The anti-sandbag law:
"if a swimmer enters an event with a time significantly slower or faster than that swimmer's recorded time in the past two years, the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer, change the seeded time to a realistic time" (104.5.5.A(10)).
Concerning my Auburn nationals entry, I confess, when faced with a 7 hour 2 stop flight and 3:45 nonstop at an earlier time, I did what any warm-blooded middle-aged American swimmer with low self-esteem would do--sandbag my entry so I could catch the earlier flight, thus diminishing the possible time spent sitting next to a 400 pound Alabama slammer with sleep apnea wearing nothing but overalls and body odor. Of course, I was caught in my bold fabrication and my time was "fixed."
USMS seems to have an identity problem. Are we hard core with rigid qualifying times? It would seem not as 2 of my not-so-speedy family members were allowed to swim four events last year in Puerto Rico. If we are not hard core, why does anybody care that I sandbag? More to the point, why can one person enter a crappy time and another cannot? Just wondering.:)
I have vowed to nix the SB strategists by SB'ing myself into a more correct heat.
Now it all becomes clear: it has evolved into a sandbagging arms race!!!
More seriously (and I'm not picking on you, Stud), doesn't all this strategizing about sandbagging make your head hurt? Why does it have to be this complicated? What on earth is so hard about entering approximately the time you expect to do? (Granted, it may be hard to predict if you haven't competed for a long time or you've been injured or whatever.)
There was a thread recently (can't easily look it up now, I'm on a portable device) about how it seems that, as we get older, conditions need to be perfect to have a good swim.
I find it is exactly the opposite, with age has come just a little bit of wisdom to realize that things are very rarely perfect and that, in fact, I have done plenty of surprisingly good swims under adverse conditions: not much rest between events, poor night's sleep, slightly sick, outside lane, pool is not world-class, etc etc.
So my advice, for what it is worth: just enter the time you expect to do -- or maybe a reasonable goal time (I like this strategy myself: seeing the time in the psych sheets gives me something to shoot for) -- and stop sweating all these maddening details. Those things hold you back only to the extent that you believe they do.
(And now I expect I might hear from all those who believe conditions are always great for me: middle lanes, always clear water, etc etc. It isn't true.)
I have vowed to nix the SB strategists by SB'ing myself into a more correct heat.
Now it all becomes clear: it has evolved into a sandbagging arms race!!!
More seriously (and I'm not picking on you, Stud), doesn't all this strategizing about sandbagging make your head hurt? Why does it have to be this complicated? What on earth is so hard about entering approximately the time you expect to do? (Granted, it may be hard to predict if you haven't competed for a long time or you've been injured or whatever.)
There was a thread recently (can't easily look it up now, I'm on a portable device) about how it seems that, as we get older, conditions need to be perfect to have a good swim.
I find it is exactly the opposite, with age has come just a little bit of wisdom to realize that things are very rarely perfect and that, in fact, I have done plenty of surprisingly good swims under adverse conditions: not much rest between events, poor night's sleep, slightly sick, outside lane, pool is not world-class, etc etc.
So my advice, for what it is worth: just enter the time you expect to do -- or maybe a reasonable goal time (I like this strategy myself: seeing the time in the psych sheets gives me something to shoot for) -- and stop sweating all these maddening details. Those things hold you back only to the extent that you believe they do.
(And now I expect I might hear from all those who believe conditions are always great for me: middle lanes, always clear water, etc etc. It isn't true.)
