To the volunteers, sponsors and race organizers of last weekend's USMS 10k Open Water National Championship, thank you. You put on a wonderful event from the ease of check-in, a fun social dinner & race talk, extremely helpful boat tours & terrific race/awards. The buoys were visible and the volunteers on boat support were very nice and quick to feed us. Sunday's open practice was a nice way to wrap up the weekend by meeting new swimmers and rehasing our races over breakfast and coffee. Can't wait until next year!
Thank you for the memories!
-Jenny Birmelin
Michigan Masters
www.swimfasttrifast.com
I'm very much a minimalist when it comes to training (and coaching) - I'll never be accused of over-training! You mention that you've swum nearly 100 miles this month. I've swum 170 miles all year (assuming my FLOG is right) although 54 of those came in June.
My weekly training for the 25K two years ago went like this (all converted to yards): 14K, 12K, 13K, 14K, 13K, 14K, 16K, 23K, 23K, 27K, 32K, 29K, 44K, 19K. So my heaviest four-week period of training was "only" 75 miles, not nearly what you're training now. My only real goal was to finish the race. IF I swim it next year, I'll have a benchmark time to beat so I would probably increase my yardage from what you see here. In fact, my training this year for the 10K was good on a per practice basis but I only swam four days/week. I would increase that to 5-6 days each week for a 25K.
It sounds like you're training enough to not only complete the race but to swim a respectable time as well. How did you feel after the 10K two weeks ago? If you were hurting, use that as a guide. I felt terrible after the 10K but nowhere near as bad as finishing the 25K. It felt like I had been in a car wreck; I hurt everywhere!
Regarding the kayaks, in 2008 kayaks were available for rental for $30 but it was the responsibility of each swimmer to provide a kayaker. Our team provided a lot of kayakers at no cost but there's no guarantee that this will be an option next summer. I had my own kayak team since I didn't want to subject one person to being on the lake for 7.5 hours. I had one person for laps 1 & 3, another for 2 & 4, and a third for the final lap. It worked well for me but I had "practiced" a time or two with the first two guys.
I hope this helps.
I'm very much a minimalist when it comes to training (and coaching) - I'll never be accused of over-training! You mention that you've swum nearly 100 miles this month. I've swum 170 miles all year (assuming my FLOG is right) although 54 of those came in June.
My weekly training for the 25K two years ago went like this (all converted to yards): 14K, 12K, 13K, 14K, 13K, 14K, 16K, 23K, 23K, 27K, 32K, 29K, 44K, 19K. So my heaviest four-week period of training was "only" 75 miles, not nearly what you're training now. My only real goal was to finish the race. IF I swim it next year, I'll have a benchmark time to beat so I would probably increase my yardage from what you see here. In fact, my training this year for the 10K was good on a per practice basis but I only swam four days/week. I would increase that to 5-6 days each week for a 25K.
It sounds like you're training enough to not only complete the race but to swim a respectable time as well. How did you feel after the 10K two weeks ago? If you were hurting, use that as a guide. I felt terrible after the 10K but nowhere near as bad as finishing the 25K. It felt like I had been in a car wreck; I hurt everywhere!
Regarding the kayaks, in 2008 kayaks were available for rental for $30 but it was the responsibility of each swimmer to provide a kayaker. Our team provided a lot of kayakers at no cost but there's no guarantee that this will be an option next summer. I had my own kayak team since I didn't want to subject one person to being on the lake for 7.5 hours. I had one person for laps 1 & 3, another for 2 & 4, and a third for the final lap. It worked well for me but I had "practiced" a time or two with the first two guys.
I hope this helps.
