Courtesy of Swimming World Magazine.
Marathon swimmers use goggles. The North Channel water is cold. Portuguese man o war stings hurt.
Certain things always happen.
Just like Karlyn Pipes is regularly named Swimming World Magazine’s Top 12 World Masters Swimmer of the Year.
In 2017, the 56-year-old who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii set 10 world records in the pool in the 55-59 age group: 55.49 100-yard free, 1:00.80 100-yard backstroke, 2:11.29 200-yard backstroke, 1:00.41 100-yard butterfly, 1:02.34 100-yard individual medley, 2:18.07 200-yard individual medley, 28.69 50m freestyle, and 50-100-200 back (32.36 50m backstroke, 1:11.23 100m backstroke, 2:37.77 200m backstroke.
Pipes has set more than 220 world records and she has an interesting way to recover from hard pool swimming workouts. “I used to grind out 5 to 6,000 meters, six days a week,” Pipes said to Swimming World Magazine. “Now I don’t even keep track of how far I swim. I do a lot more quality swimming, take rest and work really hard for a much shorter period of time three times a week. Easy recovery swims are 2 to 3 km in the ocean with friends and dolphins.”
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