One Hour Postal Strategies

My right arm always falls asleep at lap 54 on long distance swims so I think I will do sets of 54, take 20 secs to regain blood flow and then repeat. perhaps you could team up with a "left arm handicapped person" and swim together in a really big speedo.

About three months ago I switched to bilateral breathing (every third). I can hold this pattern throughout a workout, even repeats of 400s. In November, when I swam the 3000 Postal, I managed 2000 breathing bilaterally, then went back to every other for the last 1000. It was fairly "painful." I'm thinking I should breathe every other for the one hour swim. Any thoughts? I too was a "breathe every 2" a while back. I finally was able to get to breathing every 3 for long distances and at high intensity by doing this - breathe every 2, but off the walls, flip and take two pulls before breathing. This really helped my speed (I was faster off the walls by delaying breathing) and it gave me a good rush to see how much faster I got off the walls as compared to others. So, I kept this up and improved my lung capacity enough to then (over a very short time) breathe every 3 and keep the two pulls off each wall before breathing. Now, I'm working on breathing every 4 to 5. To do this, I'm first working on eliminating my breath before I flip. (No breathing into the walls). If that's too hard, I'll go for 3 pulls and then breathe after the flip turn. An hour swim fast is very psychological and painful for me. I've been working on 30 minute straight swims with teammates who are near my speed. We make about 102 laps in that time frame - but then feel like :dedhorse: by the end. If the only issue after the swim is a spinning room, that's pretty good. The 1 hr swim scares the heck out of me - but I'm going to give it a try this month. I'll most likely go out pretty fast (that's the sprinter in me - if I go out too slow, I get scared that I can't pick it up later) at about 80% and try and hold as long as possible. If I feel like :dedhorse: :dedhorse: :dedhorse: mid way through, then so be it. During the 30 minute swims, there would be many times that I would start thinking negative thoughts, so I would have to be very aware of it and push them aside and replace with things like, "I can do it," "I will do it," etc. When tightening up, I'd be sure to really try and keep the stroke long, smooth and get good hip rotation. Good luck to everyone who attempts this swim!

You can do the event on your own, or in a group - but you must have a volunteer to keep count by taking split times at each 50. If sharing a lane, no more than two swimmers can share a lane together, and no circle-swimming is allowed. Complete details about the event are on the entry form online at: www.usms.org/.../1hrentry.pdf As for strategies: the last time I participated in the Hour Swim I did 5,075 yards. Having experienced that pace, about 1:11 per/100, I can say without any hesistation that the idea of swimming 1:07's or 1:08's on a 1:12 interval never would've worked for me. Even if I had someone there telling me exactly when to go, the pace and the short amount of rest between repeats would be a great path to a world class bonk. With all due respect to the person who made the suggestion, I don't recommend going that route. Aside from that point, if you can hold a 1:07 pace for an hour with only a few seconds rest between repeats, you could probably go faster than a 1:12 pace for a continuous swim.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I feel like maybe I could hold 100s on the 1:12, going probably 1:07-1:08 the entire time easier than I could swim for an hour straight at a 1:12 pace. The power needed for a 1:07 is a lot more than the power required fror a 1:12. That's a complicating factor, you wouldn't get back everything extra you gained by resting. Try it out in training. You have some time in the next few weeks to try different strategies for a 40 minute trianing swim.

try going postal Actually I recommend holding a brisk gentle pace fast turns strong push offs stay relaxed and long lots of air save your legs get in a groove and stay there ande Gull mentioned the one hour postal swim in the Elite vs. Fitness thread and rather than go further off topic over there I decided to create a new thread. So one thing I've been wondering about is what is the best way to swim it?

So one thing I've been wondering about is what is the best way to swim it? I've done it twice now. My :2cents: Just get in the water and swim until your counter tells you the hour is up. If you have a clock where it can be seen (I didn't) then you can track your pace and distance. I told my counter what my target pace was and how to let me know if I was behind, ahead, or on pace every 500 yards.

My guess is that you should swim straight and if you are really hurting/form is going to pot, etc. take a quick 10-20 second break or better yet do some double arm back. I just know that I personally would do better with a little break here or there, unless I really get into the zone. But I am NOT a distance swimmer - I suck at holding a pace, the only way I can sort of do it is if I can see the pace clock. We did a 800 test swim a few months ago, really it was 8 x 100 r:03 in between. I held a much better pace per/100 even with the rest than I would have had I done 800 straight swim. I know it's mental, but so am I ...

One year I just did 10 x 500 on 6:00, to hit 5000 safely. For me, that was a good repeat distance. -Rick

I think you will go the furthest by holding the most appropriate pace It's worthwhile to figure out what that pace is and what it feels like I think it's better to keep moving than to stop and start Proper training makes a big difference Personally I could care less how far I can swim in an hour Ande How much rest were you getting on the 500s? I'm not convinced that you can hold a faster pace swimming it unbroken, and I don't think it's just psychological.

Personally I could care less how far I can swim in an hour Ande And for me personally, I have no desire to find out ... :wiggle: