In golf, there is one feat few accomplish - to shoot your age.
The goal is simple - par is your age where everyone hits from the same tees and there are no handicaps.
To swim your age you must do a swim equal in kilometers to your age. So if you are 20 years old, you can if you do at least a 20K swim.
If you are 30 years old, you can Swim Your Age if you do at least a 30K swim. At 40 years, you must do a 40K swim. Obviously, this aquatic feat gets harder and harder as you get older.
The swim can be done in any body of water: an ocean, lake, reservoir, bay, estuary, sea, channel, canal, river, fjord or lagoon. It must be continuous (feeding stops are allowed) and completed according to the traditional rules of the sport (e.g., no touching boats, kayaks or piers and without a wetsuit) and is measured in kilometers (not miles which is harder).
With the growing number of Half Century Club members, the Swim Your Age achievement is within reach for many.
These are all great suggestions and enable fit masters swimmers to prove their level of aerobic conditioning and talents...in the pool. I totally understand the desire to set metrics and standards that are within the reasonable threshold of focused pool swimmers.
However, my purpose is a metric for marathon swimmers in the OPEN WATER. Swim Your Age is not an easy goal and was not intended to be. If we want a reasonable goal that can be achieved by many masters swimmers in the open water, then there are several alternatives:
1. Can you STROKE YOUR AGE? That is, can you maintain the same stroke per minute pace (e.g., 55 strokes per minute) as your chronological age for 1 kilometer or 20 minutes? There are thousands of masters swimmers who can do this, but it does get difficult as one gets in their 7th decade of life.
2. Can you SWIM YOUR AGE x 2? That is, can you swim at least 2 kilometers (or miles) as the same number of minutes as your age? So, can you swim 2 kilometers (or miles) in 40 minutes if you are 40 years old? Can you swim 2 kilometers (or miles) in 50 minutes if you are 50 years old? What about if you are 60 years old?
There are many other alternatives, I am sure. But Swim Your Age for the marathon swimming community in the open water is a different ballgame than what can be enjoyably attempted in a pool.
That being said, all your ideas/achievements are great. Keep it up.
These are all great suggestions and enable fit masters swimmers to prove their level of aerobic conditioning and talents...in the pool. I totally understand the desire to set metrics and standards that are within the reasonable threshold of focused pool swimmers.
However, my purpose is a metric for marathon swimmers in the OPEN WATER. Swim Your Age is not an easy goal and was not intended to be. If we want a reasonable goal that can be achieved by many masters swimmers in the open water, then there are several alternatives:
1. Can you STROKE YOUR AGE? That is, can you maintain the same stroke per minute pace (e.g., 55 strokes per minute) as your chronological age for 1 kilometer or 20 minutes? There are thousands of masters swimmers who can do this, but it does get difficult as one gets in their 7th decade of life.
2. Can you SWIM YOUR AGE x 2? That is, can you swim at least 2 kilometers (or miles) as the same number of minutes as your age? So, can you swim 2 kilometers (or miles) in 40 minutes if you are 40 years old? Can you swim 2 kilometers (or miles) in 50 minutes if you are 50 years old? What about if you are 60 years old?
There are many other alternatives, I am sure. But Swim Your Age for the marathon swimming community in the open water is a different ballgame than what can be enjoyably attempted in a pool.
That being said, all your ideas/achievements are great. Keep it up.
