Hardest time of the year to train!

This is actually the easiest time of year for me to get to the pool ... to actually swim. I do some swim administration for both my team (USAS & USMS) and also for the LSC, state swim association and a little for the LMSC. The "downtime" parts of the season in April and September when there are no meets is actually the busiest for me as there are all sorts of clinics, parent meetings, conventions, LSC meetings, new time standards to calculate/publish, and new swimmers joining the team to register and get started. In October/November and May/June all the teams are releasing their meet information for the rest of the season. In February/March, July/August there are the big meets with results to post and a lot of new team records and other achievement awards to process. My team also hosts meets usually November, April, and June which each usually take up about 40hrs of my time. At work I develop software. We put "freezes" on new s/w installs in December and most budgets run out by the end of the year, so most development is planned to complete before Thanksgiving and we don't get full speed on new projects until mid-January. That means no overtime and opportunities to take a few days off here and there. Plus, my company gives a long holiday break between Christmas and New Years. The only downside is that the public high schools in Texas mandate a 5-day shutdown of school athletic facilities ... which means our pool is closed Dec 21-25. I do have a health club membership ... yuck, 20y sloshy unpredictable temp/chemicals/crowding/etc pool ... I suppose I could tough it out ...

This is actually the easiest time of year for me to get to the pool ... to actually swim. I do some swim administration for both my team (USAS & USMS) and also for the LSC, state swim association and a little for the LMSC. The "downtime" parts of the season in April and September when there are no meets is actually the busiest for me as there are all sorts of clinics, parent meetings, conventions, LSC meetings, new time standards to calculate/publish, and new swimmers joining the team to register and get started. In October/November and May/June all the teams are releasing their meet information for the rest of the season. In February/March, July/August there are the big meets with results to post and a lot of new team records and other achievement awards to process. My team also hosts meets usually November, April, and June which each usually take up about 40hrs of my time. At work I develop software. We put "freezes" on new s/w installs in December and most budgets run out by the end of the year, so most development is planned to complete before Thanksgiving and we don't get full speed on new projects until mid-January. That means no overtime and opportunities to take a few days off here and there. Plus, my company gives a long holiday break between Christmas and New Years. The only downside is that the public high schools in Texas mandate a 5-day shutdown of school athletic facilities ... which means our pool is closed Dec 21-25. I do have a health club membership ... yuck, 20y sloshy unpredictable temp/chemicals/crowding/etc pool ... I suppose I could tough it out ...