March 2011

I had a great experience at a local community pool this evening.  Due to limited pool availablity at my typcial locations I was forced to look elsewhere or skip another swim day.  A new pool always brings some good stories.  I've talked about things all being "relative".  I see it all the time and I try to be as honest about it as possible.  I will be the first to admit I'm not a fantastic swimmer, I just happen to be a significantly faster than the average recreational swimmer people see at these pools.  This creates some funny and flattering situations and comments.  It's to the point that it turns into sort of an ego boost whether I like it or not.  The quotes are just too funny not to share.

As usual, I arrived on deck, stretched for a few minutes while getting a few looks from other swimmers... seemingly just noticing that I don't belong there.  I knew the pool was both yards and meters in an "L" configuration.  I inquried upon the lifeguard as to which way the lanelines were setup.  She replied "meters".  I dove in and did my typical 500 warmup.  I was sharing the lane with two other swimmers which quickly dropped to one other swimmer after I had passed the other one a few times.  Shortly after my practice began a swimmer joined my lane and her personal trainer started instructing her on her stroke technique.  I found it odd that it seemed like she was doing a lot of the same drills I was doing but didn't think much of it.  I had anotehr swimmer join my lane a little while later.  This person eventually stopped at the wall at the same time as me, waited a moment and then asked "how did you get so fast?".  I smiled and just replied, "well, I've been swimming for quite a while... you do anything long enough and you get pretty good at it".  He just shook his head and said "it's just amazing how easily you go though the water, you're like a dolphin".  The last comment gave me a chuckle due to an inside joke.  I talked to the swimmer for a few mintues and he told me he was training for the Coast Guard so we discussed that program for a bit and I mentioned "nice talking to you" before I took off again to finish up my workout.

A little later I met up along the wall with this swimmer who had the personal trainer.  I inquired upon what she was training for.  She told me she was preparing for her first "Ironman" triathlon.  I was immediately impressed!  I let her know how much I would love to participate in something like that and how much credit I give her for even committing to such a race.  We talked about the competition for a few mintues and then she said... "and how about you? You're obviously a professional swimmer".  The comment alone was worth another laugh.  She went on to say "when I got in the pool, my coach said, you see that guy?  He's a professional, just do what he does".  I got yet another smile from that one.

When I was finishing up my practice I ran into a guy I swam with in high school, we talked about life, college and swimming for a few minutes.  It was nice to catch up.

I hit the hot tub before they shut down the pool for the evening.  Overall it was a wonderful evening.  Lots of uplifting comments and smiles both given and received.  The pool was fantastic for a community pool and I will definitely return!

Feeling significantly better and back in the water.  A little fun fact is that I signed up for the 500 Free at the Michigan Masters Meet.  Therefore today I tried it out.  I've only swam the 500 free ONCE in my life.  It was in high school and I think I swam it in a 5:36 but I'd have to dig up some old results to be sure.

Tonight I swam a 500 free from a push with a drag suit on.  I wore my sweet little hand mounted stopwatch and clocked a 5:33.00.  I was actually fairly pleased with that!  I'm a horrible distance swimmer... to the point it's humorous to even say "distance swimmer" and reference myself in the same sentence.  Anybody who knows me would be legally forced to agree.

Against proper judgement I attended the Milford Masters meet today.  Based on how much sleep I've been getting and feeling a bit under the weather, I probably should have skipped the meet.  I only got a few hours of sleep leading up to the meet and it really showed.  At no point during the morning, the warmup or any of my races did I feel "fast".  I kinda felt like passing out most of the day.  It was quite a long meet as well.  It started at 10:30am and I left around 4pm after my five events.

50 Fly: 25.91 SCM
(actually not too bad, my best of a 25.05 wasn't TOO far off.  I was thrilled to be within a second based on how I was feeling.)

100 Back: 1:02.63 SCM
(only about 10 minutes after the fly but there is NO excuse for adding that much time.  Two years ago I set a national record in the same pool at a 55.26.  This race was an embarrassment as I'm sure anybody would agree if they added 7.5 seconds to their 100 meter race.)

50 Back: 27.03 SCM
(I tried my best to get pumped up for this race.  I was feeling very lethargic and had waited around for over an hour to swim.  I even had time to hit the hot tub for a while... not a great idea.  The race was the best performance I could have hoped for.  A bit long in the finish, this was certainly a 26 second race.  Slow, but not horrible)

100 Free: 55.21 SCM
(I just wasn't fast on this entire race.  Took it out too slow, brought it home too slow.  A month ago I was a 52.75 SCM)

50 Free: 23.96 SCM
(Not too bad of a 50 Free. I breathed too much, even one right off the turn?!  Glad to see a 23.xx on the boards though.)

I've been absolutely slammed but have been making time to swim each day.  I received my new toys in the mail on Friday and got to try them out in a community pool that evening.  I'm the most impressed with my short fins.  I felt like I got a fantastic leg and ab workout only wearing them for two short sets.  I think they will really help me with my underwater kicking especially!  I also got a new set of paddles.  I already had one set but they stay at EMU so I'm frequently without them.  It will be nice to have a mobile set. Other additions were just new goggles and suits, nothing too exciting but any swimmer can appreciate the feeling of strapping on a brand new pair of scratch free goggles :)

I'm not a big fan of "toys", but I'm gonna give it a shot.  "Toys" really refers to any training tool used in or out of the pool.  Buckets, chutes, stretch cords, paddles, pull bouys and bands would all probably qualify for toys.  Most of these toys you attach to your body to increase resistance or improve stroke form.  For swimming being a relatively cheap sport, spending $132.00 on training equipment seems ludicrous!  However, that bought some stretch cords, another set of paddles, a few new pairs of googles with bungee straps and a new suit.  I'm excited to try out the new stretch cords.  It was really my frustration with "Open Swim" which sparked my interest in stretch cords (glorified surgical tubing with a belt).  Since many times the lanes are so packed that I have to either wait or simply go home, I will be strapping myself to the wall and kicking or swimming in place in the deep end where there are few or no other swimmers.  I'll also be using this method to prepare for long course meets without swimming in a long course pool.  I'm proud to say I finally pulled the trigger for some some new equipment.  For such a relatively little amount of money, it was tough to justify the purchase since swimming typically costs me close to nothing.  Just a few more days to wait for shipping!

I wish I could say I ripped it up in the pool this evening.  I was just having a hard time getting going through the entire workout.  I was feeling pretty sore from a full 14 hours of travel.  I'll probably take the day off tomorrow to rest up.  I swam two back to back 27 second 50 yard kick's at the end of practice though.

This morning I was running behind for the legit open swim from 8am-10am before the Prelims session of the 2011 Mid American Conference.  I got in around 9:20am and by 10am the guards began kicking people out of the pool.  To test my luck, I just continued swimming, with a bit of emphasis on speed and underwater kicking which might lead somebody to believe I was a skilled swimmer.  Minutes later I was all alone in the pool.  Not a single guard bothered me and I continued doing my thing till I was finished with my 3,000 yard workout.  I got out and stretched, talked to some swimmers and coaches, waited for some of the competitors to hop in and I did the same.  I busted out some backstroke starts, which gained some blatent attention from swimmers and coaches before cooling down and getting out.  It was a nice morning with some more great swims.  I watched Jacob Hanson blaze through a 200 back in 1:44.45 and Troy Esentan smoke the varsity and MAC record in the 200 Breast with a 1:59.01.  It was a good morning indeed.  I'm hoping EMU can at least pull off a 2nd place raking this year.  It's hard to believe they will not only lose, but will lose to University at Buffalo.  Times certainly change.  EMU is in 3rd currently.