Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!uoregon!stevev
From: stevev@uoregon.uoregon.edu (Steve VanDevender)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Fat Swimmers
Message-ID: <3359@uoregon.uoregon.edu>
Date: 9 Dec 88 00:23:09 GMT
References: <78300004@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <20800004@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <4387@rlvd.UUCP>
Reply-To: stevev@drizzle.UUCP (Steve VanDevender)
Organization: University of Oregon, Computer Science, Eugene OR
Lines: 27

In article <4387@rlvd.UUCP> wjh@inf.rl.ac.uk (Bill Hewitt) writes:
>Why is the original article comparing swimmers to long distance runners ?
>The longest racing distance for a swimmer is 1500m This will take a
>leading swimmer somewhere in the region of 15 minutes to complete. This is
>not a fair comparison with the 2 hours it takes to complete a marathon !

While competitive swimming races are quite short, the amount of
training that a competitive swimmer can put in is really remarkable.
I have heard of Olympic swimmers spending four or more hours in the
pool each day, swimming the whole time.  This compares quite well with
the amount of training put in by long distance runners.  And it might
also explain why swimmers' bodies would put on a thicker fat layer,
since they spend enough time in the water to make it pay off.

I swim largely for exercise and have been known to put in eight miles
a week when it was my only activity.  Now that I've taken up wheelchair
racing and weight training to improve my 'chair racing, I barely manage
half that much distance now.  I can tell that swimming takes at least
as much endurance and is probably a better cardiovascular exercise than
wheelchair road-racing, though.


-- 
Steve VanDevender 	stevev@drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu	stevev@oregon.BITNET
"Bipedalism--an unrecognized disease affecting over 99% of the population.
Symptoms include lack of traffic sense, slow rate of travel, and the
classic, easily recognized behavior known as walking."