Luckily Breaststroke Week Doesn’t Have That Much Breaststroke in it…

I gotta admit, today was a little rough. My shoulders are pretty sore and I wasn’t swimming as quick as I should have been today. I guess I overdid it in the ocean on Sunday or something. Hopefully all this soreness is out of my system by the weekend when I go up to Mountain View for my first SCM swim meet of the season.

This week is supposed to be breaststroke week. Luckily the workout wasn’t too heavy on my least favorite stroke… next week we focus on fly, that I can get into. As a group we don’t do much fly, sometimes I change portions of freestyle sets to fly just to get some yardage in. Next week should be fun. Anyways… here’s today’s workout:

400 free kick/swim by 25
300 back kick/swim by 25
200 breast kick/swim by 25
100 dolphin kick on back

Repeat x 3
25 back @ :30
2 x 50 breast @ 1:10
3 x 75 free @ 1:05

8 x 100 free IM @ :15 rest

2850 yards total

In other news… me and one of the guys I swim with in Santa Maria figured out that we both graduated from the same school in the same year. We even swam 1 year of high school together. I can’t place the face though so maybe he was JV or something. I’m going to have to dig into a yearbook tonight to see if I can remember the guy. He didn’t really recognize me either which isn’t too surprising. I am thoroughly unrecognizable to people from high school unless you know me really well. You have to take 16 year old Rob and add like 100 pounds, beard, glasses, and shave the head to get to 28 year old Rob.

September 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Tough Swim Meet Choices

For those of you in California, you have 2 really good swim meet choices this weekend. Up north in Mountain View you have the 6th Annual Alan Liu Memorial SCM Meet, and down south you have the Mission Viejo SCM meet.

I want to go to both of them, but the problem is that they’re both on the same day. My friend Patrick from Rosebowl has been talking up how great the Mountain View meet is for a long time so I decided to give that one a shot. As a bonus, even though it’s out of my LMSC Mountain View is actually closer to my house than Mission Viejo.

I’m going to swim 4 events while I’m up there. The 50 free, 50 fly, 100 free, and the 100 IM. It seems like I’ve been out of the competition pool forever so this meet is going to be more of a fact finding mission. I really don’t know where my times are going to land.

Anybody going to Mountain View this weekend? Any recommendations on stuff to do the day before? Whenever I’m in Mountain View it’s business related so I’ve never gone there to have fun before.

If you’re going to be in SoCal I highly recommend dropping in at the pool in Mission Viejo to swim with your 2009 USMS Team of the Year!

September 29, 2009 | 6 Comments »

2009 Naples Island Swim Results are Now Available!


View from one of the bridges the 1 milers swam under (Pic courtesy Diana P. from La Mirada Armada Masters)

So they’re finally here, the final results from the Naples Island Swim. I’m excited to finally see these because I was dying to know my time and compare it to my swim in 2008. This year I swam 33:07.67 which is a 7:41 drop from the year before!!! I am super stoked at the progress made during the year. I was second in my age group again this year, but this time there were more than 2 in my age group and I was only about 4 seconds out of first… next year, look out for me :) Overall (men & women combined) I was 18th out of about 93 that swam the 1.25 mile course.

If you swam at Naples Island go check out your time here, and if you didn’t swim you missed out. See you there in 2010!

(btw thanks to Ahelee for pointing out that the results were posted!)

September 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »

I Poked a Seal


Today was all fog

It was kind of a yucky day at the beach. Cold, foggy, no sunshine. The water temp was around 59 degrees, but with no sunshine it felt a lot colder. Only 4 of us swam and I was the only genius that thought it was a good idea to skip the wetsuit. I did however swim in a rash guard for the first time and that went pretty well. I just hate the feeling of swimming over the top of kelp with my bare chest, it’s all slimy and scratchy, a layer of fabric between me and the nature seems to be a good idea.

We decided to go with an easy to navigate swim along the buoy line and back, then around the top of the pier. We didn’t want to wander too far and get lost in the fog. On the way out the surf was pounding way harder than usual, it was breaking taller than me! Once we got past it everything was actually pretty smooth. We swam down to the end of the buoy line without incident and then back to where we started. After regrouping we looped up towards the end of the pier. The people on the pier were looking at us like we were nuts. They’re probably right. As we got closer to the end of the pier we realized that the fog had been blocking a ton of seals and birds that were floating around out there. Whoops. Seals were everywhere and pelicans were diving for their lunches. My conservative count would be that we swam though a group of at least 15-20 seals. On the way back down the other side of the pier some of them followed us for fun. At one point I poked one with my hand as it swam under me. It scared the hell out of me because I only felt it, I couldn’t see it in the water. It was squishy and a little slimy and a life experience I really could have lived without!

At our last regrouping point everyone was feeling a little chatty except me in my freaked out and wetsuit-less state. My main contribution to the conversation was “so, uh, about that beach…” and with that we made our way back to shore. I may have sprinted portions of it :) All told it was about a mile of swimming. We spent 30 minutes in the water. Besides almost having a seal induced panic attack I had a good time out there, I just wish the sun would have made an appearance!



from the pier looking back at the beach


one of the few slivers of sunshine


Working my human thermometer (I missed by 1 degree today)


Today’s route – Map Source

September 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »

FINA Facepalm

Amy over at ReachForTheWall just reported on the FINA Masters Technical committee meeting that a lot of us have been waiting for with baited breath here. If I’m reading the article correctly they had a two day meeting in Sweden and I think essentially nothing happened.

Here’s an excerpt:

The committee decided during two days of meetings in Sweden to “recommend to the FINA Bureau that it approve the FINA swimsuit rule … for masters competition,” said Nancy Ridout, the only U.S. member of FINA’s masters technical commission, in an e-mail.

The FINA Bureau next meets in mid-January.

…and a little more:

The decision Saturday by the FINA masters committee to send the issue back to the FINA Bureau hardly clarified the matter for U.S. Masters Swimming officials, who had said they expected a concrete directive from the committee itself and were prepared to take action based on that ruling.

“We expect them to issue a ruling,” USMS Executive Director Rob Butcher said last week. “What it is going to be is anybody’s guess.”

So they decided that they were ok with the elite swimsuit ruling, but the regular FINA Bureau can go ahead and make a real decision themselves in like 3+ months when they meet again.

I think I speak for almost all Masters swimmers regardless of their swimsuit preference when I say… MAKE A DAMN DECISION!!!! Honestly people, do you even realize there are tens of thousands of people that have been in swimsuit limbo for pretty much the last year? Dragging this out hurts swimmers, sponsors and Masters in general. Even though I don’t agree with the direction things are going, just hurry up and do it already! Sheesh!

| 4 Comments »

"Rob’s Getting Fast"

That’s music to my ears! At the end of practice, where I kept right on top one of the guys I normally can’t hang with, I heard “Crap, Rob’s getting fast… I don’t like it, but I don’t hate it either.” Totally made my day :) I’ve been trying really hard to catch up to this guy and I’m almost there.

Our main set was pretty hard today, it was four rounds of a 100/75/50 each on 1:15. I swam about 1:08-1:12 on the 100′s which I’m pretty happy with. I don’t think I could have done one more repeat though, my right quad was just about to cramp and shut down if I did another lap. I really need to find a way to work out more often in Santa Maria, it’s been very good to me so far.

Here’s the full workout:

200 free @ 3:30
8 x 25 free @ :30 focus on stroke
200 back
8 x 25 back @ :30

600 backstroke kick w/fins

Repeat x 4
100 free @ 1:15
75 free @ 1:15
50 free @ 1:15

2300 yards total

As a side note… I set up a new web site recently for my local open water swimming group in Avila Beach. You can check it out at SwimAvila.com. I’m working on getting some blog action and other stuff like that set up, but it has all the important details set up on it. If you’re in the area on Sundays and want to swim in the ocean, come check us out!

September 25, 2009 | 4 Comments »

What’s FINA Masters Gonna Do?!?

The Washington Post’s swim site, ReachForTheWall.com, put out an article today about how the current suit debacle is affecting Masters swimming that quotes one of my favorite subject matter experts… me :)

When asked if I knew what the FINA Masters Technical Committee would decide I had this to say:

“I have no idea what those guys are going to do,” said Rob Dumouchel, who blogs about masters swimming at robaquatics.com. “And this is probably the first time anybody’s interested in what they decide. People want a clearly defined standard … People just need to know dates and rules.” [Link]

When you stop and think about it, does anyone even know who is on the FINA Masters Technical Committee? When’s the last time they made any kind of major decision? Whatever goes down at that meeting I hope it gets disseminated quickly and clearly so that there is no mistaking what the standard is or when it goes into effect. I have plenty of faith in USMS to do right by their membership, but I’m not quite as sure FINA is going to make it easy for USMS to figure out what they are trying to say.

I’ll keep the blog updated with any news if/when it is announced!

September 24, 2009 | No Comments »

2009 USMS Coach of the Year: Nancy Kirkpatrick Reno

I’ve already mentioned Nancy winning USMS coach of the year a few times, but I just got some video from Chris Lundie of the award banquet that gave me an excuse to bring it up again :) Check it out…

Congratulations again to Nancy and thank you to Chris for grabbing some video!

September 23, 2009 | No Comments »

Happy to Be Swimming Outside Again!

Today was my first day back in a real workout since the start of the USAS Convention. I actually swam a little bit yesterday but it was for only like 20 minutes to loosen myself up after a full day of traveling. The group I workout with has no interest in LCM but a few people do race in SCM season so we are in “early season mode” right now. The plan is to focus on technique for a bit and then go on from there.

Today was a backstroke-centric kind of day. Once I got my rhythm I felt pretty good in the water today. Here’s our workout:

300 swim
250 kick
200 pull
150 kick
100 swim

10 x 50 backstroke kick @ 1:00

8 x 75 back (drill/drill/swim) @ 1:30

6 x 100 25 back 75 free @ 1:30

2700 yards total

It was really nice to be out in the sun again. The only bonus to swimming in hot and stuffy indoor pools is the ceiling. My backstroke is much straighter with a roof over my head. Seriously though, I will take an outdoor pool over an indoor one any day… even a cold day.

| No Comments »

Here Comes Short Course Meters Season!

Now that I’ve done the USMS 5k National Open Water Championships at Big Shoulders in Chicago and survived the USAS Convention, it’s time to start looking forward to the inbound SCM season. I’m going to go to meets all over the place… the general plan is to way over do it in October, ease up a little bit in November, and then hopefully swim some fast times at the SPMA Regional Championships in Long Beach. I think my schedule is going to look something like this:

October 4th, Alan Liu Memorial SCM Meet hosted by Mountain View Masters

October 16-18th, Pacific Masters SCM Championships hosted by Walnut Creek Masters

October 24th, UCLA SCM Meet hosted by the Bruin Masters in the NEW pool!

November 7th, Santa Clarita SCM Meet hosted by the Santa Clarita Masters

November 22nd, SCM Turkey Shoot Meet in Woodland Hills hosted by Southwest Masters

December 4-6th, SPMA SCM Regional Championships in Long Beach hosted by the Long Beach Grunions

Unfortunately with this schedule I am going to miss out on one SPMA meet hosted by one of my favorite teams (and the USMS Club of the Year!), the Mission Viejo Nadadores. If you’re going to be in SoCal on October 4th go swim at Mission Viejo, it’s a fast pool and the meet is put on by fun people!

Now that I have a schedule kind of fleshed out in my head I need to start looking at goals and events for this season. I want to do big things with my 50/100m butterfly, 100m IM, and find a new event to spend some time focusing on that I don’t usually do. I need to do some time conversions from SCY before I start tossing goals out there.

Who else is going out to any of these meets?

September 22, 2009 | No Comments »
« Older Entries