Travel Swim Meets

The first things that come to mind when thinking of a basic description of a travel swim meet is literally eat,sleep,swim. Yet, the only thing anyone really gets enough of is the swimming. A day at a travel meet normally consists of:

 1. Breakfast
         Most usually provided by whichever hotel we are staying at. Mostly consisting of juice, cereal, breakfast meat, with a side of a bad attempt of recreating scrambled eggs without actually cooking them.
2. Getting to the pool
         A tired progression of swimmers, all of whom are just beginning to realize they are about to jump into a pool with another 100+ swimmers for warm-up. 
3. Warm-up
        With a little pushing and shoving, the coaches manage to get all the swimmers to put together a scene that looks like the penguins jumping off the iceberg.

4. Changing from a practice suit to your championship suit
           Every swimmer wants to be their best at their travel meet so part of the routine to get ready normally includes a 2 sizes too small suit. There are many different brands and each swimmer has their preference to which one will make them swim faster. But the one constant is that it takes a good 5-20 minutes to squeeze it onto your body. The worst nightmare for a swimmer is the ripped swimsuit. If you tug a little too hard on a weak seam you can end up with a hole, big or small on your hip, your butt, or leg which makes for an overflow of skin. It even happens to the best of them.

Nathan Adrian split his suit before racing Michael Phelps.

 5. The Race
          Probably the most important part of the meet, you may have to wait hours on the bleachers waiting for your event or you may be the first heat of the first event, whichever is the case there is pressure. It is the reason you are there in the first place, you want to swim well because otherwise it feels like you have wasted time, energy, and money just to come and swim badly. Especially when you have to report it to your parents and coaches back home.
6. Lunch
         Whether you eat with the team at the hotel or are allowed to go out with friends, you want to eat to ensure that your next performance, be it the next day or at finals, will be optimized. Its especially tempting to eat down the free desserts from the hotel or order those french fries, but its best to remember you are trying to keep your body well-fueled.
7.Finals
         The first rule of travel meets is that the older kids almost ALWAYS go to finals. Whether you are there to swim or cheer on your teammates make sure you wear team gear and get excited. Finals is one of the most exciting parts of a travel meets, everyone has fun cheering on their teammates and watching the best swim it out for first place.
8. Dinner
        Finals goes very late and by the time dinner happens you are starving. Waiting seems impossible so getting in line behind a bunch of other hungry swimmers is one of the most frustrating parts about dinner. Its surprising that there aren't fistfights over who gets food first. Yet, when the food comes out it goes down faster than you'd think it possible, all talking ceases and all to be heard is utensils to plates.
9. Bedtime
        Finally back to the hotel room and everyone is rea.......

A Taste of Gold

Au, gold, an element that sparkles in the light, in some cultures it is even eaten on chocolate. What I mostly associate it with is the ultimate show of how you are better than anyone in the world at your sport. Anyone who has accomplished anything in sports has a gold medal around their necks and the taste of victory on their lips. Memories of the moment their national anthem played and when they were bestowed with a reward for their struggles.

 It takes 4 years of hard training to get to where you can get in your arena and perform to the audience to prove that you are better than anyone on the entire earth at what you do. For me it is swimming that I am working to achieve this aspirational goal in, and every practice i hit the pool with times, goals, and images of all the people i need to work to beat in the front of my head pushing me to do my best no matter how i feel. I guess what I really want to achieve is to push my body to the extent of what it can be and know i don't have anything left and i haven't anything to spare. I don't want to waste an ounce of my talent. I want to be all that i can be. I just hope all that i can be is better than all everyone else can be when it comes down to the ultimate race. The Olympics. If I can get there.

Summer Storms

One of the most terrifyingly beautiful things of the summer are the late afternoon thunderstorms. Thunder that sends children under beds and dogs running crazy, lightning that shoots through the sky. The one downside to these magnificent acts of nature is how it seems to come inconvienently as soon as i arrive at the pool!
Unfortunately my one-piece tan acquired from hours of swimming practices outside in the sun is still everything but faded. Fixing it seems to be impossible without logging those hours with a lawnchair beside my community pool! My resolution? Accept and wear my one-piece tan with pride! You're not a real swimmer without one anyway! So now I'm going to tell the world, I've got a one-piece tan I'm PROUD.

Comment with your interesting tan lines or the things that show how you're completely dedicated to your sport!

Summer Cherries!

My favorite fruit of the summer is cherries. In particular I truly love ranier cherries. They do not look like the normal red cherries that come to mind when you think of cherries instead they are red, orange, and yellow. When they come into season during late June and early July they are plump, firm, juicy, and sweet. When I get around to the grocery store and find these in the fresh fruit section, I buy about 4 bags and begin to devour them with almost every meal! A serving of these low fat, high fiber, and cholesterol free fruits is about a cup and only has a total of 90 calories. I love to pair them with a whole grain bagel for breakfast and put them on salads for lunch. Then if I'm not feeling completely indulged i have a glass of cran-raz juice and some cherries for desert. YUM!

Go visit your local grocery store and check the produce section for some delicious seasonal fruit!

OLYMPIC TRIALS

Yes the time is here! Every 4 years there is an event where swimming goes to levels sometimes even more competitive than the olympics, the OLYMPIC TRIALS. No swimmer goes to the olympics without going to the olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska. Today I am watching some amazing swimmers I know there. However there are some amazing swimmers out there who I don't know, but the spirit of the sport has me face to the tv, cheering them on as I would for my best friend at the summer league meets. Swimming is not only a sport, but a lifestyle. When you become a part of the swimming community everyone's wins are your wins, because even if your archrival in your group does well it means that you have someone to compete against in practice, to push to you to be YOUR best as well. Well that is how I feel about it at least, other people feel differently, but I feel that if you lose at least you should know you put it all in the pool and you COULDN'T have done any better. Good Luck to Jack Conger, Sarah Haase, Katie Ledecky, and all the other swimmers at Trials!

Results are at Omega Timing:
http://www.omegatiming.com/Competition?id=00010C0102FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&sport=AQ&year=2012

Sick Day :P

Yesterday I was feeling a bit under the weather, but when I woke up this morning it was 10x worse. You ever have those days where you feel awful and never want to get out of bed? Well today was one of those. Yet, I tried to go to practice at 5:30 a.m. this morning and well... it ended badly. I barely got through warm-up and had started the main set and had to stop. I wasn't making the interval and felt so sick, my stomach hurt and my nose was so runny which meant that swimming and breathing were not cooperating together. I called my dad and he picked me up, I went home and took a 3 hour nap. Then I made pillsbury reduced fat cinnamon rolls, which are my quick fix for breakfast. Then I got hungry for lunch and whipped up some kraft mac n' cheese, from the box. The creators of quick meals are my saviors on sick days!

Comment with your favorite comfort foods!

Summer 2012!! & The Last Great Ape

Today was my LAST EXAM! It is officially SUMMER! Time to get my towel and have some fun in the sun. Next weekend I'm going to Richmond, VA and swimming at the Last Chance Invitational. The pool there is the Olympic Trials pool from 2008 held in Omaha, Nebraska where NINE world records were broken. I can't wait to swim in the pool where Katie Hoff, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Kate Ziegler, Elizabeth Biesel, Matt Grevers, Natalie Coughlin, Peter Vanderkaay, and Jessuca Hardy; all the biggest names in recent American swimming history all competed at the height of their careers.

Based on a true story, this book is full of turmoil and adventure. It is extremely touching and makes one want to get involved. Go check out my review at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/334077850

ANYONE GOT ANY SUMMER PLANS?
Comment Below... I need some ideas for my own summer!

The Joy of Coaching

A lot of things can go wrong when there is a pool with 100+ kids aged 6-18 actively being kids. Summer swim meets were and will continue to be the highlight of my childhood, but I never knew the amount of work that goes into running them. There is a head coach, 2 assistant head coaches, 3 assistant coaches, and me the coach-in-training, with 4 of us who were actively involved in swimming events in the meet. As this meet was a time trials, the first meet of the season where only our team swims to get times for the following meets, it was surprisingly chaotic. I have to say, between swimming and trying to get the little kids to their events without them breaking down in tears or missing their events; the job is almost impossible even for 7 knowledgeable highschoolers, college kids, and an adult.

As my first time as a person incharge of handling the bussing around of children I was surprised to say I thought I did fairly well, except of the fact that I am still figuring out so many names. The experience was interesting, I had to handle a frog situation (there was a frog swimming in the pool with little kids screaming, "FROG, it's a frog in the pool." I had to scoop it out and release it into the wild.) and then I had to help a girl who was anxious and had begun to cry, turns out she just needed a little encouragement from a coach and a smile from her dad. That is the best part of the job, knowing there are a bunch of little faces that look up to you for encouragement and as a role model. Which is mainly what motivates me to ignore the blazing heat, wipe my sweat, and remember why I am doing it in the first place.

When I was six years old, another teenager did the same thing and somehow made swimming fun and introduced me into the wonderful world of swimming. I am trying to repay the team for what they've given my life, by hopefully passing down the love of the sport and helping provide the community with an extracurricular sport that helps keep the kids out of trouble and learn how to be a part of a team.

A little froggy that looks like the one I had to save from a bunch of screaming kids. 

Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words, By Rachel Coker

An amazing, touching story that will bring you to tears, make you smile, and make you laugh. Through love lost and love found, we see how a girl trys to survive by shutting herself off, and she must learn to love again. Her wittiness and sarcasm makes her lovable and relatable, you cheer for her and cry for her. It is a well written story, and it is eloquent and well-versed. Add this book to your summer reading list!

Goodreads & ARC's

RESPECT THE ARC

For about a month now I have been entering giveaways on goodreads.com for Advanced Reader Copies of books. I have won a few and have had lots of fun writing reviews on these books. I was surprised when one of them arrived in the mail and on the cover it says, "Not for Resale". I didn't understand the big deal, and why they don't want you to resell it, I always see ARC's for sale on ebay, and they usually cost MORE than a normal copy. So after some googling on the subject I found that the reselling of ARC's is a very controversial subject among the bo ok-loving/making community. Publishers often giveaway ARC's for FREE in order to create buzz for a book, even though the printing of an ARC costs more than the printing of the finished copy of a book. More often than not the opinion of the book community is that when you recieve the free ARC and have read and reviewed it, you should pass it on, and spread the word as that was the purpose of the book. Yet, I do have a few ARC's that I do not think that I could part with, just because I loved the book so much! I figure those are fine to keep because it is just like what I would do with a normal book I love, as long as i keep it in good condition and give it an honest review than I have respected the ARC. So whether you keep it, or give it away; always remember to RESPECT THE ARC!

Got this amazing button from the blog A Few More Pages go check it out on http://fewmorepages.blogspot.com/#axzz1x3thkpHk

Also, if you are a fan of books and love to read go check out goodreads.com, you can track the books you have read, read selected free e-books, take quizzes on your favorite books, and rate books you love or hate.

Loving the Feeling

Here's a shout out to all of the senior graduating highschool! Congratulations and good luck at college!

Now I just got back from a friend's graduation party and I'm feeling pretty good, especially since I also just finished this amazing book by Chris Cleave the author of Little Bee, it is called Gold and it comes out on July 10th. It is focused on three elite level cyclists in England and the troubles they face as they come to the highlights and end of their careers. As a swimmer yearning for a taste of being on that high of a level, I really connected and learned from their stories of what it takes, physically and mentally, to be at such a competitive level where you are the sport. I think anyone in a competitive individual sport would appreciate this book, or anyone involved in sports at all, as everyone has once had a rival at some point. The other side of the story is tragic, an eight year old girl with cancer who lives in a world of Jedi's and stormtroopers, watches her parents give up their lives to be there for her. She begins to fake healthiness in order to relieve their worrying and only wishes for a sense of normality in her life full of colorful pills and constant nausea. This book sucks you in, shakes you up, and spits you out feeling a bit lost, leaving an after-taste of an urge to do something inspiring with your life.

As the pages flew by my face some of it really sunk deep, I dove into practice with a renewed sense of purpose this afernoon and really attempted to do what the coach asked without sacrificing technique. Here's the set we did:

Warm-up-
400 free
4x150 50 kick 100 swim
6x150 2:05 w/ fins strong kick
6x100 2:10 kick best stroke
Set-
1x 200 kick faster than 3:30
6x200 50 free 50 best non-free
4x { 150 free strong kick on 2:05
        100 easy 1:55}

Since we just swam a meet this weekend it was mostly a swim-out practice, but it felt good to try and really concentrate on techniques while still having to put forth effort to go make the intervals.

So now I'm pooped and reverting to my more scholarly self and getting to studying for my upcoming exams :P .

First Post *Eager Squealing*

Hello Fellow Bloggers,



Writing this blog write now, I am excited like opening presents on Christmas, and this picture entertained me. I couldn't help it, I just had to include it. 

Life is a fickle thing and sometimes there is just no avoiding it. For that here is my personal blog where I can just talk about it. You do not need to read it, that is not my mission, the vain and shallow need for attention is not my goal, my goal is to connect with people and enjoy the ever-changing thing called life. For those that do read it I hope you enjoy it, for I know I will enjoy writing it.

For my first post I will talk about a book i read today, that I have read before. I do this often and my mother seems to think it's weird, though I have no idea why. It is called Fire  and it is by Kristin Cashore, and it moved me into a world with monsters, kings, and soldiers with swords instead of guns. It is all such a wonderful world in my imagination, the brave prince and the strong beautiful protagonist with powerful abilities, but is ashamed of them. A cliche, but nonetheless one of my favorite books.

The outdoor pool at my swim center, where most of my toturous obbsession takes place during the summer.

I love books, swimming, and sleeping, and sometimes it is hard to choose which I love more. On different days I choose different, some days after a hard workout I will swear never to get back in the water, a vow that ends up broken the next morning at a spiteful 4:45 a.m. when I jump back in the water to warm-up for whatever my coach has planned next. Those are usually the days where I love sleeping the most. Yet, these loves seem to coexist peacefully at the moment, for it is about to be summer break at which time swimming, sleeping, and reading will be my only occupations. Since this is about my life, I hope to fill this blog with reaccounts of my swimming, reading, and other experiences.