We are into our winter swim season, and what a winter! It snowed the entire time we were in Royal Oak, to the tune of about 8-10 inches of new snow. With the arctic blast that is coming in this week, we are going into the traditional January deep freeze, with a -20 wind chill predicted by the end of the week. A warm indoor pool isn't a bad place to be, this time of year.
I tried out my new digital video camera this weekend, but I'm not sure I uploaded the right versions of the videos. I'll try to get this fixed, but in the meantime, feel free to get a look at Lexy's performance this weekend. She swam 10 events total -- 8 individual and two relays, but I only have a few uploaded.
50 Backstroke. Lexy is at the top of the screen in lane 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZKhh3UuljQ
50 Butterfly. Lexy is in the middle of the screen in lane 2. She dropped .25 seconds in this race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6-sWZCGhDc
200 Mixed Medley Relay. Lexy and friends swim the 200 yd. medley. Lexy leads off with a nice backstroke start, but gets disqualified for her long glide at the turn. Her compadres are Ally Kiekaefer on the breaststroke, Nehemiah Mork on the butterfly and Jennifer Yu on the Freestyle leg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CTOG9_nNw
I think you can watch all the videos I have uploaded so far at: http://www.youtube.com/user/jsohayda. If you have trouble with that let me know and I'll try to figure out how to fix it!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Midland Dolphin Invitational -- Last Meet of the Season
It's the last meet of the fall season. That's right, winter doesn't arrive until December 21 -- even though we've already had over a foot of snow.
Lexy has had a tough start to the 9-10 age group, but she's slowly but surely chipping seconds off her times. The winter season, starting in Janaury, should be pretty good. To put it into perspective, Lexy has taken 10 seconds off her 50 Breaststroke since the start of the season. She started out in the one minute range, and she's down to 49.68! That's a huge improvement. She needs to make 47 seconds to qualify for the championship meet in March.
The Midland Dolphin invitational was a success this year -- 14 teams and over 500 kids participated! There were so many kids in the afternoon session that they had to cut them down to three events from four.
Lexy swam in the morning session, where she swam four individual events and two relays. Her relay team came in third both times, and she held her own in her individual events. She cut almost two seconds off her 50 Free, and this qualified her to swim at the state champ meet in March. She will also swim the 100 Free at that meet. We're trying for one my qualifying time -- either 50 Breast or 50 Back. We have a few more meets to try for those times, and we're only talking about a second or two.
Sometimes the winter break gives the kids just enough rest to let them pull off some big upsets when they get back in the pool! Either way, we'll have fun on the way.
Lexy has had a tough start to the 9-10 age group, but she's slowly but surely chipping seconds off her times. The winter season, starting in Janaury, should be pretty good. To put it into perspective, Lexy has taken 10 seconds off her 50 Breaststroke since the start of the season. She started out in the one minute range, and she's down to 49.68! That's a huge improvement. She needs to make 47 seconds to qualify for the championship meet in March.
The Midland Dolphin invitational was a success this year -- 14 teams and over 500 kids participated! There were so many kids in the afternoon session that they had to cut them down to three events from four.
Lexy swam in the morning session, where she swam four individual events and two relays. Her relay team came in third both times, and she held her own in her individual events. She cut almost two seconds off her 50 Free, and this qualified her to swim at the state champ meet in March. She will also swim the 100 Free at that meet. We're trying for one my qualifying time -- either 50 Breast or 50 Back. We have a few more meets to try for those times, and we're only talking about a second or two.
Sometimes the winter break gives the kids just enough rest to let them pull off some big upsets when they get back in the pool! Either way, we'll have fun on the way.
St. Johns and U of Mich
It's been a pretty busy fall, with a swim meet nearly every weekend except for Thanksgiving. I guess I've fallen behind on my blogging! I'll try to catch up here with two new blogs.
Before Thanksgiving Lexy had a meet in St. Johns, Michigan. This was the same meet she swam last year where she swam her first 100 IM and won it handily. We knew that aging up into to 9-10 age group would be tough, and this meet really made it obvious. She had some really slow times and we left a little disappointed.
After Thanksgiving we packed up the car and headed to Ann Arbor for a two-day meet at the University of Michigan. We had never been to this meet and were kind of excited about it. This is where Michael Phelps trained for the Olympics.
About 15 minutes into the drive south, Lexy announced she wasn't feeling well; and about two minutes later she started throwing up in the back seat. Poor kid! We made it to an exit to get her cleaned up and into clean clothes. Unfortunately, due to the winter weather, turning around and going home wasn't really an option. Going north we had noticed multiple spin-outs and cars in the ditch -- enough to stop traffic for miles. Going south, the traffic was still moving fine though we did pass a skid or two.
As we ventured farther south, parts of the freeway were closed because of multiple car pile-ups. At one point the state police detoured us off the freeway for a few miles to clean up an accident. Now we were starting to get nervous that we would miss check-in. If you miss check-in, the meet officials assume you have scratched for the day and you can't swim. We made a call and got one of our team's parents to check us in. We arrived after a three hour trip -- one that normally takes two.
Lexy swam her first two events with no success. With one event to go she asked if she could scratch because she felt like she would vomit again. The coach agreed and we went to our hotel for the rest of the afternoon. Lexy promptly threw up again. We wondered if she would swim on Sunday!
Sunday morning, after a good night sleep and a good breakfast, Lexy felt ready to tackle the four events in front of her, and she had a great day. This included swimming the 100 backstroke for the first time and dropping 22 seconds. She dropped a second in her 50 freestyle and another second in her 50 breaststroke. She had a successful day among the thousand or so other swimmers who had showed up for this annual event.
Before Thanksgiving Lexy had a meet in St. Johns, Michigan. This was the same meet she swam last year where she swam her first 100 IM and won it handily. We knew that aging up into to 9-10 age group would be tough, and this meet really made it obvious. She had some really slow times and we left a little disappointed.
After Thanksgiving we packed up the car and headed to Ann Arbor for a two-day meet at the University of Michigan. We had never been to this meet and were kind of excited about it. This is where Michael Phelps trained for the Olympics.
About 15 minutes into the drive south, Lexy announced she wasn't feeling well; and about two minutes later she started throwing up in the back seat. Poor kid! We made it to an exit to get her cleaned up and into clean clothes. Unfortunately, due to the winter weather, turning around and going home wasn't really an option. Going north we had noticed multiple spin-outs and cars in the ditch -- enough to stop traffic for miles. Going south, the traffic was still moving fine though we did pass a skid or two.
As we ventured farther south, parts of the freeway were closed because of multiple car pile-ups. At one point the state police detoured us off the freeway for a few miles to clean up an accident. Now we were starting to get nervous that we would miss check-in. If you miss check-in, the meet officials assume you have scratched for the day and you can't swim. We made a call and got one of our team's parents to check us in. We arrived after a three hour trip -- one that normally takes two.
Lexy swam her first two events with no success. With one event to go she asked if she could scratch because she felt like she would vomit again. The coach agreed and we went to our hotel for the rest of the afternoon. Lexy promptly threw up again. We wondered if she would swim on Sunday!
Sunday morning, after a good night sleep and a good breakfast, Lexy felt ready to tackle the four events in front of her, and she had a great day. This included swimming the 100 backstroke for the first time and dropping 22 seconds. She dropped a second in her 50 freestyle and another second in her 50 breaststroke. She had a successful day among the thousand or so other swimmers who had showed up for this annual event.
Monday, November 10, 2008
PCC - Autumn Cruise, Huron High School, Ann Arbor
The first thing you notice when you get to Huron High School is that it is simply massive, making the pool almost impossible to find. The second thing is that they are practically on the bank of the Huron River, which flows through Ann Arbor. The third and most amusing thing is that, above the football stadium are these words: "Home of the Huron River Rats."
Yikes! Who wants to tell the grandkids that the mascot for their alma mater was a rodent? Well, I guess a lot of people. Look at all those crazy University of Michigan people cheering for their beloved Wolverines.
This was a two-day meet in Ann Arbor, and Lexy swam four events on day one and two on day two. Even though she was swimming in the afternoon, the events were well organized and the meets went like clockwork. Much better than last week!
The way they categorize times at these levels are Q1, A, B and C times. If you get a Q1 time that means you are CRAZY FAST!! It also means you qualify to compete in the state finals at the end of the season. Each event has it's own qualifying times in each category, boys' and girls' times are different, and are separated by a few seconds. Lexy has mostly B times, with a couple of C times that are really close to Bs. Our goal for this meet was not to lose any time on the Bs, but to do better in those events where she has C times, and move them into Bs. For example, she needed about 3.5 seconds in the 5o Breaststroke to get a B time, and she needed 1 second in the 5o Backstroke to get a B time.
On Saturday, Lexy swam the 100 IM, the 50 Fly, 50 Free and 50 Br. Of these, she had three new best times: 1:39.82 in the 100 IM; 37.05 for the 50 Free, shaving off about 1 and three-tenths seconds (and staying in B time range), and a new best time for the 50 Breaststroke, shaving off about 3 seconds. She needed another three-tenths of a second to get a B time!! We will be trying for this next weekend!
On Sunday she swam the 50 Backstroke and needed only one second to get a B time. Her fastest time was 47.77 and she got a 47.79 -- so essentially the same. Again, we'll try to get better next weekend on that one.
Lex gets a little discouraged when she comes away from these meets without making any visible progress but these USS meets bring in some amazing talent from all over the state. I think it will be key to keep her interested while she is 9, to get her to that 10-year old status where she is at least in the top 8 again, and, I hope, getting some A times!!
Yikes! Who wants to tell the grandkids that the mascot for their alma mater was a rodent? Well, I guess a lot of people. Look at all those crazy University of Michigan people cheering for their beloved Wolverines.
This was a two-day meet in Ann Arbor, and Lexy swam four events on day one and two on day two. Even though she was swimming in the afternoon, the events were well organized and the meets went like clockwork. Much better than last week!
The way they categorize times at these levels are Q1, A, B and C times. If you get a Q1 time that means you are CRAZY FAST!! It also means you qualify to compete in the state finals at the end of the season. Each event has it's own qualifying times in each category, boys' and girls' times are different, and are separated by a few seconds. Lexy has mostly B times, with a couple of C times that are really close to Bs. Our goal for this meet was not to lose any time on the Bs, but to do better in those events where she has C times, and move them into Bs. For example, she needed about 3.5 seconds in the 5o Breaststroke to get a B time, and she needed 1 second in the 5o Backstroke to get a B time.
On Saturday, Lexy swam the 100 IM, the 50 Fly, 50 Free and 50 Br. Of these, she had three new best times: 1:39.82 in the 100 IM; 37.05 for the 50 Free, shaving off about 1 and three-tenths seconds (and staying in B time range), and a new best time for the 50 Breaststroke, shaving off about 3 seconds. She needed another three-tenths of a second to get a B time!! We will be trying for this next weekend!
On Sunday she swam the 50 Backstroke and needed only one second to get a B time. Her fastest time was 47.77 and she got a 47.79 -- so essentially the same. Again, we'll try to get better next weekend on that one.
Lex gets a little discouraged when she comes away from these meets without making any visible progress but these USS meets bring in some amazing talent from all over the state. I think it will be key to keep her interested while she is 9, to get her to that 10-year old status where she is at least in the top 8 again, and, I hope, getting some A times!!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Dale Gooding Meet - WORST MEET EVER!
November 1, 2008 -- Since we've been swimming, we've had our share of good and bad experiences at swim meets. Since these events can really take a long time, we've developed a genuine appreciation for swim meets that run like a Swiss watch. We've had more experience with these since we started attending more of the U.S. Swimming sanctioned meets. These are meets that must finish within a certain time period or risk being fined by USS.
This past weekend, Lexy was looking forward to swimming in a Dolphin meet at a local high school in Saginaw. There is less pressure, and more of her friends go since it is local.
She was scheduled for four events: 200 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Free and 50 Breast. She did well in the 200, swimming the event for the first time in a timed meet and getting a time under 3 minutes, 2:57. There's a lot of room for improvement here, but we really wanted her to get experience with this event. The 50 Fly was about a second slower, but still a very good swim. The 100 Free -- not really anything to write home about. We'll talk about the 4th event in a moment.
What struck us, as we went through the order of events, was there appeared to be a break in the action about mid-meet. When the organizers started making announcements over the PA system, we realized our fears -- they were stopping the meet in the middle to have a "still got it -- prove it" event for anyone over the age of 21 who wanted to swim a 50. What this meant was that anyone who happened to have a bathing suit with them and wanted to do this "exhibition" swim, could strut their stuff.
What this did, in essence, was set the entire swim meet back half an hour -- first to let those swimmers warm up, and then swim their event. Because this took so much time away from the regular meet, they had to spend another half hour to let all the participating kids warm up again, and then -- there must have been a real brainiac at work scheduling this meet -- they scheduled 5 heats of the 500 Free. On average a 500 Freestyle takes about 6 minutes to swim -- so there went yet another half hour.
Once we figured out that all this activity was basically resulting in us having to sit and wait another two hours for Lexy to swim a 50, we decided to bail.
Not only we were very disappointed in the organization of the meet, the organizers should have also been able to calculate that the meet would go well through the lunch hour. By noon, they were running out of food and drinks at their concession stand, both for the swimmers and for the spectators.
Needless to say, this one is off our list for next year. We are anxiously looking forward to a very well organized meet in Ann Arbor next weekend at Huron High School.
This past weekend, Lexy was looking forward to swimming in a Dolphin meet at a local high school in Saginaw. There is less pressure, and more of her friends go since it is local.
She was scheduled for four events: 200 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Free and 50 Breast. She did well in the 200, swimming the event for the first time in a timed meet and getting a time under 3 minutes, 2:57. There's a lot of room for improvement here, but we really wanted her to get experience with this event. The 50 Fly was about a second slower, but still a very good swim. The 100 Free -- not really anything to write home about. We'll talk about the 4th event in a moment.
What struck us, as we went through the order of events, was there appeared to be a break in the action about mid-meet. When the organizers started making announcements over the PA system, we realized our fears -- they were stopping the meet in the middle to have a "still got it -- prove it" event for anyone over the age of 21 who wanted to swim a 50. What this meant was that anyone who happened to have a bathing suit with them and wanted to do this "exhibition" swim, could strut their stuff.
What this did, in essence, was set the entire swim meet back half an hour -- first to let those swimmers warm up, and then swim their event. Because this took so much time away from the regular meet, they had to spend another half hour to let all the participating kids warm up again, and then -- there must have been a real brainiac at work scheduling this meet -- they scheduled 5 heats of the 500 Free. On average a 500 Freestyle takes about 6 minutes to swim -- so there went yet another half hour.
Once we figured out that all this activity was basically resulting in us having to sit and wait another two hours for Lexy to swim a 50, we decided to bail.
Not only we were very disappointed in the organization of the meet, the organizers should have also been able to calculate that the meet would go well through the lunch hour. By noon, they were running out of food and drinks at their concession stand, both for the swimmers and for the spectators.
Needless to say, this one is off our list for next year. We are anxiously looking forward to a very well organized meet in Ann Arbor next weekend at Huron High School.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Club Wolverine Meet - Eastern Michigan University
Is it completely redundant for someone from Michigan to complain about road construction in the summer? Yikes! You leave three hours for a two hour trip and you still have to take a 10 mile detour to get where you're going on time!! And the stories of road rage -- SHEESH! You'd think we were back in Jersey.
Anyway, this weekend is a pretty big meet, and that mean everything from the number of clubs who entered, to the size of the pool (it's 10 lanes, 50 meters). There is every level of diving board and platform, and the EMU swimming and diving team is apparently the BEST in the Mid-America conference, judging by the number of championship banners they have hanging from the ceiling of the natatorium.
But -- sitting at this event was a humidifying experience. You may think I mean humilating, but I don't. I mean HUMIDFYING. Yes, it's an indoor pool and it must be 87 degrees in the viewing stands. The so-called fans they have strategically positioned barely move the air up there. Ther was a river running down my back the entire time I was there. The kids were getting tired just sitting around waiting to swim.
I should have signed Lexy up for more events because, as I said, this is a huge meet and it was completely full. They weren't allowing kids to sign up for extra events when they check in, as they sometimes do. So we must be content to swim two events each day.
Saturday, Lexy swam the 50 Breaststroke and took off 1.1 seconds to finish with another best time. The 100 Free was a different story entirely. She lost 5 seconds off her best time. I chalk this up to the heat in the building and the sheer amount of time she had to wait between events. We are hopeful that Sunday will be better.
Check out Lexy's USA Swimming portal at: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=457&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&perid=95dfc6ad-3973-4151-91c1-5b235b4fbde9
Sunday was better in that we were done by 4 pm, but it was still hot and humid up there in the viewer stands. Lexy's two events for Sunday were the 50 Free and the 50 Back. While she didn't get a best time in the 50 Free, she was only about one secondoff. However, she did take off a second in her 50 Backstroke for a new best time of 54.35.
One more meet for Lexy to swim at 8 & Under; then she'll age up to the 9 & 10 category, and a whole new set of challenges.
Anyway, this weekend is a pretty big meet, and that mean everything from the number of clubs who entered, to the size of the pool (it's 10 lanes, 50 meters). There is every level of diving board and platform, and the EMU swimming and diving team is apparently the BEST in the Mid-America conference, judging by the number of championship banners they have hanging from the ceiling of the natatorium.
But -- sitting at this event was a humidifying experience. You may think I mean humilating, but I don't. I mean HUMIDFYING. Yes, it's an indoor pool and it must be 87 degrees in the viewing stands. The so-called fans they have strategically positioned barely move the air up there. Ther was a river running down my back the entire time I was there. The kids were getting tired just sitting around waiting to swim.
I should have signed Lexy up for more events because, as I said, this is a huge meet and it was completely full. They weren't allowing kids to sign up for extra events when they check in, as they sometimes do. So we must be content to swim two events each day.
Saturday, Lexy swam the 50 Breaststroke and took off 1.1 seconds to finish with another best time. The 100 Free was a different story entirely. She lost 5 seconds off her best time. I chalk this up to the heat in the building and the sheer amount of time she had to wait between events. We are hopeful that Sunday will be better.
Check out Lexy's USA Swimming portal at: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=457&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&perid=95dfc6ad-3973-4151-91c1-5b235b4fbde9
Sunday was better in that we were done by 4 pm, but it was still hot and humid up there in the viewer stands. Lexy's two events for Sunday were the 50 Free and the 50 Back. While she didn't get a best time in the 50 Free, she was only about one secondoff. However, she did take off a second in her 50 Backstroke for a new best time of 54.35.
One more meet for Lexy to swim at 8 & Under; then she'll age up to the 9 & 10 category, and a whole new set of challenges.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
BAYS Beat the Heat! (or Beat Your Record!)
Bay City has the weirdest set up for a community center. It's down by the riverfront, but it's behind a bunch of warehouses, and wedged between the railroad and the river. On Saturday morning a Very Loud Train rumbled by during warm-ups; I was wondering what would happen if another came by during the meet.
On Saturday, Lexy swam three 50-Meter events: Free, Breast and Fly. She won all three, with one new best time in the 50 Breast (59.75). It was warm but very cloudy, which was great because the sun was not beating down on us the whole time. It started to rain at about 10 am, but it wasn't thundering or lightning, so we just kept going.
Sunday the sun was out and I dragged the whole family over there to support Lexy through her last two events: 50 Back and 100 Free. Our coaching for Lex for the 50 Back was "Keep your head back!" She won even though she added a second or two. She said the sun was in her eyes (which was possible!).
The best event, by far, though, was the 100. She was so far ahead, she was about a third of the way back by the time the next closest swimmer was turning. I think she had a good tailwind (it was pretty windy!) and she took off about a second to finish at 1:33.70.
Five blue ribbons later, we concluded that perhaps Lexy just isn't being challenged. We have one more travel meet this season, next weekend, at Eastern Michigan University. While she's already signed up for all the 50's, she's agreed to give more 100's and 200's a try. We'll do a few "deck entries" for a couple events she hasn't tried before, and we'll see how she does!
On Saturday, Lexy swam three 50-Meter events: Free, Breast and Fly. She won all three, with one new best time in the 50 Breast (59.75). It was warm but very cloudy, which was great because the sun was not beating down on us the whole time. It started to rain at about 10 am, but it wasn't thundering or lightning, so we just kept going.
Sunday the sun was out and I dragged the whole family over there to support Lexy through her last two events: 50 Back and 100 Free. Our coaching for Lex for the 50 Back was "Keep your head back!" She won even though she added a second or two. She said the sun was in her eyes (which was possible!).
The best event, by far, though, was the 100. She was so far ahead, she was about a third of the way back by the time the next closest swimmer was turning. I think she had a good tailwind (it was pretty windy!) and she took off about a second to finish at 1:33.70.
Five blue ribbons later, we concluded that perhaps Lexy just isn't being challenged. We have one more travel meet this season, next weekend, at Eastern Michigan University. While she's already signed up for all the 50's, she's agreed to give more 100's and 200's a try. We'll do a few "deck entries" for a couple events she hasn't tried before, and we'll see how she does!
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