Fitness Event Ideas

[lizzie]

As the new chair of the health and fitness committee, I have volunteered to organize a few fitness events for this upcoming year. I would like feedback from you all on some proposals.

1) I Swam a Marathon! Summer 2007 - I think this was a successful event in that we had about 48 people participate and many who do not compete at all. Please let me know if you would like to see this event again.

2) My team has a Mile A Day/1/2 mile a Day Club where we count up our yards for the entire year and try to get to either a mile a day or a half mile a day. It seems really easy but it takes a lot of effort and we have noticed that it gets a little crazy. Some people just prefer doing junk yards so they can get their miles in and it has caused some problems. Although it is an accomplishment and impressive in the end to say you swam 365 miles in a year! I want to know if this would appeal to the ILMSA at large.

3) I was thinking that we could combine a few things and do a Winter/Summer Fitness Challenge. People would get some award/certificate for participating in the Summer Marathon and one of the Monster swims (Lincoln Way, Naperville or the Smelts (we've had a select group do this for quite some time now) or even on your own. I'm not sure if people would be interested in this so please provide feedback.

Thanks for your help.

[craiglll@yahoo.com]

I thought I had a great idea that everyone woudl love. Try to see how many 100 IM you could do in 1/2 hour & then how many 200 IM you could do in one hour. It failed. I really enjoyed doing it though. It was great to see that i could train 200s and then actually do it. only one other person did it.

[FlyQueen]

What about simply (or not) how many 100IMs in a half hour or hour (or 200's for those up to it).


What about relays an endurance event? That way a TEAM could enter (also works on team building) either a 2 or 4 (or more) man/woman relay. How many 50s can the team swim in an hour? Also, a fun (and short!!!) practice!

[LindsayNB]

People who aren't specifically training for competition might find it fun to have some events that make use of pool toys. E.g. swimming with a pull bouy or fins. Swimming with fins would place more emphasis on fitness than technique when compared to regular swimming. A lot of people would find 5k pull much more pleasant than a 5k swim, and conversely some people enjoy kicking.

[FlyQueen]

Whereas I think a 5k pull or swim sounds horrid ... blech! But that was a good idea for anyone that likes to swim more than 100 yards a pop...

[davesebastian]

Thought the I swam a marathon was fun. What could be an addition to it would be to change the color of the shirts to tell how long it took to swim the marathon, one color for one month, another if it took two months, so forth.

Or even somehow denoting how many marathons in total a person completed during a specified summer training timeline.

:drink:

[anita]

The marathon sounds like fun--as "fun" as 26 miles swimming could be. I'm not familiar with the parameters, but I would be interested.
Regarding your comment for #2, Mile A Day--what do you mean by "junk yards"? Isn't any yard a good yard?

[Redbird Alum]

Sometimes I'm a slow thinker...

Have we ever considered tying a fitness event to an existing, established program to encourage attendance. I was thinking about Relay for Life the other day (my duaghters were very active in this) and was pondering what it would take to add a swimming context to this already very popular event. The swimmers would surely pile on the miles (although not necessarily fast miles) during the overnight hours, and the proceeds still benefit a good cause.

I think the oddity the first year or two would also get some great coverage for the USMS program.

Any thoughts?

[davesebastian]

This kind of crosses over, but don't see why postal events shouldn't count as fitness events as well. Postals get listed within Long Distance, but it certainly shows fitness and strength to get through these challenging events. It would be great to get more people into the pool for each of the postals. Shoot for the patch.

Remember folks, you need to do your one hour postals by January 31, and have entries sent in to the Florida Mavericks by February 12, 2007.

The Chicago Smelts will be holding our one hour postal on January 27. I'll be bringing literature for the postal event up to the Evanston meet this Sunday. Entry forms and split sheets will be available at the sign in table.

[NKMD]

This kind of crosses over, but don't see why postal events shouldn't count as fitness events as well. Postals get listed within Long Distance, but it certainly shows fitness and strength to get through these challenging events. It would be great to get more people into the pool for each of the postals. Shoot for the patch.

Remember folks, you need to do your one hour postals by January 31, and have entries sent in to the Florida Mavericks by February 12, 2007.

The Chicago Smelts will be holding our one hour postal on January 27. I'll be bringing literature for the postal event up to the Evanston meet this Sunday. Entry forms and split sheets will be available at the sign in table.

Postal evetns are both fitness and long distance. Postal event just means the event is completed at your pool and the swimmer "mails" in their results.

USMS has long distance postals that are considered USMS National Championships, that's why they are under long distance.

Anyone can have a postal event sanction either long distance or fitness.

Dave,
You didn't realize but your team has supported the long distance events for a long time (One Hour Postal and Big Shoulders).

Thank you for bring the information about the USMS Long distance events to the Evanston meet. Sorry I will not be there, my father and brother will be in town and I will also be attending the colts game.

GO COLTS!!!!!!

Nadine