1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

pwolf66 — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:31:18 GMT

Jim, Looking at your splits it seemed that you left a little more in the tank at the end. Last 50 was a very nice 29.61. Comparing that to the rest of your splits, it looks like you could have pushed the pace just a little bit in the back half, maybe shoot for splitting closer to a 36.0 for your 50s? Nice race, I'm still not up for anything over 200 yet. Paul

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:47:15 GMT

msgrupp-while i was getting ready for laps i overheard one of the guys who helps run it from allegheny valley mention that it was the best turnout they've ever had. the handout (i don't believe it included deck entries) had 10 heats of 8.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:44:47 GMT

LOL that's so funny. i was going to swim this but had been so busy with research/school stuff that I lost track of the date and asked a member of the team on saturday when it was, and was told next week, so i was expecting that in a week. showed up at 1 for lap swim today and noticed everyone doing the mile.....argh! it would have been nice to meet someone from the forums. congrats on the swim though, i did it on my own for my time with the coach after everyone was done, and my healthy time was 10 seconds slower than your sick time :P

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:46:10 GMT

see results here www.amymsa.org/.../CMU1650_2008.html

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Muppet — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:55:01 GMT

Speaking of which, the person who won the entire 1650 meet today was a 14 year old boy who did 17:54 or thereabouts. Kind of cool to think of it. Nice swim, Jim! By the way, if you use the Finnish Formula, I bet you smoked that 14 y/o :thhbbb::banana:

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

pwolf66 — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:26:53 GMT

I'm waiting for a weight adjusted formula. Once that happens, I will be the fastest person in the pool on a pound for pound basis. :groovy:

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

jim thornton — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:41:21 GMT

Excellent suggestion about the Finnish formula (for those of you who do not know what this is, it's a way of age-adjusting swimming times.) The plug-in box only allows for 50, 100s, and 200s, so I plugged my 1650 time in for the 200--quite possibly the slowest 200 in history, but nonetheless... It calculated that for a 19 year old (the youngest that the plug-in will caclulate) to do an equivalent swim to my 55-year-old effort, he would have to swim a: 17:20.04 (16:41.44) (The American formulation is the 17:20; the "Finnish formula is the 16:41). By either score, I trounced the 19 year old's time. A 14 year old would have presumably had to swim even faster, given that he is just barely starting to deal with the burden of testosterone, which has afflicted and distracted me all my adult life! BTW, this Finnish formula has proved to be a wonderful adjunct to nemesis nullification. If someone younger than you beats you, often the Finnish formula can be relied upon to rectify the situation. On the other hand, if someone older than you beats you, don't use the Finnish formula, but claim the elder's greater "experience under racing conditions" gave him an unfair advantage. I am hoping to create a Finnish Formula With Sickness Factor Codicil added, too, and if I manage to design this correctly, I might never be beaten again in my life, at least not on paper! PS who are you, phdude?

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:11:33 GMT

Jim--wasn't this the fund-raising meet for the CMU swim team? For the rest of you -- this is an annual fund-raiser for Carnegie-Mellon University's swim team. It is organized by a CMU (Carnegie-Tech in this man's case) alum. The meet is well run. While I haven't been able to swim in it--I have been a "counter" in the past. Jim--how many people showed?

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Glenn — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:48:56 GMT

Jim, congratulations on a great swim. Some of my best times were swum when sick/ish. Donna, your mention of nemesis makes me think that would be a great forum topic. I'll start it.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

jim thornton — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:00:39 GMT

Thanks, Donna. And I mean "nemesis" in its most affectionate sense, of course. I wonder if Michael Phelps has a nemesis? Probably an unborn kid practicing a six-beat kick even now in the placental pool somewhere... Speaking of which, the person who won the entire 1650 meet today was a 14 year old boy who did 17:54 or thereabouts. Kind of cool to think of it.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Donna — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:56:53 GMT

Jim, Congratulations on a great swim when you take into consideration the condition of your health. That is all you can do is the best for that day. I am glad you beat your nemesis, but upon reading that in your post I had to think to myself we all have our nemesis and in the same thought, we all must be someone else's nemesis too! Rest and get healthy now.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:36:03 GMT

Great time for a guy coming back from the past.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:20:25 GMT

They used to DQ race horses for using ibuprofen. It was called fixin the race.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

jim thornton — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:29:40 GMT

Well, I didn't take ibuprofen in the morning, just an Egg McMuffin, some coffee, a packet of GU, and a chicklet of Jolt caffeinated gum sublingually. One of my many competitive nemesises (nemises?) was in the adjacent lane. After the first 50, he was two body lengths ahead. I thought: "This is not my day." I didn't see him after that, but kept waiting for him to lap me. I consciously tried to stay smooth and swim easy and not build up any lactic acid (or whatever new substance has now been pegged by the exercise physiology community as the source of muscle tightness, fatigue, and eventual tungsten-ization.) By the 1000, I was still feeling okay, but not so okay that my original strategy (wait until the 1000 then pick it up) proved doable. At the 1500, my cap fell off. I had enough left to sprint the last 50 at least. I made the whole race (not just the last 50!) in 19:47.+, which was almost a minute slower than 5 years ago, but nevertheless faster than I had imagined I'd be going. Retrieving my cap was almost as difficult as the swim--akin to pearl diving under the influence of pneumonia. In any even, it's now time for that nap to the accompaniment of professional golf, the perfect soporific! Thanks for all the excellent advice. Oh, I ended up beating the nemesis by 30 seconds or so, though I never saw him after he took that two body length lead on the first 50. Maybe he rested on the bottom of the pool for a little while?

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

pakman044 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 11:29:31 GMT

Certainly this advice is late, but the one thing I would add is that if things get out of hand, don't be afraid to pull the plug. There's a great adversion to being a "quitter" in this situation that is easy to understand for me. You want to finish what you start, even if you're hurting a lot. But when you're sick (and only you really know how sick you are), it's really easy to overextend doing anything and make things worse in your recovery. Sure you might be able to afford to do that, but it's not really a good thing. So as suggested, take that first 500 out fairly easy (you may even want to emphasize the easy part; it's quite "easy" to go out faster than you should) and see where you are. If you're feeling alright, then you might as well keep going. But if you're feeling bad at that point, especially with the sick feeling, you may be better off folding your hand. Of course, when you wake up in the morning, as I sometimes do when I thought earlier that I was coming down with something, it blows up and is worse than originally thought. You may be forgetting the idea of a DNF and phoning in the scratch card. Good luck Sunday and hope everything works out well. Patrick King

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Jim Clemmons — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:47:52 GMT

Jim, Been there, done that. Actually, done this: I'd pop two ibuprofen with 16-20 ozs of water and food when I got up and consider one more no closer than a half an hour before start time (with just enough water to get the third one down) if you decide it may help. Take it kinda easy the first 500 and build from there. If you can. Good luck. Let us know how the story ends.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

jim thornton — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:34:06 GMT

Highly amusing! But when you've let you body get as filthy as mine has, you have no choice but to splash around for at least a half hour in pristine chlorinated waters to cauterize the lesions and get rid of some of the stench of pustulence! I thought that was why everyone joined USMS? Isn't it?

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

poolraat — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:55:37 GMT

I probably waited too long to post this inquiry, but if anyone has advice on how to swim the 1650 when slightly (as opposed to deathly) sick and microbially-exhausted, please let me know soon! My heat is scheduled to start at 8:52 tomorrow morning. Jim Get to the emergency room as soon as possible! You're sicker than you realize to even consider doing a 1650.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

jim thornton — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:16:47 GMT

Will do! Or, should I say, won't do! i.e, breathe on friends or vomit on or in anybody/thing. Not that sick at this point--no nausea or the like. Just wiped out and probably on some level attempting to lay ground work for being beaten by my friends. I did skip a meet last week when really at the peak of this, so i basically agree with you that it's not worth it when really sick. I am, at worst, semi-sick now, hopefully on he way back up. Thanks.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Former Member — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:17:57 GMT

Swim within your limits, start with a pace that feels good to you, it is not a sprint. Take a couple of aspirin before you go to bed and get a good rest. Pretend you are nursing a hangover. Good luck in the AM.

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

Kurt Dickson — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:27:17 GMT

I'm not necessarily a medical fuddy duddy, but I just don't get competing when you are ill. If you are Bob Kempainen and vomiting your guts out while going on to win the 1996 US marathon olympic trials or Michael Jordan with a 104 degree fever beating my beloved Utah Jazz in game 5 of the 1998 NBA finals, I get it. We are just washed up masters swimmers, with nothing left to prove right? Having said that, I usually do the one hour postal sick or get sick afterward. So go out controlled, try not to breathe on anybody, and above all, try to keep your vomitus in the gutter sickie. :cool:

RE: 1650-when-semi-sick strategy advice?

jim thornton — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:41:41 GMT

Thanks, George! I like the hangover advice. It's been a while since I had one, but I remember the treatment protocol pretty well.