August 2008

Since I'm still seeing Michael Phelps in the news I figured I would make another post about his "I want to change swimming" comment. This is what I think:

He attracted lots of viewers to swimming with the help of NBC
He is the most decorated Olympic Athlete ever
He has shown sponsors that you really can pay a swimmer millions of dollars, in this way, he made swimming more like football, basketball and baseball. I'm not sure if that's a good thing

Todays practice was brutal after an afternoon of water skiing on my cousins boat yesterday. My whole body is sore but not tired, suggesting I didn't stretch enough beforehand (read: none). Today I did dryland with wheels and due to a slightly strained ankle I didn't do any kicking. I did 5x200's paddle pull fast. The last two I swam freestyle to mix it up. By that second freestyle one my left shoulder was sore. This is a chronic problem I dealt with in college as well. I believe it means I either have an actual problem with my shoulder, that I have bad freestyle form, or both.

It was an amazing feeling even watching the event when they touched that wall! After the public trash talking of the French team being quoted as saying they "will smash the USA, that's what we came here to do". The United States 400 Meter Free Relay anchored by Jason Lezak lead the team to a .08 second victory and smashed the previous world record by 4 seconds! The Team of Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak made us all proud! The comeback of Jason Lezak in the last 50 meters splitting 46.06, a world record, was an incredible sight in itself.

I decided to take this week off from swimming to catch up on work and life. I've been doing dryland and weights each day along with some rollerblading. I actually hate not swimming, I feel like something is missing from my life! I'm sure it will be good for me in the long run!

It was a great trip overall! I would have liked to swim better, however I am very motivated to train hard and not have another performance like I did this weekend! I posted a few photos from this weekend on the pictures page :)

1:00.52

Its performances like this that motivate me to work harder while training. I was out in a 28.33 which is about a second slower than my best first 50 split. I brought it home in a painful 32.19. I literally took dead last in my event. I was 41st out of 41 swimmers. I'm disapointed at my time but somebody had to take last! I feel ok that out of all the meets I've done that this is the one I was last at. It would have been a real downer to have this happen before the trials. I can take comfort in the fact that I saved somebody else the feeling of being last!