There is a nice article by Linda Shoenberger as the March Fitness article on swimming all the events without the utter hopelessness of knowing you are guaranteed to be dead last in a competition environment. It starts:
"Once upon a time there was a swimmer who didn’t want to compete in swim competitions. She just wanted to do fitness swimming and enjoy the camaraderie of a USMS workout group.
"But she also wanted to swim all the pool races offered in USMS competition. She couldn’t imagine herself racing the 200 butterfly in front of a bunch of other swimmers, coaches and spectators. But she could imagine herself swimming the 200 butterfly in practice at a leisurely pace without the pressure of being at a swim meet."
So the coach encouraged people to do the Check-off Challenge and made time during workouts for swimmers who wanted to, to swim the events.
:)
(Nice coach, pat pat...)
...
The problem is, you still have to be motivated enough to swim a 200 fly for no other reason than to get a check mark.
...
The pain of the 200 fly is over-rated: turtle-slow turns with big gasps of air, long pushoffs and lots of kicks in between pulls and you'll get through it.
FYI: I find trying to do each event in each season very fun: I made it last SCY season and am on track this SCY season. It forces you out of your comfort zone and, quite frankly, swimming some "off" events is liberating (low to no expectations).
...
The problem is, you still have to be motivated enough to swim a 200 fly for no other reason than to get a check mark.
...
The pain of the 200 fly is over-rated: turtle-slow turns with big gasps of air, long pushoffs and lots of kicks in between pulls and you'll get through it.
FYI: I find trying to do each event in each season very fun: I made it last SCY season and am on track this SCY season. It forces you out of your comfort zone and, quite frankly, swimming some "off" events is liberating (low to no expectations).
