Swim happy

Thank you Elaine! (And also please see above my reply to Skuj.) And thank you for telling me about Ted Hammond. I think someone was talking about him at our state meet. That is one of the best things ever in USMS, to find out you're not only far from alone in your personal situation but also that others have made remarkable returns to the pool. The inspiration is just endless if a person cares to look. :) Great post to your team! Gratitude is a huge thing to me, so I believe in expressing it whenever I think and feel it's due. I'm sure that meant a lot to those who read your post! Thanks to you and the other POSITIVE new Forumites on here for making this a fun place to get inspired! :chug:

YIKES!!! I bow to your greatness. Well done!!! Heh! Thank you. But no bowing. It's not me, really. This is what I posted to our team discussion forum after the meet: Wow! What a weekend. State Champions by a considerable landslide. I feel so fortunate and thankful right now. The only reason I now hold a State Record and a 3rd or 4th fastest National time this year is because of you all. All of you. Coaches, everyone at the meet, everyone at LTP Lunch Laps. After a 32+ year taper and about five months of training…well, it’s y’all. I could not have done any of it without you. I was happy to finally meet so many of you and share conversations in and out of the pool. How cool it is that one of the best (the best? 😀 ) USMS teams is right here in Charleston? And I’m fortunate to swim here. Amazing. So please accept my heartfelt thanks for all the support, encouragement, occasional snark, and everything else, too. And especially the smiles. All of those swims I did well in were because of all these other people. I never fully understood this while I swam in college but now I do. Better late than never!

That's awesome, Z! Way to go! You remind me of Ted Hammond, a new member of Georgia Masters who I interviewed for a Swimmer Profile feature for our newsletter. He hadn't competed in about 10 years (not as long of a break as my 31 or your 33 years away from competition), and he set three state SCM records in his first meet back. At his second meet at Auburn (SCY), he swam his way into the Top Ten (including a couple of #5's) in a few of his events in the 65-69 age group. Congratulations on rocking the pool! More importantly, I am glad you enjoyed the experience. Hang around here on the Forums, because we enjoy having enthusiastic and positive swimmers here! :wiggle: Thank you Elaine! (And also please see above my reply to Skuj.) And thank you for telling me about Ted Hammond. I think someone was talking about him at our state meet. That is one of the best things ever in USMS, to find out you're not only far from alone in your personal situation but also that others have made remarkable returns to the pool. The inspiration is just endless if a person cares to look. :)

I'm happy to be at 41sec for 50m now. (That means that I am only 2x slower than some of you.) :)

I'm happy that I keep getting faster. There was a 3:18 200m yesterday and a 14:27 800m today. That 14:27 saw 400m splits of 7:17/7:10, yet my best 400m is 7:09!! I think sub7 is right around the corner.

I'm happy that I keep getting faster. There was a 3:18 200m yesterday and a 14:27 800m today. That 14:27 saw 400m splits of 7:17/7:10, yet my best 400m is 7:09!! I think sub7 is right around the corner. :applaud: :cheerleader:Keep up the good work, Skuj!

Back in the water yesterday after nearly two weeks of sick! My brain was SO HAPPY. My body, though... Well, I worked myself enthusiastically, and barely got through 1500m. I was *exhausted*. Gross. Well, I'll try again tomorrow or Monday. May just take time. :)

I can't believe the swim I had this morning. Sunday is 1600m slog day. But, very conveeeeeniently, I took days off swimming on the last two Sundays. 3 weeks ago I swam 31:19. But that was sooooo 3 weeks ago. Today I was secretly dreaming of sub 30min. I felt great on the 200m + 4x50m warmup. Early in the 1600m I was on-pace for 30min. (3:45 200m, 7:31 400m.) I felt great, and without really trying to, I started speeding up. (14:52 800m.) I kept speeding up, but it never felt hard or draining. I swam 29:22!!! I cannot believe that the last 800m was 14:30. On Wednesday I swam 800m in 14:27 and that WAS a slog. How could this happen? (My 1500m split was 27:34.) A 200m cooldown made this a 2200m session. Yikes!! That's my longest yet. If I was any happier there would be two of me.

Success! I finally broke 12 minutes on my 500yd (BS) warmup! A cool 11m51s. My idle goal (in the sense of having a benchmark) has been to meet the state (pool/freshwater) lifeguard qualification, which I thought was 's 'Badger! Keep working on your technique to become more efficient with your stroke, and that time will continue to drop. :cheerleader:

Way to go Badger!! It's entirely possible to knock those last 51 seconds off as you continue to work on endurance and speed. Woo hoo!!