I'm a chronic clock watcher in practice for anything over a 100, always looking at my splits off the 50 when I come up to breath. Being able to see the clock will be key for me.
did 4x500 the other day on 6:15 and was able to hold 1:10 pace comfortably, hopefully I can keep that pace or close to it, with no rest.
I'm usually of the mindset that I don't really want to see the clock. Usually my body finds it's own pace and watching the clock is only going to annoy me if I'm swimming too slow. For a swim this long I like to get into a good pace then just try to zone out. Knowing exactly where I'm at for an entire 60 minutes is just too much for me.
My best postal swims (3000 & 1 hour) came when I didn't watch the clock but had my counter let me know how far I had gone by using the kickboard scheme described by (S)he-Man earlier in this thread. Except I asked for the signal every 500 yards on the 3000 and every 1000 during the 1 hour.
I am no threat to ya'll as my goal is a modest 3500 this year to match last years swim. I like to split the event into 500's and just concentrate on long easy strokes the whole way. When my stroke falls apart I will change to backstroke and pull a 25 or so, this makes a huge difference for me. This plan will not get you those repeat 100's of about a minute, sorry.
A USMS member sent me a message last year that I kept repeating to myself. "swim the best you can. It doesn't matter if you finish first or last." This was good advice which netted me 500 more yards than my 3000K goal last year.
Good luck every one.
David,
You shouldn't actually injure yourself if you have been swimming every (or every other day). The last 2 years I've done every possible postal event and I think the hour is hardest for me because of the time of year. It's winter, I'm bloated from Christmas, and do not feel like doing anything. The last 6 years, I've done the one hour and usually if I'm not sick before doing it, I'm sick two days later (viral uri stuff). If you push it, it will make you cry. If you stick with a reasonable pace, you should be fine.
When my stroke falls apart I will change to backstroke and pull a 25 or so...
"pull" as in with a pull buoy? Sorry no toys allowed in the postal events.
Skip Montanaro
No unfair advantage here as I do not own any toys. To clarify my statement I roll over on the back and use long slow strokes to pull my way down the lane while I rest my muscles I have been using doing the free. This also allows me to get a lot of extra air. In a 25 or so I roll back over and go at it again.
I guess it would just be easier to find more time to swim so that I would be in better shape.
I'm thinking about it. I've never swam an hour non-stop (the longest to date has been 42 minutes in a 2.5k OW event). I'm guessing I could do 4,000-4,500 max. Probably closer to 4,000 because I'd probably want to stop at least twice, just to keep things sane.
Has anyone done this and regretted it later? I'm referring to injuries sustained from attempting something you have no business doing.
did a 1000 in practice yesterday, took a 50 easy and then did a 500. pool was hot, about 86 degrees.
I did a 1k warmup then:
1000 was in 11:55 the first 500 was around 5:57. I started on a 1:10 pace and quickly settled into 1:12 or so.
the following 500 was on 5:58.
I'm thinking as long as the pool is a bit cooler (which I believe it is, Germantown Academy) I should be ok to keep that pace for an hour. Did not feel particularly worn out or overly tired.
Does the below rule apply to postal swims?
102.15.9 Swimmers are not permitted to wear or use any device or substance to help their speed, pace or buoyancy during a race...
In competition, meets are supposed to have pace clocks for the warmup pools, although that requirement can be waived by the LMSC (USMS 107.16, 2008 rulebook):
107.16 PACE CLOCKS
There shall be at least two large, accurate timing devices or clocks for each warm-up course, preferably located on opposite sides of the course, clearly visible to all swimmers.
So certainly if the pace clock is a part of the facility, in a real meet, were it visible to the competitors, it would probably be fair game for it to be used by the competitors. In addition, since USA Swimming rules recommend that the pace clocks be on both sides of the course itself, and I don't think that it would be the intent of the USMS rules to say that a largely USA-S compliant facility is not a compliant USMS facility (compare USMS 107.16, 2008 rulebook, with USA-S 103.17, 2007 rulebook).
We can also conclude that having a pace clock on deck pursuant to 107.16 would be permissible, as Part 1 rules apply when "applicable" in postal swims (USMS 304.1).
Now whether you can wheel your own pace clock up next to your lane is another story. The facility rules don't say that a facility can't have extra pace clocks, nor do they say that a facility can't have pace clocks around the competition course. So my feeling is that would be permissible.
But given that this is a self-policed postal event, it's probably not the intent to be so ticky-tack about that kind of rule. If you wanted to get that fine-grained, then let's take a situation where you were in a postal swim of any type, and HAD to use the bathroom. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Technically speaking, if you get out of the pool, you're disqualified ("Standing on the bottom during a freestyle race shall not disqualify a swimmer, but the swimmer shall not leave the pool, walk or spring from the bottom. ...") . But I would think in practice, it would be silly to DQ yourself and reswim in that situation--you just keep the clock running while you're on the toilet.
Patrick King, who still is far too out of shape even to contemplate swimming the 1 hour postal
