Boys vs Girls Swim Challenge - bringing back the assatars

Of course if I get in this with my swim schedule (i.e. nonexistant), the guys team is a sure bet to lose, a$$ hands down. 

Boys v Girls
Swim Challenge
Rules & Terms

Rules/Guidelines

This is a challenge to promote the attainment of a specific swim distance goal. Any distance over goal (over 100%) will be tossed out for the purposes of calculating the winning team.

• Teams are gender specific. 
• Please announce your participation and stated swim goal for the month of May (time or distance, doesn't matter) within this thread by end of day Friday.
• Pool swims, races and open water swimming apply toward goal attainment. Kick board, paddles and/or fin drills - they all apply. Open water swims must be measured by a GPS type of device, objective measuring system, or by a sponsoring swim race. Or, eyeball and just be fair about it.
• Each team will pick a Captain and the Captain is responsible for collecting the weekly swim distance totals from their team members, and reporting said distances on this thread (attach a spreadsheet - I can dig one up and send it along) each Monday.
• Participants must blog their swim training. If it's not blogged, it didn't happen for the purposes of this Challenge.
• For the purpose of collecting weekly totals, please report Sunday through Saturday training.
• Final numbers will be independently audited and verified by Pricewaterhousecoopers or, in the event of their slacking, by me.

Determining Winning Team(s)

Calculations will be a combination of % of team members who reached their goal + final percentage of aggregrate team goal attainment. In this way, both individual goal attainment and team effort carry weight and it also levels the playing field for teams with fewer team members. It will work like this:

• Calculate the percentage of team members who reached their goal.
• Calculate the aggregrate team goal attainment average (throwing out anything over 100%).

Average these 2 numbers. The team with the highest average of these two numbers wins.

Terms for Losing Teams

Losing team members must change their avatar to a photo of them in their swimsuit. This avatar must be displayed for the entire month of June.

Other Legally Binding Stuff:

• Smack talking is not mandatory but certainly makes things a little more interesting.
• Please don't take the smack talking personal. If you find yourself feeling like you've been slighted, have a cookie then post a zippy comeback or just say something like "You're a booger head!" You'll get cheers for being a good sport. Or go for a swim and cool off.
• As with all challenges, this is an honor system, self-reporting challenge.

The ultimate goal is for you to meet your goal. That’s what it’s all about. Oh, who am I kidding - the goal is to see the boys in their assatars! That, and a little smack talking.  Have a cookie?

(Please read this post entirely before asking questions. Thanks.)

Setting a goal: count how many swim days you have on your plan for the month of May. For instance, if you swim every M-W-F then you would have 16 swim days on your calendar. How much yardage will you average for these 16 days? Let's say your goal is to swim 2,000 yards for each swim practice. Voila! Your goal is 32,000. If you have any planned downtime, vacation, relatives visiting, etc., make sure you account for those lost days by lowering your goal. Also, depending on how consistent you are with your swimming, you might want to give yourself a fudge factor. If your goal is 32,000 yards for the month and you want to hit at least 95% of that goal, then your goal for the challenge is 30,400 yards. This fudge factor gives you some wiggle room for unexpected pool closings, illness, working late, etc.

That's what's known as "Sandbagging"  

As to the earlier post, pick a nice round number, like 100,000 yards  

(I'll see what my training plan shows for swims...)

show off!

Sandbagging is knowing you're attempting to hit 32,000 and setting a goal substantially lower - say at 25,000 - for no other reason than to cheat. This is an honors system and only each individual participant knows what they are capable of doing.

I've never participated in a challenge where folks have not been sick, had sick kids, or had any one of a number of normal life incidents that prevented them from reaching the pool that day.

Try refereeing with BTers about what is excused and not for illness - getting swimmers shoulder (pain) from trying to do too much too soon is unexcused illness. I digress. Pick your IDEAL goal then calculate what you can REALLY accomplish, given life's interruptions.