tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23709494977438571902024-03-19T05:45:40.226-07:00Crazy Swim DadThe obsessions of a Swim Dad.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-86480286352760588522011-01-18T11:33:00.000-08:002011-01-18T16:23:04.187-08:00Ominous sign to start the morningBased on my informal poll of how many swimmers are in my lane each morning (yes I keep track), swimmers like to get their exercise out of the way early in the morning. That means, alarm clocks and groggy marches to the pool while it's still dark out.<br /><br />I'm not complaining, it actually feels good to start the day with 60 minutes of swimming. Sort of invigorating. Definitely eye opening. A good way to start a day.<br /><br />Until, ominous signs start greeting you just as you're waking up. The first sign I saw today as I walked up to the pool?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidAYNSwcZh9oIlmorK20jlg_q3qy97P3WYYNRcNdrzwmyhOihQQ2L-SP-LGmQ3IyVvWRONObu4DJIaZSu_UHmMmvV_H7KJto4N7esjhxC35MmwJdv-VXoCIptL07MSduT2RkzN8IVEicAP/s1600/danger+chlorine.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidAYNSwcZh9oIlmorK20jlg_q3qy97P3WYYNRcNdrzwmyhOihQQ2L-SP-LGmQ3IyVvWRONObu4DJIaZSu_UHmMmvV_H7KJto4N7esjhxC35MmwJdv-VXoCIptL07MSduT2RkzN8IVEicAP/s400/danger+chlorine.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563612317934596226" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Danger. Chlorine.<span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><br /><br />How the heck am I supposed to stay motivated with that staring at my face at O Dark Thirty? Danger. Chlorine. Hey wait, I'm about to jump into a freakin' pool loaded with this stuff. I've been reading a lot of Greek Mythology (OK OK the Percy Jackson series) and the Gods are always throwing out signs to the heroes. Is this a sign? Is swimming dangerous? Will a freakin' minotaur be sitting poolside when I try to get out? Or will a half man half shark beastie be swimming laps when I hop in?<br /><br />I thought long and hard about not swimming when this "sign" confronted me this morning. But then I realized that I'd already made it through the alarm clock, if I could do that I could probably deal with Danger. Chlorine.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-7245729971726737742011-01-13T16:34:00.000-08:002011-01-14T08:57:05.123-08:00Swimming bobbleheadsOK, I know, the whole point of swimming is keeping your head still and bobbleheads just defeat the h3ll out of that purpose. But, why aren't there promotional swimmer bobblehead dolls?<br /><br />The World Series Champion San Francisco Giants just announced their 2011 promotional schedule and as is required by state law, there are 4 bobblehead giveaways (Cody Ross, Aubrey Huff, Gerald Posey and Tim Lincecum).<br /><br />Intrigued, I decided to check our friend EBay to see how much last years' Lincecum bobblehads go for. Seems like $10-200 is about the range. Wow. That's cool, except that I don't have one to sell. So, I guess bottom line it doesn't really matter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxDqybwfo4vTmlq7Hn9ZCKtVwrI9ZSUQFtMJvQRdttvTdPJwUNh_wso0nH2vtQW2GpLWSznTu3F0D_M9GMS0binYQWECwRV3vSQFwd4RmBymtjoUMULF1nr72x7K3drJFp-giNLtX8z8P/s1600/phelps+bobblehead.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxDqybwfo4vTmlq7Hn9ZCKtVwrI9ZSUQFtMJvQRdttvTdPJwUNh_wso0nH2vtQW2GpLWSznTu3F0D_M9GMS0binYQWECwRV3vSQFwd4RmBymtjoUMULF1nr72x7K3drJFp-giNLtX8z8P/s320/phelps+bobblehead.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562086266078759970" /></a>Well, if a Lincecum bobblehead costs that much, how much for a Phelps bobblehead? That guy is a LEGEND. Quick EBay search reveals? None for sale. No Coughlin bobbleheads or Lochte bobbleheads either. Maybe people are just holding on to these priceless gems.<br /><br />Google image search? Nada...no bobbleheads for any of our aquatic heroes. This is a farce! Why aren't swimmers given equal bobble treatment? I'd even collect a Garrett Weber-Gale bobblehead if you could put a sound chip in there to remind me to eat my vegetables!<br /><br />So, I made a mockup of a Michael Phelps bobblehead for all of you manufacturers reading this blog. First I made one of Natalie Coughlin, but she's my daughter's hero and it just looked too weird and I couldn't do that to her. If somebody could just make this bobblehead, swimming would be on its way to the mainstream!EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-11321671393162254222011-01-04T13:48:00.000-08:002011-01-04T14:05:22.605-08:00Graphin' my FLOG!I FLOG quite regularly. Honestly, if I flossed as much as I FLOG, my teeth would be much whiter and my dentist much poorer. But, alas, my priority lies with FLOG'in.<br /><br />USMS provides a really easy to use online tool to <span style="font-weight: bold;">log</span> your <span style="font-weight: bold;">f</span>itness goals and accomplishments called the FLOG (hey, this is a family friendly blog, what did you think it meant). Every day after I swim, I post to it before I drive away from the pool. This FLOG powers Go the Distance, an event designed to provide me a free swim cap by early Spring. In 2010, I swam 120 miles. In 2011, I plan on 130 miles. This is <a href="http://www.usms.org/fitness/results11/gtdparticipants_men.php">easily tracked here</a>.<br /><br />But, what is even cooler is that USMS provides a fantastic spreadsheet that allows you to track additional details and provides a lot of fancy graphs and calculations. If you work this thing right, you can add other more detailed graphs as well. I won't bore you with my Excel-nerdiness but will show you two graphs that I am going to be tracking all year. I call them Free-scatter and Kick-scatter.<br /><br />In Free-scatter, I will track MPH over the course of the workout against the percentage of freestyle swam. It will obviously show how much faster at freestyle I am than those "other" strokes. The interesting part will be <span style="font-style: italic;">just how much faster</span>. Behold, my first two data points of 2011:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1u3p7RXMwaTfPctd2BwcZlBXibYmWgkIfckP_p-VGpwu81tPzOEWgyyylF404eQQMIRV_tUp2IKXGWGGx-m2lSIL_WVeKQ8-Jk7kPBwrqXuJVvkK9cIeAoHh4hiKrnKAhYZ74sZEyCriu/s1600/free-scatter.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 388px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1u3p7RXMwaTfPctd2BwcZlBXibYmWgkIfckP_p-VGpwu81tPzOEWgyyylF404eQQMIRV_tUp2IKXGWGGx-m2lSIL_WVeKQ8-Jk7kPBwrqXuJVvkK9cIeAoHh4hiKrnKAhYZ74sZEyCriu/s400/free-scatter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558454164050804994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />0.2 miles per hour seems like a lot, let's see how that changes over time.<br /><br />In Kick-scatter, I will track MPH against the percentage of kick sets. The idea is the same, to see how much speed is lost when I stop using my spindly arms.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBskoQjqCGx_2p0Q3haFSa4WudHcq9eKYone1QNo4oB6i2D8B1xZ12y_Ly6zo2j7dGmKAw7UIsk-20jwBJLzaunDQMGeNENF2c-YTgNLKWDcQKTC4ORue1VHcLiMSV2oqjMLmkJ01frKU8/s1600/kick-scatter.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBskoQjqCGx_2p0Q3haFSa4WudHcq9eKYone1QNo4oB6i2D8B1xZ12y_Ly6zo2j7dGmKAw7UIsk-20jwBJLzaunDQMGeNENF2c-YTgNLKWDcQKTC4ORue1VHcLiMSV2oqjMLmkJ01frKU8/s400/kick-scatter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558454772524725090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Notice the fantastic benchmark of my January 1 all-swim session? I can only go down from there I guess.<br /><br />There are other methods to track progress against time but first I need to understand the correlation of speed vs. stroke. Then more graphs and more graphs and more graphs will emerge. That is the power of the FLOG.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-35462102011895523022010-12-29T15:48:00.000-08:002010-12-29T15:58:06.503-08:00I taught my daughter somethingWhen it comes to swimming, my 10 year old daughter kicks my ass. She's faster, she can swim longer, she knows all four strokes. And she can flip turn. She's, like, the complete package.<br /><br />She is officially on her December break, which runs from the end of JOs to the first Monday in January. But she never did her swim-a-thon to raise money for the Oakland Learn to Swim Program so she had to get those yards in somehow.<br /><br />On Christmas Eve off to Campolindo we go for open swim, hop in the water and I find out that she does about 8 laps to my 5 or sometimes 6. What she doesn't know how to do is to keep her mind focused while doing long long sets. This is something that she never has to worry about at swim practice because they work almost exclusively on strokes and technique, rarely ever venturing into a set longer than 100-200 yards at a time. But, for a swimathon, you just have to swim and swim and swim.<br /><br />So I got to to teach her something. During a short wall break, I asked her what color the band aid was about two-thirds of the way down the lane. She had no idea. So I told her my secret, as I swim, I look for something like that, some small thing at the bottom of the pool that I try to learn as much about as possible in the brief moment when I can see it each lap. Usually, it's a hair elastic or a band-aid or an unusual leaf. One time it was a living salamander.<br /><br />In this pool, it was a blue band-aid with some sort of holiday motif living 10 feet under the surface. It took us about thirty laps to agree that it was a polar bear fishing but it made those thirty laps go a lot faster and less painful.<br /><br />Now if she could just teach me to swim butterfly.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-28762574351249256982010-12-22T12:26:00.000-08:002010-12-22T12:42:53.661-08:0012 Days of Christmas setOK, you know the song: <br /><ul><li>12 Drummers Drumming</li><li>11 Pipers Piping</li><li>10 Lords-a-Leaping</li><li>9 Ladies Dancing</li><li>8 Maids-a-Milking</li><li>7 Swans-a-Swimming</li><li>6 Geese-a-Laying</li><li>5 Gold Rings</li><li>4 Colly Birds</li><li>3 French Hens</li><li>2 Turtle Doves</li><li>And a Partridge in a Pear Tree</li></ul>But what about <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">the set</span>? Well I don't exactly know it either but I sure as heck swam it this weekend...and I hated it. But that's only because I don't believe that the "other strokes" should be allowed into a civilized swimming pool. Each number represents the number of 25 yard laps in that part of the set and then, from there, the coach would make up something painful and seemingly arbitrary about how to interpret the lyrics. He<br /><ul><li>12 Drummers Drumming <br /></li><li>11 Pipers Piping = something to do with Indiana IM and FYI, the leader in my lane made us do 13 of these, some Christmas spirit<br /></li><li>10 Lords-a-Leaping = 5 50's with 5 "streamline jumps" in the shallow end<br /></li><li>9 Ladies Dancing = 9 laps of backstroke<br /></li><li>8 Maids-a-Milking = 8 laps of breast stroke<br /></li><li>7 Swans-a-Swimming = 7 laps of butterfly<br /></li><li>6 Geese-a-Laying</li><li>5 Gold Rings = 5 sprint 25s of freestyle<br /></li><li>4 Colly Birds</li><li>3 French Hens = 3 laps of descending freestyle<br /></li><li>2 Turtle Doves = 2 laps underwater<br /></li><li>And a Partridge in a Pear Tree = 1 lap of sculling while singing a Christmas Carol</li></ul>When, and if, I remember the rest, I'll edit this post to benefit future generations and general internet knowledge.<br /><br />Now, here's the funny part. I consider myself a smart man; truly, it's the only thing I have going for myself but sometimes I have to wonder about even that. Two days after swimming this set, I was in the middle of a 300 yard freestyle set, just the sort of swim that's long enough to let your mind wander (in the hopes that you make a mistake and only swim 250), when it occured to me why the 8 maids a milking were doing the breast stroke. Seriously, the coach on deck even pantomimed milking while describing it and I still didn't get it. Sheesh.<br /><br />Merry Christmas and to all a good swim.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-52490691437935115852010-12-02T12:07:00.000-08:002010-12-02T12:20:28.868-08:00Eyes in the back of their headWhile having lunch with my daughter's swim coach a few weeks back, he mentioned that the best coach he ever had made him feel like he saw everything in the pool. Like the coach was only watching one swimmer and that was him. Thinking about it, that's a pretty cool trait to have as a coach, especially when you have 15 swimmers in a pool.<br /><br />Then I realized that my coach has that. It actually freaks me out a bit because my stroke (especially breaststroke) has been known to crack the lens of a camera when it tries to focus. It's so ugly, I routinely ask to be last in my lane so nobody has to see it.<br /><br />So far Brian has only commented on my freestyle but he's pointed out most of the things that I do wrong. Every time I explain to him how I'm going to fix some problem he diagnosed or my plans to get my hips up or something, he reminds me of something else I'm doing wrong that would just make it all worse. Seriously, it's like there is a list of 15 things he needs to fix. <br /><br />Anyway, I got lucky today. My two lane-mates were having him watch their freestyle and he gave me that look that we was going to critique me too. So, I did the only smart thing, swim really fast right up on my lane-mate's heels so that he wouldn't have time to watch my stroke at the end! I got away with it, too.<br /><br />Some day my stroke will be better and I won't have to worry about these critiques but without the critiques my stroke will never be better. The true paradox of swimming.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-18850467523733015372010-11-19T10:30:00.000-08:002010-11-19T10:45:47.137-08:00Officially official<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN0X-2SCA-S2x34zRqS0SSmQzYK3zURAsooES4Wc2PhX8PMj08UuG4iQT8efqNdWjfPtBhuNlYAg6bT9qP7aGIQDzVwSScBg_jQwbxGPyDpi9BasaKO4aqAJRYwADpuE3l7evw_rNHObAM/s1600/referee-type-whistle-cs19.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 119px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN0X-2SCA-S2x34zRqS0SSmQzYK3zURAsooES4Wc2PhX8PMj08UuG4iQT8efqNdWjfPtBhuNlYAg6bT9qP7aGIQDzVwSScBg_jQwbxGPyDpi9BasaKO4aqAJRYwADpuE3l7evw_rNHObAM/s400/referee-type-whistle-cs19.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541333655912485298" /></a>This past weekend, I attended an officials training session for 3 hours. I learned a few things, most notably that I cannot see a breaststroker's legs on a small TV from 5 feet away; at least not well enough to DQ them. It's better at the pool, but it doesn't bode well for instant replay in swimming. I also got to quiz a veteran official about every single DQ my daughter has ever had and challenge him on the audacity that a complete swimmer like Chopstick would ever turn non-continuously. He backed down but for some odd reason, he didn't go and reverse all of her undeserved DQs.<br /><br />Anyway, at that point, my main concern was, where the heck am I going to get blue pants? But I pressed on and took the online test on Monday. I got one wrong and continuing in my theme of challenging authority, can't tell how it was wrong. Please review:<br /><blockquote><br />"In the butterfly: At the turns and the finish, is it permissible for a shoulder to be dropped after the final arm pull and prior to the touch?"</blockquote><br />I say no since the rules clearly state that "at each turn the body shall be on the breast.....once a touch has been made, the swimmer may turn in any manner desired." So, according to the question, the swimmer needs to be on the breast because it is prior to the touch. How can you be on the breast if you have dropped a shoulder? Sounds like the swimmer is somewhere less than parallel to the water surface to me. <br /><br />I'm sure there is more to it but I need an answer on this one. And I will get one this weekend because I am officially "shadowing" at Chopstick's meet. I think I need four days of shadowing and a recommendation and I become an official. At which point, all swimmers must refer to me as <span style="font-weight:bold;">Doctor DQ</span>.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-70244614448203444992010-10-15T14:21:00.000-07:002010-10-15T14:39:11.519-07:00Escape the tyranny of the stopwatchSwimming is a fantastic sport. It's not a zero sum game, you don't have one winner and one loser in each game. Because of the stopwatch, you can compete against goals and not feel like a loser because lane 4 beats you every time. That's one of the primary lessons I've wanted to teach Chopstick about swimming. Worry about yourself and your effort. And it has worked.<br /><br />But unfortunately, this isn't all happening in a vacuum. The stopwatch has also caused problems. Chopstick will get out of the pool after a fantastic swim and be more concerned over whether her time was a personal best than the fact that she nailed the fly to back turn. This is even more exacerbated on events where she's close to a goal like a far western or JO.<br /><br />We ended up getting in tiffs after races because she just couldn't leave the emotions in the water. I told her it's OK to feel disappointed in a swim, it's a matter of how you handle that disappointment and channel it. But all of our little tricks to overcome this problem were just bandaids on a wound.<br /><br />It took a while to realize it but the real problem was me. Despite my calm, understanding and patient demeanor; deep down I care about the times. And she knows that I do. She'd look for clues in my face as she got out of the water to see how her time was. I'm pretty sure she cares about them because I care about them. <br /><br />That's not to say that she doesn't want to swim fast for herself, but the time obsession has to be because of me. Heck, she couldn't even tell you what her best time in any event is but she asks me after every race if it was a best time. Yep, that's on me.<br /><br />Luckily, Tuesday morning I had a moment of clarity. Screw the stopwatch. We can't let it run our lives. And we can't let it hurt her enjoyment of swimming. So, we're going to try something new next weekend. We're just not going to look. I won't keep my spreadsheet in my back pocket. I won't look at the scoreboard. She wont ask me what her time was. Her coach might give it away but he usually doesn't pay attention to the times until Monday, can't see why he'd do anything differently this time.<br /><br />We'll check once, after her last event on Sunday. We'll go write the times down and collect the ribbons. Maybe find some surprises in there and maybe not. I am pretty sure we'll learn a lot about ourselves and her motivations though.<br /><br />I've always maintained that Chopstick swims because she likes ribbons. I'm going to do my best to get out of the way of the reasons and stick with my most important role in her swimming, emotional support, encouragement and making sure she has a towel when she gets out of the pool.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-46229936693218234142010-09-22T13:18:00.000-07:002010-09-22T13:24:11.885-07:00Put this thing to useDuring the 6 weeks between meets that this unfortunate time of year brings, our suit-drying rack really has it easy. A couple of suits from me, a couple from Chopstick. Nothing to really get it worked up. This is how it looks during the "dry" season:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilxcPRx4h0cCiWT_I2XpEtzDDdU5DMSPFNh_7MTCCpRseM4Fws8g-6uKsmkYu2bicvVll0LkqqOIh7N35_URXjpoEojrClN8bEZy4u2ao9iFdx-eMMITG5Icl5eIknGYQQunJpkoFok14y/s1600/suit+drying+rack.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilxcPRx4h0cCiWT_I2XpEtzDDdU5DMSPFNh_7MTCCpRseM4Fws8g-6uKsmkYu2bicvVll0LkqqOIh7N35_URXjpoEojrClN8bEZy4u2ao9iFdx-eMMITG5Icl5eIknGYQQunJpkoFok14y/s400/suit+drying+rack.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519835884307233986" /></a><br />Notice how a couple of suits feel the luxury of taking over three pegs. There's room so that the wettest suits don't have to drip on the drier ones. It's like a freakin' resort for these suits.<br /><br />Now, Chopstick has her first meet of the new season this weekend. Then it's off to the races with a meet every other weekend through the JOs, then an extra one in December because we can. Look for the updated picture of a well-used drying rack from this Sunday. It should be loaded with the week's practice suits, my suits, about a trillion towels and a bunch of caps.<br /><br />Bring on the meets!EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-78221031203368221152010-09-21T10:16:00.000-07:002010-09-21T10:23:32.143-07:00Some coachin'Including me, there were only two people in my lane today. My lane-mate, Mike the bald guy, is faster than I am...not significantly but enough that lane splitting made more sense than circle swimming.<br /><br />But, alas, this too was challenging. Not in the sense that it was difficult but it challenged me to try to keep up with Mike. And I kind of did. More accurately, I really TRIED to keep up with him. And what happens when I *try* to swim fast? I swim sloppy.<br /><br />So I got pulled aside by the coach on deck and he gave me some pointers that I should know but don't always put into practice. The best part is that from then on I knew he was watching and I really had to concentrate on that long glide and keeping one of my goggles in the water while breathing. It helped, my stroke count dropped by about 5 and I was certainly not working as hard. Mike was still faster but not by as much.<br /><br />So it worked and I now know I have to be careful when I try my sloppy tired stroke. Coaches could be watching.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-57824282554531315642010-09-09T12:47:00.000-07:002010-09-09T13:00:06.915-07:006500 yards per week, that's all we askSince I've become a Manatee my yardage has gone up dramatically. To the point that I'm thinking I might just make my 2010 mileage goal. Or at least my modified 2010 mileage goal, you know, the one I modified once I finished taking the months of June and July off from swimming.<br /><br />To make the original goal (150 miles), I need to average 7600 yards per week. To make the modified more realistic didn't swim all summer goal (140 miles), I need to average 6500 yards per week.<br /><br />Now that I'm a manatee, this is actually do-able. They have an absurd number of options for practice times and they make me work harder. Since I joined on September 1, my workouts have averaged 2270 yards. If I swim three times per week, that banks me over 300 yards per week on my modified goal. If I swim 4 times per week every other week, I actually bank 345 yards per week over my original goal. <br /><br />Considering I've swam 5 times in 9 days due to the incredible number of available workouts, this might just be do-able. No more missing a whole day just because I slept in, I can go that evening. If I can't make Friday because of a meeting, I can go Thursday. And, best yet, when Chopstick doesn't have a meet, there are weekend practices.<br /><br />I'm thinking I can do it. 6500 yards per week. That's all we ask.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-25657960665952797732010-09-01T14:19:00.000-07:002010-09-01T14:30:46.114-07:00Swimming replays ..... Pan Pacs RedeuxLast night, my wife had some friends over to discuss share-cares and carpooling and stuff so I took the kids downstairs to watch some TV. Of course, nothing good was recorded but I noticed I hadn't deleted the Pan Pacs. The kids agreed and we decided just to watch races that Chopstick likes and fast forward through the rest.<br /><br />So, we started off with the Women's 200 IM mainly so that Chopstick could compare her time to these guys and see how much work she has to do. We spent the first part of the race trying to decide how to pronounce Kukors, but, wow, did we get into it after that. I didn't notice we'd gotten loud until I noticed that Chopstick was yelling for Ariana Kukors on the breast-stroke leg like she could actually hear her (never mind that we're in Northern California and the race was in Irvine....AND over a week ago). But she yelled, "go go go" everytime her head came out of the water and then we watched with disappointment as the Australian won. <br /><br />It was doubly hard since it was the same Australian who beat Natalie Coughlin in the 100 or 200 back a few weeks ago when the Pan Pacs were on our TV live. And to top it off, we've all decided that the Australians have the best suits. The best suits and they beat two of our favorite swimmers. Insulting.<br /><br />The next two races we watched made it worthwhile. Ryan Lochte (the baddest man on the planet) and Rebecca Soni were almost world recording! Watching them race that line was so exciting that we forgot to care that we were being loud enough to hear upstairs. If only my 5 year old son cared about swimming and joined in, maybe we could have exhorting them to the actual records, but it was close enough for us.<br /><br />After a few more races, we were done, we went crazy for the men's 400 MR and called it a night, happy to have enjoyed the racing in this way too long off season. The best part about all of it? We already knew who had won and still cheered like it was live.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-58813442336294409422010-08-27T10:31:00.000-07:002010-08-27T10:40:40.505-07:00Crap. I'm losing weight againI usually don't weigh myself because no news is good news sometimes. But since I got to the pool early this morning and had the option of sitting in the hot tub watching the 6AM people finish their swim or stepping on the scale to kill about 45 seconds, I went with the latter.<br /><br />Before I get to the heart of the matter, I'd like to point out that I just took about two months off swimming. One month without swimming and then a month of going on days when the masters weren't swimming to try to get myself back in shape. So I should have gained weight.<br /><br />But I didn't. Not only didn't I gain weight, I'm down two pounds from what I thought was the lowest I could go. And this was before my brutal workout at the hands of the evil Other Coach Bill. Who knows how much I took off during the hour swimming because I was <span style="font-weight:bold;">scared<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> to get back on that scale.<br /><br />Of course, the only option is to eat more. I just have to figure out how to do that. Going to McDonalds isn't too good of an idea because I really like the idea that my cholesterol is low. I think protein rich food will help: almonds, chicken, etc. Maybe an extra almond butter and jelly sandwich in the afternoon would be good too.<br /><br />I read on the boards that swimming isn't good for weight loss but it sure as heck seems to be doing the trick on one of the few people in the world that doesn't want it. I guess it's better than the alternative but still. And I thought the biggest problem from swimming was going to be smelling like chlorine.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-33861233992030808002010-08-26T12:10:00.000-07:002010-08-26T12:25:20.222-07:00Crazy flip turns<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihHMpAESE-j4WXP_Itjf2tKhER3V_kcS-KLanl8jdD7fYO4kLrawh2fncx80czFleLaWuuyF8XkSGOz6iAJ1CzfynWMQlAf5zb7u3zTk5OX4T1XG21SD7j_2NT6HvDYAHRO52CYKXecxmz/s1600/Swim-FlipTurn.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 208px; height: 168px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihHMpAESE-j4WXP_Itjf2tKhER3V_kcS-KLanl8jdD7fYO4kLrawh2fncx80czFleLaWuuyF8XkSGOz6iAJ1CzfynWMQlAf5zb7u3zTk5OX4T1XG21SD7j_2NT6HvDYAHRO52CYKXecxmz/s320/Swim-FlipTurn.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509799992247681730" /></a>I asked a rhetorical question on twitter a few days ago: "who in the h3ck invented the flip turn?" I said this because the darned thing appears to be the twisted invention of some sadistic contortionist. Not because I really wanted to know that it was Tex Richardson. That said, I'm glad to now know that. I can curse him now.<br /><br />In one week, I am moving from my sedate leisurely 1 person per lane private club pool to a Masters team. I am comfortable with the fact that I'm going to be in the slow lane and I am OK with 4 to 5 people per lane. But I am going to lose the ability to just do whatever the h3ck I want when I want to. And I'm not comfortable with my weird little Irish Jig of a turn at the wall. There are going to be sixty year old ladies breathing down my neck, I can't afford a slow turn.<br /><br />So I now flip.<br /><br />That gets its own paragraph because it's so durned funny. My flip turns are a mess of flailing arms, bubbles and confused searches for the wall. I do my flip and then have to look for where the wall is. Because if I just push off of whatever is nearest my feet, it could be a lane line, the floor, the air above or even the swimmer in the next lane. Seriously, I have to warn people that I flip now and that it might not be safe near me.<br /><br />And yet I continue. I do sets of 100s, thus giving me 3 opportunities to flip each time. I land about 50% of them. I still can't keep my composure enough to do a proper streamline dolphin kick (SDK for those of you not hip to the acronym). But at least on those 50%, I'm heading in the right direction.<br /><br />The best ones are when I time the wall wrong, either taking a breath too late or trying to get one last stroke in. On these, I stubbornly try the flip anyway but find myself jammed up against the wall with nothing to do but surface. Usually I do one of those "I meant to do that" stretches and look around the pool and then off I go.<br /><br />In one week it's not going to be people in the next lane that have to worry, I'll have 4-5 people in my own lane running for cover.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-6013701423216294972010-08-17T11:39:00.000-07:002010-08-17T11:46:58.999-07:00Oh wow, now I've done it<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnqQlvMfoTk9f1pJyr2aGk3FiELNEU2pEwdszFoGI5EdBP47NSTOZwFwvZLAFlDzlUpborNCbWztsjT8RTGQ_zUkczOeL474OVxwyKIaRHwC1iKZ93eLPqQHUgk6Do33H1wt3i59q25-11/s1600/manatees.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 125px; height: 91px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnqQlvMfoTk9f1pJyr2aGk3FiELNEU2pEwdszFoGI5EdBP47NSTOZwFwvZLAFlDzlUpborNCbWztsjT8RTGQ_zUkczOeL474OVxwyKIaRHwC1iKZ93eLPqQHUgk6Do33H1wt3i59q25-11/s400/manatees.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506450936306552130" /></a>I am officially a Manatee. Though I've never actually been to one of their practices. Or met their coaches. Or seen their locker rooms. And I only know one other swimmer on the team. But I have seen their website so I am officially a Manatee.<br /><br />I just joined US Masters Swimming. Now that I'm a member they may let me in on the secret: is it Masters or Master's? I think Masters but I've heard it both ways. <br /><br />I did join for a very good reason: my pool club membership is set to expire and it's less expensive to join a team and swim there than to keep paying for a ritzy club for the sole purpose of swimming. What I'll miss: lanes to myself. What I won't miss: the monthly bill.<br /><br />Now that I'm a Manatee, I'm going to go to their practice on Friday as a drop-in. And I'm going to register on the USMS site so that I can get the Go The Distance cap I've already earned. And see how much more I need to swim in the last 4+ months of the year to get a water bottle.<br /><br />Go Manatees!EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-60543042425514372772010-08-11T10:19:00.000-07:002010-08-11T10:29:14.632-07:00About 6 months later....SDK Time~ 6 months since my last post and I can say truthfully, "I still swim." In fact, just yesterday, I started a renewed commitment to the SDK. See, I still can't flipturn so I do this little Irish Jig at the wall: I grab the wall, touch my feet on the bottom, pull them up to the wall and push off with a weak little triangle of arms approximating a streamline and I flutter kick like I'm trying to get something off my feet. H3ll, that's not effective.<br /><br />Over the summer, Chopstick went to a Nike Swim Camp (off topic, it sucked) and like most swim camp-like things, they handed out some hastily xerox'd copies of articles from swim magazines in the late nineties. Well, one of them was extremely useful; it talked about the difference between good, better and great swimmers. To paraphrase, the good swimmer does what the coach tells them, the better swimmer works hard to do exactly what the coach is telling them as well as possible every time, while the great swimmer does the above but also has individual goals to improve on top of what the coach is telling them. The example is that in each practice, you do 100s of turns, the great swimmer is going to do the SDK exactly perfectly with a goal of getting to the flags a millionth of a second faster each time.<br /><br />Chopstick and I both took this article to heart. For her, it's any number of tips/critiques/suggestions her coach has told her over the years...making sure she's continuing to work on them even after it's slipped his mind. For me, it's actually doing an SDK slash turn combo that won't get me DQ'd if I ever race. So, now I grab the wall, awkwardly pull my feet straight to the wall, trying to keep my knees high, and then push off the way I see Chopstick doing it. Then I streamline as tight as I can and dolphin kick. It is faster, it's closer to how I really want to do it. And it's a bit awkward so I've had to practice practicing it. But, it's better.<br /><br />Also, ab muscles.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-48851452926517275712010-02-26T15:08:00.000-08:002010-02-26T15:08:36.620-08:00Masterful......I've been threatening this for some time...I am going to swim with the Masters. That phrase sounds a bit like swimming with the sharks and for me it felt like that. I was a bit nervous and more than a bit hesitant to get up to the pool by <u><b>SIX AM</b></u> in the morning.<br />
<br />
So I was taken a bit by surprise when the other Coach Bill parked himself by my lane as I finished my first 100 this morning. He told me that the 6AM crowd was getting a bit too crowded and that some of the swimmers were going to invade my space, 7:00 to 7:40 land. He said this in the future tense but then suddenly Sally (maybe not her real name I won't tell) announced our sets and everyone took off. With the obvious expectation that I'd be joining them. Only one thing to do, swim.<br />
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I had to modify their sets a bit due to my lack of Individual Medleyness, preferring my only too strokes of freestyle and backstroke. And the 200s were a bit much for me so I did 150s for those two sets. But other than that, I did it. I made up those missed yards and kept up with all of the intervals. Of course, they were slow people intervals but still faster intervals than I'd ever done. Like a true master, I'll list my set the way they do:<br />
<br />
<u>Warmup</u><br />
200 free<br />
300 drills (100 of kick, catchup, fingerdrag)<br />
<br />
<u>Main set</u><br />
6 x 100 free at 2:05<br />
2 x 150 free first slow second at pace <br />
8 x 50 free at 1:05<br />
<br />
<u>Warmdown</u><br />
200 free<br />
<br />
So there you have it, I've taken the plunge and now don't have much of a choice but to swim with them at 7AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm there anyway and they're in the lanes near me so I'll just have to be masterful. And, yes, 2000 yards is the most I've ever swam at a time.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-9431539304945401132010-02-24T09:55:00.000-08:002010-02-24T09:55:13.221-08:00The BEST meet entry I've ever doneI just entered Chopstick into a meet at swimconnection. I've done this before, it's not that unusual. In fact, many months I do it 3 to 4 times. But this one was different, this was the <u>Junior Olympics</u>. It's always funny telling non-swimmers that, because the Junior Olympics sounds very impressive. And it is but not as impressive as they think it is.<br />
<br />
But back to the entry. I paused for a bit when doing it, reflecting on how proud I am that she made it.<br />
<br />
Back at the "last chance" meet in the fall, she had just turned 9 and could smell the JOs. She was about .6 seconds away on the 50 back and about 1.5 seconds on the 100 back. To qualify and not have to worry about qualifying again for the next 2 years, she just had to drop that amount. And she swam her tail off that day on those 2 backstrokes. But she ended up missing the 50 by .01 seconds. You read that right, point zero one seconds. She missed it on the 100 by .20 seconds. If they hadn't called it the "last chance" meet it might not have been so difficult but it really bummed her out.<br />
<br />
Flash forward to her next meet, the first one of the winter session. She knew that she could drop 0.01 seconds and holy toledo she did, dropping 0.33 seconds. I did my usual trick of writing the accomplishment on my hand to show her and her smile was HUGE. It's funny what I remember from that smile is her braces, I had never noticed that she picked cool colors for them. Then, as she was standing in line for her ribbon, I went to check the official results to doublecheck and saw a different set of letters than I expected next to her name. Not JO but DQ. She had done an extra little kick right before her flip. Aarrgh. DQ's don't usually bother her, but not on THIS event!<br />
<br />
For this past weekend, we both just tried to squash all expectations. She doesn't swim well at frigid meets and this one qualified. Cold, wet, dreary, miserable, and did I mention wet. She hopped in the pool for her 50 back, had a great start, a great turn, and a perfect finish. I finally got the nerve to look at the scoreboard....38.93! So, I drained all emotion from my face, got my best deadpan going, and said, "it's not just a fast meet for you" as she walked back to me. I didn't get her this time, she had already looked at the board and knew she had it!<br />
<br />
So, we composed ourselves and started toward the warmdown pool. And, then it happened. I looked over and saw a white-jacketed official walking towards the timers with a DQ slip. We watched and he went straight to her lane. I told her not to worry and to stay right there; I ran over to him, looked over his shoulder and saw, "heat 5" on his slip. Chopstick was heat 6! Success! It was official, my daughter is a Junior Olympian!<br />
<br />
After our heart rates went down, she went to warm down. I congratulated myself on an excellent gene pool and she went for her post-race debriefing. Her coach had seen the time too and said that he knew she'd get it. I didn't want to thell him, but he apparently was the only one who knew that, he could have clued us in.<br />
<br />
All this reflection happened very quickly while doing the entry for the JOs but it was vivid. Chopstick had some hurdles on this one and like the trooper she is, she overcame them. And now she's entered in the JOs.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-68981790218217777932010-02-09T12:10:00.000-08:002010-02-09T12:10:00.981-08:00A JO by any other nameThis weekend Chopstick got her first JO time. As she finished the 50 back, I watched nervously at the board waiting to see what it would show for lane 6, not caring one bit about the place just the precious number. And the number was under 39.49....in fact it was 39.08! I contained my excitement and did what I usually do when a new milestone is reached (done previously for her 4 8&under PRTs), I wrote JO in sharpie on my palm.<br />
<br />
She got out of the water looking pretty content with her swim and reacted well to my smile but I had a surprise for her. I said very clearly, "you couldn't have gone faster than that?" Judging by the look she gave me, my act is getting old and she knew I was up to something so I opened my hand for her to read the magical letters. Jay Oh.<br />
<br />
The funny part is that what I remember about the smile is her braces. I noticed the colors that she'd chosen (blue and a lighter blue) I guess because I had a lot of time to look at them. She finally asked, "I did it?" And, yes she did. She was a Junior Olympian.<br />
<br />
I say "was" because it turns out she DQ'd on her turn. She was a bit away from the wall and gave an extra kick that I guess she wasn't supposed to. She doesn't remember it but I do now that her coach explained what it was. She's had enough DQs to know that they're not a bad thing, just a reminder to be diligent with your stroke. But this one was different, she wanted this one bad after missing out on the Fall JOs by .01 seconds. All I could tell her was that she swam a JO time and will do it again. DQ or not, she can swim with the JOers and will.<br />
<br />
Next meet, the 50 back is her first event on Sunday, an excellent time to get her JOiness back. Unfortunately, the meet after that it's right after the 100 fly (though she may do the 100 breast instead). For the "last chance" meet, it's after either the 200 free with a break or 100 breast. So she has three chances but two of them she's going to most likely be tired from a big event first.<br />
<br />
No matter what she's swam a JO and will again but it was an unfortunate time to turn wrong.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-4668582980714243322010-02-03T12:36:00.000-08:002010-02-03T12:36:29.520-08:00Out of breathAm I crazy or am I not as out of breath as I used to be while swimming? I don't know when it happened but I suddenly realized it today: I can swim without stopping. Much, without stopping much. I am routinely doing 100-200 yards between breathers and even then they are limited.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhoi7KwzZWx_iqgYlDcMWMV-F-c3ap2CNsM6taWdp6za2I_Il44bUOb1CMF_w8uMxRBD7FlLAtq2YfJy9_YyO5quDbADDmeAzMoEWfd0udpIRrwBO4q0Hhke5jj2YyoAzzKxT2Cb_6LgQy/s1600-h/pace+per+mile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhoi7KwzZWx_iqgYlDcMWMV-F-c3ap2CNsM6taWdp6za2I_Il44bUOb1CMF_w8uMxRBD7FlLAtq2YfJy9_YyO5quDbADDmeAzMoEWfd0udpIRrwBO4q0Hhke5jj2YyoAzzKxT2Cb_6LgQy/s320/pace+per+mile.jpg" /></a></div><br />
According to my Go the Distance graphs, I'm doing pretty well, closing in on 1.5 MPH. The big drop that you see early in the month is when I started doing kick sets for the first time...even at only 100 yards, that slows me down dramatically.<br />
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The last two days have been fairly spectacular at 1.36 MPH (distances of 1800 & 1400 yards). But I know why yesterday happened. Bikini Girl was in the lane next to me and she just never stops, kind of like a Terminator but, you know, a waterproof one. I realized that if I was hanging out at the wall, she'd notice and laugh all robotically at me. That is just something I don't want.<br />
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It's important to note why this matters to me. In the six months that I've been swimming, only three swimmers have been consistent this whole time. The Other Coach Bill, Dale, and Bikini Girl. The Other Coach Bill is always helpful, if he sees me breathing like crazy or kicking funny, he'll help me out so I don't mind flailing in front of him. Dale swims several lanes away usually and she considers *me* a good swimmer; when she sees me huffing and puffing, that is a sign that I'm working hard to her. But Bikini Girl is about my speed (a little slower) and about my fitness level (except for the Terminator never stopping thing). I don't want to look like a wimp next to her.<br />
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Of course, this is exactly why I need to get up an hour earlier and swim with the Master's Team. Peer pressure group motivation is a powerful and useful tool. I *know* it would make me a better swimmer.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-74267962626040312472010-01-29T10:18:00.000-08:002010-01-29T10:18:17.505-08:00Go the Distance: numerical motivationI'm not an official member of US Masters but they still kindly let me use their <a href="http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=15846">Go the Distance spreadsheet</a> to keep track of my yardage, err mileage. And I'll be damned but it is motivating. Every morning that I don't want to swim, I think what that will do to my daily average and my yearly projection. I think how many extra yards I'll have to swim to make up for it. And I get up, curse the very existence of Speedo, and make my way to the pool.<br />
<br />
So, in the interest of full disclosure, my goal for 2010 is 150 miles and I'm on pace for just over 190. So far I've swam 15.28 miles. And here is what was running through my head this morning as I approached my eleven hundredth yard, "if I swim 100 more yards, that increases my projected total 1200 yards or about 0.7 miles." And those extra 100 yards seemed like a small price to pay for that benefit. So I swam a 100 yards more than my lazy ass wanted to.<br />
<br />
Another thing they do is publish <a href="http://www.usms.org/fitness/results10/gtdparticipants_men.php">daily results</a>. That's less motivating because it amazes me that the guy at the top of my age group has swam over 40 miles more than I have already (note: there is something wrong with him). But, there is hope, I'm going to try to keep at 50% of the great <a href="http://robaquatics.com/">Rob D</a> who is winning his age bracket by a healthy 4 miles. Since he blogs and tweets like there is no tomorrow, I can see any time he puts in one of his patented 10,000 yard days and swim an extra couple hundred every day that week to try to catch up.<br />
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All told, this is better motivation than trying to catch up to Chopstick's times because I believe that is impossible. So I'll just keep going the distance and try to tack on an extra hundred whenever I think of my spreadsheet.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-91984723469864929982010-01-21T13:32:00.000-08:002010-01-21T13:32:26.103-08:00Aren't you scared of lightning?Like most of California, Oakland has been besieged by rain this week. Freakin' buckets of the stuff, sometimes mixed with its dastardly cousin the hail pellet. Not pleasant for land based creatures but not so bad for aquatic minded folk {interesting aside, both of my hobbies (sailing & swimming) are done rain or shine}.<br />
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Yesterday morning, after swimming my yards, I was in the clubhouse drinking my celebratory cup of coffee when a woman asked me, "what's it like to swim in the rain?" I didn't have a good answer, I think I mumbled something like, "you don't really notice it .... even though I thought somebody was splashing me at one point today."<br />
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But then she dropped the bombshell, "aren't you scared of lightning?" The club has a big sign posted that the pool has to be evacuated in the case of lightning but then again, I'm not really sure I'd see the lightning while swimming so there's very little chance I'd even know to leave the pool. So I told her the truth, "well, I am scared of lightning because I know I'm supposed to be but really it seems pretty darned unlikely." My other hobby, sailing, involves floating on water with a 40 foot lightning rod attached to the boat, how could it be worse in a pool surrounded by huge oak trees?<br />
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So I guess I now have to figure out if I am scared of lightning. I know my daughter's practices are halted during lightning. I know my club's insurance policy makes them post signs that the pool must be evacuated. But I also know that it's exceedingly rare to have lightning in the Oakland Hills and that by the time it happens I'd already be dead. So I don't think I am. For now.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-7548715950634019632010-01-18T16:02:00.000-08:002010-01-18T16:02:00.714-08:00One Thousand Eight Hundred Yards of GloryThis past weekend I swam my <a href="http://crazyswimdad.blogspot.com/2010/01/swimming-contraband.html">contraband set</a>, the secret setlist that a Master's swimmer had inadvertently left behind at the pool last Friday. All day Saturday I made sure I got enough rest and Sunday I had a good breakfast to get ready.<br />
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Sunday afternoon, I headed up to the pool and got to work. I brought the setlist with me and pasted it to a kickboard by the wall like I'd seen others do it. I even looked official.<br />
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As I started up I realized that the warmup set intervals were kind of lame so I chopped 30 seconds off of them knowing that when I got to the 100s, I'd need those 30 seconds back. And, I did, I used up all four 30 second credits in the first four 100 sets. <br />
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Then I got to the mysteriously titled set where I was to swim some stroke known as "other than free". Since I realized that this was a made-up fantasyland stroke probably designed to confuse the competition if the setlist ever got into enemy hands, I decided just to skip those 200 yards. I figured that if I still had energy left after the sprints, I'd do those 200 with a real stroke.<br />
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But then I got into the sprints and found out I really enjoyed that part. The intervals gave plenty of rest and I even found that my times were getting faster as I went along. The only problem was my calves were cramping since I rarely kicked that hard (as an aside I had a banana before going up there so this should *not* have happened). I have to admit that I love the feeling of hitting the wall at full speed and having a wave catch up to me as I pull up. I need to do more of that.<br />
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But after the sprinting, I knew that I wasn't going to make up the "other than freestyle" set but felt pretty darned satisfied with my 1800 yards, the most I'd ever done, and with sprinting to boot. <br />
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With some slight modifications I think I can do this insane 6AM master's workout. If I get an alarm clock that is.<br />
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As an aside, there didn't seem to be any "missing" master's swimmers at the pool this morning; word may not have gotten out that one of them didn't shred the setlist. I'm not saying anything.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-52939377076329125822010-01-15T11:28:00.000-08:002010-01-15T11:34:22.746-08:00Swimming contrabandI got up early to swim this morning only to find a pool full of master's swimmers (read as no lanes). So I sat in the hot tub and watched. They were doing 25s and I thought, h3ll I can do 25s. It looked like they were sprinting one way and lollygagging on the way back, something I know I can do. Then they started sprinting 25s and hanging out at the wall for a long time. Again, one of my specialties.<br />
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What I got out watching them is, "I can do that." So then I swam. And after I swam I got something else out of the effort, someone had left their set list glued to a kickboard. With a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching, I surreptitiously peeled it off and ran into the locker room. I had info!<br />
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I looked over the intervals they were doing and they all looked do-able. Except maybe the 100s I'll need to add 15 seconds to. And it fits my pace, about 2000 yards in an hour. I've never swam that long but I do about 1100 to 1200 yards in half an hour so I should be able to get to 2000 in double the time.<br />
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I'm going to give it a shot this weekend and if I can do this, I can try to get up at 6AM one morning and see how the slow lane feels.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370949497743857190.post-75226733718930408542010-01-07T15:35:00.000-08:002010-01-07T15:40:03.203-08:00Huge ReliefToday, Chopstick's winter session practices started. I am now no longer in charge of getting her to swim; her Mom drives her, her coach coaches her (interesting thought, should the word "Mom" be changed to "Driver" to make that sentence more accurate?). For me, it solves my worries that I'm an overbearing Swim Dad since I'm out of the equation until the next meet in about a month.<br /><br />So, to celebrate, I swam 1400 yards this morning bringing my daily average up to 1130 -- a full 30 yards higher than my daily goal for the month. This goal will have to be modified once I start swimming with the Masters for a full hour instead of 30 minutes but I'll believe that once I see it.<br /><br />Anyway, I feel better about my swimdadishness and my swimyardageosity today. So I thought I should blog it.EVK4http://www.blogger.com/profile/02797338920913749383noreply@blogger.com0