yes--Might I suggest Against the Day by Thomas Pychon?

I'm resisting getting out my stopwatch and getting into a pissing contest over this.

so have I

Who can say? The entire 41 is dead. I keep wondering the same thing about Facebook and Twitter, yet they continue to drone on.

Maybe we need to get back to basics? When was the last time you sailed? And where did you go?

That's the spirit!

You should install a gun rack too. Then it can double as a hunting rig.

Meh.

I think I just need a break.

It hasn't seemed the same to me ever since Razor was given protected status and chucking umd just capped it off.

This thread jumped the shark on page 2 of version 1.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Start a thread about it in the training and nutrition forum.

You're suggesting I read a book?

wut That's a weird wikipedia review, by the way. One wonders if the contributor(s) actually read the book or just copied stuff about it.

I'm pretty sure I could hit 5 or 6 if I'm militant about keeping good form. Longer if I cheat a little. One of our coaches had a plank competition during a dryland practice freshman year, person who lasted the longest was done for the day. After 8 or 9 minutes he just declared it a tie and told the 3 guys left they were done.

Maybe things will spruce back up when--I mean if--umd returns.

Given that most people are stuck indoors, it's a curious time of year for forum activity to wither.

I've been reading it for the past 8 weeks (I could not read when I was stressed out last month). His books are all sweeping novels with tangential plotlines. I read 20 or so pages a day. Bizzare stuff. This book involves time travel and the like but takes place in the 1880's to early 1900's. The tangents make it similar to reading this thread.

And yes VV, Reading is Fundamental (TM)

I was talking swimming with a friend and coworker who swam in college. He told me that he swam 800yds a few weeks ago and promptly threw up (its been a few yrs). He was depressed.

He told me that his worst workout in college was 100 100's, and his intervals needed to be under 1'36"(including rest). That is absolutely BRUTAL! Did your coach do stuff like that?

You must not be drinking much to get dehydrated in December.

that was a mistake from his automated excuse post program. he had the location of his computer set for Santiago, Chile instead of Kansas City, MO.

100 100s is a mental set. It's not a time effective way to generate fitness, especially considering that most races are less than 2 minutes, and the longest pool race is the 1650, over in less than 20 minutes. Closer to 15 if you're really good.

I never did crap like that, although making the 1:36 sendoff wouldn't be too bad. put them on 1:20 (I'd really struggle at the end, but be embarassed if I couldn't do it) or 1:25 (no excuse for not making them) and you'd have my attention, but at 1:36 I could swim easy and still get almost :20 rest per interval.

The worst (toughest long practices) we ever had were drop-down 100s or the monster kick set. The kick set is an all out 800 stroke kick, 200 easy swim, regroup, all out 400 stroke kick, 200 easy swim and regroup, all out 200 stroke kick, 200 easy swim and regroup, all out 100 stroke kick, 150 easy swim and regroup, all out 50 stroke kick, 150 easy swim and regroup, all out 25 stroke kick. Goal times for guys (girls in parenthesis) were sub 12:00 (14:00), sub 6:00(7:00), sub 3:00(3:30), under best 100 of that stroke plus :20, half of the previous goal, and half of the 50 goal. I could almost always make the goal time on the 200, and when I was in shape I could make the 400. I wasn't even close on the others.

Drop down 100s was a workout to failure. The first 100 the interval is 1:40, and the interval drops 1 second each repeat from there (i.e. 1:39, 1:38, 1:37) and so on. Go until you miss the sendoff. Goal for guys was to get under 1:06, I don't remember what it was for girls. Best I ever got was down to 1:08 or 1:09. Our D3 all american distance guy went down to :58 or so and stopped because he didn't want to go again. He was a couple seconds under his sendoff still.

Those last couple reps suck miserably, you feel like you're going to puke, your arms and legs aren't cooperating, you're getting bounced around by everyone else in the pool swimming hard, you can't hold a breathing pattern at all, can't stay underwater off the wall, both of which lower efficiency and force you to swim harder to go the same time. And you completely blow out anything anaerobic you have left, then try to go again on no rest. It hurts.

Edit: And nearly every time we did drop-down hundreds my shoulders bugged me for the next couple days. Of course we always did them a day or 2 before we went to florida for winter training where our training hours doubled, and the yardage increased more than that. I loved that

Wow, that was a cdresque post. I didn't realize I'd typed that much.

we expect numbers from garminconnect

Indoor humidity is actually lower at my house in the winter, because of the heater. I drink just as much during the day in December as I do in August.

Real high school or college swimmers always kind of impress me. It's so technique based, and it seems like there is so little improvement to be had (for triathletes) by just going to the pool more. For tri, I'd have to work hard all year to gain a minute on a 1500 swim, but the same amount of effort into run or bike could save me 2-3 minutes.

I swam when I was a kid, mostly just through elementary school and the start of middle school. And I kind of sucked. My stroke is awesome compared to triathletes who started at an older age, but doesn't come close to the college kids.

I need to get on the trainer but I don't want to. Ughhhh.

When I was on swim team in HS there were 2 types of people. The scrubs like me who were there for the pratice and to finish DFL in the occasional race. And the studs. We were a top 5 team in NJ. One guy on our team was offered D1 scholarships but turned them down because of burnout. At one point he was the #3 breaststroker in the country. (now he is a doc) When I lifeguarded, I worked with a guy from another local school who ended up an olympian (3 or 4 medals) at Seoul. He was a monster. Just training with those guys was good for my form. Now close to 30 years later, I am trying to visualize their strokes when I am swimming to improve my form.