You're not a sprinter and you're not a pure distance swimmer. Your 50's & 1500's aren't as great as your 200's, 400's, & 500's. Your 100's aren't shabby. Let the D Divas take those 800's, 1000's, 1500's & 1650's. You're caught in the middle. You've got OK speed, but you can do those longer sets that make pure sprinters ill. You're well conditioned and tend to do well with back to back events. You're in great company, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are middle distance swimmers who have excellent 100's but not so great 50's. Man you can train.
This is the middle distance lane. Don't get lapped.
the breastroke lane
The Middle Distance Lane
The Backstroke Lane
The Butterfly Lane
The SDK Lane
The Taper Lane
The Distance Lane
The IM Lane
The Sprint Free Lane
The Pool Deck
... would I need to provide my own counter if I entered a 500 or 1000 yd ? ... is a whistle allowed ... And are the counting boards provided by the meet?
I am obviously not the right guy to consult for the officially official interpretation of the rules, but in all the meets I've been to so far, (a) the swimmer is responsible for recruiting his or her own counter (this led to a desperate scramble for me just before the 1000 at last spring's nationals); (b) the meet officials ring a bell when the FIRST swimmer has two laps to go (but not for any of the other swimmers); (c) the counting boards are provided by the meet, you don't have to bring your own.
Also, in the US, the convention is to count UP, so a 500 would be counted 1, 3, 5, 7, ... 19 whereas I understand the convention in Europe is to count DOWN, so an SCM 800 would be counted 31, 29, 27, ... 1.
... would I need to provide my own counter if I entered a 500 or 1000 yd ? ... is a whistle allowed ... And are the counting boards provided by the meet?
I am obviously not the right guy to consult for the officially official interpretation of the rules, but in all the meets I've been to so far, (a) the swimmer is responsible for recruiting his or her own counter (this led to a desperate scramble for me just before the 1000 at last spring's nationals); (b) the meet officials ring a bell when the FIRST swimmer has two laps to go (but not for any of the other swimmers); (c) the counting boards are provided by the meet, you don't have to bring your own.
Also, in the US, the convention is to count UP, so a 500 would be counted 1, 3, 5, 7, ... 19 whereas I understand the convention in Europe is to count DOWN, so an SCM 800 would be counted 31, 29, 27, ... 1.
