Why does it appear many masters swimmers are taking USMS so seriously?
What's the difference between the typical "selfish train all day", "it's all about me" triathlete and a masters swimmer who seriously trains as hard as they can.... particularly to focus on setting masters records?
Seems like there is a growing parallel between triathletes and many masters swimmers these days.
Isn't it just "masters swimming" for health and fun in the end?
Does a masters record really mean that much?
Is this a good thing? ..... or a turn off for those who look on with amusement.
Now back to my question: Does it seem like there are more and more people getting wound up in USMS like the obsessed training triathletes nuts these days?
Well, I reject the premise of the question about triathlon "nuts." At the few triathlons I have attended, I saw a LOT of participants -- even a majority -- who were simply content to finish and are not hypercompetitive about it. (Though I will admit that most of them -- even the slow ones -- had nicer bikes than me.)
There is a subset of triathletes who train for Iron Man events, and they do have to put a lot of training time in. But they are a small minority of triathletes as a whole. And the ones I know are no more self-indulgent than most people.
My wife once participated in a group called "tri-moms" where the emphasis was to get mothers physically active by giving them a goal: ie, gather beginner triathletes, teach them some skills and train together towards a sprint tri. What's wrong with this kind of thing? And yes, my wife recently ran into one of them who now competes in IM triathlons, and she somehow hasn't abandoned her kids in the process. Good for her, I say.
As far as whether USMS members are becoming more obsessed with performance and competition, I don't really know. I don't see it at all in the local swimmers in my area, the vast majority of whom do not compete at all.
Nationally, I have been in a pretty competitive age group, an age where some former swimmers seem to be rediscovering their love of competitive swimming and are old enough where their children are more independent and jobs are more secure. I don't know if this represents a trend or if it has always been that way, but even if it does, so what?
Now back to my question: Does it seem like there are more and more people getting wound up in USMS like the obsessed training triathletes nuts these days?
Well, I reject the premise of the question about triathlon "nuts." At the few triathlons I have attended, I saw a LOT of participants -- even a majority -- who were simply content to finish and are not hypercompetitive about it. (Though I will admit that most of them -- even the slow ones -- had nicer bikes than me.)
There is a subset of triathletes who train for Iron Man events, and they do have to put a lot of training time in. But they are a small minority of triathletes as a whole. And the ones I know are no more self-indulgent than most people.
My wife once participated in a group called "tri-moms" where the emphasis was to get mothers physically active by giving them a goal: ie, gather beginner triathletes, teach them some skills and train together towards a sprint tri. What's wrong with this kind of thing? And yes, my wife recently ran into one of them who now competes in IM triathlons, and she somehow hasn't abandoned her kids in the process. Good for her, I say.
As far as whether USMS members are becoming more obsessed with performance and competition, I don't really know. I don't see it at all in the local swimmers in my area, the vast majority of whom do not compete at all.
Nationally, I have been in a pretty competitive age group, an age where some former swimmers seem to be rediscovering their love of competitive swimming and are old enough where their children are more independent and jobs are more secure. I don't know if this represents a trend or if it has always been that way, but even if it does, so what?
