Waterblogged

Yesterday we said goodbye to a couch we'd had, jumped on, slept on, peed on (not me of course), snuggled on and just plain lived on for ten years. Building Futures Now needed a couch for a family, and we were looking to replace this one just for kicks, so Noah and I hoisted it out of our family room and into the driveway yesterday morning after I slept through practice. Tim picked it up in a Suburban, and now someone else has our couch. May it be as well-loved as it was here! Incidentally, here's what I love about Tim as a coach and a human being (aside from his swim-studliness of course): he picked up the couch. He got Menlo Masters into this whole Building Futures Now thing with a huge heart aimed at helping EPA kids and families, and he is still willing to spend the middle of his day driving around picking up donation items. Most organizers of huge efforts such as BFN would delegate and send an email to the team "Anyone have time to deliver...?" Instead he does it...

If I have to be back at work and workout, at least it kicked off with one of my favorites. *warmup: 3 x 250's free, natural descent *straight 1,000 done as: 250, 50, 200, 50, 150, 50, 100, 50, 50, 50 (50's backstroke, other freestyle) Repeat 2x *4 x 100's descending, each with a 50 fast afterwards 100's on the 1:30; 50's on the 45 *200 warm down

This morning I swam with a fish that changed my opinion of purple. I hate purple. Or hated. When I see purple I think of my bedroom during my eleventh year: a disgusting display of pre-teen pastels, unicorns, rainbows and a big life-sized poster of Bon Jovi. The Bon Jovi part was at least tasteful in a retro hip kind of way. But purple. Yuck. Words like whimsical and magical flash by my brain when I see it--words I don't like. But this fish...this fish was like an electric technicolor kaleidoscope. No pastel rainbows about it. And it swam with me until I stopped, mid-stroke, just to look. Then it swam away. Done with me. Then other fun fishies surrounded me. One with pink lipstick. One with some sort of Chanel-looking makeover mistake that turned into a gorgeous shmear across its body. Aloha to the fishies. I'm off on a red eye flight back home tonight. Mahalo.

Here's my son's version of swim workout here in Ko'Olina. I'm off to do mine. Hope you are all enjoying the pool, and to be honest I can't wait to get back so my mouth won't be puckered up like a raisin after my workouts (but that plus Tim's stellar workouts will be the only plus of being back :).

So. Here I am in paradise. It would be so even if there weren't four man made lagoons like this one, restricted for swimming only, all in a line with beautiful grass in between then for running. But, that exists here too, so, I'm in heaven. I will bet my life that my workout this morning beats yours, even if you did long freestyle back at home :) *warm up: stretch on the beach to attempt to work out the coco loco drinks consumed last night. *cross one lagoon - jump out run to next lagoon. repeat four times. *do laps across lagoon #3 for 20 minutes, with push-ups at each end. *have coffee and go decorate coconuts with the kids to send back home

Okay obviously these are images of our "better swimmer selves", Michael Phelps, Amanda Beard (check out the not-oft-seen dragon tattoo!), Aaron Piersol, Ryan Lochte (he and Phelps are in perfect, what I like to call "David and Gary form" there), and Dara Torres, but we can dream right? It's just so cool that they are working out down the street. These are pics from last Saturday, courtesy of Peter. Thanks Peter! Today's workout: *warmup: 5 x 125's free with last 25 kick add fins for: *12 x 50's decreasing by 5 seconds after each 3 *2 x 100's fast free followed by 3 x 50's (back, stroke, whatever) repeat 3 times *I strongly believe there is more I am not remembering but it did involve fins, all of it!

p.s. (pre-script in this case: Fave My Blog with the green button on the right, por favor!) I'm off to Hawaii tomorrow night for a much needed vacation (albeit WITH kids :) and it's a good thing. I'm still sore from last Friday's deck-out extravaganza and I'm looking forward to swimming with the more laid back Hawaiians (such as my step-dad and his family pictured above) for a bit, in water that looks like seaglass. Especially after today's sprints. Oy! *warmup: 400 free, 100 kick, 100 drill, 100 IM *100 broken at the 50 fast, 150 chill, 50 broken at the 25 fast repeat 3 x *5 x 100's: streamline for 4 blue lines, kick for 4, sprint for 4, sprint full broken at 25, chill repeat 2 x *final fast 100

I think Haim suggested this a few days ago, and Texido just sent me the link as well. Hey, lots of us own Priuses (or is that Prius') and as good as Tim is at swim clinics, it would be totally freaking cool to have a piece of female Olympic history there to give us tips (let's face it, if we win we'll just have a post-Olympic party with her at the pool, no?). I'll bring the beer. Anyway, click here to get us some votes. Here's what I put in: "We are a team of mostly Prius-owning parents :) that does much more than just swim. Our coach Tim Sheeper is a world-class triathlete who has spearheaded numerous community outreach programs and who keeps us all inspired every day, in the pool and out. We think Dara would love our club, and we all look up to Dara." You can just write "we want to win" in your comment post if you want of course.

Check out the story on Eric Shanteau here . Yet another American swimmer going to Beijing to beat all the odds.

So yesterday we did those deck-outs and minute-long push-ups and band pulls to make us look very toned and fast and this morning not only was I sore and struggling to complete a full freestyle arm rotation but my brain could not retain more than one set element at a time. I have therefore concluded that deck work is hazardous to our mental health and should be eliminated from all future workouts. On a less serious note, I've been meaning to tell the crew that my current swimsuit is on sale at PA Toy and Sport for $35. It's a Speedo FlipTurn and I love it. I mention it because I have gotten quite a few compliments, not because I think everyone wants to wear the same suit as me. Today's workout: *warm up: 250 free, 150 kick, 250 pull, 150 stroke *4 x 25's done as fast kick for 12.5 then fist free *2 x 50's first 50 fast, second 50 recovery *2 x 100's first 100 fast (broken at the 25 for 5), second 100 recovery repeat 2 times *100 fast, 25 easy back, 75 swim drill ...

So last night I took three fired up little boys to see the USA v. AUS water polo match at Stanford. I called three times during the week to inquire about tickets which didn't seem orderable online. The peeps there assured me there would be tickets at the door. In my normal anally on-time fashion I arrived an hour early...to a sold out game. Many tears (not mine, I swear) and an hour of people watching (this was like a gathering of the Valley's most toned, bronzed swim obsessed folk so it wasn't hard to watch) later, Ryan Lochte emerged from the gates of the pool, clearly fresh out of his work-out and ready to eat. If this guy isn't washing all of his shirts on his stomach then his Maytag is doing unnecessary work. Even amid all the swimmercandy on campus last night, Lochte (shirtless, thank you Ryan!) looked like some sort of past-age prince of the pool. I know he's 24 and I'm not and all but if Dara can still swim in the Olympics at 41 I can still drool over Ol...

After a week of inspiring Olympic swim trials and feeling like "hey, if Dara can train that hard for 30+ years, I can make a simple swim practice" I'm tired. And today's workout helped push me over the tired edge. As I said when asked if I wanted to go ahead of another swimmer this morning: "I'm barely still in the pool." *warmup: no idea - just followed the dude in front of me *pyramid from H*ll: 200, 300, 400, 500, 400, 300, 200 (usually one of my favorite sets but today? Not so much). *less H*llish pyramid: 25, 50, 75, 100, 100, 75, 50, 25 COFFEE

Happy 4th Dara! Wow. Read her story and be inspired!

So, all this time, since Peter has completed the first ever successful double crossing of the Maui channel (10 mile stretch between Maui and Lanai), I've been unaware that the Peter in my lane is the MAUI PETER. For nearly a month I've been seeing this guy, who has set a world record, in his Speedo, practically naked, pre-dawn, and what have I been saying to him? Not "Holy crap, you did it! Way to go! I'm so jealouswishIcoulddothat" but, "You want to lead or me?" and "Leave on the 30?" and "Okay, later that's a rap." Lanshin finally enlightened me yesterday, just in time to hear that famous L2 boy is moving to San Diego. Great. Just as I find out I'm rubbing shoulders (or crashing paddles) with a world class open water swimmer, he preps to leave. If I had just known his last name, I could have enjoyed my proximity to greatness longer. So, I'm instituting a last name "make sure you know who you're swimming with...

Since last Wednesday I've been wanting to write down the workouts, plus a few other things, and just not getting to it. Time waits for no man, and as I like to say...it runs like hell from every mommy. Anyway, I'm the proud mommy of two newly made racers. The boys did their first running race in Sunriver Oregon this past weekend - part of the Pacific Crest Triathlon weekend. Phew, I did the 5K and boy was I glad I wasn't doing the Half Ironman. It was hot hot hot, and hard enough to get through the little run in order to jump in the river afterwards. This river swimming is just about as good as it gets in life for me, and we played, mudslide surfed, skipped rocks and did swim challenges in cold water for three heavenly days. We drove the 8.5 hours home very dirty and tired, and I am still ranking this trip very high on my list to do again. If you haven't been here, go soon. Still, a good old fashioned pulling workout in a pool felt pretty good today. Rivers are refreshi...