this blog...

Is going to start as a log of my swimming-related thoughts and workouts. We'll see where it goes from there.

I began swimming competitively in high school, in 1992, for a couple of reasons. First, I sucked at basketball. Second, I had grown up swimming in Michigan's many inland lakes, so I had some ability. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I had made in my adolescence. I swam throughout high school and then at a division 3 college, becoming an ok but by no means elite swimmer.

Just this past year, I started swimming again as a 30 year old after an 8 year layoff from the sport. I started in earnest by attending 1 - 2 practices a week with the local USMS team. This level of involvement seemed pretty sustainable. Then, in January, I swam my first meet in 8 years and was re-hooked on the sport. From there, my practicing increased to 3 days. A few more meets, months, and USMS nationals down, I find myself getting in the water at least 5 days a week, sometimes as many as 7.

The point of this blog is to track my workouts, technique thoughts and changes, and meet results. So far, I have a couple of general goals: 1.) to become a better freestyler and 2.) to become a better breaststroker. I was mainly a backstroker/butterflyer as a high school and college swimmer. I swam a lot of IM also, but was always lacking on the back half -- the breast and free. So now that I'm a Masters swimmer, I'm going to work on those back half events to see where they lead.

As to the summer of 2008, I'm trying to build up a good aerobic base from which to proceed.