May 2010

Hang in there! Almost done!

I made the trek back to EMU today to get in a quick 1,500 meter practice. I did a set of 5x100's butterfly kick on my back on the 2:00 minute and held 1:34's for all five. I'm feeling motivated to improve. I had a nice conversation with Coach Peter Linn and touched on my summer training plans. Last summer I trained with the EMU/CW group at Eastern. This group will be training at EMU again and I would be welcome to join. I need to ponder my options and decide on how I'll step up my training moving forward.

I'll get the rest of the videos up soon! I'm in lane 2 down near the bottom of the screen... yea, the guy doing backstroke, Enjoy!

That's all!

In short, the 2010 USMS SCY Nationals was awesome! I'm so glad I attended. I had some reservations about making the trip based on how much preparation and interest I've had in training lately. In the end I felt like it would be a fun road trip and a blast to swim in the 1996 Olympic pool. Everything went great all weekend. I would have liked to swim better during my first day (200 Back and 100 Fly) but I never train for those events therefore I can't expect to excel.

I won my age group in the 100 Backstroke with one of the fastest times of the meet. The three men that went faster had full body tech suits on. I was so relieved to hear Mark Gill say over the microphone before the 200 Breaststroke "This is the last event ever for tech suits". I think I was the only person cheering.

The race went pretty well based on the fact that I was unshaved, untapered, and unrested. I wore my Speedo Brief Endurance Suit and no cap. I think my 50.90 represented a best-case-scenario for me this weekend.

Cullen Jones and Friends DEMOLISHED our 200 Free Relay yesterday. Somehow, I don't mind getting beaten by Olympians. Today is the 200 Medley Relay. It's looking VERY close. Without relay starts, I have their relay at 1:32.98 assuming Cullen Jones splits an 18.50. A few relay starts will lower that a second or more assuming each guy is on their game. Our 1:31.43 will definitely be challenged and might get some heat from a few other teams as well. We shall see!

I had a very conservative start on those Omega pads, a bad breakout, decent turn and another bad breakout to finish in a 23.48 winning my first SCY National Champion title! Being unshaved, untapered, unrested, and wearing a Speedo brief suit, I'm actually satisfied with that time. It was a decent race overall. I felt like I got the edge on my competition off the start and held my lead through the whole race, I'm about to watch the video.

My swims are certainly nothing to brag about, but the meet is a blast! Thus far it seems that the entire event has been nearly flawlessly planned and executed. I'm incredibly impressed by the facility, staff, and volunteers. They're running two 10 lane pools concurrently, one is swimming even heats, the other swims odd heats. A friend Mark Gill is doing most of the announcing, which simply translates into fantastic announcing! I notice that almost EVERYBODY is trying to get one last swim in with the tech suits before they're illegal for good (hopefully).

Although my preparation isn't what I wish it was... I'm here and ready to swim! The pool apparently closed early after the first session, but I'll get in and swim tonight somewhere. I swim around 12pm tomorrow!

I (once again) strained something in my neck. I tend to do this about once a month. I fail to stretch my neck before swimming, whip my head to the side while breathing in sprint freestyle and end up like this. I can barely turn my head to the right and turning to the left is fairly painful as well. Someday I'll learn to ALWAYS stretch before swimming, but lets face it... if I haven't learned by now... it's not lookin' good!

I didn't have a chance to swim with the team but I got in a great 1.5 hour practice. Some good benchmarking sets both pulling and kicking. I'm feeling pretty strong in the water, I'm on a good training streak, hoping to keep it up!

I stopped by EMU for a practice and happened to be jumping in the water at the same time as Eastern Michigan's team. I chose the "Sprint" practice and found myself training along with Kevin Kubik and Justin Griggs, arguably two of the fastest sprinters at EMU currently. Both are 20.xx sprinters... and I'm not. After asking Coach Linn's permission to hop in with the team, I found myself a bit out of breath after a 1,200 warmup. The GREAT news is that my shoulders are probably fine. They still feel a little odd but they're not slowing me down a bit.