July 2008

It seems like they are taking forever.
Some things I've noticed about this facility:

1. The floorplan and structure are almost exactly like the new pool at Ohio State.
2. The pool itself reminds me a lot of IUPUI in Indianapolis.
3. They have a running tally of event rankings like Ohio State, this makes it easy to keep track of who makes it back to finals.
4. I notice a lot of the same Referees as the Olympic Trials. I actually met one of them named Jayne, she volunteered at trials.
5. They have all the "all american" certificates on the wall.

Time to swim!

Well, like clockwork while I'm at an out of state meet, there is a tornado warning in the Minneapolis area. I'm on my way to the pool now and if I don't get sucked up by the tornado first I'll swim a 50 free time trial after prelims. I'm excited!

I've had a few calls or emails wishing me luck for the U.S. Open and I appreciate the support my friends and family show me! I hope I swim well this weekend, however, I'm simply going to visit some friends and experience my first U.S. Open meet. I'm excited to understand what this meet is all about so I can arrive very prepared next year and be ready to compete at the highest level. I'll swim this evening and probably tomorrow morning before leaving on a full day road trip to MN. I feel like these meets are such great adventures.

It took me a while, but I found a photo gallery format I like, I'll be adding pictures to this gallery over the next few days as well as tweaking the layout:

http://kevindoak.com/pictures.php

The U.S. Open is about a week away. The meet is in Minneapolis, MN. I've recently been describing the competition as: "the Olympic Trials, minus the Olympians". Looking at the Psych Sheet I would revise this statement as: "the Olympic Trials minus the Olympians and the swimmers who need a break". Each event has 40-80 swimmers compared to 60-120 in the Olympic Trials. This meet is obviously missing the swimmers who made the Olympic Team, so looking at the #1 seeded times looks like we're missing a few superstars. Click below to view the Psych Sheet in PDF form

Ralph Davis
Taylor Haskins

Claire Letendre
Kelli Stein
Sarah Volpe

I just returned from the Dearborn meet, it turned out to be a beautiful day after some slight showers during warmup. I had a few solid performances, but I was there to have fun and be social. It was great to see everyone! Below are a few of my times (from what I can remember). These are approximated because the meet was a "time your own meet" style and my official times will be an average of three hand times.

50 Back LCM: 27.5
50 Fly LCM: 25.8
50 Corkscrew LCM: 28.9 (I've always wanted to try this!)
100 Free: 55.7
50 Free: 24.4

Here is a map to the pool:



View Larger Map

I met some swimmers at Fuller Pool today, Kent, a former Individual Medley swimmer from U of M who graduated in 1994 swam under Jon Urbanchek. Also a triathlete training for the Hawaii Ironman named Anthony. Anthony has done some masters meets in the past. I think they would both be great masters swimmers, hopefully I can convince them to swim a meet sometime soon!

Dryland training, swimming each day, lots of work plus some weights tonight rendered me close to useless in the pool. I've started running to swim practice again when I'm not in work clothes, it's a good cross training exercise and a great warmup for the pool. I'm looking forward to the masters meet this weekend in Dearborn for the social aspect but I don't expect to swim very fast. It's been a while since I've gotten to see some of my masters friends so it will be nice to catch up :)

I had a good practice at Jones Natatorium today and ran into Derick Roe and some of the Club Wolverine guys. I did some fast underwater work with 15 meter breakouts which was a recommendation from my friend and former EMU swimmer John Bartlet. The rest of my practice was filled with some aerobic kicking and fast kicking. I have the Dearborn Masters Meet this Sunday!

Since I haven't been near a pool yesterday and today, I had to take the weekend off swimming. I've done dryland and body weight exercises both days to ensure I'm getting a moderate workout. It's always interesting to me how much of a workout you can get with absolutely no weights or machines. I do stretching, pushups, abdominal work and balance exercises. Back in the pool tomorrow!

I updated the Olympic Trials page with some media and reflection info:

Olympic Trials Page

I had a great talk with a friend Julie Kern, a former U of M swimmer who now swims masters. We spoke about the trials and how I can move forward with my training. As it turns out, she knew my friend Keith Falk very well from high school. Keith was on the team at EMU when he passed away in a car accident 6 years ago. It was really nice to reflect on the times we spent with Keith. I think of him often, I enjoy visiting his family whenever I'm in Livonia. I think he would be proud that I'm still swimming, he always called me "Coach Doak" with a big smile.

It was up in the air for a minute there, the details haven't been released yet, but Kara Lynn Joyce is on the Olympic Team for her 7th place finish in the 100 Freestyle. The Article is here:

Kara Article

Congrats Kara Lynn!

I'm enjoying working on the site in my spare time, keep your eye out for more updates. I've completed adding all the old blog posts to the new blog system. They are all archived on the left hand pane for easy navigation.

I'll be in the pool later today

I'm sure many people have seen the suit the Olympic Team will be wearing, but just in case you haven't, a video of the suit is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Uj5QKJk5k

I just watched the video and there is a very short clip of the Santa Clara Meet at the end, it just made me smile that I was part of a meet that served as a commercial for Speedo!

For the last few years I've been trying to figure out ways to get good weight and dryland workouts while maintaining my work and lifestyle. Because of the nature of swimming, I've determined I need to be in the water most every day to keep a "feel for the water". The pool time portion of my workout regiment can't be reduced or eliminated. Although, I have found that other portions of my workout I can simply do at home. Here are the ingredients of my home gym:

Weights: A handweight set that range from 5-50 lbs.

It was so tough to take a day off but I knew I needed it! I still feel so proud to have been part of such an unbelievable meet. It almost doesn't seem real.

I'm back in Michigan after perhaps my best trip ever! The week was filled with many new experiences I'll remember forever. I was supported by my family, old friends, new friends, former teachers and mentors, fellow masters swimmers and people I met at the meet.

These are all my thoughts from this week. It won't make much organizational sense:

I had a decent time trial 50 free at 23.94. I had hoped to drop time but it just wasn't in me today. I just barely slipped on the start which could have been the .18 second difference between this swim and my last performance of 23.76.

Overall I'm ok with my swim. It was a good learning experience. I know I need to bring a small towell to dry off the block before all important races. I really need to do some test starts, both freestyle and backstroke during most practices. This week has left my back muscles sore from all the practice starts I've done to warm up for my races.

USA Swimming offers "Race Analysis" for all races performed at the trials. I got a copy of the analysis of my 100 Backstroke:

Aaron Piersol just broke the 100 back world record with a 52.89! I'm glad Grievers made the team while taking 2nd place, but unfortunately Randall Bal got 4th again just like 2004 trials.

There were too many swimmers entered by the time I got there so I have to do my time trial tomorrow. I was a little upset at first because my family will miss it now, but it gives me more rest to perform my best! This evenings session will be very exciting!

I posted my video from today, click www.kevindoak.com/videos.html. Thanks for watching!