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We got locked out of Saturday and Sunday of this meet because the signups weren’t turned in on time, so Kate signed everyone up for the 400 free or 800 free (long course) on Friday, depending on if you’re under 13 or not.

Since this was my first time swimming the 800 in a year, I improved 21 seconds. My time was 10:07.
My first 400 split was 5:09 and my second one was 4:58, so I really negative split it too much. At least now I know how to swim it at All Stars.

Also, I saw Curtis, my old coach from the Mantarays, for the first time in about four years.

I did the Monster Cookie ride (62 miles) on Sunday, without getting three flats this time. I averaged about 17mph.

Unfortunately I had morning practice the next day at 5:00am, but I seem to have survived.

I did the Albany Triathlon yesterday (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run). I won the 19 & Under age group, but there was only one other person. My time was 1:18:31.

I was supposed to get a blue ribbon, but they’re all on backorder so, until they can send me the real one, they gave me a “placeholder” ribbon: 6th place in the Mountain Bike category. And it so happens that there were five people in the 19 & Under Mountain Bike category. Hey, I got 6th out of five people! Pretty good, huh?

Edit: I also placed 23rd out of 84 overall.

Edit x2: Here’s a picture of me with my triumpant 6th place ribbon:

I’ve been selected to be part of the Oregon All Stars Team! So, I’ll be going to Vancouver, BC in a month for the All Stars meet.

Are you a Real Man?

I went to the Elite IM swim clinic today, featuring Olympic gold and silver medalist (in the 200 fly) Tom Malchow.

We had two practices, the first one was two hours long and the second one was an hour and a half. Overall we swam about 7500 meters (8200 yards).
The locker room was huge (as was the rest of the building); it had a centrifigal suit dryer, six different colone dispensers and disposable combs. The only problem was that someone decided to put the locker room on a different floor from the pool…

In between the two practcies, Tom gave an hour long talk, we had lunch, and then Alex Nikitin (one of the coaches) gave a talk about the technicalities of swimming IM.

What I learned:

• You can use less energy proportionally by keeping up your speed for a whole length rather than slowing down (momentum keeps you going)
• A good back to breast turn can save you 4 tenths of a second
• In a fly or breast turn, you use less back and arm muscles if you have more momentum going in to the wall
• You should take several fast strokes off the wall to maintain your speed from your pushoff

Also, I got to have a private talk with Tom during lunch. He said he goes to the hospital right across the parking lot from our pool once a week for work!

A dark and dangerous day. There was lots of duct tape and TP, but I survived. I set up hidden sensors outside my room…

Makes me want some.

This was the last day of the meet. I swam the 100 fly and 100 free.

100 Fly: I got 59.42, and I came in 19th out of 29. My time from State is 59.36. I died on the second 50…
We didn’t get a video of this race because of some Issues.

100 Free: I beat my old time by 57 hundredths of a second, with a 53.16. I got 24th out of 34.
Here’s the video for my 100 free:

Our team got 20th out of 143 teams. If Tori and Crystal were at the meet, we’d probably be within the top 8.

On the second day of the meet, my events were the 200 fly and 200 free.

200 Fly: I got 2:12.85. I improved two one-hundredths of a second from several weeks ago… I got too excited and swam the first 150 almost all out, then died at the end. I came in 19th out of 33.
…I WILL get a Zone time in my next 200 fly!

200 Free: 1:56.16. I dropped 15 hundredths of a second from State. John said it was really good because my splits were 28, 30, 29, 28. I got 16th place out of 28.

Here are the movies of my 200 fly and 200 free:

200 Fly

200 Free