Long Time, No Write

Seems like it's been forever since I posted here. The past 5 months have been horrendous, to say the least. My mother was diagnosed with terminal brain and lung cancer. It was quick and VERY aggressive. My husband, Casey, and I pretty much put our lives on hold to see to her care. Sadly, Not nearly 3 months after diagnosis, she passed away. It's a very strange, new reality.

My swim teammates have really kept me going throughout the whole ordeal. I think if I hadn't had a swimming pool, I would have jumped off a cliff by now. Just a month after Mom's passing, the team took a big trip to the 4th Annual Rowdy Gaines Masters Classic in Orlando, Florida. It was a three day meet. All of us piled into 2 cars and took off. We had SO MUCH FUN!! In addition to the beautiful October Orlando weather, the meet was terrific too! It was the biggest Masters meet that I've ever attended, so it was a challenge to get my anxiety under control.

I got the opportunity to be a total fangirl and meet Rowdy Gaines! He is such a nice and genuine guy. He didn't mind at all the fan adoration and took time out with anyone who wanted to meet and chat with him. It turned out to be great fun, and I'm SO glad that I got to go! Here are some shots of us at the meet.

Me and Rowdy Gaines

Me and Katie just being really silly and pretending we had no pants on!!

Me, Katie and Pam getting ready for our 50 Breaststroke event!

On deck for the backstroke!
Definitely need to work on my arms!!

Gettin' Nervous!

Well it's now two weeks, until our next home meet! I'm starting to get really nervous about it. Last month, I had the worst bout of bronchitis that I've had in years. It was so bad, that I'm still not right from it. The fatigue has been awful. By the time I get to the weekend, I usually have to stay in bed all day on Saturdays. I'm always fine by Sunday. This exhaustion has got to go! I've been taking vitamins and definitely getting plenty of sleep, so I hope this doesn't last much longer!

I've only been back to practice a grand total of 3 times! I'm still not able to do any sprint work either! I have managed to get in distance practices. I've decided to drop my events in the 200 Back and the 100 Back. I know that I just don't have the lung capacity for it right now. I'm just going to do the 50 Back, 50 Free, and the 50 Breast. I know I won't see my best times, but I'm prepared for that. This is just making me nervous! Here's hoping that I'll have really great practices for the next 2 weeks!!

The Louisville Invitational

Katie, Erica, and me at the Louisville Invitational.

This past Sunday, the MTSU Masters Swim Club attended the Louisville Invitational Swim Meet in Louisville, KY. This was my first big, sanctioned swim meet through United States Masters Swimming. Four team members attended. It was such great fun! I entered the 100 meter Backstroke, the 50 meter Backstroke, and participated in the 200 meter Freestyle Relay.

I'm glad to say that it was a very low stress meet, and I didn't freak out at all. On the 100 Backstroke, I missed a turn and was disqualified. I was pretty disappointed about that, but that's one reason that I had decided to swim the 100. I figured that would give me enough time to get in the pool, calm down, and figure everything out, since it was my first event. Good thing I did. I was much better in the the 50 meter Backstroke. I actually came in 2nd in my age group. The relay was sooooo much fun. I was really apprehensive about doing it, since I'd only known we were entered a couple of days beforehand. I've never done relays, so I had no idea about relay starts. We ended up doing really well, and I swam a relatively fast 50 free for me. We were the only all female relay team. The other teams were mixed. We ended up taking first place in our age group!! WOOT!!

I'm glad that I've got one behind me now. I'm really looking forward to the next couple of meets!

My 50 meter backstroke. I'm in the far lane at the top.



Our 200 meter freestyle relay. The video will zoom in on us! I'm the second swimmer!

I've Got Work to Do!!!

Well, this morning's practice went really well. I'm having less and less trouble with my back, which is encouraging. The workout sets went really well. Then, the ugly truth was seen. It was our first timing session of the season. We only timed today in what we plan to swim for the November meet. I've decided to swim the 100 back and the 50 back. I timed my 100 first. I actually swam my 50 split in the 100 faster!! My 100 time ended up being 1:51.3. Not too bad for never having competed back, but bad for qualifying for Nationals. For Nationals, I need at least a 1:14.03. I need to trim 37 secs off of my time! I did only start from the wall, though. When I do my real start, I'm sure some time will come off. I think, I can't remember exactly, my time for the 50 was :51.8. That was BAD, but it was at the end of practice and I was tired and a little anxious. We'll see how much time I can drop between this week and the first of the month. I'm going to be doing a lot of speed training between now and then. I just don't want to embarrass myself at the meet!!

Inspiration

I was back in the pool all week this week. The first two days, I suffered from really stiff back muscles. So, I kept the yardage low and swam slow. Yesterday, I was back at practice. I got there about 30 minutes early, and put an easy 1000 in to get warmed up. I completed the workout with a couple of substitutions just fine. I ended up with over 2500. I found that the longer I worked, the looser my back muscles became. My back feels great today! I'm glad that I'm finally to the other side of this. Now, hopefully, I can work on training for our first meet, which is November 21st. I plan on swimming the 100 and 50 back.

I got the link for this video this morning. It's just the inspiration I needed for my training.