Run to Win

Topics this week last year were dominated by the Beach to Beacon.

• I started the week off by offering 4 ways to determine the length of a pool in response to a reader question on the matter.
• Maine Running Company hosted a talk by John L Parker, Jr. where he discussed his history as a runner and as a speaker. He read the first chapter of his as yet unpublished sequel to Once a Runner.
• The rest of the week was all about the B2B. First, it was announced that everybody would have a chance to run with the elites at the Back Cove race following the Beach to Beacon. There was also an interview between Joan Samuelson and Dave McGillivray published on the B2B site that offered some insights into the founding of the race. I offered up a few tips about running the race and provided a breakdown of the results after it was over.
• This week two years ago, I discussed why it is important to hydrate yourself after a race as well as before and during the race and I went into quite a bit of detail after being asked, “What is a taper?” I wrote a review of the movie Running on the Sun, about the Badwater ultramarathon.

This week last year was filled mostly with racing news, and what wasn’t racing was related in some way to swimming.

• I offered 9 methods for counting laps in the pool. I usually use the buoys on the lane dividers.
• A revolutionary in the shotput in the early 50s, Parry O’Brien died of a heart attack this week last year while he was swimming in a masters 500m freestyle event.
• This week 2 years ago, I demonstrated how to do pushups, suggested that you ride your bike with traffic, discussed tapering for a 10k, and first learned of the Endurance 50 Challenge. I also continued my thoughts on the New Rules of Lifting with the fourteenth and fifteenth rules.

One reader found this site by searching Yahoo for how far is a swimming lap. There are a few different ways to determine the distance from one end of the pool to another, which will gives you the length of the pool. Multiply the length by two and you will have the distance of a lap in the pool. Most pools that you are likely to swim laps in are going to be either 25 yards (75 feet) or 25 meters (82+ feet). Here are some common ways of measuring a pool:
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Photo by gabyuSwimming laps at the pool is a great workout, but how do you track how far you have gone? Especially when swimming laps continuously without breaks, it can become very easy to forget which lap that you are on and to get your count messed up. A lap in a pool is there and back and is usually 50 yards or 50 meters. A length is the distance from one end of the pool to the other, and will be half of a lap. Here are a few simple (and a few not so simple) methods for counting laps or estimating your swimming distance in the pool.
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There are different rules that should be followed when swimming in a public pool. These rules can be a little different depending upon how many other people are sharing your lane with you, and most of these can usually be negotatiated simply by asking the others in your lane whether they would mind doing something different. These rules will not necessarily be enforced by anybody, but they make it much easier for everybody to get their workouts in and to keep everybody moving and safe.
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