General - Recent Threads

RE: The day the Forum died

Allen Stark — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 01:06:15 GMT

I’d be OK if the latest post was at the bottom. The way this is is the latest post can be a reply to somebody stuck somewhere in the middle of the thread. If they just did it, oldest to newest or newest to oldest, it would make more sense

The day the Forum died

Allen Stark — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 16:00:51 GMT

The Forum died for me 4/3/18. It has been resurrected a couple of times, but it seems to be on life support.

4/3/18 my wife got her hip[ replaced and while I was in the waiting room I logged on the the Forum and it wasn't there and there was an ambiguous message. It finally came back to no fanfare and we were told it was a necessary update. Activity on the forum was low. It was updated again to more fanfare but activity was still low. I inquired about it and was told Forums were an outdated system. This surprised me as the other forum I frequent (for DnD) has gone though similar updates and is vibrant. I am' repeating again on the Forum, my theory and solution. When the Forum was vibrant anyone could post and we were getting posts from all over the world. One person from another country said it was THE best source of information for masters swimmers. Now it is restricted to posts from USMS members only saying it is a perk of membership. It would be a much better perk if it was a vibrant site and good marketing for USMS. Imagine asking about finding a workout in another country and having someone from there answering. That used to happen.

I know USMS staff monitor the Forum, please open it up, I can practically guarantee it will not drop enrollment. Has anyone said ,since 4/3/18, "I'm joining USMS for the Forum.". Open it to the world and someone might.

RE: The day the Forum died

Elaine Krugman — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:57:58 GMT

One of the things I miss about the old forums is always having the most recent post on top.

I also got the same notification you did, 'DJ. WTF is right!

RE: The day the Forum died

ForceDJ — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 15:12:33 GMT

Just want to say that I STILL don’t like the “new” forums. $u¢ks. I just logged in, and had a ‘red dot notification’ that a response to a thread I had participated in had been made (the Transgender/biological girls thread). Looking through the entire thread, the newest response I see is six months old. WTF?

Dan

RE: Masters Swim Team in Uruguay - Natacion Maldonado

ForceDJ — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:57:30 GMT

Awesome. I’m glad it all worked out for you.

Masters Swim Team in Uruguay - Natacion Maldonado

Britt03 — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 21:53:37 GMT

I will be in La Barra/Punta Del Este/Maldonado, Uruguay, for 3 months in 2026 and found the natacion maldonado masters team that I would love to train with during that time. Unfortunately, I could only find an instagram account and I wanted to see if anybody here has a contact to that team.

If you have a contact, even through other swimmers, I would appreciate any and all connections.

RE: Masters Swim Team in Uruguay - Natacion Maldonado

Britt03 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:32:26 GMT

I just wanted to report back that I met Juan and celebrated his retirement on Friday of last week. IDM is an amazing and fun masters team and I am so lucky to have found such a great team to swim with for 3 months. If you're ever in La Barra/Maldonado/Punta Del Este, make sure you reach out to the new coach Pablo Olivera. Happy to share his number if needed.

oh, and my mystery contact through IG turned out to be Juan :)

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Elaine Krugman — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 22:55:19 GMT

Gee, what a surprise; my letter to the editor was not included in the current issue of Swimmer Magazine.

My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Elaine Krugman — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 18:26:46 GMT

I just sent this to Swimmer Magazine:

Dear Editor,

I was very disappointed to read in your Editor's Note in the January / February 2026 issue that this will be the final year Swimmer Magazine will be published.

The main motivator for joining USMS, in February 2010, was to receive Swimmer Magazine. As a former high school swimmer who had not been properly taught or coached, I relied on the publication for valuable information on learning proper stroke technique, training, and preparing for competition. I read every issue, cover to cover.

Swimmer Magazine also inspired me to start writing Swimmer Profile features and other articles for the Georgia Masters Newsletter, beginning in 2014, which I still do today. I am also the editor and serve on our board of directors.

How sad that membership fees have increased, but a valuable membership benefit will soon disappear.

Elaine Krugman

Communications, Georgia Masters

Augusta Blue Tides

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Michael Heather — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:11:03 GMT

I have not yet seen a digital issue. How is one to read that which nobody sees? I have watched for anything from USMS, but nothing has yet been delivered, as far as I can tell.

TOP 10 of all time USA masters women age 45-49 all events.

AZ7ZS — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:32:42 GMT

Is there a handy list for this? How can I search for the top 10 OF ALL TIME USA results for my age group? When I search for top 10 WORLD of all time, it shows ALL events in a row per age group. For US results I have to search 1 by 1! Please tell me there is a better way to search for this.

Thank you!

High Intensity Training

Allen Stark — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:23:14 GMT

I just got my Streamlines and it has a list of high intensity workouts to swim faster, not longer. I looked at several and while there were sets doing from 25s to 200s,the workouts didn't seem to me to be what I would call HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training) because they were all doing 3000 yards or more in less than an hour. To me HIIT means race pace and as other threads have pointed out here the average Masters swimmer can't maintain AFAP pace or 100 pace without sufficient rest between efforts. Am I missing something?

RE: High Intensity Training

Rob Nasser — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 22:06:03 GMT

Totally agree... The HiGh InTenSity workouts are effectively a mid-distance workout posing as a high intensity workout. The author is a triathlete with a more vintage training approach, where intervals dictate the effort rather than allowing enough time to recover and repeat, or even improve (or nearly repeat) the time and effort from prior swims. "You must hit X yards to be successful," instead of the true high-intensity / HIIT approach of hitting as many yards at 50/100/200/500 speed to be successful, and if possible, improve on that quantity or volume of fast swimming from workout to workout. Here's my list of must-haves for a high-intensity workout...

- More than 1 main set with at least 2 minutes between sets. Break it up with time and/or recovery between sets. Pref. 1000 or less per set. 1500 for mid or distance speed work.
- No yardage slamming - 3K/Hour IS yardage slamming for HIT/HIIT
- No garbage-yardage at the end. 50-100 Warm down is plenty. More is not better.
- No repeat over 150 (personally I prefer <= 100).
- Always something fast in each set (all fast, ascend/descend, fast/ez, Build, EOOF, ETOF, EFOF, etc.)
- Warm-up = CNS priming & temperature elevation. 10-15 min tops=10 General, 5 speed it up. More is not better. May feel like forcing it a bit sometimes, but if you rehearse it, it works well and you'll have more energy for the workout.
- Sprint early, middle, and end! So many wait until the end. How do you expect your body to race fast early or get in the faster draft group if you don't rehearse how to go fast early or are always trying to sprint at the end of a workout when your CNS is fried??!?
- DO NOT BE AFRAID TO BONK/FAIL - A LOT!!
- Kick sets DO qualify as valid training modes - with and WITHOUT fins!

Remember Urbanchek: You can't swim faster unless you swim faster!!

Know that "Sprint" is a relative term. It's all about max or near max effort. You don't have to be a sub 30 per 50 to call something a sprint. It's about what you're capable of at that moment. Nothing more. No more "But I can't sprint". You're capable... You just don't want to get out of your comfort zone to do it.

Unfortunately, finding a masters team that is willing to train like this on a regular basis is not one I've come across yet. I hope to find one someday. For now, I am stuck with the triathletes who cannot stop asking how far they went that day as a measure of success. 😑

RE: High Intensity Training

Erik Hochstein — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:12:32 GMT

Not missing anything at all - race pace needs a LOT of rest - quality over quantity and if you are counting total yards you are already not doing quality ... 100 pace for example -- real 100 pace at even current race pace level - you can maybe do 3-5x 50 at most -- with 3-8 min break ... even 25s at 100 pace -- you need real rest not easy swimming 200 - real rest for 2-4 min ... ask a track runner - they know better than us water animals

RE: Bonehead LCM-SCY confusion

Karl_S — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 01:12:44 GMT

I don't recall ever messing up the yds vs meters thing, but I have certainly miscalculated the distance of a workout, sometimes by 10-15% and thought, "this set is taking forever, what's the deal?" then realizing that 8x400=3200 not 2400 or something like that. Oops!

Bonehead LCM-SCY confusion

ForceDJ — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:31:38 GMT

You ever make a similar foul up and swim more yardage/meters than you intend? Here’s what I did yesterday. Spending winters in FL, I do my pool swims at the Pompano Aquatics Center in Pompano Beach. It’s a nice complex with two pools. A large, Olympic size pool that is LCM 50m x 8 lanes. Or, set up for SCY, there are 13 lanes, and an area for water polo (or a rec pool when the team isn’t in the water). Most days, the large pool is set up for SCY. And, that seems to be popular for most fitness swimmers, so I just end up in the small SCM 25m x 5 lane pool (even though the water in the small pool is much warmer than I prefer at probably around 85-86°F.) But this winter I’ve gone in the large pool swimming SCY more. Mostly just because the water is cooler. And, since I do mostly long continuous swims for “miles” instead of a ## yards or meters, I just sort of make a mental note that I have to calculate my distance/laps differently — “Large pool = Yards.” You have to reserve lanes online in advance at this complex, and yesterday I reserved a lane in the large pool…thinking I’d be swimming SCY. But when I showed up to swim, the large pool was set up for LCM. No worries. I haven’t done that in a while. But as I swam, I inadvertently messed up thinking “big pool = yards” and was confused when my two-mile swim took me about 4-5 minutes longer than usual. Then it struck me — Duh! I’m swam meters, not yards. So, I ended up swimming ~2¼ miles (3600 meters) instead of ~2 miles (3600 yards). — Dan

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Elaine Krugman — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:27:00 GMT

Never mind. I will just click on "Streamlines" at the bottom of the usms.org home page and read the issues there.

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Elaine Krugman — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:51:32 GMT

Hi there, Anna Lea! I open every email I receive from usms.org; however, these emails (regardless of the subject line) are just no making it into my inbox or spam folder. I know AOL is a dinosaur, but I have had my email address since AOL was new, and I don't want to switch at this point. It would be a monster of a task!

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

KUJayhawk — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:40:20 GMT

Daniel Paulling see the above comment. People are missing their "Streamlines" emails because the subject line no longer contains the word "Streamlines."

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Britt03 — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 11:09:25 GMT

thank you KUJayhawk I need to adjust my spam filter then. No wonder I kept missing the streamlines emails as well if they don't have streamlines in the subject line anymore.

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

KUJayhawk — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 22:43:51 GMT

Elaine, it's sent once a month but it's easy to miss because it doesn't have "Streamlines" anywhere in the Subject line of the email. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like:

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Elaine Krugman — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:25:42 GMT

Absolutely! The same with me, Britta!

RE: Swimming pools in Madrid

07UAT — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:21:25 GMT

I've been on about seven trips, and each one has been great (including St. Kitts). Let me know if you have any questions!

Swimming pools in Madrid

07UAT — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 20:36:02 GMT

I am flying to Madrid on Saturday (my first time in Spain! On my way to a SwimTrek vacation in the Canary islands!). It is my habit when flying from the East Coast to Europe to try to find a swimming pool to swim some laps as soon as I land. It's usually too early to check into the hotel, and this way I get to take a shower, change, get some exercise to wake up and generally shake off jet lag to keep me going on my first day in Europe.

Does anyone know of pools in Madrid where I might be able to drop in for some lap swimming? I have looked at the places2swim website, which has a number of ideas, but any real-world suggestions from people with first-hand experience would be welcome.

Thanks!

RE: My Letter to the Editor of Swimmer Magazine

Daniel Paulling — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:18:57 GMT

Thank you for reading for so long.