Last Hurrah for the 30-minute Swim

by Lee Carlson

February 1, 2008

A last hurrah for the 30-minute swim as a national fitness event.

The first 30- minute swim started in 2003. The PNA sponsored the event for the USMS fitness committee that year and this last year. An average of about 80-90 swimmers participate in the event each year seeing how far they can swim in 30 minutes. This is a great test of your anaerobic fitness threshold, to be able to hold a relatively steady pace for each 100 yards.

The purpose of this challenge is to motive you to swim continuously for 30 minutes to add to your overall fitness, measure your current level of fitness and perhaps to motivate you to compete in longer distance swims such as the one hour postal swim. This can be done on your own or as part of a team practice. Many coaches move to the hour postal swim championships by starting their team members with a 10, 20 and then 30 minute swim for distance. One coach summarized the benefits of the 30-minute swim as a great endurance test, good pacing practice and focus for training to improve endurance.

In a final month effort to increase participation PNA challenged Oregon to see who would have the most 30- minute swim participants in December. The PNA won this challenge handily. Here is a list of the 92 USMS swimmers and the distance they achieved in the half hour they devoted to this fitness event in 2007.

Name	Club	Age	Yards
Dan Smith	PNA Fed Way	44	2545
David Sebastian	Illinois Masters	45	2500
David Spitzler	Western Athletic	44	2475
Gerald Leutner	Woodland Masters	42	2450
Marcia Cleveland	Illinois Masters	42	2380
Christine Gonzalez	GGTSC	28	2325
Deanne Moosman	Fitchburg Area	28	2300
Kim Ridinger	Loch Ness Masters	56	2275
Hugh Moore	PNA Fed Way	53	2200
Michael Guirl	Mast of So Texas	36	2150
Susan Ingraham	Mast of So Texas	43	2150
Kent Hukins	Prairie Masters	42	2050
Bob Bruce	Oregon	59	2050
Andy B Gladstone	Western Athletic	49	2030
Keith Kennedy	PNA Fed Way	44	2025
Christine Holland	Western Athletic	26	2000
Karl Telleen	Western Athletic	26	2000
Russ Mulholland	Missouri Valley	59	1990
Paul Monohon	PNA Thunderbird	61	1985
Sally Dillon	PNA NWM	61	1965
Craig Carlson	PNA NWM	60	1950
Henry Halff	Mast of So Texas	65	1950
Brian Martin	Mast of So Texas	46	1935
Paul Roache	Golden Gateway	47	1930
Robyn Shiely	No Texas	51	1910
Jeff Morrison	PNA Thunderbird	51	1855
Sarah Welch	PNA Swim Sea	60	1850
Jenny Hodges	Prairie Masters	32	1800
Loriann Pawlik	VSC Masters	45	1800
Kenneth Leclerc	Mast of So Texas	51	1800
Becky Klieman	PNA NWM	44	1790
Stacy Steinberg	SWAM-Anchorage	39	1780
Lynne Lasser	Illinois Masters	44	1775
Glenn Garcia	Mast of So Texas	42	1750
Chuck Oswald	Mast of So Texas	47	1750
Debbie Gallo	PNA NWM	53	1745
Max Salsbury	North Car Masters	53	1740
Pinky Walker	PNA Thunderbird	65	1740
Anne Olson	PNA Unattached	68	1735
Ron Hansen	PNA SVY	58	1725
Muffin Camp	Mast of So Texas	38	1700
Julie Wilson	PNA NWM	55	1690
Kristine Kellogg	Victor Swim Club	44	1685
Harvey Prosser	PNA NWM	79	1680
Joan Delgado	PNA NWM	62	1680
Melissa Ashby	Victor Swim Club	36	1650
Deirdre Fitzpatrick	PNA Fed Way	36	1650
Ed March	Stark Masters	61	1650
Sandra LaFontaine	PNA GLAD	57	1650
Lee Carlson	PNA Thunderbird	67	1635
Kris Jackson	Mast of So Texas	33	1625
Holly Coots	Fitchburg Area	18	1615
William Grohe	U of San Francisco	73	1600
Kristin Lucas	PNA Colum Athletic	45	1600
Kathy Friedrichsen	Mast of So Texas	47	1600
Robert Hard	Mast of So Texas	54	1600
Robert G McDonald	Ohio Masters	57	1565
Amber Anthony	Mast of So Texas	41	1550
Nancy Cronin	Stark Masters	55	1550
Sandra Griffith	NE Masters	47	1515
Dawn Mullen	Michigan Masters	41	1500
Tracy Shoemaker	Woodland Masters	47	1500
John Roberts	Mast of So Texas	42	1500
Lana Lambert	Prairie Masters	39	1475
Anne Kaminski	Stark Masters	55	1475
Diane Stuart	Ct Masters	71	1469
Merry Henneberger	PNA NWM	38	1460
Betty Hanson	Prairie Masters	44	1450
Mark Wolf	Metro Masters	59	1450
William Sulik	VSC Masters	48	1410
Marie DeGennaro	Mast of So Texas	47	1400
Connie Zurek	No Texas	45	1390
Kenneth Kreer	PNA Fed Way	44	1365
Stephen Glassman	New Jersey Masters	58	1350
Lynn Francis	Mast of So Texas	63	1350
Janet Kavadas	PNA NEO	76	1300
Janet Kavadas	PNA NEO	76	1300
Jim Burns	Metro Masters	79	1250
Claire Gregg	Mast of So Texas	66	1250
Rachel Morrow	PNA Unattached	31	1230
Joy Thompson	PNA NWM	52	1225
Nancy Graham	PNA Unattached	65	1200
Catherine Kinsella	So Texas	49	1175
Dolores Lopez-Cardenas	The Woodlands	60	1135
Connie Williams	PNA NWM	53	980
Rosemarie Gors	Prairie Masters	60	850
Max Gors	Prairie Masters	62	750
Kelly Henriot	PNA Island Athletic	47
Roberta Varela- Hein	Mast of So Texas	43
Chris Mayhew	Mast of So Texas	54
Lesa Rathjen	Mast of So Texas	43
Karen DeLorenzo	Mast of So Texas	47
Totals 92		4616	14799
Averages		51 years	1607 yards

*Swam the longest distance of all 30-minute challenge participants
**Swam the event twice; achieving the same distance.

The overall team with the largest participation was Masters of South Texas (20) North Whidbey Masters (10) followed by Prairie Masters (6). Congratulations to all who participated.

Here are some quotes from Masters of South Texas participants and their coach Susan Ingraham:

I get motivated with every practice I complete. I have to admit there is a bit of “make the coach proud” mentality. But I just feel great starting the day after a strong swim!!!!. - Glenn Garcia

Swimming in the outdoor pool the air temperature was 45 degrees and the water wasn't particularly warm, so I knew I had to keep moving. The 30-minute swim was an easy choice! - Robert Hard

The reason I did the challenge, a personal thing, I want to get better, have been swimming with MOST for four months, and wanted a base line to work from. The team and coach are a great source of inspiration to me!! - Claire Gregg

I do the swims because I LOVE the sense of accomplishment I feel at the end (although having my arms twisted is good encouragement). I have never been an overly athletic person and I am finding the thrill of completing these events is fulfilling in ways I never knew growing up. It's like I'm a kid again and it's wonderful!! - Kris Jackson

As a coach, part of my job is to provide guidance, motivation and assistance in developing goals for my swimmers. People tend to stay with any program when there is a purpose to their hard work and meaning behind the workouts that they do. We set five to six team seasonal goals throughout the year. Goals usually include the One Hour Swim, SCY Zones, Senior Games, one additional local meet, an open water race, and a fall/winter Fitness Challenge. The variety in these types of competitions, provides an easy basis of which to create a multitude of workouts. In training to have success for the One Hour swim, we will have lots of base work, pace development, endurance and mental focus work in the months of December and January. The 30-minute swim has always been one our December practice sets, so we were very excited to participate in this year's challenge swim. It is something that the entire team can do together at one time within a practice. It creates a "We're all in this Together" mentality, and they push themselves through their fatigue because of the feeling of being part of the whole group. Many surprise themselves that they were able swim it without the need to stop. It is the perfect kickoff to creating a positive environment for the One Hour Swim. - Susan Ingraham Head Swim Coach for Masters of South Texas

This is the last year (for now) for the 30- minute swim as the USMS fitness committee has deemed there is not enough overall participation to justify continuing it. They want to devote more effort to the three events below. While most of us have done this swim in practice these have not been entered in the 30-minute fitness challenge. The event requires a $5 entry and certification that the swimmer completed the 30-minute swim. A certificate is provided to all who complete the swim and a t-shirt is available for $15.

Events sponsored nationally by the fitness committee include a Virtual Swim. Here interesting area swims such as swimming around Crater Lake, going the distance of Lake Washington, swimming the Erie Canal, or across Lake Ponchertrain, can be achieved by fitness swimmers logging their distance over the year toward one or more of these targets. The first year also 2003 over 100 swimmers achieved a cumulative mileage of 5,133 miles. Since then teams and LMSCs have kept track of their mileage with the Colonies and Pacific Northwest being the leaders in 2006.

Another event is the Check Off Challenge. Here a swimmer signs up for a t- shirt that lists all 18 masters swimming events and endeavors to swim each during the year. Federal Way and PNA have been active hosts of this event.

The newest event is an Australian and Canadian specialty called Go the Distance. Swimmers keep track of their distance each month and submit these to the fitness committee. An excel spreadsheet makes it easy to keep the distance to date. Awards are available for 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 miles. Some in Canada and Australia swimmers have completed over 1,000,000 kilometers.

More information on the last three fitness swims is on USMS.org under the Health and Fitness tab and then to fitness events. USMS Fitness committee members’ and the USMS organization encourage each swimmer to try these events.