Countdown to the first day we can swim!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

..aannnd we're BACK

This is what you have missed since the last post:
  1. Fan Crippen, highly decorated open-water swimmer died Oct. 24th, 2010 in United Arab Emirates. This encourages us more than ever to prepare properly as well as prepare for the worst.
  2. MIT Swimming and Diving had an awesome season!!! Won both men's and women's NEWMAC conference meet (first time ever for the the women, 3rd year straight for the men). Men's team got 4th at DIII Nationals, women's got 14th.
  3. Happy New Year!! (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 21st birthday :P)
  4. Minor freak-outs every week for the past month: another long year at MIT winding to an end...OH NO we are almost done with junior year!!
  5. We started to finally train for the Channel swim (yay!). Goal: swim 6000 yards (3.5 miles) a day, cold showers, and sell T-shirts.
  6. Speaking of T-shirts, finally decided to get the shirts shipped. Please, please, please, please donate! The fees and stuff are ridiculous so we seriously appreciate any help we can get. The Order Form and PayPal Link are on the side planel. We have white in Design 1 and red and black in Design 2. Thanks everyone!!

A bit of new business:

For those of you who thought we were joking, please know I'm officially offended. Haha, jk. But seriously though: we are swimming in August. Most of the arrangements have already been made so full speed ahead and no turning back. ;) Although, the deadlines for our the swimming applications to the Channel Swimming Association are at the end of April. I still haven't sent in my information yet. Oooppps

Ah almost forgot, Sydney and I are in contact with 2 sophomores from Smith College, Mackenzie Bradley and Emma Reim, who will be swimming in August as well. Unfortunately, they are swimming on an earlier date. But we definitely hope to run in to them while in England. Best of luck to them both!!

Side note: The Smith newspaper wrote a lovely article on them. Although, Mackenzie quote, "we're both designed to swim long-distance. We can just keep going." (they are both distance swimmers) did make me doubt my abilities a bit. For the record, I was a sprint backstroker this varsity season.

Ah well, I have been feeling pretty good during my set of 500s and 1000s lately though. In a sadistic kind of way I actually like these sets now. I think has a lot to do with a change in my mental outlook during these sets. Especially due to switching over from doing no more than 200s during practice, I always had a mental block at the beginning because I kept thinking about how long the set was. I also had a mental block at the end as well because I would think back on how much I did and think ahh wow I swam so much, I must be tired now. The shift in thinking: in the beginning I celebrate the fact that I feel good; by the 300 I know there is only a 200 left (which is really 4x50s right?); at the end of the 500 I pick up the speed with whatever is left; if I'm doing 1000s, there is just another 500 left.

I have also been working on my stroke technique. I epically failed at swimming freestyle this year. So I decided the best way to approach this swim is to reconstruct my freestyle. The snorkel and pull sets have been very helpful for this. Unfortunately, I am not sure how much my left shoulder can take. I did something funny to it last year while doing the Vasa trainer.

Anyways, I think I ranted enough. I will try to provide details of my training and daily scheming with a high frequency as we head into the summer. Look forward to future posts!!