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Ok, so a few world records were broken today at the 2008 Summer Olympics, you can read about it on almost any news site. This next video meant more to me than any of that:

Swimnetwork.com Video

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!

I had a great trip out to the U.S. Open, it was a great learning experience in many ways. One moment sticks out in my mind, while driving back I was considering what it would take to swim faster. Two conversations I had over the past few months made me look at my swimming in a new light. Both conversations were quick however meaningful. The first was with Coach Michael Jones, the legendary coach of Eastern Michigan University. I caught him at EMU's natatorium, appropriately named after him... I was discussing my difficulty going "all-out" during my entire 100 Meters Backstroke.

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 :)

I do a tour of each pool I visit, here is the Virtual Tour of the University of Minnesota and the site of the 2008 U.S. Open:

University of Minnesota Virtual Tour

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!

The event is scheduled to begin at 10:15am central time, I'm in heat 4 lane 2 next to Matt Patton who is a 55.xx. Again, I don't have any expectations for today, I'm just here to swim and have fun.

I had planned on watching the final session tonight but the combination of my hotel being 20 minutes from the pool, dealing with heavy construction areas, and the fact that I don't know anybody swimming this evening, I've decided to enjoy tonight away from everything. I have my video encoding from the 50 Free LCM time trial right now and should be available on the video page shortly.

About my 50 Free LCM:

- I had a decent start
- I had good speed for the first 25meters
- I breathed 3 times, I'm trying to get that down to 1 time.

24.60

One of my slowest times for the event. I feel ok about it, I had no expectations for my performance. I was catching water but just felt like I was in slow motion! Oh well, time for some FOOD!

It seems like they are taking forever.
Some things I've noticed about this facility:

1. The floorplan and structure are almost exactly like the new pool at Ohio State.
2. The pool itself reminds me a lot of IUPUI in Indianapolis.
3. They have a running tally of event rankings like Ohio State, this makes it easy to keep track of who makes it back to finals.
4. I notice a lot of the same Referees as the Olympic Trials. I actually met one of them named Jayne, she volunteered at trials.
5. They have all the "all american" certificates on the wall.

Time to swim!