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It's been an amazing few weeks in swimming! I've been practicing very well, I've met some amazing new friends and contacts in the swimming world, I've also been to Colorado and back for some great altitude training! I met an Olympian, swam with some fellow Olympic Trial athletes and made some great progress on training!

Over the past few days I've had a chance to do at least 4,000 yards per practice. Unfortunately the pool was closed both Saturday and Sunday due to a meet. I did dryland training to make up for my lack of pool time. Today I'll be doing weights, dryland and swimming at least 4k. I spoke with an EMU swimmer Sean, who I swam with. He is one of the only other swimmers still actively swimming and competing from my era at EMU. He gave me a heads up on a good Masters meet at Auburn. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up Sean.

During my time in Colorado, I had a chance to train with a Masters Team that goes by the name "Aquaholics" who practice at the University of Denver. After speaking with "Brett" during an evening practice he was finishing up, I inquired about the workout group. The next day I met "Brian" who gave me some details on when the Aquaholics practiced and decided to join them for a workout the following afternoon. On Friday I attended my first Masters practice ever. I was immediately impressed with the turnout! They filled 8 lanes with 3-4 people per lane at noon!

I had a solid practice yesterday, the first in a few days due to scheduling conflicts. I'm starting to develop some dryland exercises that I will do EVERY day, most of them focusing on hamstring flexibility and core strength. I've never done a certain exercise each day, I usually mix it up, which I'll still do in addition to my new daily routine. Today's practice was 4,200 yards of IM, Back and Freestyle workouts. I did quite a few 50 Fly for variety.

I finally had a chance to update the database that will run the new version of my site. Unfortunately this personal site usually takes a backseat to my paying endeavors for obvious reasons. These changes will become obvious over the next few days of coding changes. I'm excited to know that my site will soon be easier to update, more dynamic, faster loading and look even better!

I've been in the weight room as well as dryland exercises this weekend. I'll be in the pool today!

I took some time to watch my swimming videos today and I've realized how valuable they are to me. I went though my entire swimming career with no video of me swimming. I really wish the teams I was part of would have made this technology a priority. I would like to thank the following people who have contributed to the video on my website:

Barb Gray
Sarah Volpe
Rick Gray
Dan Doak
Nadine Day
Skip Thompson

I did a brief 3,500 yards combined with weights today before a busy day. I did 32x25's with 3 up 1 down. The one down was underwater as fast as I could go, I was averaging about 13 seconds. I've been increasing the amount of butterfly I've been doing in practice in hopes of besting my 49.93 in the 100 Fly in a few months. I still have lots of progress to be made on my stroke rhythm as well as underwater kicking endurance.

I realized last night I've either been training or in a meet for 9 days straight. I don't really feel like I need a day off but I am a little sore. I decided it was probably best to take a day off and reflect on my training plans for the next 2.5 months. I want to really drop some significant time at the Michigan Masters State Meet so I'll be planning on how to maximize my training before March 27th.

I could benefit from quite a few training changes however I feel that my underwater butterfly kick is the single largest way to improve.