If you can just maintain that speed for the next 40 years or so, you could be a record-breaking swimmer.
I look forward to the next 60 years as "Richard Abrahams" assimilates all the remaining categories, and is in turn assimilated by "Paul Smith", and Woody Bowersock is swept into the dustbin of history.
I bet Tom Lane's record'll last a while.
This is supposed to stand in contrast to that famous Saiselgy post, right? At least you recognize that they'd have to be at least 85 before you could be totally confident of beating them?
I bet Tom Lane's record'll last a while.
I'd guess that depends(ed?) on Gus Lagner.
Maybe you should start with the geriatric women's speeds, then work your way up.
I'd be competitive against women in the 55-59 group.
I note that Woodrow Bowersock changed his name to Woody when he turned 90.
If you trained with a coach, Ogged, I have no doubt that you could get your 50 from a start down to the low 24s. Probably faster.
I note that Woodrow Bowersock changed his name to Woody when he turned 90.
Maybe he joined the Screen Actors Guild.
Nah, wouldn't that be about the time Viagra came out?
Isn't humility not comparing yourself to them in the first place?
11: Well, I haven't actually seen you swim, but if you have had minimal coaching and practice and can do :30s from a push, I bet you could get into 24s with actual sprint training. Well, if you do the training before you hit your late 30s.
Alright then, bring on the seventy-year-olds!
It's a good thing we still have Kazaam, then.
Apparently Gus died at the age of 97.
quitter.
Woody Bowersock lives in Laguna Woods, CA, and Frank Piemme lives in Lompoc - definitely within driving distance for you to take a few lessons from the masters.
That made me laugh, Michael. Don't do it again.
15, 14 is spot on. I bet if you plotted times as a histogram for your age group, instead of looking at the very best one, you would find a percentile that you'd be capable of and happy to get to.
24: But as we know from his little self-examination exercise the other day, one of the most important things in ogged's life is winning. Anything else is just losing.
As long as I'm faster than Will, I'm happy.
Anyway, the point is that these oldsters are amazing.
My dad did a triathalon relay about 10 years ago with some friends of his - he did the bike section, the other two did the other events - and they turned in a time that wasn't bad relative to the other relays in their age group, but which was slower than one man about 5 years older than they were who did all three events by himself.
Anyway, the point is...
Is it just me, or do you now 'clarify' lots of posts after a bunch of comments? Maybe it's time to put the point in the original post.
How realistic is it to think that I could beat the 95 year old's time? I haven't swum competitively for 25 years (since I was 9). I'm in moderately bad shape, but I think I still have OK form in the free. Am I nuts? Cuz 51 seconds seems doable.
Is it just me
It's just you. Probably senility.
Chopper: probably faster than all swimmers aged 95 and up.
And I note again that Gus is dead, so you really have this race sown up.
I don't know, do zombies swim? Laaannnes... Laaaannnes....
My s/avate instructor told me recently that at 35 I just qualify as a 'veteran' for an upcoming competition. That was a real eye opener in terms of feeling old. Unfortunately no 80 year olds go in for it otherwise I'd stand a good chance.
I'd be competitive against women in the 55-59 group.
Have you been doing google searches to figure this out?
I'm a purveyor of swimming tits, not an oppressed Shi'a.
But your google search has a .qa suffix.
Like I said, not my google search--I'm one of the results.
JL's conceptual art consists of sending clues that he may be in Qatar, and then denying it. It leads us to question what we really know about our intimate internet friends.
Cryptic Ned: you will be hearing from my lawyer.
Ahh, I thought your purveying was in supplying the link to the search. Got it.
Ogged, you should feel great about your time. A 50 freestyle in 27 seconds is really good. I bet if you started swimming in a Masters league, that time would make you one of the best on your team. Best in the country? Sure, you have a way to go. But still.
You're not going to squelch my ambition that easily, oldster.
Let's not encourage the swim blogging, okay Ideal?
That "swimming with big-tittied women" has a page full of big-tittied women, but not a single one is in the water.
That "swimming with big-tittied women" has a page full of big-tittied women, but not a single one is in the water.
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?
47: Being nice to Ogged violates the local tradition. Be warned.
You're not going to squelch my ambition that easily, oldster.
Not in the least. You should of course strive to be the best. I'm just saying that being where you are now is pretty darn good. As some have said above, if you want to get better, it's time to join a team, get a coach and compete.
You should of course strive to be the best
At what?
No really, that competitive ambition thing is for the birds.
I work out at a physical therapy place (one can continue using their equipment, post-p.t., for a very cheap monthly fee). I can't tell you how nice it is to chug along next to people 15 years or more your senior:
How ya doin'? Back hurts? Yep, me too! You're doing good, doing good! (You too!) Keep it up!
Onward and upward.
Check out the Top 16 10 and Under Girls times:
Number 16 = 27.22
ogged, with a start, you can swim faster than a :27. That is a backstroke time.
If you want to be on the relay, you better work on your breaststroke.
Wow, that's a weird comment thread. An awful lot of hostility directed at that story about Kieran's sister-in-law overtaking male joggers.
To be fair, that may simply be displaced hostility towards Kieran.
The "what if a man did that!" response was priceless.
crooked timber has some sexist asshole commenters.
Some of the hostility might be from people who recongize that they might very well appear on the male side of that interaction. Or are bitter about the attention paid to elite athletes.
The commentators on this thread were not from the normal assholes. Ajay is normally cool.
61: Sadly true. Idiots. My favorite is the "But if you count the MEN she only finished 234th! Men win!one!"
This is reminding me about some of the comments about Belle Waring's little sister who got in a bar fight with some Nazi reenactors who made lewd comments to her: some of the comments were along the lines of "Isn't it wrong to hit people regardless of what they're saying? You could really hurt someone."
And, yes, punching someone who hasn't done anything worse than saying he wants to fuck you up the ass is wrong, and the Buddha wouldn't have done it. I just suspect anyone who reacts that way of being less about pacifism and turning-the-other-cheekness and more about being disturbed by the prospect of a previously safe activity (making threateningly sexual comments to women in bars, humiliating female athletes) becoming dangerous/humiliating itself.
The guy was a jerk, but I'll pipe up just to note that pushing a little bit coming off a stoplight isn't necessarily competitiveness. I do that sort of thing with some regularity to establish enough gap that I don't have someone who would otherwise be running a bit slower trying to hang on my shoulder, which I find annoying as hell. Faster runners are welcome to pass any time. If I want to pick it up a bit to hang with them I'll do it from 25-50 yards back.
I've swam with some darn fast female swimmers. It was not uncommon for a fast woman to beat you in practice. In a set, being beat by a woman = acceptable. There was no shame being beat by some tough, fast women in a long workout.
In a meet or anything from the blocks, unacceptable to lose to a woman.
My roommate, who swam on a very good college team, has a fair amount of contempt for the male swimmers on her her collegiate team. She thinks they're a bunch of naturally talented lazy-asses. Said that women led off every lane in every workout, working hard the whole time, and the men basically kicked-back until the last sprint or two. She called them "Sammy Save-Ups" and while the epithet cracked me up, I wouldn't like to be called anything in the tone of voice she used.
She was just jealous because she didn't have enough testosterone and had to work so much harder for her muscle.
Just to be clear: skilled women kick my ass in sports all the time, because I'm just an average guy. But at the top athlete levels the biological differences between men and women create an overwhelming edge. I imagine it could be pretty frustrating for a competitive person to work their ass off and still not be as fast as even the mediocre, lazy people on the men's squad.
Also, really competitive athletes are going to be arses about being beaten a lot of the time because, well, they are competitive athletes. People who hate to lose, more or less by definition.
Megan:
Women never led a lane on my team. That doesnt mean there weren't fast women, but women are just not as fast as men.
Your roommate sounds like a woman on my team.
We would have a descending set. (First one is the slowest. Last is the fastest.) On the first one, she would go really fast and catch the men. But, by the middle, she would be back to last. She would act all pissy, but the purpose of the set was to descend.
Don't get me wrong. She was a tough, fast swimmer. But, men are just faster. I was a below average swimmer on a good college team. But my times are still faster than the best women today.
I'll check with her again, but I asked her several times when she said it the first time. It surprised me too, 'cause I figured the collegiate men would be faster than collegiate women. She said men were faster in meets, but they lagged in workout, and every single lane was led by a women every day. Until the last sprint or two, when the Sammy Save-Ups would open it up.