Great Coaches and a good 100 Free in Practice

I forgot to mention I met Mike Bottom the other night. Mike is the new head coach of the U of M team. He took over after Bob Bowman left to go back to coach the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. Mike Bottom has coached a handful of great swimmers, I don't know his exact history but I know he's been at the Race Club coaching Gary Hall Jr. and others. I only got to speak with him for 5 minutes, but overall he seemed like a very nice person. I had just gotten out of the pool and he walked right over to where I was standing after talking to EMU's head coach Peter Linn. I introduced myself and he asked what I swam. I assume he thought I was a current swimmer. I explained that I had graduated 5 years ago and I now swim Masters and competed at the Olympic Trials this summer. He looked a little confused while asking, so what do you do for a living? I explained my career and the flexibility I've built into my schedule to be able to continue to train daily. He seemed slightly impressed and mentioned how valuable people in my line of work seem to be. He was very down to earth and easy to converse with. We spoke about his new position at U of M, the new experiences it's brought and his outlook on this season. I could tell he was feeling a little under the weather so I thanked him for talking with me and wished him luck this season. It was nice to meet yet another influential coach.

I also had a chance to speak with Jon Urbanchek, the former coach of U of M (before Bob Bowman). This man is a legend. He's coached many great swimmers and Olympians. I got a few pictures of Coach Peter Linn and Jon Urbanchek while they spoke on deck. They represent two incredible swimming minds in my book. Having them in the same building at the same time makes everybody else seem dumb :)

I had a chance to squeeze in a 3,200 Yard practice tonight, I mixed it up as usual with some sprint 25's backstroke to warm up for this weekend. I'm sort of excited for the 100 Free this weekend. I did a little freestyle tonight to try out some butterfly kicking off the wall. I had a coach named Sally time me for a 100 Free from a gun start. I had a drag suit on but managed to split a 48.6. It wasn't a horrible time considering it was at the end of practice. I think I split a 23.xx at the turn. I'm feeling tired but ready for this weekend. I did weights last night so I'm done with dryland and weights till Monday. IUPUI this weekend!