2010 SCM Zone Championships

I did more meets this year than I've done since 2003, and I'll probably do even more next year. Truthfully, it has been years (5+) that nearly every local meet is on the verge of being canceled due to low enrollment. On a regular basis I receive emails urging me to enter a meet. I think there are just too many meets competing for too few swimmers. So here's a question for the group that several of us were discussing this morning. What's the point in doing a SCM meet if you never swim SCM? I look at a meet as a way to gauge progress, improvements, and decide if/how to alter my training. We train SCY for about 8-9 months and LCM for the remainder of the year. If I'm not ever training SCM, I don't know how to prepare nor what to do with any results. Training for SCM is about the same as training for SCY.If you swim some SCM meets you'll have a good idea what the times mean(or you can take your SCM times and divide by 1.1 to get a rough SCY equivalent.) 2 reasons to swim SCM:first it is the least swum venue in the US so it offers the best chance of making Top Ten,second,it is the most swum venue in the rest of the world if you want to compare your times to everyone else,or get FINA TT.A third reason ,applying to only a few people, is that you can't get a WR in SCY.

2010 SCM Zone Championships Which ones are you swimming in? Sat Dec 4th, 2010 & Sun Dec 5th Masters of South Central Regional SCM Championships San Antonio, TX I think I will be in San Antonio on the 4th anyhow, so I will hopefully be doing my first meet in 18 months... I'll swim the 1500 only, which will be good because at my last meet I only swam the 50 (well I did do a warmp up 50 fly too).

I'm going to a meet next weekend in Bend, which is about 2 1/2 hours from here and 3 1/2 from Portland. It's an SCM pentathlon with the same venue, basic format, and time of year as last year. I'll be interested to compare numbers from this year to last when I get them. It should be a pretty true apples to apples look at participation, although the loss of the December SCM meet in Portland may tend to increase participation at this meet. I don't think the suits will have much of an impact one way or the other on how many show up. To the extent I think about it at all, I like how quickly and easily I can get my race suit on now, but it really isn't that big an issue. My guess, based on nothing at all, is that participation will be down. Last year's number: 80 or so, although less actually showed up and swam due to snow on Mt. Hood. This year's number: low 50s, weather a non-factor.

Wow, how did this go from talking about SCM Zones to the tech suits yet again?! I was just wondering the same thing, Alison! I just got back from Asheville (after the cruise) and I'm trying to get caught up on the forums. So, here I am, checking out this thread, wondering to myself: "I'm away from the forums (mostly) for three weeks and what are they still talking about? Tech suits! :argue: By the way, Forumites, the ugly purple and white flowered Speedo Endurance suit that I wore at Nationals endures no more; it finally DIED. But, you won't see me in a legal tech suit at the next Nationals... It's still a good ol' Speedo for me! :agree: P.S. Alison, how did you do in the meet? I hope it was a great meet for you!

Congratulations!!! :applaud: :bow: And, good luck shaving off that last .04 in your next meet! As I mentioned in my travelogue e-mail to you, I stopped short of tossing my Speedo overboard after my burial at sea ceremony (Uhhh, I don't think polyester/ pbt is biodegradable!), while on my cruise. So, I packed it up in my luggage, brought it home, and hung it on my swim eqt. hook in the laundry room, where I hang my Aquasphere swimming bag. It brings back great memories of my first year in USMS! :) You should frame it.

So here's a question for the group that several of us were discussing this morning. What's the point in doing a SCM meet if you never swim SCM? I look at a meet as a way to gauge progress, improvements, and decide if/how to alter my training. We train SCY for about 8-9 months and LCM for the remainder of the year. If I'm not ever training SCM, I don't know how to prepare nor what to do with any results. Tim, for me it was going for Top 10 in the distance. I train SCY for 10 months of the year as well. The first time I had even been in SCM in 3 years for my meet on Nov 6th was in warm up. I just took my time to learn to adjust my stroke length. One thing my coach emphasizes is knowing our stroke count on every stroke for every length and every speed. So I was counting every length and getting a feel for how much longer meters was. It was pretty much 1 full stroke for me. Actually, I enjoyed it more on *** because I tend to take a half a stroke and it make it a full stroke. As for the results, I compared them to my times in 2006 and also converted them to see. It's not a widely done distance but I think SCM is a fun distance that I wish we'd have more meets of. I was just wondering the same thing, Alison! I just got back from Asheville (after the cruise) and I'm trying to get caught up on the forums. So, here I am, checking out this thread, wondering to myself: "I'm away from the forums (mostly) for three weeks and what are they still talking about? Tech suits! :argue: By the way, Forumites, the ugly purple and white flowered Speedo Endurance suit that I wore at Nationals endures no more; it finally DIED. But, you won't see me in a legal tech suit at the next Nationals... It's still a good ol' Speedo for me! :agree: P.S. Alison, how did you do in the meet? I hope it was a great meet for you! Elaine, thanks for asking. I did great. All PB's. Well, 2 were converted since I had never done them before. But the other 2 were not. Took 5 sec off my 400 free time :) The only downer to the whole meet was my goal of breaking 2:50 in the 200 IM. I did a 2:50.04. Sooo close! I'm going for it again in Dec. RIP the purple Speedo suit.

Elaine, thanks for asking. I did great. All PB's. Well, 2 were converted since I had never done them before. But the other 2 were not. Took 5 sec off my 400 free time :) The only downer to the whole meet was my goal of breaking 2:50 in the 200 IM. I did a 2:50.04. Sooo close! I'm going for it again in Dec. RIP the purple Speedo suit. Congratulations!!! :applaud: :bow: And, good luck shaving off that last .04 in your next meet! As I mentioned in my travelogue e-mail to you, I stopped short of tossing my Speedo overboard after my burial at sea ceremony (Uhhh, I don't think polyester/ pbt is biodegradable!), while on my cruise. So, I packed it up in my luggage, brought it home, and hung it on my swim eqt. hook in the laundry room, where I hang my Aquasphere swimming bag. It brings back great memories of my first year in USMS! :)

y'all can find results to the 2010 RJ SCM Invitational in Tempe AZ on this blog entry of Pat's scroll to the bottom of his blog entry but above the comments

The Long Beach Grunions always seem to exceed everyone's expectations as they put on the SCM meet in Long Beach. Here's info: www.lbgrunions.org/timeline.html www.lbgrunions.org/psychsheets.html Meanwhile, it's cold and getting colder in Southern California, so look out below ... even if the pool is indoors: www.lbgrunions.org/venue.html

2010 Long Beach Results