The Fastest Age

Oy, too early for me. We only have two organized practice a week, Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Very bad times if you have kids who are going to meets. I am going tonight for the first time in a long time. I usually just swim on my own and lunch.

Originally posted by Conniekat8 ... Ion happens to be in the same Zone as I, and I never saw him at any of the meets. ... I do a tuneup to April's Indianapolis, tomorrow and Sunday when I swim five events (from 50 free to 1,000 free) in a meet in La Jolla.

Ion - the market for semi literated eastern european engineers is smoking hot these days. Keep it up and maybe you can make wages approaching 20% of a qualified US worker. As to the 1000, crack on me all you want. That's not my event. Never has been. I might give it a shot some day and see if I can match your impressinve 1:14 per 100. Maybe if I wear a drag suit and a gorilla outfit I can get a better idea of your struggles with speed. Another thread hijacked by Ion. Go back to your teenies on usswim.org, I beg of you. You've ruined yet anothe USMS thread. Congrats.

Originally posted by dorothyrd Oy, too early for me. We only have two organized practice a week, Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Very bad times if you have kids who are going to meets. I am going tonight for the first time in a long time. I usually just swim on my own and lunch. Hey, the important part is that you get in. I think that's is just awesome! I swam on my own for about 6 months couple of years before joining Masters. I've kind of been bitten by the swim bug, so I swim every day, 3500-4000Y or M workouts in the morniong, and about 3 times a week I do the 6PM workout as well, and 2 hour long clinics on Sundays. Oooops, I just added it up, I think that beats Ions 30K a week by 5 to 12K. We have a number of Swim-Parents on our masters team, I totally understand how it works when you have to rally around their swimming careers. I really admire you guys for the sacrifices you make. Just last weekend I volunteered at the sectional USA Swimming meet for couple of days, for the first time. It was very interesting and fun. (I don't have and can't have kids...)

The 2003 Waikiki Roughwater was my first. My team (Rose Bowl) had eight swimmers entered. We had all swum the Maui Channel Relay with other teammates two days earlier. Starting at San Souci beach, we warmed up (with about 1,000 of our closest aquatic friends) by swimming out to the first turn, about a quarter mile, and then back. It was clear that there was an opposing current, but it was not (then) unmanageable. Before the start, the race organizers announced strong opposing currents and encouraged any weaker or less confident swimmers to consider whether they should not race. Started us in heats by entered times. 4 or 5 flights (A, B, C, D, E), fastest leading off. By the time I went (3rd or 4th heat, can't recall which) I found the opposing current had gotten really strong. Apparently, we started with the strongest outgoing tide working against us. There was also a hurricane near the Big Island so it was kind of choppy once we got outside the reef. I read articles afterward that said the race should have started at 7:30 or 11 . . . that the 9 a.m. start time was the worst possible in those conditions. There were marker buoys numbered 1 thru 15 as I recall. I figured that I would finish in around 1:15 to 1:30. An hour into it, I found myself at buoy 5. Water choppy. Found myself looking at the same piece of bottom and making no headway at all. In fact, I went to a 4 or 6 breath count . . . held steady with my head down, but would actually lose ground on my breath stroke. Said to myself at about 1:15 (and still at buoy 5) "this isn't much fun." Had the internal debate over quitting ("gee, if I turn in here I can go straight to the Royal Hawaiian for a Mai Tai") versus not quitting ("winners never quit and quitter never win . . . yada, yada, yada"). Decided that I did not have the strength necessary to finish in light of the opposing current, and that if I continued to try to do so, that I'd get really fatigued which would put me in a dangerous position (as a former lifeguard, I regard drowning as a bad thing). So, I decided to bail and opt for cocktails. Started to swim in and hitched a ride with a boat that was picking up others, like me, who said "enough." We were way more fortunate than those who found themselves pushed the wrong way and off course, requiring rescues. About 350 of the 1,000 entered finished, a record low. The finish time was a record slow. 6 of my 8 teammates finished, including Jill Keenan Boline who won her division, Women 30-34. We cleaned up, had beers or mai tais, and headed back to Maui for a little more R&R before returning to the mainland. Doing the Maui relay again this year. We may have 4 or 5 teams. Whether I return to Waikiki will depend on the schedule. The organizers are apparently thinking about having the swim on Sunday instead of Monday to avoid the box jelly swarms 8-10 days after a full moon. If it's Sunday, we have discussed as a team, the fact that we don't want to cut our post Maui relay celebrations short in order to get to Waikiki to swim the next day. On the other hand, if the swim is Monday, I may go . . . but then again the notion of box jelly swarms gives me the willies. We'll just have to wait and see. After all was said and done, it was still fun, glad I did it, and I will be back, if not this year, in the future. did that answer your question? carl

Connie, wow, lots of yards. I only manage about 3500 4 times a week. As a fellow late bloomer(started at 38), that has to be good enough. I handle the computers at the age group teams home meets, and we have to travel 2 hours + to get to any decent meets(including Masters), so it take a lot of my time. Nationals is at a really good time because it happens before my son's long course meets start up again. He gets his drivers liscence next week, so that take off another burden of driving him around(just adds the mental one of worry!). I really enjoy the swimming, it just plain makes me feel good, and helps me keep off the 30 pounds I have dropped last year.

Originally posted by Conniekat8 I signed up for 3 no NQT events, one each day. I'm reall going for the vacation and the social aspect this time :) And to learn about how it all runs. I donated for the VIP pass for everything, so I can schmooze around :) I'm looking forward to it all. That's great that you're going. You've obviously got a lot of fire for the sport and the will to improve. Good luck at the meet. I'm going and swimming the full slate of six events (assuming the sixth doesn't get cut). A couple events I'm not great in, but what the heck, if I'm there I might as well swim. One more month of training to go!

Originally posted by dorothyrd Connie, wow, lots of yards. I only manage about 3500 4 times a week. As a fellow late bloomer(started at 38), that has to be good enough. I handle the computers at the age group teams home meets, and we have to travel 2 hours + to get to any decent meets(including Masters), so it take a lot of my time. Nationals is at a really good time because it happens before my son's long course meets start up again. He gets his drivers liscence next week, so that take off another burden of driving him around(just adds the mental one of worry!). I really enjoy the swimming, it just plain makes me feel good, and helps me keep off the 30 pounds I have dropped last year. Yea, it's quite a bit.... I have a lot to learn... Morning are usually my all out workouts (well, it really depends on what the coach calls for) The few extra afternoon workouts are for technique training. When I do mornings, and try to work my cardio really hard, the technique sometimes falls apart, since it's not second nature yet. So I try to make it up by focusing on more drills in the afternoon. Hey, your yardage is nothing to sneeze at, you know. When I first strted this, just this last July, I could barely do a 1000m workout, and every second or third day I had to take a really easy day because I was completely wiped out from two 1500M workouts in two days. :p Are you going to come to the masters nationals? That would be very cool. Two hours.. that's a long drive! I gather that kids have a lot more meets than us masters too. Lot of work! I'm amazed you can find time to swim yourself.

Let me get this straight, you think $85K is a good salary at a technology company in So. Cal? My god, man, do you inhale the chlorine or swim in it. $85K in So. Cal in technology is a third shift help desk job. And, 3 jobs in 4 years? You must be as popular at work as you are on this forum and your previous swim teams. But, you can always be proud of your idol status with your teen pals on usswim.org.

No q-times for Nationals, but it is only 2 hours away and Illinois Masters are a fun bunch. Kids meets usually are about 2 per month. My two kids are at two different levels, so I end up going different directions, A+ for the older, more developmental for the younger, makes for lots of travel. We just got done with championship season, Jr District for the little one, Districts and States for the older, I am glad it is time to rest! I usually swim at lunch when they are in school and on Sundays when the Seniors share the pool with the lap swimmers(which make the lap swimmers mad, tough). Then I am only making one trip in town to go to a pool! When I started 4 years ago, I could only swim a 25 across without stopping. I managed to get my work-outs up to 4000 yards early January before getting slammed with work and kids stuff and having to back off. Now trying to hold at 3000-3500 before Nationals. Nationals will be interesting, I am sure I will be dead last, but if I manage to swim a best time and legally I will be happy. Doing 100 ***, 50 fly and 200 IM.