I feel I know many of you frequent forum contributors even though I've never actually laid eyes upon you; along these lines, I'm wondering if maybe we could arrange a Long Course Nationals get-together, perhaps raise a cup of grog so that when we correspond via this forum in the future, we'll actually be able to put a face to the words we are reading (and which I personally have found so helpful about all things swimming).
I signed up for the meet via the online registration process, incredibly easy, by the way; unless something unforeseen occurs between now and August 15th, I plan to be in Cleveland along with some of my teammates from Sewickley, PA (we'll be swimming for Allegheny Mountain Associations Masters). Anyhow, if anyone out there is up for it, perhaps we could decide upon a rendezvous spot poolside, then go out for a beer when the day's events are over.
Hope to meet some of you guys.
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by Paul Smith
Hey Gang, how was the turn out for the big beer event? Did most of the worlds (or swimmig worlds) problems get solved! By the way, I just spoke with a young lady who felt a little slighted that your big event was a bit sexist in that it everyone meet during the 400 free?
...
Bill Volckening, Matt Shirley and Jim Matysek ducked it.
In fairness to Jim, he did show up at the meeting place, but he had had to post daily results on the USMS web site, in addition to his swimming five individual events.
Rich Abrahams -the sprinter- displayed an interest to see our faces when it was meeting time, at the end of the 50 meter free for both men and women, not at the end of the 400 meter free for men -which indeed would have been sexist, since the 400 meter free men was isolated early in the morning-.
Karlene Trebesiner, Laura Val and Fritz Lehman -the backstroke star- did approach us in order to get to know us, during the meet.
Laura Kessler was pleasantly interested to see us when we approached her.
Now off to the doers:
Ian Smith -a sprinter from Canada, originally from South Africa and with a Scottish background, who quit swimming at age 20, 41 years ago, then resumed swimming last year-, Jim Thornton -who swam competitively for Michigan for one year, got out of the Michigan swimming, but kept swimming-, Melissa Varlas -a 200 meter backstroker and butterflyer who is coaching kids-, Lorraine -Melissa's mother-, Diane -Ian's wife who "...must be obeyed."-, and myself -slowed down in the meet by a glitch in workouts a little before the meet-, we met.
The meeting agenda included:
1. do I swim too much?
Melissa -who said that she has slow twitch muscles like me (but look for her top times in the meet in women butterfly and backstroke)- says no;
Ian and Jim -who have fast twitch muscles developed in age group swimming- say yes;
2. what can one do when dying in a race?
Ian says, change the stroke style, therefore change the muscles being employed;
3. Jim and Ian say that when watching my 800 free, they see a catch up pause, like it is advocated in Total Immersion; I say that Grant Hackett (Aus) who has the world record for 1,500 free, and Ian Thorpe (Aus) who has world records in 200 and 400 free and is among world top in 100 free, swim like that;
Ian said that my left arm is sometimes crossing the middle of my body; I have to watch this.
4. how come Diane is from Australia and not swimming?
(good question).
5. Jim asks what made me choose swimming at age 25?
I said that in France where I started, it seemd sexy in an Olympic club I was watching.
6. How much is Lorraine supervising Melissa?
(good question).
6. Jim said that my thread from March 2001, 'How competitive one can get by starting to swim at age 25?' is great.
7. I say to Jim that his thread about asking people when they did experience an adrenaline rush, thread intended to inspire him for an article in National Geographic, was a good idea; I waited for someone to post in it, so that my imagination would get started.
Recommendations:
a. Jim to conect with us friends, so that life stress alleviates.
b. Diane, to take up swimming.
c. Melissa to keep overcoming slow twitch with distance training.
d. Lorraine to keep supervising Melissa.
e. me, to get a life.
f. Ian, to slam less his fingers into the wall when finishing to sprint, otherwise injuries will keep piling; also, from now on, Ian is to swim more than 10 kilometers weekly.
When leaving, Jim was being aggressively solicited for money by a local, and I made sure that Jim was not left alone one-on-one with him, thus I stood by.
Originally posted by Paul Smith
...
Sorry we couldn't make it, however Laura & I tossed back a few (with some pizza), debated whether Cynthia was one of Ion, Matt or Phils alias', and generally hammered on each other in recognition of these "first annual" forum get together!
...
I see that Cynthia is herself, not somebody else:
Cynthia's rankings in women ages 45 to 49, the experience in her postings, make Cynthia a distinguishable individual from anyone else.
Also, when Cynthia writes "I get carried away and have fun with these posts too much.", people, be sensitive that this is an alarm that you are insulting the individuality of someone, for the second time now:
tasteless posts in another thread wrongly made this claim for the first time, and it took painful rebuttal by Cynthia there.
Originally posted by Paul Smith
Hey Gang, how was the turn out for the big beer event? Did most of the worlds (or swimmig worlds) problems get solved! By the way, I just spoke with a young lady who felt a little slighted that your big event was a bit sexist in that it everyone meet during the 400 free?
...
Bill Volckening, Matt Shirley and Jim Matysek ducked it.
In fairness to Jim, he did show up at the meeting place, but he had had to post daily results on the USMS web site, in addition to his swimming five individual events.
Rich Abrahams -the sprinter- displayed an interest to see our faces when it was meeting time, at the end of the 50 meter free for both men and women, not at the end of the 400 meter free for men -which indeed would have been sexist, since the 400 meter free men was isolated early in the morning-.
Karlene Trebesiner, Laura Val and Fritz Lehman -the backstroke star- did approach us in order to get to know us, during the meet.
Laura Kessler was pleasantly interested to see us when we approached her.
Now off to the doers:
Ian Smith -a sprinter from Canada, originally from South Africa and with a Scottish background, who quit swimming at age 20, 41 years ago, then resumed swimming last year-, Jim Thornton -who swam competitively for Michigan for one year, got out of the Michigan swimming, but kept swimming-, Melissa Varlas -a 200 meter backstroker and butterflyer who is coaching kids-, Lorraine -Melissa's mother-, Diane -Ian's wife who "...must be obeyed."-, and myself -slowed down in the meet by a glitch in workouts a little before the meet-, we met.
The meeting agenda included:
1. do I swim too much?
Melissa -who said that she has slow twitch muscles like me (but look for her top times in the meet in women butterfly and backstroke)- says no;
Ian and Jim -who have fast twitch muscles developed in age group swimming- say yes;
2. what can one do when dying in a race?
Ian says, change the stroke style, therefore change the muscles being employed;
3. Jim and Ian say that when watching my 800 free, they see a catch up pause, like it is advocated in Total Immersion; I say that Grant Hackett (Aus) who has the world record for 1,500 free, and Ian Thorpe (Aus) who has world records in 200 and 400 free and is among world top in 100 free, swim like that;
Ian said that my left arm is sometimes crossing the middle of my body; I have to watch this.
4. how come Diane is from Australia and not swimming?
(good question).
5. Jim asks what made me choose swimming at age 25?
I said that in France where I started, it seemd sexy in an Olympic club I was watching.
6. How much is Lorraine supervising Melissa?
(good question).
6. Jim said that my thread from March 2001, 'How competitive one can get by starting to swim at age 25?' is great.
7. I say to Jim that his thread about asking people when they did experience an adrenaline rush, thread intended to inspire him for an article in National Geographic, was a good idea; I waited for someone to post in it, so that my imagination would get started.
Recommendations:
a. Jim to conect with us friends, so that life stress alleviates.
b. Diane, to take up swimming.
c. Melissa to keep overcoming slow twitch with distance training.
d. Lorraine to keep supervising Melissa.
e. me, to get a life.
f. Ian, to slam less his fingers into the wall when finishing to sprint, otherwise injuries will keep piling; also, from now on, Ian is to swim more than 10 kilometers weekly.
When leaving, Jim was being aggressively solicited for money by a local, and I made sure that Jim was not left alone one-on-one with him, thus I stood by.
Originally posted by Paul Smith
...
Sorry we couldn't make it, however Laura & I tossed back a few (with some pizza), debated whether Cynthia was one of Ion, Matt or Phils alias', and generally hammered on each other in recognition of these "first annual" forum get together!
...
I see that Cynthia is herself, not somebody else:
Cynthia's rankings in women ages 45 to 49, the experience in her postings, make Cynthia a distinguishable individual from anyone else.
Also, when Cynthia writes "I get carried away and have fun with these posts too much.", people, be sensitive that this is an alarm that you are insulting the individuality of someone, for the second time now:
tasteless posts in another thread wrongly made this claim for the first time, and it took painful rebuttal by Cynthia there.
