August 2009

A day after my weight workout in Chicago the pain started to set in. I overlifted to the point that my arms are now officially classified as useless appendages. In fact, I had to type this entire post with my nose.

After another brief sightseeing trip I'll be back in the pool training for some masters meets coming up this fall! I can't wait for Short Course again!

While visiting some friends in Chicago I decided to at least get a weight workout in. It was an experience I've never had before. While working out, I was overlooking downtown Chicago from the 40th floor! It was really quite cool. I don't live in a big city so between sets I found it really interesting to look at all the activity and interesting looking buildings from the windows on two sides of the facility. The pictures don't do it justice at all but here are a few:

A quick call to my favorite Pool Guy, Tim White, answered a few of my pressing Jones Natatorium questions. The pool will be closed until September 5th but they're hoping to be done by the 1st. He mentioned that there is still about 5 feet of water at the bottom which still needs to be drained.

Tim wasn't as excited as I was regarding my plans to rollerblade in the pool once it was dry. I'm sure a crisp new $5 dollar bill might change his mind...

For now I'll be running and rollerblading on days I can't make it over to the outdoor Fuller Pool.

I was planning on hopping in the pool today for a bit however I figured I would call ahead since the university is between semester. The well informed Rec/IM phone attendant mentioned that both pools were drained and had no idea when they would reopen. I'm really hoping its sometime this decade.

I've enjoyed my week off swimming but I'm eager to at least start some aerobic workouts next week at fuller. I've done a small amount of dryland in the past few days and I'm surprised how quickly I lost strength in these areas!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrXe5phYbjY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]

Thanks to Nadine Day and Patrick Saucedo for giving me the heads up on this article!

http://usaswimming.org/usasweb/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1267&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&ItemId=2582&mid=4153

The swimmers in the final heat of the 200 IM at the U.S. Open made a pact to wear low tech suits to even the playing field, I LOVED this article (and idea!)

I had a great meet, achieving 4 personal lifetime best times. Checking my progress on my 12 month goal, I'm very proud of what I've accomplished. I've swam faster than EVER before 14 times in 10 months! I still have 9 lifetime bests to accomplish in 2 months. It's a bit unrealistic for a few reasons... availability of meets and current swimming ability. Here are the swims I still need to achieve:

50 Back SCY - 22.22

I had a great day today! I woke up, shaved and took a 30 minute power nap and relaxed a bit before heading to the pool. Everything went really well preparation wise. I prepared for my 50 Free and had a great swim! My race was as flawless as can be expected. I fell apart at the end but the time didn't really show it. I swam my lifetime best without a tech suit! My best is a 23.76 with a Speedo LZR and I swam a 23.96! I was VERY happy with that! My first time under 24 seconds without a tech suit!

After further review our 200 Medley relay also broke the Masters World Record by 0.10 seconds! That makes two masters world records in one day!

The team was:

Kevin Doak
Patrick Saucedo
Camron Mull
Alec Mull

First time ever... I swam a 200 freestyle as part of a 800 freestyle relay!

Its difficult to describe how much I didn't want to swim this event but I buckled under the peer pressure of Alec Mull and agreed. I warned the team how poorly I would swim but they wanted to give it a shot anyway. We were going after the National Record of 8:13.xx. The relay was comprised of:

Camron Mull
Kevin Doak
Patrick Saucedo
Alec Mull

There are a ton of Tech Suits here! I would estimate the number at 90% of all racers are wearing a full body suit. The another 9% are wearing leg skins or an older full body suit. I've only seen one other guy with a brief on. They're even selling more tech suits here at the meet! I'm amazed there is still a market for them. I've overheard swimmers talking about how they know they will be banned but they want to milk it for everything its worth until they're illegal. I have a feeling there are going to be a lot less records broken next year!

A hectic work day put me behind schedule for my trip to Indy. I'm back at EMU for my meet warmup swim this afternoon and will leave straight from practice.

I'm really excited to compete! I like the idea of swimming at IUPUI without the typical pressure of being around the pro swimmers. I have a feeling the meet will be pretty laid back but will last all day, every day.

Looking at the heat sheets which were released a few days ago, there is going to be some great competition.

I've done my best lately to eat enough and get adequate sleep leading up to my big taper meet this year. Its always a battle balancing life, relationships and friendships along with a full time work schedule with swimming every day. Thus far I've done a great job making everything happen and making few sacrifices on each portion of my life. Although something must always suffer. I've noticed its time with friends which seems to go by the wayside when I have such a deep commitment to work and training.