Uncategorized

It was a great day outside which made my swim at Fuller more enjoyable but less intense. I find that it's hard for me to get a great workout at the outdoor pool. It offers great scenery especially on days like this when I can stare up at the clouds and enjoy the sun but good weather also brings lots of people. I find there are plenty of distracting swimmers. Don't get me wrong, they have every right to be there, but they might benefit from a lesson on circle swimming.

Since I haven't been near a pool yesterday and today, I had to take the weekend off swimming. I've done dryland and body weight exercises both days to ensure I'm getting a moderate workout. It's always interesting to me how much of a workout you can get with absolutely no weights or machines. I do stretching, pushups, abdominal work and balance exercises. Back in the pool tomorrow!

I swam at Fuller today, it was a solid 3,200 long course meters. It was just enough backstroke to get some fairly solid raccoon eyes, also known as "goggle tan". I did about 1,500 meters intense kicking. I'm going to stay on my kicking regiment, I think I can really improve here. I've decided to swim the 100 free at the Masters meet next weekend. I've been meaning to get a time in the event. This will be a good, low pressure opportunity to benchmark the event. I think I'll do the following events:

50 Free
50 Fly
50 Back
100 Free

I updated the Olympic Trials page with some media and reflection info:

Olympic Trials Page

I've recieved two emails from the Trials Admins with PDF attachments of statistics collected during the 2008 Olympic Trials. The information is very interesting if you're in to that sort of thing. It lists split times for all events, percentages of improvement from seed times, stroke rates... all sorts of goodies! It also includes all the records broken during the trials and the last few months around the world.

I've posted them all on the "Olympic Trials" page here

I had a great talk with a friend Julie Kern, a former U of M swimmer who now swims masters. We spoke about the trials and how I can move forward with my training. As it turns out, she knew my friend Keith Falk very well from high school. Keith was on the team at EMU when he passed away in a car accident 6 years ago. It was really nice to reflect on the times we spent with Keith. I think of him often, I enjoy visiting his family whenever I'm in Livonia. I think he would be proud that I'm still swimming, he always called me "Coach Doak" with a big smile.

I'm happy to have the time to try some new things in the pool. For the last few years I've been feeling the pressure of the 2008 trials deadline. It was a slow ramp up in yardage and intensity in my workouts. I feel relieved to have it over with and have the freedom to try some new workouts. I have to tell you, I'm the most excited about being able to rollerblade again! It was something I haven't done for quite some time for fear of injuring myself. Now I don't have to worry about it so much.

It was up in the air for a minute there, the details haven't been released yet, but Kara Lynn Joyce is on the Olympic Team for her 7th place finish in the 100 Freestyle. The Article is here:

Kara Article

Congrats Kara Lynn!

I redesigned the Calendar Page with a new layout including meet icons to spice it up. I'll be adding more meets as soon as I calm down from trials. I'm excited for the U.S. Open, it should be a very fast meet. The cuts are about 2 tenths slower than the Olympic Trial cuts so I would assume it will be like the Olympic Trials minus the new Olympians.

I'm enjoying working on the site in my spare time, keep your eye out for more updates. I've completed adding all the old blog posts to the new blog system. They are all archived on the left hand pane for easy navigation.

I'll be in the pool later today