Rest at the Top Challenge

[Teenage Dirtbag]

big deal. you don't have to deal with chlorine making your eyes red for the next few hours.

That's true. Or the ladies from the Tues morning water aerobics class trying to strong arm you into getting out of the pool. I hate that!

[Babs]

That's true. Or the ladies from the Tues morning water aerobics class trying to strong arm you into getting out of the pool. I hate that!

that's the best part of the open water swim. You ever open a can of sardines? It's like that, except you're trying to make forward progress.

[Teenage Dirtbag]

that's the best part of the open water swim. You ever open a can of sardines? It's like that, except you're trying to make forward progress.

I think when I finally get serious about training for it, I'll have my kids stand in the pool while I train and randomly take turns kicking me in the face or shoving me underwater. That should get me ready.

[mtnbiker]

We'd have to agree on assumptions such as average participant weight and average effort, but the MET has been calculated for darn near every exercise or sport one can imagine.

That's an interesting file. Some of the 'activities' they categorize are kind of funny. Like in the 'self care' and 'religious activities' sections. Multiple categories of fixing & eating food in church?

The values generally seem reasonable, although I take exception with the first on the list, mountain biking. I think they must be referring to mostly downhill biking, not cross-country, and don't give as high a value as I'd have expected.

[Babs]

I think when I finally get serious about training for it, I'll have my kids stand in the pool while I train and randomly take turns kicking me in the face or shoving me underwater. That should get me ready.

that sounds about right. Also, depending on which one you're training for, throw in some jellyfish.

[happyone]

I selected walking but, I'm probably a 30%-70% ratio of running to walking

[Eddie]

I'll be running, biking, and swimming. Probably mostly running, but I'd like to keep swimming at least once a week to keep proficient at it and biking gives my calves a rest now and then.


For those of you who haven't done much swimming, I think you'd be surprised at how easy it is once you get even the most basic form and breathing down and are able to swim consistently 3 times a week or so.

When I started I would nearly drown just swimming 50 yards and doing 200 was my absolute limit.

Once I got some semblance of form down, which was probably a month to 6 weeks later, I tried swimming a mile just to see how it would go. My arms were tired when I finished, it took about 45 minutes, but it felt pretty good.

Last Saturday I spent about 45 minutes lifting weights, entirely upper body, and then jumped in the pool and swam a mile again. Took about 40 minutes and my arms were no more tired than after a normal weight session.

Obviously I'm not breaking any speed records, I'm just saying I used to see swimming a mile as a huge accomplishment, and now I'm ready to try 2 just to see what it's like. I think the biggest obstacle is that in a 25 yard pool I know I won't be able to keep track of the number of laps I'll need to go to get there.