Tempe: One more time, we find each other

Ian, Should have joined us in La Jolla over the weekend, Caroline Krattli drug us down to a GREAT beer and pizza joint the first day! By the way, if you guys hold a SCM meet in the fall at one of your better pools let us know, we'd love to make the trip up north!

Jim & Ion, you’re just too effusive. Last year I took advantage of a ‘weak year’ with Farrell conveniently aged up and Clark, Abrahams et al, too young (I’ll take it nevertheless) You are right on my not being in Phoenix. The Canadian championships are Short Course Meters on the same dates. Now if the US Short Course Champs were meters, I would have had a difficult choice to make…….a game of golf or two in Arizona would have probably tipped the balance. Sorry I won’t be there to meet all these other sprinter Smiths. (am still looking forward to beer & pizza with Paul) Good luck to all. Ian.

Tall Paul, Who's zoomin' who? You, a flyer and a backstroker?! Mr. Smith, would you please tell the jury who is seeded #1 in the M 40-44 500 free? I'll be missing Nationals this year (SC & LC), but next year in Indianapolis is a strong possibility; I just have to convince myself I would not be wasting anyone's time coming in seeded 51st or so out of about 55 swimmers in my favorite events. (The really depressing part is that I could break my PR's from when I was 21, and still be seeded in the 40's. Geez!) I am longingly looking up info on 2004 Masters Worlds in Italy. Hey, at least the QT's should be makable. I just have to juggle that with moving to my next duty station that summer. BTW, there is a decent chance it may be San Diego, so all you West Coasties will simply have to put up with me polluting, er... gracing your meets with my presence. Matt

Matt & Ion, to you both I quote "subvert the dominant paradigm"! As for backstroke, although I think Mr. Lehman has one of the most beautiful strokes Ive e ver seen and will challenge for the #1 spot this year, in this event you forgot a gentleman by the name of Clay Britt! Matt, I hope you rethink your goals and focus on your own improvement and love for this sport. Forget about placing, swim for the sheer enjoyment and don't be afraid of steppig out of your comfort zone!

Originally posted by Matt S Tall Paul, Who's zoomin' who? You, a flyer and a backstroker?! ... I also question part of this move: in our 40 to 44 age group, in backstroke, Fritz Lehman rules by far. Sometimes, Bill Specht rules in backstroke, but mostly this is Fritz' territory. In sprints fly, Paul is the champ, most of the time. Originally posted by Matt S ... Mr. Smith, would you please tell the jury who is seeded #1 in the M 40-44 500 free? ... Matt In the 500 free (and 200 free too), Paul rules, and he told me that he entered 500 in Tempe. Originally posted by Matt S ... I just have to juggle that with moving to my next duty station that summer. BTW, there is a decent chance it may be San Diego,... ... Matt Matt, I have a grudge against you: .) you didn't write back to me after I wished you well at Christmas 2002; (I gather from a past post written in this forum by 'Tall' Paul, that at one time you didn't acknowledge Paul either, after you asked him advise about developing flexibility through yoga, and he answered to you in composing a well-thought e-mail); .) during the 2002 Long Course Nationals in Cleveland, when the time of the get-together that we agreed on came up (get-together that you promised to attend by writing in a thread in this forum), you ducked the get-together with a lame excuse that I remember: you 'thought' that the 50 free was to be swam at another time, you bumped into me in the hallway in Cleveland and I updated you about the time of the get-together, then you followed up your ducking with excuses about being together with your wife; I have an affinity with people who want to consistently live up to their promised words. My workouts in preparation for Tempe, are solid these days. I hope that the taper (always a delicate matter to me), for Tempe, will go well too: I would like to be able to pick up speed, while not losing anaerobic threshold.

Originally posted by Matt S: I'll be missing Nationals this year (SC & LC), but next year in Indianapolis is a strong possibility; I just have to convince myself I would not be wasting anyone's time coming in seeded 51st or so out of about 55 swimmers in my favorite events. Hi Matt! Sorry that you won't be able to make the Nationals this year. I was hoping to run into you (and of course, many others) at LC's in New Jersey ... finally. May Nationals is not a good time of the year for me, due to annual professional commitments. Originally posted by Ion Beza: Matt, I have a grudge against you: And Ion ... please don't be too, too hard on Matt ... "stuff" does happen. Best laid plans can go down the W.C. in a matter of a flush. :D Cheers!

Ion, Sorry about that; I'll plead the operational tempo of the U.S. Armed Forces as my excuse. I trust that we have known each other long enough that your tongue was firmly placed in your cheek when you spoke of a grudge. Paul-meister, Fear not! (Or, perhaps fear a little more, depending on your point of view.) I have not lost my zest for swimming, just SC Nationals. Let me explain. My definition of a good meet is one where swimming a good time (instead of a so-so or poor time) for me does move me up a few places. If I am one of two people in my age group, and one of us is clearly superior, the race is kind of like the sound of one hand clapping (local meets). If the talent in my age group is so spread out, I could be great or I could get a calf cramp in the middle of the race, and I will still be in the same spot in the middle of the pack, it lessens the feel of being in a real meet (Colony Zone SC the one year I went). If the talent is so fast and so deep that I am at the very bottom of the age group with 20 seconds separating me and the next swimmers, and swimming an unattainable PR from when I was 20 would only move me up marginally, I ask myself, what else is there about this meet that would cause me to want to come (USMS Nationals). When I look at SC Nationals, I know it will be a zoo, with my swims coming potentially at 7 p.m. or later, I do not particularly like to swim SC because my races feel like a turning contest, and it ain't cheap traveling to one or getting time off from work and the indulgence of my family. Other than seeing a few smiling faces like yours, I have to ask myself why am I there when I could do a 200 for time at a local meet. LC Nationals, on the other hand are much more interesting. Mostly because I LOVE that format, and most U.S. swimmers do not. The wait for my events may be long, but not insane. The sights for LC Nationals, for a number of personal reasons, have been much more attractive than the SC sights recently. And hey, if I can see you folks once a year to a year and a half, I'd much rather be at the LC meet. In the next 14 months or so, northern NJ is not exactly on my top 10 list of places I'd like to visit (and my wife wants to spend our vacation visiting her relatives in RI). Whereas Indianapolis is within driving distance and I'd like to compete at the IUPUI pool I have heard so much about. On top of that, I am VERY interested in Masters Worlds next June, and SC Nationals would be a good dress rehearsal. So this year I am doing lots of basic stroke mechanic work, and building the summer around open water swims. I'll be skipping LCN's, but going to SCN's for specific reasons. And, oh Tallness, I am expanding my horizons. I have begun dappling with the IM's. (Try not to laugh too hard.) I have little desire to do a straight backstroke or breaststroke race. However, I'd like to get them to the point where the degree to which they suck has diminished to the point of actually using a stop watch instead of a calendar to time my IM's. It would give me two more events in that 200-400 range that I like so well. So, swim fast. I'll be interested in seeing how you do in the 500; I'll be particularly interested in your splits. Mad Matt

I am troubled by the quote below. Originally posted by Matt S Ion, Sorry about that; I'll plead the operational tempo of the U.S. Armed Forces as my excuse. ... Mad Matt The reason I am troubled, is that the U.S. Armed Forces don't prevent you from: 1.) writing back to a foreign-born swimmer, me, after I wished you well at Christmas 2002; it cannot be that you have less time than I do to write at Christmas (I bring up time after I read "...tempo..." in your quote), and it cannot be that I pose a security threat to the U.S. Armed Forces; if you knowing me was posing any security threat to the U.S., then I couldn't live in San Diego, including working and traveling back and forth to Mexico in November 2001 and to Canada in September 2002 and March 2003; 2.) meeting swimmers in Cleveland during August 2002, including me, which you promised; changing your mind about the promise can be done by articulating a reason, but not flaky excuses. When you have no time or when you have confused fears -below common sense- that are misplaced on people like me, then you lose me.

A lot of people skipped nationals because of some of the reasons Matt mention. I did for reasons that had too do with family (mother's been ill this year) and like Matt I really didn't want to go to a meet where I was near the bottom and I was in the bottom three in my best events the breastrokes. I kind of regret not meeting Meg Smath since she is in the same age group as me and we same the same events, the breastrokes. If you ever decide to attend the long course state meet in Tucson, Ion maybe, I could meet you. I met Paul briefly at the short course meter state meet back in Tempe and also I don't like to spent time in motels another reason why I skipped nationals. Good luck to Paul and Ion and Meg at nationals.

The 50 back will be fast this year. I can see someone going 24+ and not being in the top 3 in 40-44. That's scary. The big race to watch though will be the 200 back. Paul, your sixth event? Can I start to work on your head right now and tell you how much it's going to hurt?