Go The Distance

RE: Go The Distance

dorothyrde — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:49:57 GMT

Alison, I remember when I quit full time when my first one was 9 months old(he will be 20 in March, oh my!). All my co-workers teased me about watching soap operas and eating bon-bons. It could not be further from the truth! I developed my at home work-outs in those years for convenience sake. That is nice because over the years I have accumulated a good set of fitness equipment to work out at home. I cannot seem to convince the hubby to put in a indoor lap pool though!

RE: Go The Distance

swimshark — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:19:32 GMT

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? As a stay at home mom to an almost 3 year old I can say my swimming time is very limited. My facility has a kid kare but you have to make reservations and most of the time it's full a week in advance so I have to plan way ahead to get in a day time swim. No other day care nor baby sitters used. So my time in the pool is 4:30-6am with the age group team. I've done just over 54 miles for the year and it's all been with the age groupers except 1 one-hour session while M was in pre-school (1 day a week for 3 hours). Once M is in school longer, then I'll get more day-time swimming in and log in more time. Although I'm 100% a team swimmer. I don't like swimming on my own. I don't think what you said was sexist but I do think it's not totally true (as no theory is 100% true). None of my stay at home mom friends would be able to exercise during the day where it requires a drive, exercise, shower, etc with kids at home

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:46:09 GMT

I like GTD as it has helped me push on for the extra 500 yards in a workout or something. Last Jan I did something like 16 miles...this year I had 29.49...so it's helped me step up my training level, which should be good for my overall conditioning..

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:03:07 GMT

But (S)he-Man, 6 x week 1.5 hours is not the "Modern Swimming Theory." That's a heckuva lot of swimming. Guess you are right as that's what I've been told. I can't help it if many of my close friends are Iron(wo)men. They are truly insane and will on occasion do triple workouts in a day. I guess it's all relative. :dunno:

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:18:32 GMT

As I understand Modern Swimming Theory, faster times and more efficient swimming come from low-mileage, high-quality workouts that emphasize bouts of sprinting, with rest in between (assuming technique, kicking, and the like are already well incorporated into swimming style). VB I've heard that theory as well. What's actually practiced is quite another story. From what I've seen (and experienced personally) the top clubs here in GA and at NCAA Div I schools (like Stanford and Auburn) train their swimmers with double workouts. And depending on the time of the season they swim over 10K a day and up to 20K. I feel it's more of a high mileage, high quality in reality. If we're talking about masters swimmers, the top two dominant women in my age group swim doubles including 6 to 10 swimming workouts a week (as quoted in swimming magazine - or as one of them told me personally.) However, I'm still going to work on putting the modern swimming theory to the test. It's soooo much easier.

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:59:40 GMT

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. I too am impressed with how many masters can rip it up without a lot of practice. I would LOVE to get away with little practice AND fast times. Perhaps a college background would have been helpful. I'm still working on my technique though. Ah well. I can dream. Fortunately, I enjoy my time in the water (1.5 hours 6x/ week seems minimal to me).

RE: Go The Distance

Donna — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:47:11 GMT

As with anything EEEEZZZZ into it. When I went from 4 days a week to 6 days a week that took some time to adjust to physically 2.5 years ago. This past summer when I went from 6 times per week to 11 it took about 2 months to get used to the workload. Next we are adding stretchcord work 1-2 times per week and that too is taking some getting used to. But you always have to shake things up a bit to make improvement. At 42 I really did not think I would ever get down to my kid times in the 50 or 100 Free but now at 45 after seeing others who are able to do it, I say "Why can't I?" Atleast I know I will have given it my best shot. A year with the kids team is really helping me along too.

RE: Go The Distance

knelson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:28:28 GMT

These distance events seem more for the individual. True. I do it much more for my personal motivation than anything else. I look at the results, but the fact that others are swimming 100 miles per month doesn't really make me want to. The whole GTD thing is more of a goal thing than a competition thing. However, I am impressed with this distances the top folks are logging.

RE: Go The Distance

Julie Roddin — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:23:02 GMT

I would not be surprised to see her finish 50 miles ahead of me, assuming I don't injure myself again this year. Yeah, but is she going to finish 50 miles ahead of the other Jeff!?!?! He's been picking on me that he was almost ahead of me in January. And I'm sure I'll hear about it when he's ahead of me in February too! About GTD, I have always kept track of my training with an excel spreadsheet. It's interesting to see year after year when I am and I have some comments on how I was feeling throughout the year. In the past I had always taken a break in the fall and then been completely out of shape come January. This year I made a huge effort to stay in shape and actually had the best masters meet of my life in December. Having past year's data was helpful in deciding how to taper this year. Last year I did learn that I need to take more short breaks from swimming and did get a little obsessed with training in March last year. 30,000 yards in one week ending in a swim meet wasn't the best idea. I guess when you're 13 you body can handle that beating, but not now. On the subject of kids training, I have no idea how I ever did it. And seems that they train more now. Over the holiday break one team in our area gave a set of 20 x 400 IM. I can't even imagine the pain.

RE: Go The Distance

Muppet — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:14:08 GMT

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. Finnish Formula, Jim! :bouncing: I was slightly ahead of what I did last January (kept track but never got around to sending in my results), but somehow am quite far behind my female counterpart. In our case, she has the ability to get to practice on time nearly every time (I hit more traffic), she is more likely to do a saturday workout (while I'm catching up on sleep), and I have other things (ie Hockey) that supplement my swimming. I would not be surprised to see her finish 50 miles ahead of me, assuming I don't injure myself again this year.

RE: Go The Distance

The Fortress — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:54:43 GMT

I've heard that theory as well. What's actually practiced is quite another story. From what I've seen (and experienced personally) the top clubs here in GA and at NCAA Div I schools (like Stanford and Auburn) train their swimmers with double workouts. And depending on the time of the season they swim over 10K a day and up to 20K. I feel it's more of a high mileage, high quality in reality. If we're talking about masters swimmers, the top two dominant women in my age group swim doubles including 6 to 10 swimming workouts a week (as quoted in swimming magazine - or as one of them told me personally.) However, I'm still going to work on putting the modern swimming theory to the test. It's soooo much easier. Most USA swimmers train like crazy. The "Modern Swimming Theory" only seems to work for sprinters and some masters. Some of the best women in my age group also put in doubles and high yardage. But (S)he-Man, 6 x week 1.5 hours is not the "Modern Swimming Theory." That's a heckuva lot of swimming.

RE: Go The Distance

ViveBene — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:47:42 GMT

RE: Go The Distance

dorothyrde — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:17:22 GMT

When I was a stay at home Mom, I was extremely busy, and had about the same time as now to swim.

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:43:11 GMT

If you look at the Canadian equivalent, the Million Metre Challenge, the highest distances achieved are dominated by men, and then it evens out: http://mymsc.ca/Million.jsp

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:42:38 GMT

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. While I'm not into trying to compete against others on total distance swum I find it interesting and useful to be able to look back at how many meters I've put in. And it sometimes motivates me to do some extra work. I recently passed the million meter mark and while it took me a couple of years it gave me some sense of accomplishment. For the majority of masters swimmers that don't compete this can add a little extra interest or motivation to their swimming.

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:09:48 GMT

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.

RE: Go The Distance

Kurt Dickson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:22:34 GMT

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.

RE: Go The Distance

jim thornton — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:00:37 GMT

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.

RE: Go The Distance

The Fortress — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:53:15 GMT

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

RE: Go The Distance

Former Member — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:05:52 GMT

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

RE: Go The Distance

Donna — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:30:30 GMT

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.

RE: Go The Distance

knelson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:54:39 GMT

RE: Go The Distance

jim thornton — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:02:52 GMT

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.

RE: Go The Distance

swimshark — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:47:28 GMT

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

RE: Go The Distance

knelson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:02:23 GMT

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.