How do you train for the one hour postal?
Currently I swim about 2100 - 2200yds 4 -days a week - 3 days coached w/ age group kids
1 day same yardage but not coached.
I'm thinking about staying late during my coached days and swim an extra 500 -1000 yds after practice. My thinking is this extra yardage is about what I can do to be able to get home and get dinner on the table. Then increase my 1 day not coached to about 3000 yds and do more distance swims. My personal goal is to do any where from 4200 - 4500 in the postal.
As far as holding something up every 10 minutes, I would not recommend that as you can lose track visually and mentally of how many times that signal has been put up (and also more confusion and work for counter). I have an old TYR red/black kickboard/pull buoy that I have my counter put up at 30 minutes and 50 minutes. Red side if I'm behind pace (average of last 7 years), black if I'm ahead of pace (not that I can ever really do anything about it).
You certainly can break it up into 25s if you want, but then I think you lose the spirit of the swim--a one hour pain fest.
I think the counting technique needs to vary by the personal preference of the swimmer. I *NEED* to know where I am in any swim, let alone the hour swim, so it's very important to me to get frequent updates. I might ask for the kickboard every five minutes (but will probably ask for it every 10, plus with 2 minutes to go). Some people can just get in and swim, but if I don't know where I am I will probably panic...
As far as holding something up every 10 minutes, I would not recommend that as you can lose track visually and mentally of how many times that signal has been put up (and also more confusion and work for counter). I have an old TYR red/black kickboard/pull buoy that I have my counter put up at 30 minutes and 50 minutes. Red side if I'm behind pace (average of last 7 years), black if I'm ahead of pace (not that I can ever really do anything about it).
You certainly can break it up into 25s if you want, but then I think you lose the spirit of the swim--a one hour pain fest.
I think the counting technique needs to vary by the personal preference of the swimmer. I *NEED* to know where I am in any swim, let alone the hour swim, so it's very important to me to get frequent updates. I might ask for the kickboard every five minutes (but will probably ask for it every 10, plus with 2 minutes to go). Some people can just get in and swim, but if I don't know where I am I will probably panic...
