My Life

So, I'm still alive, and still blogging. This term is driving my a little crazy, but it's halfway over so I think I'll make it. MIACs are also in 9 days, which will also help out a lot as this term concludes.

I'm actually really enjoying my classes this term, which is great because I plan on compsing out of one of them (my Foreign Policy Analysis class). I've learned more in my Politics of Global Economic Relations class than I have in any other class at Carleton, except my beginning Russian courses. I can watch CNBC and have a pretty good idea about what they're talking about, which is pretty cool. It's also made me realize just how fucked the American economy is. My third class, Pushkin, is the class that I complain the most about because its the class that takes up the most time. The first week of class my professor decided that we would write a 2-3 page essay in Russian for every class. That added up to about 30 essays in Russian for the term. After everyone in the class spent 12 hours writing the first essay, we all went to the prof and convinced her to make it one page. The sad thing is that the poetry and novels that we've read have been excellent, but I hate my life so much because of this class that I don't appreciate it at all.

Swimming has been going a lot better in the last few weeks than it did at the beginning of the season. After a few meets that were pretty typical of my midseason (I think I went 2:13 in the 200 fly once...) Andy decided that I could try out the 200 back again, which was my best event in high school. I went within a second of my lifetime best, then swam it the next weekend and went a lifetime best, and then I swam it again this weekend and cut another second. So it looks like I'll get out of doing the 500 this season, which will be excellent. I always feel that I'm a lot slower for the last 2 days of MIACs after swimming the 500, especially after I sprinted the first 300 yards of it last year. The last two years I've thought that doubling the 200 fly and 200 back would be too much for day 3, but Andy had me try it out at the Minnesota Challenge this weekend and it worked out quite well, I even went a lifetime best in the 100 free on the 400 free relay after doing the 2 200s.

MIACs is going to be really exciting this year, we got a very strong freshman class and I'm really excited to see what they pull out. Mamoru and Klontz have been getting all the attention, but make sure you watch Ethan in the 100 and 200 fly, I think he's gonna have a ridiculous taper. We might have the best fly squad in the MIAC, we could easily have 3 guys under 53, and maybe under 52 in the 100. And 2 guys under 2 in the 200 fly. Also, I'm predicting that Sjoberg breaks 5 in the 500, you heard it from me first. Somehow, I think we're a much deeper team than we were last year, especially in the sprint free events. I think our 200 free relay is going to get 2nd or 3rd at MIACs, and we'll have a strong 400 free relay too, we had 5 guys under :50 on relays at the Challenge, which I think is a first for a meet I've swam at Carleton (the B relay went a 3:21, which is a great example of our depth this year). I think we're definitely the dark horse at MIACs this year, but I think we have a good chance at shocking St. Johns. Especially with our new cheer that Andy keeps having us do...

As co-captain of Karleton Men's Entry team I figured I would show this years Conference T-shirt design (courtesy of the Hill House members). I am sure most of you will not understand the reference to the shirt so you should watch this video. I have already heard comments about how this years shirt will not compare to last years shirt. To all that criticism and any that may follow afterward, I think I speak for the team by giving them all a real big CHILD PLEASE!!

MN Challenge

Hey you all, so I know I haven't really posted anything on the blog in a while but I figured I would write a little bit about how my last meet went. It was my last time tapering and I remember last year I decided I wouldn't get a LAZR because I would wait until this year to get it. Well, the suits ended up getting banned and our team is broke so they didn't help us out as much to pay for the suits. Because of this I decided not to spend 40-90 dollars on a new suit and just used my aquablade from last year. I used the analogy that the color of a car is not what makes it go fast but the engine and most importantly the driver that makes rip down the racetrack when I made my decision on the suit.

This years taper also felt a little different since I swam one new event and also because I'm starting to become an old man and everything seems to always be sore, but I was able to get through it. I also had to prepare for this taper meet a little differently since it was a championship style meet as opposed to the Olaf dual meet that I've tapered for in the past. This would be the toughest meet I've swam at since I was in seven events. I knew I would have to focus on flushing out and warming up before and after every event, which are my two least favorite things about swimming. Even with this strategy I was still nervous for the meet. I was worried I would end up dying out in my last few events. I decided to focus on one race at a time and if died out, I would just go as strong as I could and hold on for the ride. I also got some inspiration from a Brian Dawkins video Pete sent out to the team a few weeks back. This helped me get pumped although I only usually did some of his rituals in my head to save myself some embarrassment. My meet ended up like this:

200 Free Relay: .25mid
50 Free .25.8 (season best, even after I slipped off the blocks)
400 Med Relay: 100 fly, 1.03 (previous season best 1.13, previous lifetime best 1.08)
200 Med Relay: 50 Breast, .31 (previous best was .33, but I'm not sure if I should count this especially since both me and Schlaef jumped early on our relay exchanges. The ref said we got DQ too but our results got posted as a normal relay)
100 Breast: 1.09 (previous season and lifetime best 1.13.5)
100 Free: 55.3 (previous season best 59.09, and lifetime best was 55.8)
400 Free relay: 54.9 (I just wanted to go sub .55 and I just got it)

I was very surprised with all my times. I knew I would swim fast, but I wasn't sure if I would still be able to go as fast as I've gone in the past especially since it didn't feel like I was going very fast when I swam them at the meet.

When I finished my last 100 Free I got out of the pool and realized I was done forever, so I said screw it and didn't cool down. It was definitely bittersweet though I will miss competing as I'm sure most of you do now. I have also accepted the fact that I will probably get fat by the end of this year since I will have no motivation to stay in shape now. If anything I'll try to keep lifting and maybe I'll be able to bench as much as Elliot and Jared did last year. The last time I benched I think I did 185 for 6 reps so look out Elliot. Well I should get back to work since I didn't do any work yesterday because I didn't get out of bed until 5:30pm only because Mark came and woke me up too. I will try to post more often on the blog.

I Accept Your Challenge, Minnesota!

This my perspective on the Minnesota Challenge. Alfredo's will be comin shortly.

So a few weeks ago, after the Northfield Mini-Invite against Grinnel, Andy sent out the taper groups via email. He said he would sent it mid afternoon. It was a very unproductive day - I just sat by my computer and pressed refresh every five minutes from 3pm till 9pm, when the email finally came. As usual, I skipped the paragraph that says "now more than ever we need to act as a team" (by the way, upon further checking, its the exact same wording he used in previous years - can you say copy and paste?) and checked the lists. Alas, I didn't make the conference squad.

I was extremely bummed at first. I remember being bummed my freshman year, not only because I partially thought I should've been on there instead of someone else, but also because I worked so hard. But this year, the squad was fastest 17 people who would score, so my sadness was mostly because I really had worked my ass off this season.

So I was bummed for a while, and then finally got over it and recognized (with some help) that my attitude was extremely selfish and not helping the team at all. I turned my frown upside down and started to truly enjoy the taper. Well Andy got a little crazy, telling some new taper-tales and also making up a new Carleton Cheer that he is obsessed with (we humor him and do it at meets - he goes crazy).

The two-week taper went by fast and then BAM! It was game time. The MN Challenge. I agree with Alfredo that it was one of the hardest meets I've swum, because I had 8 swims total (all relays and then 3 indiv events) but it was all finals, so it wasn't as much rest as conference. My meet went like this:

Session 1 / Friday Night
50 free in the 200 freelay - 23.5
50 free (indiv) - 24.26
100 free in the 400 medley relay - 51.94

Session 2 / Saturday Morning
50 fly in the 200 Medley relay - 26.32
100 fly - 58.71
200 free leading of the 800 freelay - 1:55.64

Session 3 / Saturday Night
200 fly - 2:18.08
100 free in the 400 freelay - 52.74

(Full Results)

Overall, I'm delighted. Lifetime bests in my 50, 100, 200 frees and my 100 fly. My 200 fly time is a second off my best from last year at conference, but my 200 fly wasn't as strong this season in general as it was last year. I kinda choked in my indiv 50 free and my 100 free in the 400 freelay, but I'm really happy with my swims overall. After I didn't make conference team, my goal times were readjusted to just beat my times from conference last year, which I was hesitant if I could do because of the dramatic and short taper. But the non real events/warm up day on Friday really got me pumped.

It was dual pool format, which made cheering kinda difficult because there was sometimes a lot going on at the same time and wasn't as straight forward as conference. But being at the U really got everyone excited, to be tapering or to be so close to Conference. I'm so pumped for Conference. It's going to be great, but tough for us as a team. But I think it helped for A) our strong freshman class to see how good the Carleton Taper can be and B) what its like to swim at the U.

The bus ride home was ridiculous. After such a long day, we were all delirious. Almost rocked the mini-sugar loaf bus over when the pizza guy arrived straight to our bus door. It was a crazy ride home. Then a bunch of the team met up and the taper group drank while the conference people danced more crazily than the drunks and then many people went to mid winter ball. You really couldn't tell who was drinking and who wasn't. It was a blast.

And so my focus changes a bit. I'm gonna catch up on work this week, and then turn my attention towards Conference. Afterwards, I'm really gonna work on staying in shape. As I said to Ian Holman when he got back from Spain after the fall. "I feel like I haven't seen you since last WINTER because last spring you were always training for the triathlon and I was always... drinking." So I'm gonna try to still do the same amount of drinking. Maybe more? My (2nd) 21st birthday is coming up! But just lift and run more.

Now on to midterms and sleep. Now Tim, let's hear about that first day on the job soon!