Waterblogged

My arms and belly are soft today and I'm getting a whiff of lavender, chamomile and red mandarin (come ON now that sounds nice doesn't it?) every time I move my limbs. This is due to my discovery of the best darn apres swim skin balm ever: BabyBearShop's high quality organic Mama Belly Oil (also good for swimmer bellies, arms, legs, torsos, whathaveyou). Their Cheeky Baby Butter (which does melt in your hand like real butter before you spread it on your toasty skin) and All the better to kiss you with organic lip balm (in chai mandarin) are equally decadent. I'm buttery all over. This must be the only way I got through the sets of IM today. Listen Tim, 2 x 300's IM without fins is really all the workout I can do. How dare you follow that with more swimming? (Deep breath. Sniff of my arm. I'm better.) workout: *warm up with 300 free, 100 IM done TWICE *2 x 500's free (pulling option) *2 x 300's IM *2 x 300's free (pulling option) *2 x 100's IM

David Miller's August 12 column in the Chicago Tribune's Living section titled "An aquatic center isn't guy territory" has been ruffling some feathers and bringing out the cat claws between mommies around here. It's kind of sad...his opinion doesn't really deserve attention and energy but since I'm due for a good rant I'm going to let this one rip. In his column, David claims that the suburban moms at his local pool are lazy morons with breast implants that commit the following sins, all of which revolve around a larger sin named "engaging in self-indulgence under the guise of taking care of the kids". Never fear, he comforts, he's about to blow their cover and tell us what suburban moms really do. Ready? Here's the list: *drive SUVs *admit they've run the Boston marathon *wear bathing suits *talk on cell phones *plan weekends away *let their older kids go to the snack bar 20 yards away on their own *just about nothing else e...

My son was about as excited to get on the bus for his first day of Kindergarten today as I was to hear "repeat 6 minute freestyle swims" as the workout. Just like his ride on the bus must give him the silent time necessary to do his five-year-old meditations to prepare for advanced math and science in order to take his Stanford entrance exams in years to come, the repetitive swim sets really smooth out my brain waves. Whether this is a good thing or not, doesn't really matter. It feels good to grooveswim as I like to call it, and a good bus ride is always fun too.

Due, quite possibly, to the apple fritter I enjoyed as a result of a botched train ride last night, I had fun with this morning's fast sets. Of course, now I'm feeling rather ill and must get off my computer to get some protein in my system. Still I think the fritter fuel works for me. workout: *warmup with (i think - i was late) 5 x 200's free with increasing lengths of backstroke (1st one, no back, 2nd one 1 length of back, and so on) *4 x 150's done as 100 free, 50 back with 30 secs rest between 2 x 75's recovery *4 x 150's done as 125 free, 25 back with 20 secs rest between 2 x 75's recovery *4 x 150's done as free with 10 secs rest between 2 x 75's recovery *3 x 50's descending (free)

Yesterday after the 10 x 400's my three-year-old decided to rush into the kitchen and volunteer that he had to poop. This is a good thing, as we need to get him out of diapers before he's twelve, but I scooped him up quickly and lifted him up onto the pot and subsequently pulled my back muscles out of whack. It hurt to breathe yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, I was able to swim this morning and complete the multiple short distances with fins (even butterfly)! Phew. I mean, it's great to get potty trained and all, but frankly my kid can crap in his pants forever if the alternative is Mommy missing swim practice. Ah, priorities.

I know that today or tomorrow is threshold 300 and 400's and I just want to say that this morning I did NINE 400's in 95 degree water. Yes. Marianne would be proud of me. As much as I wanted to do the tenth 400 I just couldn't do it. That little voice that had been saying "What? You're going to melt? Get going." throughout the first nine sparked up and answered "Yes. You will melt. Get out of the pool." So I did. I don't miss much about home when I'm here in vacation land. But I do miss the 80 degree pool. I can't wait to get back to it! My kids, however, don't much care about what I miss and they would like to stay. It doesn't get much better than a daily routine of beach, pool, beach, golf, pool, park, ice cream. And I'm not complaining (except of course, about the water temp).

Okay, I know I like the water warm, but yesterday I swam in a 95 degree pool. Here in South Carolina the heat index is 120 degrees and the air is juicy with humidity. I jumped into the pool I always swim in here, expecting it to be it's normal May temperature of 80 degrees. It was not. While grandpa hit balls across the parking lot with my two boys who seem immune to heat I struggled through a 400 "warmup" and prayed they'd rescue me by walking into the pool area and demanding my attention. It was not to be. Those kiddos lasted long enough at the driving range for me to finish 3,000 yards. I did, finally, sweat in the pool .

This morning, at 8AM, I was interviewed by USA TODAY about my recent significant accomplishments in swimming. Okay, the interview was about my company's new baby bottle , but I still felt like a superstar. Now if Oprah would just call (dammit). Of course I had to begin this big interview day with an energizing swim, and energizing it was. It also involved "restful swimming" in-between sprints. Sprints, I'm not fond of. But restful swimming was nice, especially since I'm hopping on a red eye tonight with my two boys (without husband) to fly to the East Coast. Not much opportunity for rest there. *warm up with 300 free then 6 x 75's swim, kick, limited breathing by 25's *3 x 200's free descending *sprint 100 free followed by restful swimming back and drill free (for about 4 minutes) *sprint 50 free followed by restful swimming breast and drill free (for about 2 minutes) repeat sprints and restful swimming 4 times

Nothing funny or spunky to say this morning about swimming except that I felt as though I was pulling a tub of ice cream (yes I made a trip to Baskin Robins last night) during practice. I haven't taken a break from workouts lately (although I'm leaving on a 10 day vacation this Thursday), and I generally eat ice cream or some other fatty treat for dessert nightly so I don't know what's going on but I'm slow, dammit! That's enough. Instead I'll direct you to my description of my son's birthday party , er, my cocktail party, last week, and just give ya the workout. Enjoy! *warmup with 400 free, 200 IM broken at 50, 100 kick *50 fast free, 100, 300 fast free repeat 3x with the 100 changing each time: first 100 is stroke second 100 is timed kick third 100 is underwater *500 free at same "fast" pace you did 300's above *3 x 100's stroke or IM on the 1:50 *6 x 25's drill out, sprint back on the 30 sec

Well. You missed this: men women and children pathetically licking and grasping for donuts tied onto a string. Check out Al. The desire shows. And there's my little guy next to him, who couldn't get a tooth on the powdered culprit for the life of him. Thank goodness for John, who enabled the ultimate reward at the end of all that neck-lunging. I have no idea who won the actual contest but it certainly was not my son. On to the water balloon toss during which I could not take photos because I was participating. Out in the third round, we watched until a two-way tie resulted and we moved on to the next sweet event: a whipped cream eating contest. There's Tim with his devilish little smile, loading all the kids (and his wife and Murray) up with more floamy white sugar than he has eaten in probably the last twelve months. And here, ladies and gentlemen, was the real showdown of the day: swimmers of the year Lisa and Murray facing off to face plant and suck down a swirl of whipp...

1. Coming to practice this morning to hear Judy say, "Okay today we're going to do something really different than we've done all year: 10 x 400's." YAY! 2. Being called "The Blog Goddess" by Mike on my way to the locker room. LOVE IT. Don't forget to come to the team picnic tomorrow at Burgess at noon. Swim, sun, hot dogs, the thrilling debut of my new short hairdo: Fun!

Last night I drooled when I read "500's and above" on the workout schedule for this morning. As the hours ticked away and I worked on getting general availability ready to turn on today for our new ultimate baby bottle (it'll happen at noon and they're gonna sell out immediately so if you need a 100% polycarbonate-free bottle, get there), I reminded myself to GET TO BED so I could get up and slam out some 500's. This morning my ears were clogged with manufacturing and fulfillment issues and I didn't hear my alarm at 5:15. At 6:15 I awoke with a terrible sinking feeling due to the amount of light streaming in through the windows. "Honey?" I asked my husband, "I didn't hear my alarm?" "Be back by 7:45," he grumbled, knowing exactly what I wanted. "Sweet!" I exclaimed in a whisper. I love getting that late morning extension when I miss my calling. And off I went for the workout, which was basically this: 500, 500, ...