Waterblogged

And he deserves it too, because whatever else he's done throughout the year, he provided me with one damn good bottle of wine as a prize at the swimmer of the year award party, and in my book that makes him swimmer of the year. Today's workout: *warm up: 250 free, 50 back; 200 free, 50 breast; 150 free, 50 fly add fins for: *400 IM (four strokes then rest is kick) *200 free (three blue lines streamline, rest is swim) *300 IM same way *2 x 100's free same way *200 IM " *4 x 50's free " remove fins for: *400 free three blue lines streamline kick, rest is swim *2 x 50's fly to back *300 free " *2 x 50's breast to free *timed 100 kick

With the hour swim (glad to have that behind me, and to have survived without a downpour for timers!) and the Swimmer of the year party, it was a big MM weekend. I know that Sue won the female swimmer of the year (YAY SUE, you deserve it big time!!!) but I don't know who won the male version. Someone please enlighten me. In my mind however, I was the big winner this weekend because I got a stellar, very very nice bottle of Cabernet from John's cellar for being able to rank Tim's "snappy" like terms in order of fast to fastest and for being a big enough geek to know (roughly) his time in the UltraMan race (what a stud). I brought that wine home and drank it (with three other people of course) last night with a big fat meat lasagna. Thank you John! And thank you team for such a great weekend.

I hate fins. Why, as a soccer player, I can't kick or use my legs in the pool, I don't know. But I can't kick. I seem to go backwards when no fins are on my feet, and I feel like my lungs are going to explode when I do use fins. Go figure. Today I'm also losing my left big toenail, which is always a fun sensation while finning. *warm up: 300 free, 200 back to breast, 100 kick, 50 strong add fins for: *3 x 50's free on TIGHT interval (35 s) 150 recovery *3 x 100's free on TIGHT interval (1:10) 150 recovery *3 x 150's on TIGHT interval 150 recovery *3 x 200's on TIGHT interval remove fins for: *150 easy *2 x 50's hard repeat 2x

Well. Today there was a lot of swimming. Long. Hard. (Get your mind out of the gutter). And then there was breakfast. Boy, I love swimming and eating. It's the simple things. *warm up: I didn't hear, but I think it was 10 x 100's free (I know I did a number of 100's at least) *20 minute swim: steady for the first 15 minutes, turn it up for last 5 ...and then do it again (that's right, another 20 minute straight swim). Ready for Saturday!

So I'm just back from Sundance, where I saw some amazing films, and where I got sick and missed the opening of U23D and the kind of proximity to Bono that I've dreamed about since I was twelve. I sent my camera along with my sister in law, and she brought back images that made me feel only sicker (that I couldn't have been there). Still, the vacation was amazing, and you all MUST SEE the following films: In Bruges Yellow Handkerchief The Wave (a German film that is adapted from a real life fascism experiment done here at Palo Alto High in 1967 with sophomores) Ballast The Wackness And, yes, it feels good to be back in the pool :) *warm up: 3 x 250's free with last 50 non-free add pull gear for: *3 x 150's free *3 x 200's free *3 x 250's free turn up the tempo for: *2 x 250's free *2 x 200's free *2 x 150's free

Not, like, physically but... In the last week I've been to LA and handed bottles out to Jason Priestly, Chachi (Scott Baio), Tori Spelling, Angela Basset and others, and tomorrow I leave for Sundance Film Festival in Utah, but all I can really think about is how much swimming I'm missing. That's insane, and I was concerned about myself. But, today Tim gave me a nice sendoff that really made me quite glad I won't be here for a few days: lots of butterfly. *warm up: 3 x 250's free *mega set: 12 x 25's fly (down drill, back regular) 4 x 100's free with first and last 12.5 yrds fly 8 x 25's fly same way 5 x 100's free with first 25 fly 4 x 25's fly same way 6 x 100's with last 25 fly *regain consciousness set: 100, 75, 50, 25 back to free

You (I) know it is a good swim day when most everyone in the pool is moaning over the set, and Whitney and I are cheering. *warm up: 1000 straight free *lots of 50's and 100's drill to focus on keeping hand out in front of your shoulder (vs. putting it in the water in front of your face in the no-no zone) *4 x 400's pulling free 1: last 100 hard 2: last 200 hard 3: last 300 hard 4: hard *4 x 50's drill down, fast back

This photo was not taken today, but rather just after finishing our 100 x 100's last week. Look happy, don't we? The sun was out, and we were all headed for a big breakfast. This morning was much darker and colder, but still full of hearty 500's. Yum. *warm up: 400 free, 6 x 100's free (first three descend, last three hold) *5 x 100's with 5 sec rest between each *500 done a bit faster than the 100's *5 x 100's with 10 sec rest between each *500 done a bit faster than all the junk up top :) *500 broken as: 150, 125, 100, 75, 50 descending *final 200 broken as: 100, 50, 25, 25 descending

There's a big storm coming, and that means cold pool water. So, I'm not devastated that I'll be out of town for a couple of days and missing swim during those top layer of rain water days. I know, I know, Tim, the pool is still 80 degrees . But, when you jump in after a good rain settles under the covers it still feels like Hell has frozen over for just a split second. Ahh. *warm up: missed it. faulty alarm *3 x 50's drill free, 150 steady free, 3 x 100's fast free (best average) repeat 3 times *2 x 100's insane drill: 25 kick, 50 fist, 25 free (on the 1:30) *150 free steady repeat 2 times

This morning I felt the need to stretch out my neck and all other muscles after yesterday's 100 x 100's (yeeehaw!) so I went to yoga. Quite a switch, and I have to admit that as the instructor was telling me to notice my breath and what my body needed, I was thinking "This is boring. I should have gone swimming. I need a bagel." But, I did get a good stretch, and when I emerged I found a cool article in the Palo Alto Weekly about me and my girls :). See you tomorrow!