BAYS Pentathlon, Oct. 10, 2009

The big question today -- to cheer or not to cheer. I LOVE to cheer. I LOVE to urge my swimmer on and give her support from the bleacher seats.

Three problems with cheering:
1. Lexy says she can't hear me with her head under water. Can this be true?
2. If I cheer when I'm videotaping, my video viewers can hear me. . .
3. When Lexy watches my videos, she says "Mom! Stop!"

I guess this is a "development opportunity" for me. But when my swimmer is swimming, my spidey senses start tingling and I've got to cheer! GO LEX GO!

Today's meet was organized as a pentathlon, which is a great idea for a swim meet. In essence, every swimmer who signs up will swim each of the four main strokes at the prescribed length for his or her age group, and an I.M. While not everyone will want to swim every stroke, this makes for an efficient meet.

Our session concluded in about 90 minutes. It doesn't give the kids a lot of time between events which, in some cases, can be a good thing, so they don't get bored and start asking for snacks! It also can result in the kids not getting enough time to recover between events.

Lexy's pentathlon consisted of the 50 Fly, 50 Back, 50 Breast and 50 Free, and the 100 I.M. She had a great morning, dropping time in the first three events. She added a couple of seconds in the 50 Free and 100 I.M., but she was still within the qualifying times, so I'm confident she'll pare those back down to where she was last spring or perhaps better them further.

In the 50 Fly, Lexy dropped from 44.69 to 43.58 and made the qualifying time for the Michigan Team Swim League (44.00). Her kick vs. arms timing is really showing improvement. Watch the 50 Fly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB99oZDCZqw

Lexy has been struggling with her backstroke, but we were encouraged today when she dropped about two seconds, from 45.12 to 43.10, just about one second shy of the MTSL cut (42.00). Lexy is in Lane 1; her teammate Jenny Yu is in Lane 2. Jenny is a rocket at backstroke! Watch the 50 Back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf2mHXzInLk

Breaststroke has been Lexy's best stroke lately, and we were confident she would do well in this event. She didn't disappoint, dropping more than two seconds from her best time, from a 47.87 to a 45.56, and surpassing the MTSL cut (47.00). We were impressed with her start. Watch the 50 Breast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgOdr2OmeLw

In the 50 Free, she went 36.33, about two seconds slower, but these events were moving pretty quickly. She'll get back there. The MTSL cut is 36.00, so she already has that event. Lexy is in Lane 5, Jenny Yu is in Lane 6. Watch the 50 Free: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3XOXhcHkuI

The cut for the 100 I.M. is 1:31.00, and she got this cut last year, going a 1:27.60. Today she went 1:30.14, but again, I think this is a matter of having the meet go so quickly and being tired. Lexy is in Lane 5 and Jenny Yu is in Lane 6. You can see where Lexy falls behind in the backstroke but catches up in the breast. Watch the 100 I.M.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZvdcQjtWLc

Next week: OLY (Oakland Live "Y"ers) at Oakland University, one of our favorite "away" pools. This will be our first USS meet for the Fall and it will NOT be over in 90 minutes!