a couple of day ago - is that the one you are using?
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Mary
Gosh .... thanks a bunch!
For those of you who might use this "mileage tracking log" - I would be very interested in any suggestions you might have or any enhancements/options that could be added to improve it and make it more simple to use.
Mary
Gosh .... thanks a bunch!
For those of you who might use this "mileage tracking log" - I would be very interested in any suggestions you might have or any enhancements/options that could be added to improve it and make it more simple to use.
Mary
I use Excel all the time so your tracking log was easy to use. But I can see where someone who had never used the program before might get confused.
I don't know how you would make it foolproof (sorry, could'nt think of a better word) so someone who had never used Excel before would not have problems. Can you lock all the cells except the yardage entry one?
I use Excel all the time so your tracking log was easy to use. But I can see where someone who had never used the program before might get confused.
I don't know how you would make it foolproof (sorry, could'nt think of a better word) so someone who had never used Excel before would not have problems. Can you lock all the cells except the yardage entry one?
Good idea. Right now most of the spreadsheet is locked - at least the calculations, graphs and information at the top. Yet, somehow I managed to miss the date and day of week ... I will fix that for the next update.
I was also thinking a help file with an example might help ....
Mary
I had always been under the impression that the 1650yards was the mile? Is this wrong? I noticed that for this event a mile in yards is 1760.
I was just wondering:-D
Thanks,
Morgan
An example might be a help :p I did log in my miles so far this year, but have no idea if I did it in the correct place!! The calculations worked however -- and for 1600 meters it gave me .99 miles so appears to be correct for me.
I guess my confusion lies in the top half of the sheet (white and 2006 indications). but then, it is a bit easy to confuse me when it comes to these programs!
An example might be a help :p I did log in my miles so far this year, but have no idea if I did it in the correct place!! The calculations worked however -- and for 1600 meters it gave me .99 miles so appears to be correct for me.
I guess my confusion lies in the top half of the sheet (white and 2006 indications). but then, it is a bit easy to confuse me when it comes to these programs!
2006 2007...what's the difference...they're less than a second apart ;)
I had always been under the impression that the 1650yards was the mile? Is this wrong? I noticed that for this event a mile in yards is 1760.
I was just wondering:-D
Thanks,
Morgan
Hi Morgan,
I was wondering how soon someone would notice and ask!
There really are 1760 yards (or 5280 feet or 1610 meters) in one statute mile.
Now I could use some help here from some folks who are swimming historians - but I'm guessing this is the way the "mile race" evolved. Since a mile is also equal to 1610 meters, I would bet someone made up a 1500 event because it was close to a mile -- or was it because it was similar to a track event? Either way, the closest race to the 1500 meter event in a short course yards pool would be 1650 yards.
Both the 1500 meter and 1650 yards races are described as a "mile" - but in reality they are a bit short. However, I'll bet if you ever swim one of these races you will consider them close enough to the real thing!
Mary
