The following "Tip of the Month" columns were written by Dr. Paul Hutinger and published in the Maverick Lane Lines newsletter. Our first edition of "Tip of the Month" was in 1997.

It’s that time of year, again. Time to step up your training so you’ll be ready for the annual One Hour Postal swim, in January. In past years, the Mavericks have always had excellent participation in this event, from our youngest swimmers in the 25-29 age group up to our oldest 90-95. After looking at our roster, that would include everyone on our team, whatever your age. Art Holden, 92, swam it to show that “just because you’re old, doesn’t mean you have to be a couch potato.”

You all have a copy of my Hour Swim Pace Chart and training tips. (If you need one, I will send it to you.) Use this to determine what pace you can swim for the hour and follow my specific tips.

What? You say you can’t swim for a whole hour? Not to worry. The ultimate goal is to swim the entire hour, however, not all of us are capable of that feat and here are some alternatives. Since Holden was 89, he swam 50 to 150 yards and rested until he was ready to push off, again. After Margie recovered from her broken neck, she lacked the endurance for continuous swimming. Her goal was to swim twenty 100’s, with 15 seconds rest between each one. She exceeded her goal by over 100 yards. After my shoulder surgery, I also was unable to swim continuously. My goal was to swim thirty times 100 back strokes. I reached my goal.

Some of you have goals of placing in the top ten or setting a record. For most of you, the swim isn’t just about the yards. It’s about perseverance, an individual goal, a warm fuzzy just to do it, swimming it in a stroke other than free or your tenacity to stretch your limits. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

For those of you that are capable of swimming a continuous hour, I challenge you to set your goals to swim farther than last year. For those needing an extra nudge to even consider this challenge, I challenge you to find a way that will work for you. I also challenge the relay teams. We have several National Record relay possibilities. Never before has there been an 85+ women’s relay. The mavericks have Cichanski, Schimpf and Zint. They would make it a relay threepeat with the Maverick men’s and mixed National Records. The 65+ women’s relay, Bond, Homans and Tullman, were only 315 yards shy of the National record, last year, and still have a good chance, this year. The 75+ mixed medley also has a record possibility, with an average of 3000 yards, with Blake, MacDonald, Troy, Carr, or others. If your name hasn’t been mentioned for any of these relays, I still challenge you to swim the hour so we can enter a relay. Call me if you need help, or encouragement, in this decision.

Workouts getting boring? Looking for new ideas? Needing suggestions on training for meets, tapering, open water swimming or stroke improvement? Tell me how many yards you swim, how often, your 50 yd. times on each stroke and daily workout yardage per week. -Coach Paul Hutinger