Go The Distance

The Canadians are doing a nice job. Nine people topped two million meters. That's somewhere around 1,250 miles so only four people achieved that milestone in the USMS Go The Distance event. It wasn't clear to me whether this is a cumulative or yearly event, though. It looked to me like once you start the Million Meter Challange you just keep adding to your meterage, rather than resetting on January 1st like the U.S. version.

I hit 50 miles today!! Over a week earlier than when I hit 50 miles last year.

Would it be unbelievably sexist of me to suggest that there are more stay-at-home moms than stay-at-home dads, at least in the US, if not Canada, and this could conceivably give women in the masters age groups more discretionary hours to swim, especially if the natatorium has a daycare center and/or the kids are in school part of the day? To swim 12,000 yards a day--if you include drills, kick sets, etc.--has gotta take a good 2 1/2-3 hours minimum, seven days a week (unless you swim doubles occasionally, which would mean 5-6 hours in the pool to make up for any "missed" day.) Factor in time to get to the pool, showers, the application of industrial-strengthed hair de-chlorination products, cortisone injections into every muscle fiber in your being every other day, time to stalk and transfuse blood from teenagers to drink for energy, and so forth, and it's hard to see how you could swim this much and also have a full time job, let alone much of a family life. Like being on the Olympic team. I am so jealous.

Would it be unbelievably sexist of me to suggest that there are more stay-at-home moms than stay-at-home dads, at least in the US, if not Canada, and this could conceivably give women in the masters age groups more discretionary hours to swim, especially if the natatorium has a daycare center and/or the kids are in school part of the day? While this may be true, I have a suspicion the women logging these huge totals are not (all) stay-at-home moms. I also think most actual stay at home moms would object to the statement they have more discretionary hours to swim. Let's face it, 99% of us wouldn't swim 12,000 yards a day even if we were single with no kids and no job. :)

Not everyone with high milage is a stay at home mom. I swim in the morning to get my back loose for the day (without it I would be in pain), then the only reason I do the evening swim is because my son swims then. I can't just sit on the side of the pool and watch when I can just hop in and swim with them. In between sessions I work a full time job as an interface programmer at the local hospital.

I would rather set the record of less than 1000m a day.

While this may be true, I have a suspicion the women logging these huge totals are not (all) stay-at-home moms. I also think most actual stay at home moms would object to the statement they have more discretionary hours to swim. Let's face it, 99% of us wouldn't swim 12,000 yards a day even if we were single with no kids and no job. :) They may not be moms. If I'm not working on a project, I might, just might, have the time once in awhile to get in 2 and 1/2 hours of working out. But it wouldn't be all swimming. And it definitely wouldn't be every day. Kudos to all those doing the GTD. If I could include running, I might do it. lol

Sorry Donna if I did, indeed, cast aspersions. I truly admire you guys who get up and swim before work, then swim after work, or even just one of the practices. I swim 3 evening practices a week, and sometimes a leisurely couple thousand on my own on one of the weekend days. Our coach has the total yards per workout at the bottom of the practice sheet each practice, and GTD provides a nice little yardage tally-er in Excel you can download. It makes it really easy to keep track of how far you swim. I'd been doing this on my own with a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet (how this dates me, eh?) I keep track of my average weekly miles for each year, along with my average weekly miles when I can make practice (i.e., not counting travel where I can't find a pool, or home sick type situations.) I've done this since I was 46--I'm 55 now. You can definitely see how your times are affected by the amount practice you do. Sounds obvious, but the data is more impressive to me than the platitudes. For example, in 2003, I averaged 7.92 miles a week and my 1650 time was 18:53 This year, I averaged 6.82 miles a week and my 1650 was 19:47. Granted, I've gone from 50 to 55 in that interlude, but I definitely believe the 15-16 percent decrease in practice yards made a difference, too.

I would rather set the record of less than 1000m a day. I'm with George. Who cares how far you swim. These distance events seem more for the individual. I'm more impressed with fast swimming and many masters do this without much mileage.

My body and mind could not handle 12K+ yards a day. No way! I'd love to hear how the people who swim 100+ miles a month do it. :applaud: Jan. 1 I did 10,200 yds with the National group in under 2.5 hours and I was pretty tired. Could not do that day in and day out. If you look at the 2007 final results, it looks like of the Top 10 finishers, 4 of the 10 are men and 8 of the top 20 are men. That's a bit closer. Also, there are quite a few people who swim significant mileage and for whatever reason choose not to participate in this event (I'm one of the few on my team - and it's a large team - who partake in GTD.) Not sure why. So while there are quite a few participants in this event, I suspect that this group does not give the complete picture. I wonder if women are more apt to have a New Year's Resolution to lose weight or get in better physical condition, hence the larger number of women participating in January. . . Perhaps men are more into speed than distance. (That's certainly what I see from my practices.) I almost ditched this event last year b/c it seemed an annoyance to track and record each practice daily.