2008 USMS Long Course National Championships

What the heck would be a taper for your - 2 X 25? Fewer days sprinting per week, and less sprinting yardage/intensity. Basically I sprint pretty high volume in the months leading up to a meet, at the limit of my recovery. Closer to a meet I just do enough to maintain speed.

The 40-44 age group is one of the deepest for distance. It really is. I'm glad I'm a few years younger than that group :)

I practice several times a week all season and stop about 10 days out. Hey, me too. My favorite taper workout is no workout. I sometimes miss more workouts in two weeks of taper than I miss all year long. Some of my best tapers are spent sleeping for two or three weeks and NEVER getting to the pool. That goes for preparing for the 1000 or longer, too. It's the Rip Van Winkle Taper. :banana:

This sounds like it will be a great race, but be prepared to stick around late if you want to watch it!

Okay, someone will have to tape Dennis doing the 1500 fly and post it. What a way to shut up the whiners at workouts when fly is thrown into the mix.

Okay, someone will have to tape Dennis doing the 1500 fly and post it. What a way to shut up the whiners at workouts when fly is thrown into the mix. Better bring a whole film crew and a battery of klieg lights. The timeline has the 1500 ending at 9:20, and even with a fly seed time, Dennis will likely end up in one of the last two or three heats. Maybe it's still light at 9:00 way up there in Canada, eh, but down south here in Oregon it's the dimming of the day.

And one of them buying me a cold one afterwards! Dreamer. I'm just trying to decide which excuse you'll use to try to weasel out of our bet. 1. "There is no one to race in my age group." 2. :cane: 3. "I laughed at my wife and she beat me up. Again."

Hey Chris, good luck I look forward to seeing how fast you're gonna swim Even without Erik this will be very deep. It will be fun to watch, I'll have to stick around after counting for a teammate. You should have entered the 800...much easier field and you'd be done earlier, too! The 40-44 100 fly will be fun, too...6 people entered under 1:00.

1500 fly ouch that'll be something years ago an SMU swimmer used to swim 400 FLY in the 400 free I've done a few 200 fly's but never further It's been years since I've done one Might make a reappearance one day Hoch won't be there...but it should still be great...Kurt, we expect you to move up to top 3 my man! Also...watch Baker...he's swimming it fly (entered at 18:59)

Wouldn't count him out, but I don't think he can hang with Utsch, Erwin, or Shaffer; that is if history means anything in Masters swimming. Utsch, a former UA All-American, pounds me into the ground about annually. Erwin a former Berkeley stud, I believe, has one of the top miles of all time. Shaffer has one of the oldest Ironman swim records in the books--43 minutes at IM Canada in 93. The 40-44 age group is one of the deepest for distance. I got 7th or 8th at nationals in the 1650 about 5 years ago and the time was good enough to win any of the other age groups. I think the top 8 in the 40-44 will all be under 18:00 at Portland. Jeff Erwin (aka "Spud") is indeed a former Cal Golden Bear!!