Was just thinking about a swim league / challenge thread … if there is any interest?
The form I was thinking of taking was based on 400m TT’s.
1) Your seed time is your average for 400m in your last IM or half
2) You do a 400m TT one per week (max – less frequent if you wish)
3) Then you calculate your difference from your base 400m time
4) For each second faster tan your base time you get a point
5) if you do another IM or half during the league period, you rest your base time
So at Outlaw it took me 1:18 do my base time would be 8:08…
Any Takers??
Comments
OR alternitivly ... you base time could be reset each month to be your best time from the previous Month???
I'd be interested.... my swimming is currently at carp levels so I might end up getting negative points...but count me in.
My last Ironman swim was a shameful 1:55.15 at IMR. So that equates to a base time of a bloody awful 16.45?
I havent done much swimming for the pat 14months ... but I TT this am and did 7:11
I dunno, a conversation or two with an Olympic swimmer's coach, getting gloriously slaughtered on Twitter about it last night, and you pop up here as the speed-swim guru!
Would be up for this next year, nothing really doing this year I fear!
I'll happily join in. Word of caution though.... Meldy set one of these up in the spring at the end of WinterSwim. About 25 people said "sign me up" and about 5 actually took part. Hopefully people will actually do a bit this time.
I'd like to take part, but I haven't done an IM. I could work it out off some longer, slower swims which would give me a nice advantage
STIL - that's only because Meldy did nasty things to the 20 people who were quicker than her so they had to drop out
Oh I like this!
Can I include my T1 time?!
Sign me up!
i thought witches sank?
To be honest i for one gave up trying to do it kept taking taken off the list with x-post's. I'd be up for this but I'm not sure about the format just because for folks like me who had a bad swim at there last race we will look like we are doing well even through we just had a bad day at the office at the last race?
Still would make me look like a swim god until the next race so what the heck I'm i blathering about.
I'd like to have a go too, but also have never done an IM or half...
Maybe rather than IM swims which are very dependant on weather conditions etc, as well as ruling out myself and sarah, base it off any swim of your choosing over 1km? I'm not sure it would work well to reset it every month to your best 400m TT as I expect most people would score very close to zero.
Does the base time have to be from a long swim? Why not just use your next 400m TT as your base? Or have that as an alternative option?
Well the problem i see with using your 400m TT as a base is that after you do a few TTs it gets very difficult to beat. I know I'd struggle to pick up any points at all. At least if you're aiming to beat a slightly slower pace, you're likely to pick up say 20 points and get a bit of motivation out of it.
Good point!
I'm up for this, but as my swimming is so bad can I be measured in days not hours.
How about starting with a base 400m TT at a given HR, say 120bpm (or some % of max hr). See how people progress against that for a month so awarding pts for improvement. then have a next round at 130bpm (or first rnd %HR + 5%) and so on.
This could culminate in a final round with no limits so would be a straightforward 400TT fast as poss. Coud even compare straight 400TT at start vs at end and (hopefully) see massive improvement.
For simplicity I would suggest basing HR on pulse for 15secs at end of the 400m.
I imagine that this is more about giving at least one reason a week to do a focussed swim, rather than setting up a hardcore competition. No probs with using last IM or Half swim time as a base for those who have done one, and average over a 1k swim for those who haven't. Skews it a bit, but no value in being precious, is there?
Who's doing your sums for you, HC? Please can they do mine as well.... sand-bagging old bandit, you!
And bos... you've cooked my head already. i've never done an HR-based swim. Are you a Coach, by any chance? The science behind my swimming as only just graduated beyond thrashing up and down and wondering why no improvements.
No, not a coach. But I think one of the swim coaches who did the Q+A here mentioned that he trains to HR. People here train to hr for cycle and run, why not for swim?
If your base is a straight-out fastest 400TT, that may not change all season.
But training should result in an improvement at say a hr of 130bpm even if fastest possible TT time stays the same over the next 9 months..
And being familiar with paces at different HRs should give a better idea of what race pace you should be aiming for, even if you are targetting a first IM.
Yeah I believe 1:55 would work out at around 12m12s so you've already gained over 4 minutes I think HR would be great for training sessions but for the TTs I guess its best to just pace it as best you can and empty the tank.
You could use your last open water race if needed surely?
I certainly wont be swimming to HR ... not wearing my Garmin in a chlorine infested pool
My last IM time was the same as WIll but my recent 400m time is 6.39 so do I win already ?? !!
To add ... I reckon that is why Winterswim uses the table that it does, they probably went round a similar discussion as to how best to measure and motivate improvement !
I would like to play please.
No HR for me, I am sure it would help at the pointy end but for me I need to focus on technique and endurance.
We could all just hijack winterswim with our forum names.
Winterswim wont start til October at the earliest?