The Swimming New Year!

Unless you live "down under" the Summer is over and the 2004 open water season has ended. Time to plan some swimming New Year Resolutions for 2005!

2004 was a good year of swimming and swim spectating.

Great Water Inspiration All Around!

Lots of new World Records at country's Olympic Trials. Thrilling record swims at the Athens Olympics.

Fast overall times and the oldest male record set in The English Channel. The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Swimmers added 2 more English Channel crossings to make an outstanding total of 33 crossings to date!

And, another successful Zurich Lake Int'l. Marathon Swim event hosted by the Switzerland Centres.

Now is the time for you to use some of that inspiration and consider your swim plans for next season. 2005 sounds far away, but really, it isn't! Your big event will be a far happier experience if you lay down a good foundation of training and fund-raising during this Fall and Winter.

Very soon our training page on this site will carry long distance pool workouts that you can try out to help build your swim fitness foundation. These are wokouts I gave over the last year for the master's swim team I coach in San Francisco. I find it much easier to do these workouts in a group or with another swimmer or two. But if you have discipline and dedication, you can also swim them on your own.

One of the first things you must do is find out what your "base interval time" is now. Try this short set below to find your base interval time. You will use this time in almost every workout. It is also a great way to see your progress as you get in better shape with your training.

WARM-UP

200 easy freestyle / 200 easy kick with fins / 200 long glide freestyle (200 is yards or metres distance)

BASE INTERVAL TEST SET

10 X repeat 100 (yards or metres) Freestyle Good strong steady but moderate effort. You should be able to hold the same time on every repeat with no more than 5-10 seconds rest.

The send-off time is your base interval.

Example:

You swam 100 yards in a time of 1 minute and 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and leave for the second 100 repeat when the clock reads 1 minute and 30 seconds.

If you can follow this exact sequence for 10 repeats, your base interval will be 1:30. If you miss a few of the repeats by about 5 seconds or it was tough holding the time at 1:20 with 5 or 10 seconds rest, your base should probably be 1:35 or maybe even 1:40.

Test the set out at your own speed and find your own base interval. It may be 1:45 or 2 minutes. Be honest and start easier than harder. You can later adjust your base interval if you get faster. Remember that you are building a base and alot of your early swimming will be aerobic training.

Be sure to cool down with a few easy laps after your workout!

Watch for the swimming workouts coming soon on the training page!

Cross-posted from

Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team articles - more articles

About the author:

Tejvan organises short-distance running and cycling races for the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in his home city of Oxford. He is also a very good cyclist, having won the National hill climb championships in 2013 and finished 3rd in the National 100 Mile Time Trials in 2014.

In the 27th edition of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Race, Tswi Wen-Ya attained a new women's world record for the 3100 Mile Race, in a time of 45 days +12:28:44. The diminutive runner from Taiwan, overcame tiredness, heavy rain and numerous physical challenges to set this remarkable new record which involved running an average of 68 miles for 45 days straight. After a short victory celebration, she continued to set a new world record for 5,000km in a time of 45 days +14:56:42.

The race saw fourteen runners take to the start line, and each runner had their own unique experience of self-transcendence. The first place finisher was Andrea Marcato from Italy. it was his fourth consecutive 1st place in the 3100 Mile Race and comes after an amazing year which included two ten day races and other ultra-distance events. His time of 43 days+13:33:23 was not a personal record, but he joins the Finnish men's world record holder Ashprihanal Aalto for being the only runner with four consecutive first places.

Another notable achievement was 2nd place, Lo Wei-Ming (Taiwan) who covered 17 of the last 19 days in 71+ miles, including 14 days over 72.4 and 74.3 miles, with two days wrangling 79.4 miles. He averaged 68.343 miles/ 109.986 km per day. He then completed the 13 extra laps needed to reach 5000km in a sparkling time of 45 days+ 11:16:51. These top personal results are National records and Asian records.

The race was inspired by Sri Chinmoy who saw distance running as a unique challenge to bring to the fore all the inner and outer resources of the competitor. Sri Chinmoy taught the real goal was not the outer accomplishment, but the inner progress which can come from transcending our previous capacities, and remaining cheerful whatever happens during the race.

“We compete not for the sake of defeating others, but in order to bring forward our own capacity. Our best capacity comes forward only when there are other people around us. They inspire us to bring forward our utmost capacity, and we inspire them to bring forward their utmost capacity”

– Sri Chinmoy

The race inspired many people who both took part, but also who came to help or cheer on the runners. This video gives an insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the runners

3100 Mile Race Feature on US National Public Radio

3100 Mile Race Featured on NPR

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About the author:

On 30 August 2023, the 27th annual Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race began in Jamaica, New York, US. This year, there are fourteen runners are on the start list and it is set to be a great race.

The start list includes the winner of the 2022 Race (Andrea Mercato, Italy) and last year's first woman (Susan Marshall, New Zealand). There are also four new runners - Tsai Wen-Ya, Mahasatya Janczak, Adrian Papuc and Jason Lester who will be entering the 3100 Mile Race for the first time. Despite being experienced ultra-distance runners, there is nothing that can fully prepare you for this unique ultra-marathon event.

In order to meet their goal of 3100 miles (4989km) in 52 days, they must log an average of 59.6 miles (95.9 km) per day. The runners begin at 6 a.m. and run for extended periods throughout the day. If they want to, they can continue as late as 12 midnight when the course closes for the night. After completing the race, runners have the option of continuing on to complete 5000km.

For many years, the race was held in the middle of the New York summer, with scorching temperatures adding to the challenge. Last year, the runners had cooler temperatures but also had to contend with the tail end of a hurricane and frequent heavy, persistent rain. This year the runners will be hoping for more favourable weather conditions, but whatever the conditions, the runners will be ready to seek their own personal self-transcendence and seek to overcome the many obstacles.

Sri Chinmoy the founder of the race saw distance running, and this race in particular, as a valuable opportunity for the runner to seek a life-transforming physical and spiritual self-transcendence.