One Year's Worth...

...of swim caps. :) I celebrated my first anniversary since rediscovering swimming and decided to commemorate the event with a picture of the caps I've collected during the past year. A description of each one by number follows the photo.



 1) My first cap came from Sports Authority and is called "Crazy Daizy" - November 2009
 2) Another silicone cap from Sports Authority - January 2010
 3) One Hour Postal "Happy Hour" cap hosted by Tamalpais Masters "TAM" - February 2010
 4) Indoor Tri cap from Life Time Fitness - February 2010
 5) My first open water swim - DCB Adventures Swim #1 - May 2010
 6) Another silicone cap from Sports Authority - May 2010
 7) DCB Adventures Swim #2 - May 2010
 8) Go The Distance 50 mile cap - April 2010
 9) USMS cap (given to me by Rob Butcher at SwimFest '10) - June 2010
10) Yonkers Masters cap (given to me by Evelyn Foley) - June 2010
11) Catfish Crawl 2-mile swm - July 2010
12) DCB Adventures Swim #4 - September 2010
13) Mesa Aquatic Masters (swam with them for a week) - September 2010
14) 200 mile mark with Go The Distance - October 2010
15) Sun Devil Masters (my current club) - November 2010

Aurora over Norway

An item from my bucket list -- one of these days, I have got to see this in person. So, beautiful!

Aurora Borealis timelapse HD - Tromsø 2010 from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

My Perfect Day Just Got Better

I had to leave the swim event I competed in on Saturday earlier than I would have liked (I crammed way too much stuff into one day), so I didn't learn the race results until just now. I ended up swimming the 2K in 48:58 (slow by most standards), BUT -- almost 10 minutes faster than my first ever open water swim back in May of this year, so I AM STOKED!

I can't wait to do this again next year.

Perfect Day

A year ago today, I made the decision to get back into swimming. Best decision of my life! At the same time, DCB Adventures was holding their Arizona Swim Series finale at Tempe Town Lake. I had heard about it and wanted to see what open water swimming was all about, so my daughter and I went out for a look see. It didn't take much for me to decide right then and there that I wanted to do this same swim the next year, and yesterday I did. :) What a feeling of accomplishment.
The song "Perfect Day" that was featured in Legally Blonde kept playing through my head all that day. It truly was a perfect day for an open water swim. About 82 degrees air temp, 71 degree water temp, the lake had recently been refilled due to a dam break over the summer, and the water was clear and clean. I couldn't have asked for better conditions.
Here are some pictures from my race (2K) and a video of some competitors in the 4K race. Finally, I'm embedding the "Perfect Day" video so you can play it and get a sense of just how perfect my day was.

Just after the start -- I'm in the white cap toward the back of the pack.

The little girl in the bright green cap latched onto me at about 250 meters into the swim and stayed with me stroke for stroke until the last 400 meters of the race. Whenever I switched from freestyle to breaststroke, so did she. When I stopped to adjust my cap, she stopped and waited for me to begin swimming again. I don't quite understand what her tactic was, but she really impeded my progress, as she kept swimming into me -- but I figured, hey, maybe she just needs someone close to her to feel safer in the water, so I kind of watched over her. I thought it was odd that such a young child (I'm guessing she was about 10) was swimming alone without a parent or guardian.

All smiles at the finish.

A group of 4K racers - the song playing in the background was recorded live from the race promoter's loud speakers. Yes, it was loud! I could hear the music each time I swam by.

And now, to keep that Perfect Day theme going, listen and enjoy.

Having a "Devil" of a time

I'm having a devilish good time swimming with Sun Devil Masters out at ASU. I finally made up my mind after deliberating for over 6 months. I had two great teams to choose from, the other being Mesa Aquatic Masters, but decided on Sun Devil Masters. I just feel more at home with the Sun Devils.
The main reason why it took me so long to make up my mind, is it meant making a radical change to my daily routine. Instead of getting up at 5:15 AM to head to the gym for my pool workouts during the week, I now swim at 6:00 PM, so I just head over to ASU after work.
 
I was reluctant to change because I thought I would be too tired to swim after work, but so far I've found just the opposite to be true. I've read a few articles that suggest it is better to work out later in the day (between 2 and 4) than earlier. This is due to the fact that we're fully awake, well-fueled, our bodies are warmed up, and our brains are functioning at their peak.
 
I'm just starting my second year after returning to swimming and I'm so glad I made it back. I've accomplished so much this past year. I completed four open water swim competitions (3 here and 1 in California) and attended 3 swim classes and 1 clinic. My biggest accomplishment by far this past summer was finally learning how to swim butterfly. Woot!! My next goal is to become more proficient at competitive swimming and start entering swim meets. Joining Sun Devil Masters should go a long way to reaching that goal.