Finally!

 

The world's second most exciting podcast has returned!  Listen here

00:57 - Shameless Eddie Reese book plug

01:24 - Welcome Bonnie Adams

02:22 - Recap of 2023 OZ Mile/Michele Weber

06:36 - Preview of 2024 OZ Mile

09:55 - Bikes, or Bikes?

11:35 - What to expect at OZ

15:01 - Prepping athletes for open water

20:34 - Making memories in our sport

22:31 - Why September?

25:10 - Pool "Open Water"

28:05 - Alcatraz

29:27 - Canandaigua

30:45 - Germany

32:11 - More on the 2023 OZ Mile/Michele Weber

37:04 - Event feedback

41:10 - Wrapping it up/Podcast rankings

OZ Mile

 

A link to the OZ Mile schedule is here

 

Friday will be a travel day.  Check-in and Olympian/English Channel swimmer Michelle Weber's clinic will be Saturday.  Sunday we'll swim our Mile "Waves" and then head home.

 

There are high school and club programs from Texas that race in this open water event.  It falls on the same weekend as our homecoming in Bay City.

I plan to swim in both the Age Group & OZ Waves.  Y'all have several options and could race in as many as four (4) different Waves!

If we have any athletes who'd like to attend, please let me know ASAP!

 

 

Episode XXXV

 

 

 

In the latest episode of SwimTalk A2B, we reconnected with a former Katy age-group swimmer of ours, Lawrence "LD" Romine.

 

Lawrence dropped out of our sport at a young age, but is now showing off his swimming skills on the triathlon circuit.

Episode XXXV:  Lawrence Romine

 

 

No Gators!

If you've been reading along with us for the past couple of months, you'll recognize some of these names!

In addition to their dry-land work, some swimmers - including Olympians Lily King and Cody Miller - are doing a little open water training.

Full article is here

A summer without a culminating championship has been “weird but good,” King said.

“I’m going to be honest. It’s been kind of nice. Haven’t exactly had a break since I’ve been 8 years old. So it’s kind of nice to just kind of step back for a little bit and just swim for the sake of swimming and not necessarily for the sake of performing in a meet.”

“Yeah, if you don’t love it, you’re certainly not doing it now, swimming in a pond,” said Cody Miller, 28, the Hoosier breaststroker who won Olympic bronze and gold medals in 2016. “But anything is better than nothing.”

On this day, Zane Grothe is the first of seven swimmers to arrive. Grothe, 28, who set two American records in 2017, said he is “gung-ho” about the pond. He was out of the water for six weeks entirely.

“Every day, I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve got to work hard. I’ve got to get in shape, I’ve got to get in shape,’“ he said ... before adding there is nothing important for 13 months.

A Day in the Life...

via ZwemZa

Alex Meyer (Harvard/Team USA) won the 25k at the 2010 World Championships and was 10th in the 10k at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Meyer mentions Fran Crippen in the video.  Crippen died in an open water 10k event in 2010.  The race in the United Arab Emirates was held in unsafe conditions (salt water temp near 90 degrees) and forced major changes in open water rules.

Several things to note in the video below.  In the water, Meyer's distance per stroke (DPS) is tremendous.  He's got a great attitude toward the time and effort required for his chosen sport.

He is up early for morning workouts, works very hard both in and out of the water, eats well, and focuses on his recovery so...so he can get up the next day and do it all over again!

Today's suggestion:

Open Water: Our Sport's "Extreme"

Interested in the Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge?

This year's "Five Lakes in Five Days" event is scheduled for October 21-25.

I've done it twice:  2nd Overall in 2007 (7:22:08) & 2nd Overall in 2011 (7:03.11)

We'd have to miss three (3) days of school!

FloSwimming - University of Southern California

via The New York Times

Head coach Dave Salo recently retired as head coach of the USC Trojans, but plans to continue coaching his club program.  Salo's body of work as a coach is tremendous and includes numerous world record setters/Olympic gold medalists, including Rebecca Soni and Jason Lezak.

Salo is one of the smartest coaches in our sport.  His workouts are unconventional.  I have stolen borrowed plenty of his sets in the past and hope he continues posting workouts on his Twitter feed!

Catherine (Vogt) Kase is the open water head coach for Team USA.  She has coached open water swimmers in numerous international competitions including Pan Am Games, Pan Pac Games, World Champs, & the Olympics.

Psychology of Swimming

Swimmers,

There are some things that are unique to our sport, right?

No other athletes are yelled at by their coaches for breathing.

No other athletes spend hours looking at a black line.

No other athletes spend their practices and competitions in a medium that could be fatal to the less experienced.

On the other hand, we have plenty in common with other sports.

Like all athletes, we need to train ourselves physically and mentally.

Today, the focus is on the mental side of the equation.

Olympian Chloe Sutton (Mission Viejo Nadadores) was one of Team USA's greatest distance swimmers.  Coached by the legendary (and now retired) Bill Rose, she swam the mile (1500 free) in pool competition and the 10k in open water.

Here, Chloe demonstrated one of your favorites - Rotisserie Drill:


As part of our shave/taper guidelines, you were asked to visualize races.  Maybe we should do this more often throughout the season.

Here's today's suggestion: