Uncategorized

Today I fly to California. I feel good about getting there a day early to acclimate myself to the pool. I've only swam at an outdoor meet once so I'll be figuring out how to get my bearings on lane positioning without a ceiling to stare at. I hear you have faster times if you're not bouncing off the lane lines. Unfortunately Derick Roe from EMU won't be joining me in CA as planned, he's swimming the Purdue meet instead. I'm sure he'll do great there. I spoke with him today, he's going for his 2nd Olympic Trial cut in the 100 Free and trying the 200 Free as well, best of luck Derick!

Psych Sheet for the 2008 Toyota Santa Clara Invitational

I've taken a look at the Psych sheet available for this weekend, it's looking like a very fast meet! I'm seeded 21st in the 100 back and 73rd in the 50 free. I'm excited to be a part of a meet that features such fast athletes! I'll be interested to find out from other swimmers where they are in their training or taper. I have no intention of resting for this meet, or the Swimvitational in Omaha in early June but it will be great LCM race experience not to mention beautiful California weather!

I've been reading up on the Olympic Team Selection process. It's very interesting. The document is available on the USA Swimming website. This link takes you to the 31 page information packet. Here are the cliff notes I found interesting:

I had a busy day with working and swimming. The increased hours the natatorium have made my practice schedule much more flexible. Lately I've been doing a few practices a week with the summer squad of EMU swimmers. I'll either swim their written practice, swim something Sarah came up with, or do something entirely of my own creation. I enjoy doing something different every day.

It's been nice getting some messages from friends in California hoping to attend the meet. I've been following a post on the Masters forum regarding the meet itself. I was mentioned in the post which brought plenty of mixed feelings. I appreciate the supporters I've found on the forum. Unfortunately there are more than a few members making negative comments about my swimming. It's certainly a new dimension of masters swimming I believe only exists on the internet. My experience at actual masters meets has been the polar opposite, nothing but great positive people.

What a crazy two days it's been, I've been either working or swimming for the past 36 hours, notice I didn't mention "sleep". It was nice to finally catch up on some rest this evening. I'm really enjoying doing more lactate work in practice, today I did 8x75 max + 25 easy on the 3:00. A workout derived from a popular EMU practice. I like this kind of set, although difficult, it gives you plenty of rest since you go all out for less than 50 seconds and you're back at the wall to rest by 1:30 which gives you a full minute and a half to rest before swimming again.

I leave for the Grand Prix in Santa Clara this week! More later...

I had a great 3 hour workout today, started with a 1 hour dryland session including lots of abdominal work, pull ups, dips and pushups. During swim practice I tried a set sent to me by my High School coach Sean Hickman, it consisted of three times through 6x100's going all out on the last 55 meters (including the turn) to work on my back half of my 100 Backstroke race. This set was both challenging and beneficial, I'm sure I'll be integrating more of this type of lactate work into my practices.

Thank you to Dan Strawser for writing a great article today in the Livingston Daily Press and Argus:

http://livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080511/SPORTS/805110331

I appreciate all the time he put into the research, thanks Dan