If it's Handel, it must be Tuesday. (a question for swimmers)

[Weird Harold]

I'm not planning on taking up (eta: synchronized) swimming, but I recently purchased a waterproof MP3 player to liven up my daily swim.

The problem is that rather than enhancing my exercise routine, randomly chosen music doesn't match the speed and style of my usual routine.

I'm currently averaging between 80 and 85 seconds for each fifty yard lap and swimming 40-60 laps every day -- the daily target is 55 laps, but the minimum is 40 to make my annual goal of 366 nautical miles. That's roughly somewhere between waltz-time and march time.

Any suggestions for music I can use to choreograph an hour and half to an hour 45 minute workout to?

Currently, The recording I have of the Blue Danube comes the closest to the average pacing I need, but parts of Days of Future Past by the moody blues work pretty good, too.

PS: Ideally, I want to come up with six or seven tracks representing a different workout for each day of the week.

 

[neonlyte]

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue might work, easy paced but probably not long enough...

 

[trysail]

I don't listen to music when I run or bike for precisely the reason you describe (not to mention the safety aspect). If, however, I were to ever consider listening while exercising, the choice would be easy: Philip Glass.

Glass' rhythmic themes would be ideal for repetitive motion. I like his stuff anyway. Specifically, I suggest the soundtrack to Mishima, "Funeral" from Akhnaten, "Facades," "Rubric," and Dances I, II, V, VIII, and IX from In The Upper Room.

ETA: I forgot to mention Glass' opera, Einstein On The Beach as a candidate and, of course, Maurice Ravel's "Bolero."

 

[bluebell]

Mike Oldfield- Tubular Bells thingies ("thingies" meaning I, II, III, perhaps).
That could be a really crap suggestion. *shifty eyes*

Of course, I enjoy Tchaikovsky suites for orchestra while I'm cleaning, but cleaning isn't swimming so that could be a crap suggestion as well.
You know what, Harold? Best not to pay my post any heed.

 

[Weird Harold]

...the choice would be easy: Philip Glass.

Glass' rhythmic themes would be ideal for repetitive motion. I like his stuff anyway. Specifically, I suggest the soundtrack to Mishima, "Funeral" from Akhnaten, "Facades," "Rubric," and Dances I, II, V, VIII, and IX from In The Upper Room.

I'm not familiar with Glass. I'll definitely have to check him out.

"Funeral" is an interesting suggestion because some days the slow measured pace of Dirge Time is about all I can manage.

 

[Weird Harold]

Tubular Bells is on my list of music to try out, but the increasing rythm is more than I can swim comfortably to.

I don't know about Tchaikovsky's suites, (except The Nutcracker) but I have short versions of the ballets, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty from a Tchaikovsky sampler CD that are also on the list to try out.

I am going to have to check out other ballet music because it is is written with human motion in mind

 

[trysail]

I'm not familiar with Glass. I'll definitely have to check him out.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for Glass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass

Reading it also brought to mind some of Ravi Shankar's sitar pieces (I believe the genre is called "raggas"); they also might fit the bill.

WH, "You're a better man than I Gunga Din." Good on you!

I don't know how you can stand swimming that many laps. I'd go stark, raving mad. August is the only time of the year that I can swim laps and the most I'm good for is fifteen to twenty 50-yard laps at a time. There's no denying that swimming is the most intense (and efficient) form of exercise. Unfortunately, I find swimming and weight-lifting utterly boring. That's the reason I stick to biking, running, squash, climbing and tennis. They're a billion times more enjoyable.

I've increasingly adopted an exercise philosophy that incorporates the fact that if I don't enjoy something, I won't do it. As I've aged, I've become much less willing to accept and endure pain. I no longer force myself to complete 2,000 meters on the rowing machine in less than 9 minutes and there won't be any more marathons for this boy-- these days, I'm perfectly happy to take it a little slower and enjoy the activity. Every now and then (but only when I feel like it), I will time a seven mile run or a 2,000 meter row-- but only out of curiosity or to assure myself that I can still do it.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Harold, try "Mari-Mac" by Great Big Sea. You'll be doing 50 yards in about 8 secs

 

[damppanties]

Reading it also brought to mind some of Ravi Shankar's sitar pieces (I believe the genre is called "raggas"); they also might fit the bill.

Ragaas.

 

[trysail]

Ragaas.

Thankee, dampy!!

I appreciate the correction. I've heard the word many times (primarily in audio interviews of Ravi Shankar) but never seen it written and wondered about the correct spelling. It's good to know.

 

[Weird Harold]

I don't know how you can stand swimming that many laps. I'd go stark, raving mad. August is the only time of the year that I can swim laps and the most I'm good for is fifteen to twenty 50-yard laps at a time.

Swimming that many laps gives me lots of time to think -- which is part of my problem: I tend to "zone out" and forget to count laps (or count them wrong)

When I started this campaign to lower my blood-pressure and stay out of the hospital, I could only manage sixty to ninety non-stop yards in the apartment complex pool and only about 30 minutes of swimming total.

In September when I started going to the year-round municipal pool I was still around 30 minutes endurance but up to 400-500 yards a day. By the first of November (when they had a discount for annual passes) I was up to 1750 yards a day and set a goal of averaging 2020 yards (1 Nautical Mile) a day for one leap year -- 366 NM by November first 2008.

It's actually not a difficult goal as long as I've got the time to swim for an hour and a half-- I'm stalled at 80-85 seconds/lap but can swim at that pace almost indefinitely.

 

[Weird Harold]

Harold, try "Mari-Mac" by Great Big Sea. You'll be doing 50 yards in about 8 secs

Might could do that, but I had hopes of my swimming career (and the rest of my life) lasting longer than eight seconds.

 

[oggbashan]

Try Adam's FULL ballet "Giselle", not just the orchestral suite.

There is a wide variety of tempos and some inspiring music in the full thing.

If you want waltz time, how about some of the lesser known Strauss music such as BahnFrei or Egyptische March, or some of Strauss's other family members or his competitors?

Og

 

[freshface]

Swimming that many laps gives me lots of time to think -- which is part of my problem: I tend to "zone out" and forget to count laps (or count them wrong)

You'd think it would be easy to count to thirty while you swim, but I can't do it either. I lose count at about six and spend the rest of the swim debating what lap I'm really on. It became a lot less stressful when I started swimming for time instead of distance. I spend the time putting stories together in my head instead. Now if I could just swim and write at the same time...

 

[Weird Harold]

Try Adam's FULL ballet "Giselle", not just the orchestral suite.

There is a wide variety of tempos and some inspiring music in the full thing.

If you want waltz time, how about some of the lesser known Strauss music such as BahnFrei or Egyptische March, or some of Strauss's other family members or his competitors?

Og

I'll check out Giselle, but I spent $80 on CDs today for a wider sample of classical music. Finding complete ballets and/or symphonies is fairly difficult here -- nobody carries much classical music and what they do carry is collections like "the 100 most romantic classics" -- it's about seven hours of music but it's all excerpts insteadof complete works.

I already have some of Strauss' lesser known waltzes -- and polkas. A lot of what I've got are too up-tempo although it's easier to swim to a polka than you might think.

 

[Weird Harold]

You'd think it would be easy to count to thirty while you swim, but I can't do it either. I lose count at about six and spend the rest of the swim debating what lap I'm really on. It became a lot less stressful when I started swimming for time instead of distance. I spend the time putting stories together in my head instead. Now if I could just swim and write at the same time...

I have trouble staying on track counting to six and keeping track of how many times I've counted to six.

I use a Scunci pony-tailer around two fingers and move it from hand to hand and shift it down the fingers with each lap completed -- 1+2l, 2+3r, 2+3l, 3+4r, 3+4l, 1+2r, and repeat for whatever multiple of six required.

I still have to do spot time checks to make sure I remember to count the laps and moved the marker in the right sequence -- half the time I catch double-counted laps or dropped laps that way.

I'm not consistent enough to swim based on time -- at least not yet. Without the periodic time hacks, I find myself loafing on the turns or not minding my form so the my lap times fluctuate as much as +/- twenty seconds

 

[voluptuary_manque]

For some reason die Moldau comes to mind. Maybe because it's about water?

 

[Weird Harold]

For some reason die Moldau comes to mind. Maybe because it's about water?

I'll check that out, too.

The reason Handel is in the thread title is because I plan to try out his Water Music suites. (although I checked out the titles today while converting the CD to MP3s and I'm a bit leery about the two tracks named "Hornpipe."

 

[trysail]

WH,
I happened to glance at my Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast guide and was surprised to see that this Saturday's (19 April) opera is Philip Glass' Satyagraha. The broadcast begins at 1330 (EST), which I suppose would be 1030 (PST) in your time zone.

I haven't seen or heard this opera before and don't know if it is representative of Glass' repetitive, metronomic style but it might provide you with the opportunity to sample Glass' work. If you don't have a local radio station that carries the Met broadcasts, you can listen o'er the Internet to my local station: http://www.wbjc.com (notwithstanding the "dot-com" URL, WBJC is a public radio station and-- I might add-- one of the best classical radio stations in the U.S. I've never figured out why they were assigned a "dot-com" URL).

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You could always try In The God of Davida by Iron Butterfly, not to slow, not to fast and if you have the original album and can transfer it to mp3 it should last about an hour.

 

[Weird Harold]

You could always try In The God of Davida by Iron Butterfly, not to slow, not to fast and if you have the original album and can transfer it to mp3 it should last about an hour.

Iron Butterfly could be a workable choice, but I have sort of outgrown that style (and volume) of music.

Trysail, thanks for the tip, but there's no local broadcast and I'm on dial-up so webcasts are iffy at best.

I've discovered that picking a selection or two to listen to on the way to the pool gets a tune/rythm stuck in my head and is almost better than listening to it while swimming.

 

[freshface]

I was thinking about your question as I swam yesterday. Have you considered swimming to marches? They have a nice steady beat and move at walking speed. Not sure I could swim to a waltz. The 3/4 time would really throw off my stroke.

 

[Weird Harold]

I was thinking about your question as I swam yesterday. Have you considered swimming to marches? They have a nice steady beat and move at walking speed. Not sure I could swim to a waltz. The 3/4 time would really throw off my stroke.

I considered waltz-time because, on my best days, I'm swimming three laps in four minutes -- "3/4 time." I don't find waltz time to be much of a problem as far as pacing -- The Blue Danube is still the best fit for my speed and style I've found so far.

The tunes I got stuck in my head this morning were previewing "disk one of two" of the Sousa March collection I picked up over the weekend -- Two hours and twenty minutes or so of "march time" total.

The problem I have there is more the length of each track -- three to four minutes is only 2 - 2.5 laps and the marches aren't played at a strict "quick-time" beat.

Maybe I need to find some recordings of "Jody Calls" -- the marching songs used keep everyone in step whenthere isn't a marching band handy; if I can find the right recordings, "Jodies" are pretty much never-ending with new verses just a rude thought or two away.

On a more possible note, the marches I was listening to on the way to the pool eventually morphed into the "Battle Hymn of the Rebublic" -- which remind me that a good many hymns are in 4/4 (march) time and are slightly less up-tempo than the way Sousa's works are normally played.

 

[oggbashan]

Some of Scott Joplin's Ragtime music might be the right tempo.

If you can get recordings of him playing the tunes himself (re-recorded from piano rolls) they are slower and more deliberate than most modern interpretations.

Og