i swim in the medium to slower lanes at a very competitive masters team workouts in san diego, and am usually asked to slide down to slower lanes when the equal ability swimmers (vs triathletes) show up.
the funny thing is most of these swimmers use a pull bouy or fins for the WHOLE workout. i think it's a ego thing in la-la land.
i would like to swim with people who can push me harder, instead of down in the last slowest lane. should i just chalk it up to normal swimmers protocal? or find another team? :confused:
If it's the "anything goes" mentality (wearing fins, wet suit, paddles, etc.) I feel you should be able to stay and do what you want in that lane as well.
Well, no. If four other people in the lane are doing a set of 100s on (say) a 1:15 per 100 interval, and Person #5 can't repeat them on faster than 1:25, Person #5 needs to move to another lane if one is available, even if Person #5 knows that Persons #2 and #3 couldn't make 1:25 either if they took off their fins. Person #5 is not the fin police. Person #5 might try exercising some charm to get the rest of the people to lose their fins so they can all work out together and go on 1:25, or even as suggested above enlisting the coach in this persuasive effort. But if charm and coaching fail then Person #5, not the fin-wearers, is out of sync and is being rude if s/he insists on staying and getting lapped halfway through the set.
Same principle applies if Person #5 is the one who wants to go on 1:15 and Persons #1 to #4 want to go on 1:25. In that case, if Person #5 can't move s/he needs to figure out another strategy to avoid messing up the lane-mates' workout, like swimming harder and getting more rest, or (my personal fave) substituting backstroke for freestyle.
It's strange to me in masters as to what is accepted as the norm. I personally find most master workouts as semi-organized chaos b/c most everyone is doing something very different and everyone has very different goals - different equipment; strokes; different sets; stopping; getting in or out; resting for a 50; resting and then jumping in on your feet and drafting off of you (ha! men tend to do this to me more than women); jumping right in front of you. I actually make up my own sets on occasion and swim at the back of the lane simply to not feel like a chump for following directions all the time.
I think you are just describing a difference in coaching style, between the age-group coach who is very bossy and the masters coach who is maybe not bossy enough. But really, those of us who go to masters-only workouts are not just farting around. Even in groups where space was so limited that people of pretty different speeds had to share, I have never been to an organized workout where it was culturally acceptable to change the set or to choose your own interval without consulting with your lane-mates. Instead, I have heard many conversations criticizing people for doing exactly that. I prefer when the conversations are polite but to those people's faces, although sadly I do hear them in the locker room too. So I don't think your description is the "norm" at all.
If it's the "anything goes" mentality (wearing fins, wet suit, paddles, etc.) I feel you should be able to stay and do what you want in that lane as well.
Well, no. If four other people in the lane are doing a set of 100s on (say) a 1:15 per 100 interval, and Person #5 can't repeat them on faster than 1:25, Person #5 needs to move to another lane if one is available, even if Person #5 knows that Persons #2 and #3 couldn't make 1:25 either if they took off their fins. Person #5 is not the fin police. Person #5 might try exercising some charm to get the rest of the people to lose their fins so they can all work out together and go on 1:25, or even as suggested above enlisting the coach in this persuasive effort. But if charm and coaching fail then Person #5, not the fin-wearers, is out of sync and is being rude if s/he insists on staying and getting lapped halfway through the set.
Same principle applies if Person #5 is the one who wants to go on 1:15 and Persons #1 to #4 want to go on 1:25. In that case, if Person #5 can't move s/he needs to figure out another strategy to avoid messing up the lane-mates' workout, like swimming harder and getting more rest, or (my personal fave) substituting backstroke for freestyle.
It's strange to me in masters as to what is accepted as the norm. I personally find most master workouts as semi-organized chaos b/c most everyone is doing something very different and everyone has very different goals - different equipment; strokes; different sets; stopping; getting in or out; resting for a 50; resting and then jumping in on your feet and drafting off of you (ha! men tend to do this to me more than women); jumping right in front of you. I actually make up my own sets on occasion and swim at the back of the lane simply to not feel like a chump for following directions all the time.
I think you are just describing a difference in coaching style, between the age-group coach who is very bossy and the masters coach who is maybe not bossy enough. But really, those of us who go to masters-only workouts are not just farting around. Even in groups where space was so limited that people of pretty different speeds had to share, I have never been to an organized workout where it was culturally acceptable to change the set or to choose your own interval without consulting with your lane-mates. Instead, I have heard many conversations criticizing people for doing exactly that. I prefer when the conversations are polite but to those people's faces, although sadly I do hear them in the locker room too. So I don't think your description is the "norm" at all.
