First, two things:
1.) I am part Italian.
2.) I did use clippers first.
....
So, yeah. I feel like I just finished Tolstoy's War and Peace. Holy ****, did that take a long time! And I thought I did everything right, too. I used the clippers first. I took a shower before. I used shaving cream with the razor. I went through like four razor blades. I literally went into that bathroom of mine, locked the door, and didn't leave for FIVE HOURS. Did I say it was FIVE HOURS? Have I uppercased it enough?! I even had to take a second shower near the end so my skin wouldn't be so darn sticky so I could tell the difference between clingy hair and hair that was still attached.
Worst part was shaving the area around my collar bone. :bitching: It's all red now... I put some lotion on it.
On the other hand...
My second shower... uh whoa. That's a nice little taste of what's to come tomorrow, I guess. Washing my hands feels weird. Putting on shirts feels weird, too. So does putting on socks. And a sweatshirt. And shorts. I even feel like I'm moving through the air faster.
So I'm swimming at a three-day meet starting tomorrow. I do the 500 tomorrow, the mile and 200 *** on Saturday, plus a relay tomorrow and another on Sat.
My PB in the 500 is a 6:31.5. I will let you all know what the new number is tomorrow.
This is gonna be worth it. It has to be. That big ole pile of body hair that I swept up off the floor told me just that!
Former Member
Is it possible to shave time off your swim by training harder rather then shaving off hair.
Why shave even if you were in the top 10. Unless you are setting a world record for an event it is a useless endeavor. No master swimmer will ever set a world record. I don't mean setting a world record for your age group it really has no revelance.
It has the same revelance as a swimmer using the butterfrog in a real butterfly race.
George, be careful about saying ..."no masters swimmer will ever set a world record". Last time I looked, Cullen Jones was entered in the 50 and 100 free at Atlanta. Granted he cannot set a WR in yards, but he could in meters.
congratulations, you'll probably be faster next time.
I'll agree with that. The more you do it, the less you care about being perfect, as long as you get most of it done right.
5 hours shaving...:afraid: not for me
+1
I shaved down once, and the effect was minimal at best. It took about an hour. I think I took 1-2 sec off of a 100 ***, buy gained that on a 200 ***. I considered it an hour wasted, and a couple weeks of painful stubble as the hair regrew. Never again.
Have to go to a class in a few minutes, but here's the quick rundown...
My previous PB was 6:31.5, that I set two weeks ago.
This morning in prelims I swam a 6:23.67.
This afternoon in the consolation final (I just barely nabbed the eighth spot in one of two finals), I swam 6:08.85.
:agree:
My coaches were very happy.
Good Job:cheerleader::cheerleader:
Just finished up the second day of the meet. I wasn't entered in anything today (turns out the relay I thought I was in, I really wasn't), so I occupied myself with cheering on all my teammates. My voice is all hoarse now.
Yesterday, I beat out seven people to make the consolation final. I was assigned to lane #8. It's just consolation, but darnit, I didn't make it this far last April with my time of 7:37. My dad and brother came to watch, and- this is the part I hope you guys will like- they took video! But I'm kind of at a loss as to how to get the quicktime file to display on here. I, of course, need to improve. I've only watched the video once but I already spotted about six or seven things that need work. You guys can probably find more.
Anyway- the race! So far, yesterday's final race was my favorite swim yet. The guy next to me on block #7 entered with a time under six minutes. He was fifteenth fastest in the 500 at the meet at prelims. My prelim time was 6:23.67.
Here I am waiting for the race to start:
i2.photobucket.com/.../waitingforrace.jpg
Notice how white my chest is... that's where all the hair used to be. I also have terrible posture... urgh. Need to fix that.
Buzzer went off:
i2.photobucket.com/.../divingin.jpg
My coach is so right, my hips need to be up when I dive in. Right now they're low. But I'm glad it looks like I'm getting rid of my dork dive, slowly but surely. I could probably also do with jumping out a bit farther. What do you guys think?
For the first third of the race, I managed to keep pace with a teammate of mine who used to be worlds faster than me, but eventually I slowed down.
About halfway through the race, the swimmer I mentioned earlier caught up with me. I guess he was swimming more evenly than me, which probably means I need to work on my pacing. We were neck and neck for about 150 yards, before he got ahead of me. I made a decision around the last 75 yards that I would crank it up and beat him in the last 25.
It ALMOST worked, but I ran out of pool. Going into the last turn, he was two body lengths ahead, probably.
The scoreboard:
i2.photobucket.com/.../500freetimes.jpg
Dissecting the race with the teammate who also swam it:
i2.photobucket.com/.../afterrace.jpg
As it turns out, the other guy who swam it under six minutes that morning went 6:07.99 in the final. Eek. All in all, I think I won the war.
I need to:
-keep working on my SDK.
-not breathe on my first stroke off the wall... this is totally just a test of my willpower
-stay in the center of the lane. GAH!
-kick just a bit faster
-fix my left arm entry. It's right above my head as I'm breathing. :confused: It's not okay to do that, right?
Actually, I had the pleasure of meeting Michael at this years Golden Goggles Awards. I spoke to him briefly and told him that once he was done with USA Swimming, he could always swim masters. His response was..." when I'm done, I'm done!"
