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Not too shabby,

As I've written many times, I enjoy benchmarking myself within practice frequently. It fuels the pride I have in my training and sometimes shows me where I'm slipping.

I do 5x100's pull Backstroke no equipment almost every day. Typical days I complete the 100's on the 1:12. Good days I'm 1:08. Today I bested my fastest 100 pull (no kicking at all) of 1:04 with an incredible 1:01!

I just happened upon this video of a Double Amputee who's dream was to be a mermaid. She contacted a special effects studio and worked with them to design a dual prosthetic limb which looks and feels like fish scales. It enables her to swim and uses a internal hinge to pivot the limb up and down opposite of her movements. Very cool project!


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9jCsbii5rs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

I had a great practice Friday, a full 4,400 Yards. I took off Saturday and Sunday to rest up and recover from life and training. I was back in the water today for 4,200 yards. I don't normally take 2 days off, so it felt good to restore the balance in my schedule after a difficult weekend.

I want to congratulate the Eastern Michigan University Men's Team for their 2009 Mid American Conference victory this weekend! After weathering a very difficult year they swam well across the board and certainly made myself and the other alumni very proud. Great job guys!

I've been pounding out 4,000+ yards a day with weights or dryland and I'm feeling the effects of the training. It's wearing on me but I feel better each day. I've had a new found interest in improving my starts and turns lately. I've (finally) started tucking more on my turns and with the help of my friend Sarah, I've concluded that they are indeed faster than the old method. It's tough to change something as routine as my flipturn after doing it a certain way my entire life. My daily underwater training is paying off, I feel stronger and more comfortable each day.

I stepped up my underwater drills today to double the amount I typically do.

For weeks now I've committed to doing 16x25's with 15 meters underwater fast. I do these on my back butterfly kick. After I finished my 16 today I did a 300 easy and did another 16 of them fly kick on my front. I've tried other drills to improve my underwaters but I've never felt a noticeable difference in speed or endurance while kicking. I think the combination of doing this drill EVERY DAY will actually make a difference.

Thanks so much for your patience through the last few days, I've been doing some much needed upgrades to the site. I apologize for my dust as I make the site faster and better. Lately I've been investigating ways to improve my videos to offer faster downloads and higher quality. You may see that I've overhauled my Times Database. It's FAR from done as I slowly add ALL my times from every source possible. I will organize the database so it's searchable once I'm done. It's a huge job!

I've had two good days of training both days between 3k and 5k, I used my underwater camera for the first time the other day with the help of my friend Sarah. The underwater camera/camcorder will help me analyze my own stroke and learn from it. I'll post some video soon!

I've been adding all my times into my new database, it's gonna be nice to reference every single time I've ever accomplished all in one place!

Certainly a tech oriented post but directly relating to my swimming and this site.

I set a goal on October 5th 2009 to break every single Lifetime Best Time I had ever achieved in every event I've swum in the last 3 years. This goal covers 23 events and 3 courses (SCY, SCM, LCM). It is a lofty goal and will be very difficult.