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.
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I'm not reading Mr. Negative as saying being competitive is a bad thing...I'm seeing it more as mocking of a very small number of adult athletes who are so far over the top thats its kind of embarrassing.
I had the "pleasure" of meeting just such a person at a workout i coached earlier this week. A woman in her late 40's was visiting from another town, she rolled into the parking lot in a car that had every possibly Yakima rack attachment on top, multiple Ironman stickers and a vanity plate...she was spoting an ironman tattoo on her ankle, wore an ironman cap, had 3 sets of paddles, 2 sets of fins, etc. but couldn't make 100's (LCM) on 3:00 and barked at me for moving her to a slower lane (where Laura was coaching, ha!). She challenged every set, lectured us on how bad kicking work was, shared her race schedule...on and on and on.
Again a rare case...but one that even the soft spoken world class pro who was training with us pointed out "gave our sport a bad name".
lol
I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of certain triathletes either.
I used to write in a triathlon forum because it was the only forum I could find at the time that included swimming. I actually do the other two triathlon sports too(I used to even work as a bike messenger) but I was never interested in Triathlons and consider swimming as my main sport.
I noticed that there were a lot of big shots on that board. Their favorite thread was to show off their 5000+$ bikes or talk about their really expensive heart rate monitor watches or other triathlon gear like wetsuits even though half of them can't even swim free style:D
Ok, I'm being a bit harsh but that was my impression from that board.
I'm not reading Mr. Negative as saying being competitive is a bad thing...I'm seeing it more as mocking of a very small number of adult athletes who are so far over the top thats its kind of embarrassing.
I had the "pleasure" of meeting just such a person at a workout i coached earlier this week. A woman in her late 40's was visiting from another town, she rolled into the parking lot in a car that had every possibly Yakima rack attachment on top, multiple Ironman stickers and a vanity plate...she was spoting an ironman tattoo on her ankle, wore an ironman cap, had 3 sets of paddles, 2 sets of fins, etc. but couldn't make 100's (LCM) on 3:00 and barked at me for moving her to a slower lane (where Laura was coaching, ha!). She challenged every set, lectured us on how bad kicking work was, shared her race schedule...on and on and on.
Again a rare case...but one that even the soft spoken world class pro who was training with us pointed out "gave our sport a bad name".
lol
I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of certain triathletes either.
I used to write in a triathlon forum because it was the only forum I could find at the time that included swimming. I actually do the other two triathlon sports too(I used to even work as a bike messenger) but I was never interested in Triathlons and consider swimming as my main sport.
I noticed that there were a lot of big shots on that board. Their favorite thread was to show off their 5000+$ bikes or talk about their really expensive heart rate monitor watches or other triathlon gear like wetsuits even though half of them can't even swim free style:D
Ok, I'm being a bit harsh but that was my impression from that board.
