I met Joe and Sonia at Starbucks at 7:30am. With chattering teeth, and complaints about the weather, we all ran inside so that Joe and I could fuel up with caffeine goodness. One almost-$5, venti no-whip, soy cinnamon dolce latte, and a venti regular coffee later, (care to guess who got the fancy pants drink?) - and we're off to pick up Mark in Chapel Hill near the Harris Teeter that's right off Highway 86. As we arrive at Harris Teeter, we look around for Mark's Prius, but we don't see it. Then my phone rings. It's Mark, he said he'd be there in about 5 minutes. So we wait, then somehow, Mark magically appears. He climbs in, we ask him, "Where's your car? We didn't even see you drive in." To which he replies, "Oh no, I ran here from my house, a few miles away. It's the only way I can really warm up!" Wow, it must be nice to be a true runner.
It's around 8am when we leave Chapel Hill, and the drive takes us 2.5 hours. We entertain ourselves during the drive down with "Airplane Yoga", conversation about religion, politics, Joe's love life (or lack thereof), and much to everyone's surprise, I kept my mouth shut for a lot of it. I know, strange, huh? I'm usually Miss Blabbermouth on car trips.
So we get there a half hour before the Start and Turn Clinic is supposed to begin. Joe and I still need to deck enter, so I find Patty, the head coach of MAC Masters and ask if the reg table is open yet. It's not, but she tells us that we can register later, in between the clinic and the meet.
We set up our stuff on the bleachers in exactly the same spot as we did last year. We watch the legendary, ex-Auburn-now-MAC "Center of Excellence" Head Coach, Dave Marsh, as he is finishing up a workout for his Olympic Prep Group. They are having these guys (and a couple of women) swim these sets where after they're done, they have to climb up this rope as high as they can, and then fall back in, and swim a 10 yard or so race-pace sprint, followed by some easy recovery swimming. Looks like fun! I need to ask Campus Hills if we can install some some ropes! Our ceiling is just a wee-bit higher than theirs...
The clinic starts a few minutes past 11am in the aerobics room just off the pool. Dave Marsh talks to us for about a half hour about how he teaches starts and turns, and he takes a few questions from the attendees. He uses the white board for drawings, erases with his hand (a big pet peeve of mine! it's comparable to fingernails on a blackboard - Aggh! STOP! Please!), and peppers in some stories of old swimmers he used to coach and how they sucked at starts and turns, and how he got them to improve. Basically, lots of repetition. And lots of plyometrics at the gym.
We all liked the description Dave gave about swimmers who enter the water on their dive as a "wet noodle" and how they should instead enter the water as rigid as possible, like a "broomstick" being thrown into the pool, because I think we all could relate a little to noodley-feeling of our own dives. After the Dave Marsh part, we went back out to the pool deck where most of the Olympic Prep Group swimmers instructed us on how they do their starts and turns and the drills they did to help them learn the technique. Then we all got in the pool and practiced, while the Prep Group swimmers watched and gave us feedback.
About my own starts, I realized that I wasn't tensing up with enough pressure with my arms on the block at "take your mark", so when I did start, it was slow. So I tried putting more pressure, and I blasted off so much quicker that my entry speed caused my normally-tight-enough goggles to fill up with water (yes, my head was tucked tight into my streamline). Tightened the goggles, tried again - Success! And it sure does feel good!
With my turns, I learned that my flip turns are okay, they could be tighter and thus faster, but what I really need to work on are my open turns. One of the Prep Group swimmers saw mine and just about flipped out. He told me to stop bringing my legs to the wall by leaning back on my back...I was just slowing my turns down by using my back as a big water blocker. So I tried tucking my legs in under me without leaning back, which was really hard, dangit, I'm so out of shape! The Prep Group guy said, "Okay, better...keep working on it." Yay...clinics are fun!
I deck enter. I'm so horribly out of shape, that it really doesn't matter what I swim, so I enter 3 events that were spaced out as far as possible. 50 Fly, 50 Brst, and 500 Free (only because I wanted to burn more calories so I could rationalize pigging out at dinner later!)
Here we all are cheesing for the camera before the meet starts. (Further proof that I would look horrible with a shaved head)
I'm the first to swim - I'm in the 3rd and last heat of the 50 Brst, not because I'm fast, but because me and another girl deck entered and the other 2 heats were full. For my seed time, I estimated a slow time of 42.00, knowing that my fastest Masters time in this event has been a measly 39 high. And lately, with being so out of shape, I'm averaging about 2-3 slower per 50 than my normal Masters times. So I swim a 41.7 or something like that. Faster than my seed time. Yay! I "won"! My first 25 felt pretty good, I felt I was catching and pushing the water well and timing my kick on target, but after my crappy open water turn, it all fell apart!
I don't remember all the swims and times, but here's what I do remember:
Sonia swam the 100 Back in 1:39-something. Her seed time was 1:50, so she was very happy about that. And we both know she can drop more time if she does flip turns next time! Check out her HUGE smile in this picture. (Mark looks anxious about his upcoming 50 Free) She also crushed her best time in the 100 Free - she went a 1:17-something.
Mark's 50 Free was a best time, it was either a 37 or a 39. His 100 Free was also a best time - I think it was a 1:32 or a 1:33. And his 500 Free was a best time again - somewhere around a 9:10.
Joe was pretty happy with a 36 in the 50 Brst. He also did the 50 Back, and he hates backstroke, so that was a big deal! He went a 26 in the 50 Free, and a 1:02 in the 100 Free.
I beat my estimated-for-my-out-of-shapeness time in the 50 Fly of 38.00. I beat it by a whopping one-hundredth of a second! So I'm 2-0 for beating my seed times. But it dropped to 2-1 after my yucky 500 Free. I felt good for the first 200, holding 1:25 pace with the guy next to me, but then slowed way down to 1:31 pace on the last 300. I had one absolutely horrible turn where I almost missed the touch pad - I had to let the turbulent water behind my turn float my body and pointed toe a few extra inches into the touch pad, where I pushed off with my big toe and immediately started stroking. Note to self: don't get jumpy when I hear the bell ringing for the lead guy on his last lap, and flip turn on top of the "T" - I'm not that tall and I'm not going that fast to get to the wall from that distance!
Since I was the only female swimmer in my age group, I automatically won the High Point Award. Here's the DVD I won:
We went to the same restaurant for dinner as we did last year after the meet - On the Border. We chose it specifically because we were so hungry, we wanted the free chips and salsa as soon as we sat down! While we waited 10 minutes for our table, we ordered a drink at the bar, and I was carded. That hasn't happened in a while. I'm guessing my still-wet hair could've made me look younger... Mark and Sonia weren't carded, but baby-faced Joe was!
More cheese for the camera:
This time I didn't take my tortilla chips and spell out "DAMA Rox" (see that picture on our bulletin board at the pool). No, I waited to do that until we were all heavily breathing in the car on the way home. Here's my 2007 rendition.
We shared more funny stories during the car ride home, like when Mark was 27 and did some "really stupid things" (his quote, not mine) which included juicy info about his love life in the year leading up to meeting his wife. And Sonia told me all about her "boring" hometown that's 20 miles away from Naples. Joe kept us entertained with his many complaints of stupid drivers who tailgate, or people who pass him, then slow down again...
Finally, one last picture to share. Sonia and I in the backseat of Joe's car. Why is it impossible to take a self-picture without my neck-skin bunching up into a roll? I don't have a turkey neck! Even when I was fit and in shape, I could never take a good picture like this!
Overall, the meet was fun, the clinic was informative, the food was great, the company was excellent, and the drive was safe. All in all, I'd say our day trip was a success!
I'm definitely looking forward to the next meet at the end of January!
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