Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Master's Swim - First session

RANT ON -



Some people in our little blog-o-sphere have been talking about not having flats HERE. And then someone else started talking about that someone not having flats - HERE. And then that first person replied about the not having flats - HERE.


Well, it just happens that I have not had a flat in a frick’n year!!! That is thousands of miles spread out over a road bike, a triathlon bike and a newly acquired mountain bike. But once the bad mojo starts flowing – well – I had a flat on Sunday leaving my house. Actually it must have been a very slow leak so I was able to turn around quickly and change out the tube at home and still make the ride. Then I ran into Raland, Ben and Steve going to the ride. Raland had just had a blow out – he had to boot the tire with a power bar wrapper and Steve had also flatted. Long story short -if you are lucky enough to roll for thousands of miles without an incident then keep it to yourself.


And regarding the mojo - it is like Fight Club - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.


Oh and by the way - in my fight club, the First Rule of Fight Club is - you had better bring refreshments.


RANT OFF

Master’s Swim kicked off great on Monday morning. There were 10 of us bright eyed and bushy tailed. There was Chris, Raland and Butch who I ride with and Susan and Laura who I run with and a couple of other people that I kind of know. Coach Steve took us back to basics and left nothing for granted. We did a lot of drills involving position and stroke mechanics. I was very pleased to see that Coach Steve’s philosophy is very close to mine. It is the shape, form and hydrodynamics that make the swimmer. Once you have those components down then it is easy to apply the speed. Much like all coaching, just having someone watch and tell you when you are doing something wrong is so valuable. Not to mention them telling you when you are doing something right. So, I have been practice many of the techniques that we went over in the session but without the feedback my progress has been so very slow. I am now excited about getting back into the pool and making some REAL progress.

If this sounds exciting to you there are still spaces left on the Master’s Swim squad at USM. We are meeting Monday / Wednesday / Friday from 5:30AM – 7:00AM. For more information contact the Aquatics Coordinator Jessi Hobart at - Jessica dot Hobart AT usm dot edu . If you are human you should be able to figure that out.

8 comments:

KC (my 140 point 6 mile journey) said...

I'm not liking all this talk about flats! I feel jinxed now.
Good to read that the Masters swimming was a positive experience. That is my goal next year. To step up and commit to it. Tackling one big goal a year. Hope all is well! Keep up the quality training.

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Ya, lets not piss the bike gods off with mechanical bragging

Jon said...

I just need a private jet to join you for Master's swim. Out of all of the pools in my town, we don't have a single masters swim program. Lame, right?

FLATOUT JIM said...

It's way too early for me to be thinking about masters workouts.

Ironman By Thirty said...

No master's programs around here either. Plenty of programs for highschool and younger, but nothing else.

Matty O said...

Post your splits now and at the end ( I am sure you have it logged somewhere :) ).

Hilarious rant on the flats... well the rant was funny not the weekend flats! Clever to use the wrapper to patch the blowout... putting that in my memory bank.

We have classes up here, afraid to commit to be honest. I will see what improvement I have left come next season :)

Good Luck James!

Luke said...

I agree with KC about feeling jinxed. glad your swim class is productive, I am trying to get one at my gym.

Barbie said...

Excellent work on the swim session. Keep it up, they work wonders the Masters sessions.