weakknees

A poster above mentioned fidelity issues in her LDR, which brings up a whole set of problems my partner and I are thinking about as we get set to embark on a LDR for a year starting this fall. We've always been completely faithful in the five years we've been together (living together for four), but I'm almost wondering if we perhaps shouldn't try an "open relationship" for this year apart. Is that crazy? Or the norm for LDRs? I don't know anyone who has ever been in one, and in reading online it seems like a lot of folks have a subtext of having had open sexual arrangements while living apart. On the one hand it seems like it might be the worst time to try something like that, but on the other hand, it's going to be hard to be apart and, to be totally frank, having a bit of sexual freedom might help as long as we tell each other everything we do (or don't do). This might be a bit of a heavy question for this forum, but I'm really interested to hear if anyone has experience with this particular problem. Oh, and just for background, we're completely and utterly committed to staying together through this year and have definite plans to live together again after the year apart.