Regionals make it or break it...

The swim season is rounding the end but I'm still pumped. I have trained long and hard for this meet.

I swim 6 events in total:
1) 50m Freestyle... I come second.
2) 50m Butterfly... I come first.
3) 50m Backstroke... I come second.
4) 100m Freestyle... I own it.
5) 200m IM relay... we own it.
6) 200m Freestyle relay... we own it.

If you come first, second or third your on your  way to Provincials (this year they were in Kamloops). So as you can see I qualified in 6 events. There are swimmers who go to  Regionals but never Provincials.

I have been lucky and have qualified for Provincials every year I have been swimming.

The Regional meet is fun but nerve racking. In swimming there is something called a DQ it's not a trip to Dairy Queen it's a disqualification. The rules in swimming are specific. As an example. In Breaststroke you must touch the wall at the end of your race with two hands, if you touch with one hand you will go to Dairy Queen. The same rule applies to Butterfly.

This post doesn't have room for all the rules in swimming but those are a few of them for you guys.

The meet was all in all success for me and I'm on my way to Provincials...

At the beginning of the meet I was not nervous that I would not make Provincials. Let me tell you it's not easy to stay back when the starter says "Take your marks" cause if you move before the start your runnin' back to Dairy Queen.

In general I felt really good with my swimming at the meet given that i was very sick 2 days before the meet. I had to go to the doctor and they gave me medication to fix me up.

Swimming sick isn't easy but I didn't take my eyes off the PROVINCIAL GOLD...
N

This was my first buzz of the year. It says FAST

Hell Week stepping stone to Provincial GOLD.

Hell Week starts on a Monday, 6:00 AM precisely. Coach takes us aside and says "This will be our toughest week of training yet so far this year". And it begins...

The training is intense like you cannot imagine. This is no 17.5 hours a week this is 40 hours in one week. The week starts off with 2 hours of swimming in the morning. Day 1 is based on butterfly, lots of stroke correction, drills, streamlines, turns and starts. The kick in butterfly is super important; it's called a dolphin kick. Dolphin kick is very critical in every stroke. The dolphin kick is exactly like it sounds, you move your hips and feet in a syncronized fashion just like you see a dolphin on tv.

Between 9 and 3 PM we watch films on swimming and motivation, we play games designed to strenghthen our core and improve our stamina. We also eat and rest during this time. 4 PM we are back in the water again.

Tuesday  same routine but backstoke.
Wednesday same routine but breaststroke.
Thursday same routine but freestyle.(15x100's might happen here).
Friday is special olympics, I know what you guys are thinking here but it's not like that.
We form 6 teams 8 people on each team. Every team is named after a colour, last year I was team black.
After morning work out we have our activities, they can be as crazy as climbing the Grind, playing beach volleyball, scavenger hunting or driving go carts. All in all it's a fun time.

Surprise surprise 4 PM Friday night we are back in the water crankin' it up. Another 2.5 hour work out.

This week is one of the greatest and worst weeks of my summer. With it I improve, with out it I crash and burn.

Swimming is not for everyone, it's lonely, intense, requires huge discipline but the positives way out weigh the negatives.

I love it. Next stop Regionals, if you don't swim here you cannot compete at Provincials.
Stay tuned,THE GAMES ARE JUST BEGINNING...

This is a group of us getting ready to go up the Grind during Hell Week.
N

What it takes to win a provicial GOLD.

You can tell by the title of my blog, I am really into swimming. The season starts May 15 I train 9 hours a week before and  after school at the North Shore Winter Club. Training consists of dryland for 30 minutes before we get in the pool. Dryland is stretching, running sprints, strength training and ends in a game.

In the pool we swim of course, the work out starts with a warm up of 300m of swimming/kicking. Next is the heart of the work out. I like the heart of the work out the most. It's like running until you want to up chuck. You might think this is wierd but without pushing the limits you will never improve, kinda like this blog. In a typical work out we swim about 2000m it's stroke drills, spints, breath control and endurance. The work out ends with a warm down of about 200m of swimming. But if you think that's tough, In the middle of the summer I swim 17.5 hours a week. This is when training starts getting tough.

AM work outs start at 6:00. This work out is 1:30 minutes including stretching and cool down. Early in the morning it's very hard to get out of a warm cozy bed and be motivated to go for gold. There is fog coming off the water so you think it's hot but...(ITS FREEZING!).

PM work outs start at 5:30 and go to 8:00. Same stroke improvement, more intense drills and lots of kick with a kickboard, but occasionally we do one of my favorite things which is called 15x100m's. The turn over or pace time is 2mins, my repeat time averages were around 1:10sec. That would leave me with 50sec to recover forn the next 100m.

This gives you a small taste of what my summers are like all in pursuit of Provincial GOLD.
My finger tips are bruised from typing so see ya later. Next stop HELL WEEK. Bet you can't wait to hear about it...

Commonwealth Games Swimming Results

Hey guys today i am going to tell you the results for the Canadian Swimmers from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. All the swimmers in this are Canadians.

For the Mens 400m Freestyle the gold went to Ryan Cochrane. The Mens 100m Freestyle gold went to Brent Hayden. The Mens 100m Freestyle parasport gold went to Benoit Huot. The 1500m Freestyle gold went to Ryan Cochrane. The 50m Freestyle went to Brent Hayden. The Womens 200m Butterfly silver went to Audry Lacroix. The Mens 200m Butterfly bronze went to Stefan Hirniak. The Womens 200m IM bronze went to Julia Wilkinson. The Womens 100m Backstroke bronze went to Julia Wilkinson also.

Hope you enjoy.