New game! Here's how to play: get in the water and swim. When you see a person emerge from one of the locker rooms, make a mental bookmark of where you are in your workout/set/swim and keep going. Once the other person starts swimming, make another mental bookmark and then subtract the difference. The number of yards or meters you swam before the other person finally started is your score!
This morning I was at the 175 mark of my standard 800 IM stroke drill warmup when I noticed another guy on the pool deck. He started swimming right after I finished my 800, yielding a score of 625. Can you beat my high score??? You can play this game as many times as you want during your workout, as long as there are slackers milling around.
To win this game you need to swim as much as possible and not waste time. If you see more than one person on the pool deck, you need to pick the right slacker. They should do several of the following:
Carefully arrange their toy pile at the end of their lane
Talk to anyone and everyone
Put on their cap, goggles, MP3 player, heart rate monitor, nose clip, earplugs, facemask, snorkel, fins, pull buoy...
Drag over a chair for their mini-whiteboard that has the workout written out on it
Oh wait no it doesn't, so they write it out there on the pooldeck
Sit with their feet in the water, just staring at the pool (this is my secret weapon! the guy this morning increased my score by around 400 just from doing this!)
Slowly lower themselves into the water inch by inch
Complain that the water is cold/warm/wet
Brawl with the noodlers (ok I've never actually seen this happen, but it would be pretty awesome wouldn't it?)
Former Member
How could you cheat at this game?
WEARING FINS :applaud:
In the time it took you to swim 625 yards, you could have done say 925 with fins on, therefore inflating the Slacker Score™ of the person you are observing.
:worms::bolt:
I like this game though. I will have to try it out.
Other things to consider...
- Taking a kickboard and then going back to get a different one
- Spending 3hrs to sort through all the pull buoys to find the "right" one
- OCD stacking of kickboards, pull buoys, noodles, etc
- Fumbling through their phone
Can stretching be included?
I'm usually the one on the deck, or strolling in late. Sometimes I miss the entire warmup (which is almost always 1000 yards for the masters group), I almost always miss 200-400 yards of it.
So for me, the game is: in the very first set how badly can I trounce all the goody-two-shoes, get there 10 minutes early coach's pet suckups who did the entire warmup? :bolt:
I only scored 325 this morning. Calisthenics Man was in the locker room but I didn't see him in the pool area.
I warm up on the first set.
I pick and choose my sets to push hard also. For me it's not how far I swim, it's the clock, the darn clock. The clock of truth.
I find this dumb and petty. Who cares how long it takes someone else to get in the pool or how much extra garbage yardage you can do while they go through their routine.
Its a good challenge on kick...you can actually watch them working up to getting in the water as you kick to the end and see who makes it first. If they're still not in and you've not finished the set, try and get another 50 in before they get wet......
Agreed. If you are focused on how much you can do while waiting to see when someone else gets in the water, then you aren't really focused on what you have come to do.
I find it best not to focus on the leg pain when I kick.
Here's a different twist on this game. I'm one that likes to fiddle around and take my time getting started. A few of the swimmers here jump right in and go. They're usually 50-100 ahead of me when I start. I like to see how long it takes until Ive caught them with the goal being before I finish my warmup swim which is usually 300-400.
I find this dumb and petty. Who cares how long it takes someone else to get in the pool or how much extra garbage yardage you can do while they go through their routine.
On a separate topic - this has been Speedo's week, from Bieber font to the web's hottest blog to some awesome sets, he's on fire.
On a separate topic - this has been Speedo's week, from Bieber font to the web's hottest blog to some awesome sets, he's on fire.
Yes, Speedo is having a good week. And "on fire" is the perfect metaphor, since many of the blog comments burn away, never to be seen again.
I find this dumb and petty. Who cares how long it takes someone else to get in the pool or how much extra garbage yardage you can do while they go through their routine.
On a separate topic - this has been Speedo's week, from Bieber font to the web's hottest blog to some awesome sets, he's on fire.
I think he's proving Tall Paul's "less is more" adage. Since he ditched the Lezak routine and took weeks off for lasik, he's become a sprinting maniac. I am about to depart for our Thursday speed workout, hoping I don't get trounced.
I'm usually the one on the deck, or strolling in late. Sometimes I miss the entire warmup (which is almost always 1000 yards for the masters group), I almost always miss 200-400 yards of it.
So for me, the game is: in the very first set how badly can I trounce all the goody-two-shoes, get there 10 minutes early coach's pet suckups who did the entire warmup? :bolt:
I find this dumb and petty. Who cares how long it takes someone else to get in the pool or how much extra garbage yardage you can do while they go through their routine.
Agreed. If you are focused on how much you can do while waiting to see when someone else gets in the water, then you aren't really focused on what you have come to do.
