5 in a row!

Last night the Weston Red Tide Swimming AND Diving team captured their fifth title in a row in a close victory that came down to the final race the 4x100 free relay.

At the beginning of the season I don't think anyone really thought it was possible.  The boys worked hard all season with the usual ups and downs along the way and came together as a team when it counted.  It was a total team effort showing the strength in the depth of the team the and importance of diving. The Tide wouldn't have won if it wasn't for the three divers! At the beginning of the meet they also won the MIAA Sportsmanship Award. Big night!

It was also a bittersweet night as it was end of the road for our senior diver and reluctant swimmer Sean. He started off his high school career only diving with the added pressure of having an older swimming brother on the team. Year after year his diving got better and better, with the help of slope style skiing on the side.  Eventually, a little secret became public that Sean is also a very fast freestyle sprinter. In fact, in his junior year he was the first person in the teams history to score points in the state meeting in both diving and swimming! Ever the team player the last two years he likely swam more in meets than dove. His training consisted primarily of diving with a handful of 50's at some point during practice. Not necessarily ideal for either sport but he willing did it for the team with his own fun loving style and personality. Three state titles in four years was a heck of a way to capped off his diving and swimming career!

Not sure when or if we will ever see Sean swimming along a black line or twisting and flipping in the air above the pool. What I do know is that we will find Sean on a mountain twisting and flipping in the air above the snow!!! After a long day at Boston University's pool and a night of celebration he left at the crack of dawn this morning for the slopes.

Sean we are all very proud of you and all you accomplished in and out of the pool! Go Buffs!

One more to go with Weston swimming-Go GLOWS*!

*(Glorious Ladies of Weston Swimming)

#74 The Swim & Raquet Center-Florida Living

Typically, a quick business trip from Boston to south Florida in February is a great idea. Not necessarily the case on this trip. 

It was cold. I got off the plane mid afternoon and it was overcast and chilly. Not too bad for somebody from Boston but not what I was expecting. Dining al fresco solo I had to sit under a heat lamp to keep warm. When the alarm went off the next morning at 5:00am it was dark, likely cold and I hit the snooze, and I missed the masters workout. I finally got up at 7:00am and found another pool. The closest pool was the Swim & Raquet Center in Boca Raton. It's a nice eight lane outdoor pool at the local community center. It was so chilly the lifeguards wore stadium coats. I did a very lazy 2,100 yards in honor of Ryan's 21st birthday. I then went to the jacuzzi to warm down for 15 minutes. 

 

From Boca Raton I was off to hip South Beach Miami for an evening reception. There was really no time to check out the beach but that was ok as it was still so chilly they brought out the heat lamps for the pool side reception. Went to bed early so I could go the half block to the beach to watch the sunrise. After few minutes of standing in 50 degree temps in my swimsuit I took the plunge. I didn't swim too far out maybe 15 feet from shore because it was dawn I was in Florida and well...you know what could  be lurking! I only swam about 50 yards . I wish I would have swum more as the water was cool and felt great. Just happy to be in the water and to watch a beautiful sunrise. 

 

While not a typical short winter escape to Florida it was successful; lunch with an old colleague, my first new pool of the year (#74), a beautiful sunrise and staying at the W Hotel in South Beach with trendy art. 

Back to Boston for historic record cold temps between 0-minus10 degrees this weekend--oh well! 

A good start to the year...

Swimming wise 2016 has started off with a bang!

I have been tracking my swimming via my USMS Fitness Log (FLOG) since 2011 and January 2016 has started off as a record year. This month I swam 21 days for 27 hours and for a total of 83,951 yards or 52.3 miles!

My goal for the year is to swim 450 miles. According to the FLOG I should be at 38 miles and I am already at 52 miles. It's always good to bank some miles as I know there will be periods where I am not able to get a swim in.

January is USMS's annual One Hour Swim Challenge where all USMS teams encourage their swimmers to swim an hour straight and the region with the most yardage wins. MIT Masters squeaked our swim in on the last day January 31st. We didn't have necessarily robust participation this year but those that were there, were "all in". I timed the first hour for my friend, Dr. Bob and swam the second hour. Before we started I swam an easy 50 for warm up-not much of a warm up.  I swam a total of 4475 yards in the hour. While I wish I would have hit 4500 yards I was pretty pleased as I swam 125 yards more than I did last year!

Post swim I went to Anna's Taqueria and had a burrito and went home for a nap. It felt great!

The other important swimming related event for the month was that I confirmed my marquee swim of the year-swimming the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morrocco in June.  My application and deposit have been sent in and my plane ticket has been purchased. I will be swimming with my friend Grant that I met in 2014 as part of the SAA English Channel swim and my soon to be new friend Clint. This swim is highly competitive to get in with a long waiting list. Clint was kind enough to let Grant and I swim off the front of his boat with him for this swim.  Clint has a great story for doing this swim. He is a history teacher in inner city Birmingham, Alabama and they were studying the importance of the Strait of Gibraltar when the idea of the swim first came to life.  One of his goals is to show his students that if you dream big, work hard an ordinary person can accomplish great things. What a great lesson for young kids!  Looking forward to the training and getting to know Grant and Clint better.

Another special swimming event was that Sean had his last home swimming and diving meet this week. It was celebrated at the annual Senior Day event honoring the leadership of all the seniors. At the ceremony Sean was called out as the only swimmer/diver to score points in the state meeting in both swimming and diving in the program's history. Big deal! He threw a triple flip as his final competive dive in his home pool. Yet another first for the program! We are very proud of Sean and look forward to continued great things and firsts at CU Boulder this fall.

Here is to exploring new pools and open water adventures as the rest of 2016 unfolds! 

Like last year my goal is contribute to this blog at least twice a month.

Fishing for Compliments

The New Year has started off and one would assume I am needy and seeking positive affirmations with the title of my blog.

Quite the contrary "Fishing for Compliments" is the name of my new swim suit from Australia made by Budgy Smuggler. It was Christmas gift from Shannon.* Isn't it low key and demure?

If compliments are being given they should centered around a collective effort of swimming 100x100's. To officially start the swimming year off with a bang I swam 100x100's on January 3rd with Cambridge Masters at Harvard's Blodgett Pool. There was a record crowd of 100 plus swimmers. With a bit of coaxing I swam in the 1:25 pace lane (5 seconds faster than planned). We started with 7 swimmers and ended with 2. It got a little ugly at the end as swimmers dropped out and we had to swim faster to keep to the original interval. Great it way to kick off the year!

The real compliments I am fishing for are for our hard working 15 year old girl, Courtney. She spent her Christmas break training with her high school swim team. Her early season hard work paid off as she accomplished one of her goals of moving from group 2 to group 1.  She also completed the dreaded triple threat; the continuous one hour swim, 10x100's an all anerobic set and 100x100's. For my non-swimming readers 100x100's is a big deal. It's 10,000 yards or 5.68 miles all at one time in less than three hours. Looking forward to seeing the fruits of her effort at seasons end.

With all her hard work in everything she does from athletics, academics to building relationships and helping others I know it will pay off big time at some point in the future for our sweet girl.

Here's to ringing 2016 in style with father and daughter swimming 100x100's.

*Actually I bought the swim suit and Shannon wrapped it up.

Of bubbles, beards and year end things...

Today is New Years Eve and none of my pools are open for an early morning swim (thankfully). In preparation for this evening ones attention tends to turn to bubbles aka champagne to be enjoyed while ringing out the year and welcoming in the new. We will certainly enjoy indulging in some champagne bubbles tonight but lately my thoughts of bubbles are of a different sort....the bubbles that flow through my beard when I swim. 

Yes, I have been growing a beard since December 18th and I think it is coming in quite nicely albeit gray. Others would tend to disagee. As my beard has grown the sensation of water flowing through my beard has changed over time. It started off as a mild irritation with whiskers rubbing on my shoulder (poor swimming technique) to a slight tingling feel to perhaps now and a possibly overstated a bit a ticklish feeling. I quite like it! I feel it most when I dive into the pool and swim under water for a bit and after flip turns streamlining off the wall (loosely speaking). 

This will end in about five days and I go back to the smooth silky feel of my naked face cruising through the water.  

Before I close the pages on the blog for the year a couple of noteworthy items, at least to me.

*My goal was to blog twice a month in 2015. I did that and a bit more-31 posts. Goal accomplished!

*My fitness log goal was to swim 400 miles. I swam 430.73 miles (758,078 yards). Goal accomplished!

*I participated in two inaugural open water swims; Swim Around Lido Key, Misery Challegne.

*Serendipitously, I was able to swim in the Trans Tahoe relay.

*I swam in 12 new pools this year.

*Met Rowdy Gaines

*Had a short article on briefs vs jammers published in Swimmer Magazine.

*Snow swimming in front yard.

*Made new swimming friends.

Onward and upward to new swimming adventures and new swimming friends in 2016!

FLOG...Go The Distance

Goal accomplished!

The USMS website has a section called  the Fitness Log (FLOG). The FLOG has feature called Go The Distance that allows you set an annual swimming goal of how many yards or miles you want to swim in the year. I have been tracking my distance for the last five years. My goal  was 400 miles (the biggest goal ever) for 2015. I hit my goal on November 30th-one month ahead of schedule! 

Across the country thousands of masters swimmers track their distance. Since inception master swimmers have logged over 8,000,000,000 miles. The website also slices and dices the data by sex, age and local area. While I feel proud of my distance and my ranking there are many that have swum 600, 700, 800 and even 1000 plus miles year to date.

Below is the workout that put me over the top.  It was a manageable 3500 yards with a good variety of stroke and freestyle. My favorite set was the 9x100's. A variety of speeds with a bit of push at the end. 

Now begins the hard task of trying to set the goal for 2016 and looking forward to it. Let the Flogginng begin!

#73 California Dreamin' & Thanksgiving 2015

California Dreamin' the classic 1970's summer of love song by The Mama's & Papa's took on some added meaning this Thanksgiving break. Rather than having Ryan fly back to Boston for the holiday we flew to SoCal to bring Thanksgivng to him!

It was going to be a quick trip only Tuesday through Saturday so we headed straight-away to the SC campus to pick up Ryan grabbed a fast lunch at a food truck and then made our way to the OC. Shannon yet again found another great place to stay a half block from the beach on 24th Street on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach.  When in Orange County you are never far from a great place to swim, be it a outdoor pool or the Pacific Ocean so I knew I would get in a couple of good swims!

Wednesday morning started bright and early with the 5:30am practice with Newport Beach Masters at Newport Harbor High School. It was nice 50 meter x 25 yard outdoor pool home to championship swimming and water polo teams. Backstroke Olympic legend Aaron Peirsol swam for NHHS. Coach Kevin was all bundled up and welcoming on a very cool dark morning. It was a lightly attended 3500 yard practice and a perfect way to kick off a sunny (but cool) Southern California day. 

On Thanksgiving Day there were no open pools or organized masters practices so it was time to hit the Big Pool-The Pacific Ocean! It was yet again another cool morning and I made my way to Corona Del Mar State Beach (aka Big Corona) around 7:30am hoping the air temp would warm up a bit-it didn't. Big Corona is an expansive protected bay that abuts the jetty that leads into Newport Harbor-perfect for open water swimming. The beach was quiet but as I drove up I saw two men walking towards the calm water so I knew it was safe to swim. A quick deck change in the parking lot and I found myself wading (slowly) into the cool water. Bracing myself I took the big plunge into a wave and per usual it wasn't as cold or as bad as you always imagine. The water was fairly clear and I swam out to the buoy line and swam up and down it a few times. My guess is I swam 1-1.5 miles before I got lonely and decided to get out.  The water was in the low to mid 60's and ultimately quite refreshing. Not a bad way to start my Thanksgiving.

Early Friday morning I found myself back at NHHS with Coach Lexie Kelly, FINA open water swimmer and friend of some of my Swim Across America buddies. It started out as a dark, cold and rainy morning and ended up just cold.

We have so much to be thankful for and this quick trip California once again reminds me of that fact yet again. Family time on the beach at sunset, boat cruises in the harbor, and new places to swim-what more can you hope for? Well...two things; Ryan found out he got the summer internship at Aloca he was hoping for and Sean was accepted into one of his top school choices CU Boulder!

There are always reasons for California Dreaming and I will be dreaming (again) for a long time to come.