A version of this guy recently (confirmed by witnesses) stood on the bulkhead above the lane in which I was doing backstroke. His back was turned to the lane while he tried to attract the attention of his girlfriend, who was cavorting in the leisure pool, to "Watch how fast I can go!"...he then turned and in the same motion threw himself into the lane without looking first in his rough approximation of a racing dive. His trajectory led him squarely into a head-to-head collision with me as I approached the wall. I had no idea who or what had hit me and being somewhat concussed, I hung onto the lane ropes watching the stars twirling in my vision; he and girlfriend had left the pool. When I felt well enough I made my way to the ladder and two ladies who had been stretching before their aquasizes came up and told me what happened.
It set me back quite a bit in my already irregular return to the water and I am especially now 'freaked out' about who or what is standing on the bulkhead above me as I approach the turn, no matter what the stroke.
I got so sick of rec swimming that I moved to an area further from work but closer to masters teams. (I was living in LA and in every direction there was major traffic to get to a masters club in the evening.)
Anyway, I've got a ton of stories. But a common theme involves ppl not understanding speed in the water. I'm a fast swimmer (1:15/1:10 lane), and most of the time ppl move out of the fast lane when I swim.
But...
I can never, ever do breaststroke b/c once I do, all the slow pokes shift over to my lane, thinking, "Oh, breaststroke is slow. He must be slow."
Bear in mind that in warm-up, I do 4 strokes/lap w/o even trying; in a set, 5 strokes. (In a race, 6.) Anybody that knows anything about swimming knows that that's not dear old Aunt Betsy in her 1920s swimsuit and floral cap style of breaststroke. :frustrated:
This has kept me laughing ALL day. I was in the middle of an interview this afternoon and almost lost it thinking about the guys with the rooster tail splash behind him. I, too, love the people that try to race me in the middle of something. Are we all demented that it gives us so much pleasure to leisurely beat them? I'm not that fast, but it makes me very happy.
Thankfully, I haven't had any interlopers into my lane yet, but I guarantee the day will come and I will not be happy about it. I'll have to switch to butterfly and make them move out of fear of concussion......
from slowtwith forums forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi
---Also noticed a couple of weeks ago..."Lots of Splash and Flailing, No Forward Progress Guy"...this dude puts out a rooster tail worthy of a hydroplane racer...you can barely see him for the water that is erupting around him...but he is barely moving. He generally goes one length, rests for about 2 minutes, and then is off in an explosion of water.
I have been swimming twice a week with this man in suburban Chicago.
Good thing I am alone at work because I have tears rolling down my face from laughing so hard.
from slowtwith forums forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi
I have been swimming twice a week with this man in suburban Chicago.
Impossible! He swims at my pool with his 2 equally obnoxious buddies!
And they bring their 6-7 kids to run around the pool too.
Thanks for posting that link, some crazy stuff over there. I happened to see this quote in someone's signature line:
"Don't go telling me a 100 fly is too difficult...it can't be any where near as hard as running a marathon or competing in a triathlon. "
I think this really speaks to the difference between the competative swimmer mentality and the tri/marathon mentality.Sure it's harder to finish a tri or a marathon and if your only goal is to finish then,sure do something "hard".My goal is to swim fast.Which is harder,finishing a tri or making USMS Top Ten.
Thanks for posting that link, some crazy stuff over there. I happened to see this quote in someone's signature line:
"Don't go telling me a 100 fly is too difficult...it can't be any where near as hard as running a marathon or competing in a triathlon. "
I think this really speaks to the difference between the competative swimmer mentality and the tri/marathon mentality.Sure it's harder to finish a tri or a marathon and if your only goal is to finish then,sure do something "hard".My goal is to swim fast.Which is harder,finishing a tri or making USMS Top Ten.
The problem with that signature isn't that the author is trying to make a comparison between 3 very different things. The problem is the words "can't be" which indicate that the author hasn't even done a 100 fly. I've done all of the things listed above (including the top tens) and there just isn't really any point in trying to rank them by difficulty. My list would be different than your list depending on our individual strengths and weaknesses.
