Southwest Triathalon

Last year Spencer participated in a local triathalon.  This year both Spencer and Sydney participated.  Spencer had to swim 50 yards, bike 1.5 miles and run 0.5 miles. 



Probably Spencer's least favorite part of the race.



Spencer transitioning from the swim to bike



Syd had to swim 25 yards, bike 0.5 mile and run 0.25 miles.  Apparently everyone was talking about her swim as she finished first in her heat and the next swimmer was also 10 yards behind her!

 

 

Transitioning with mom.

Sydney's young group rode on the track.

 

 

Their race markings -- age on the left leg, competitor number on the right.

 

We came, we saw, we kicked some.....

...swim butt!!  It was an awesome weekend for the SWAC swim team at the Indiana State Swim Championship in Indianapolis. As of the time of this blog entry, the SWAC team was in fourth place out of 72 teams from across the state.  And part of that great 4th place result is the boys 10 & under team that Spencer is a part of. 

Indiana University Natatorium, Indianapolis

Spencer and his teammates under their team banner

Spencer didn't quite make it in any of the individual events, but he was part of two relay teams, the 200m freestyle and 200m IM. 

We left home around 9am and headed to Indy, as we were driving straight to the pool.  After getting a quick bite at Subway, we made our way to the pool at the IU natatorium in Indy.  Spencer was swimming the anchor leg of the 200m freestyle relay.  The team did their warmups around 1pm and we figured Spencer wouldn't be swimming until around 3pm.  So the wait began.  He was having fun on the deck with his friends while we sat in the stands and stewed, waiting for his first "big" event since joining the swim team. 

Finally, his heat was due up.  Spencer was down at the one end with his teammate Cameron with Chandler and Jacob at the other end.  The horn blared and they were off.  The first leg went okay, then the second leg wasn't bad, but then Jacob in the third leg really poured it on.  He touched and Spencer took off.  He was smooth and looking good.  He finally touched the wall and his team took 3rd place!  After it was all said and done, Spencer swam his personal best in his 50m free, going 38.54 seconds!  We were so proud.  All the practices and long hours paid off.  Take a look at the video below:

http://youtu.be/NYGAxH0jzsA

After the race finished up and Spencer got packed up, we headed to over to UT and AKK's house for dinner and lodging (thanks guys!).  Spencer was in need of a haircut before even going to Indy, so we decided to do a little trimming Friday night.  AKK got the clippers out and I gave Spencer his first mohawk!

Mohawk time!

A couple of mohawk wearin' dudes

No worries, Christine is taking him on Monday to get his hair back in order.  But it was cool that he and his teammate shared this for their big weekend together.

After some good rest and a great breakfast, we headed back to the pool for day 2.  It was basically a repeat of Friday, except Spencer was swimming the breast stroke portion of the 200m IM relay.  Again, more waiting until his event which was about 3 hours after we got to the pool.  It finally came up and the boys got ready.  The race went off without any issues and they finished 5th in their heat.  With this finish, they finished 13th overall for the boys 10 & under.  It was a great job for all the boys.  Here's the video of the 200m IM relay:

http://youtu.be/CQ6NKG7vxVk

Spencer staying loose before the meet

We stuck around after Spencer's race to watch the other SWAC team compete in the 200m IM final.  We knew they were good and it was going to be a great race.  Holy cow, they did not disappoint!  After a slow start, the guys got moving and ended up taking first place overall!  It was one of the most exciting relays we've watched since joining SWAC.  I ended up emailing it to the head coach of the SWAC program and he distributed it to all parents in an email update he sent out.  Here's the video of that race:

http://youtu.be/aJfbaen8-xM

Overall it was a great weekend.  Now, the long course season is over and the kids have about 6 weeks off to get a little downtime before short course and school starts.  We'll fill in some of the downtime with trips to the local Y for open swim, where both Syd and Spencer can get in some laps.  Hopefully this will suffice until short course season!

 

STATE, baby!!

It's what Spencer has been working for since earlier this year....the chance to swim at the Indiana State Swim Championship!!  Although he hasn't qualified in an individual event yet (more on that later), we just found out tonight that he's on two relay teams...the 200m IM and 200m freestyle.  We're all pretty excited!

Spencer talking to his coach after one of his events

This past weekend, we traveled to Munster, IN for the last full meet of the long course season.  Spencer swam two events Friday night, 4 events on Saturday and 3 events on Sunday.  He did pretty well, shaving some time in a few events and adding some time in others.  He was really close to a state qualifying time in his 50m breaststroke, needing to shave about 3 seconds off his personal best.  Unfortunately, he actually added a second to his best time and worst of all, we found out later that he got disqualified for a false start (you can see him flinch just before the start in the video below).  Overall, we were satisfied with the weekend.

http://youtu.be/J7G_Aoz0J_k

The State meet is July 26-29 in Indianapolis.  The relay teams are set, but there is still one more opportunity for him to qualify for an individual event.  His swim club, SWAC, has a "last chance" meet on July 23rd at their team pool.  We're hoping he'll add at least one individual event to the two relays he's already on. 

I'll update after the state meet with all pertinent information.

**We'll be looking for overnight accomodations in Indy in a couple of weekends, if any of our favorite relatives want to have us!**

Stretching before an event

First outdoor meet

We participated in our first outdoor swim meet this weekend.  It was a short 1hr, 30min drive to lovely Napoleon, OH and their outdoor city pool.  We didn't know what to expect, as we'd never been to an outdoor meet before.  And with the surface-of-the-sun heat we've been experiencing lately, all eyes were on the weather prior to Saturday afternoon when we'd start. 

Spencer (on the left) with Coach Steve and 4 other SWAC teammates

The kids were excited to swim outdoors and hanging out with their other teammates.  We loaded up chairs, our pop-up canopy, a full cooler and lots of sunscreen and headed to Ohio.  It was an easy drive over to the pool.  When we arrived, we saw a large grassy area next to the pool where others were setting up similar canopies to ours, so we did also.  Thank god for the canopies, as it was sunny and hot all weekend.  Yet, with a nice breeze, we survived. 

Spencer getting ready for an event

 

On Saturday, Spencer swam 5 events and Syd swam 2 events.  Then, on Sunday, Spencer was in 4 events and Syd was in 2 again. 

Here are a couple of videos of their better races.

Spencer's 100m breaststroke

http://youtu.be/e1r0WJNj-BY

Syd's 50m freestyle

http://youtu.be/ke-7HOjQ0Og

Despite the heat, sun and drive times, both kids did well and had a really good time.  The parents actually had a pretty good time too.  The meet only lasted a few hours each day so we weren't too burnt out after all was said and done.  Now, we've got two weeks of practice and then a weekend meet in Munster, IN.  This is a fairly new pool and we're expecting some fast times from all the kids on the team.  Updates to follow!

Syd preparing for an event

Back at it....

We're back at it.  Back at the swim meets, that is.  For the last couple of months, both Spencer and Sydney have been practicing hard at the pool, getting ready for the first meet of the long course season.  Long course has the pool set up at a 50 meter length.  This is different than short course, which has the pool set up at a 25 meter length.  For the little kids like Syd who are just starting out, the 50 meter pool is a daunting challenge, especially considering they practice in a 25 meter pool.

Spencer has made good progress in his new swim group, Bronze.  Previously, he was in Barracuda.  The SWAC swim groups follow a "fishy" theme for the younger kids, then move to an Olympic theme.  Here's the hierarchy:  Beta fish, Pirahna, Barracuda, Tiger Shark, Bronze, Silver, Gold.  With Spencer's great performances in Barracuda during the previous short course season, the SWAC coaches decided to move him up two groups to Bronze, effectively skipping the Tiger Shark group.  With that move, he went from (4) 1-hour practices a week to (6) 1-1/2 hour practices a week, including a 2-hour Saturday practice.  He's doing well with it all, although the weekends bring some much-needed rest.  He's learning alot of great technique from Coach Steve and making good progress.  Below is a photo of Spencer getting some pre-race tips from Coach Steve, with Coach Cody looking on.  Cody was Spencer's coach last season and is mentoring under Coach Steve this season.  Spencer had a great relationship with Cody and we're happy he'll be working with the Bronze group this year.

Syd is in the Pirahna group, which is the youngest group to participate in meets.  She's always excited to go to practice and does very well each day she's in the pool.  When the meet came this past weekend, she was definitely a little nervous on Saturday morning.  Even though she had been to the large pool when attending Spencer's prior meets and knew how big it was, she was a little apprehensive.  After we talked about it a while and Spencer giving her some rare "big brother" advice, she calmed down. 

The meet started Friday afternoon, where Spencer was scheduled for 2 events, both 200m swims.  However, we learned shortly before the meet started that some of the kids were being scratched from some of the events due to time restrictions and the large number of swimmers on the Friday afternoon session.  As such, Spencer only swam in the 200m freestyle.  Then he was scheduled for 4 events on both Saturday and Sunday.  Syd, being a new competition swimmer, was only scheduled to swim in 2 events on both Saturday and Sunday. 

Here are some videos of the kids' races.  The first one is Syd's 50m freestyle. 

http://youtu.be/pgDjH8Xq0YQ

Here's her 100 backstroke.

http://youtu.be/c-Q6QIHuMJk


It was a long race for these little kids, but they all did well.  We've just got to practice her flip turns and she'll be on her way.

Here's a couple of Spencer's races.  He shaved almost 80 seconds combined off his events.  He really likes the breast stroke and is improving each week on it.

http://youtu.be/4vzTEqToy-4

This is his 100m freestyle race.  He didn't win any of his heats, but like I mentioned above, he improved on all his previous times. 

http://youtu.be/g4MJnIOVhs8

All in all, it was a great weekend for both of the kids.  Even though we spent about 12 total hours at the pool this weekend, everyone was in good spirits (and slept well on Sunday night!)  I'll keep the posts coming as meets occur.  Check back often for updates.

What a weekend!

This weekend we traveled to our first overnight, away-from-home swim meet.  It was at Concord High School in Elkhart, IN (about 1hr 45mins from our house).  Spencer was signed up to swim two events on Friday afternoon, so we pulled the kids from school around 12:30pm on Friday and headed up to Elkhart.  He was swimming in the 200y freestyle and 200y IM, both of which he had never swam in at competition.  He placed 4th in the 200y freestyle, but unfortunately got DQ'd (disqualified) in the 200y IM because he stopped about halfway through when his goggles fell off.  He managed to finish the race through encouragement by the SWAC coaches on the sideline, but he was devastated.  Had he not been DQ'd, it probably would've put him on top (more on that in a minute).

We finally left the pool around 8:30 Friday night, all of us pretty exhausted.  We stopped and picked up some sandwiches before getting to our hotel, ate and then crashed for the night.  6am was going to come early the next day, as Spencer had to be in the pool by 7:55am and we wanted to ensure good seats for Saturday's events.

Spencer must have gotten some good rest and the hotel breakfast seemed to pay off, as he had a stellar performance on Saturday.  Here's what he swam, all in yards, with place finishes:

100 IM - 3rd
25 free -- 3rd
25 back -- 3rd
50 breast -- 1st
100 free relay -- 1st

And, to top it off, he qualified for a 3rd divisional cut in the 50 breast!  His personal best to date was 52.25 seconds and the divisional cut time was 50.99 seconds.  He ended up swimming a 50.76 seconds. Here's the video of that race:

 http://youtu.be/GZJCvEVKYo4

We finished up at the pool around 12:30 and grabbed some lunch.  Then we headed back to the hotel for a little rest, although the kids wanted to swim in the hotel pool.  I guess it's in their blood now!  We planned to meet a couple of other swimming families for dinner around 5:30pm.  At 5pm, Spencer started complaining of an upset stomach.  Yikes, I thought he was gonna miss a day of events on Sunday.  So Spencer and I stayed at the hotel while the others went to dinner.  I gave him some Sprite and animal crackers.  After about an hour, he was feeling much better.  By the time Christine and Sydney got back, he was back to normal.  Not sure what happened, but we're glad it passed.  Everyone was in bed by 8:30pm, resting up for another early start on Sunday.

Sunday morning rolled around and everyone was up by about 5:45am.  We packed up, grabbed some breakfast and headed for the pool.  Today would be similar to Saturday, with Spencer swimming in 5 events.  Here's how he faired today:

100 free -- 4th
25 fly -- 4th
50 back -- 5th
50 free -- 5th
100 IM relay -- 2nd

I think it was a combination of not feeling well on Saturday night, not much to eat for dinner and him not eating that much during the meet today that prompted some slower times.  However, it didn't seem to matter much when awards time came at the end of the meet.  We almost left to make the trip home, but decided to stay anyway.  When they got to the 8 & under boys results, we knew it was going to be close between Spencer and his buddy Gideon, who also had a great meet.  So, they announced 2nd place overall for the meet and they called Spencer's name!  (sidenote: had he not DQ'd on Friday night, his coach thinks he might've won 1st place overall)  We were very surprised and obviously extremely pleased.  He walked down from the stands to the scoring table to get is award, this trophy:

He was grinning from ear to ear!  He made his rounds, looking his coach, but couldn't find him in the crowd of people.  We finally caught up with Coach Cody as we were walking out and many high fives were exchanged.

Coach Cody with Spencer and Gideon

Coach Cody with Hans and Franz

Now the real work begins.  Because Spencer and Gideon made 3 divisional cuts each and they're Barracuda team is finished for the season, they will both be practicing with the next highest age group, Tiger Shark, this week.  They'll work with Coach Cody and the Tiger Shark coaches, Brent and Megan, to prepare for this weekend's divisional meet to be held here in Fort Wayne.  We're looking forward to some good practices and an exciting finish to their winter swim season with the upcoming meet. 

Stay tuned for results next week!

Way to go, Spencer, Gideon and Coaches Cody and Rachel for all your hard work!

You made the cut!

I guess a little bribery goes a long way with an 8 year old.  Back to that in a minute.  We got up early today for day 2 of Spencer's swim meet.  He was swimming in 6 events today, including a 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle.  If he was going to make a Divisional cut, it was going to be in one of these events.  Although, if he didn't make a cut today, there are still 2 more swim meets in the next couple of weeks to complete the cut. 

There is a local mexican restaurant that has a Sunday brunch/buffett that we sometimes attend.  Spencer really likes to go there, especially since we don't do it that often.  Back to the bribery.  I told Spencer this morning before we left that I would take him to Cebolla's (aforementioned mexican joint) if he made one of his Divisional cut times today.  He was excited about the possibility of having his favorite meal after swimming today.  On the flip side, I told him that if he didn't make one of his cuts, he would have to buy lunch.  Now, I had no intention of actually making the boy pay, but it was worth his reaction!

So, fastforward to the swim meet.  His first event was the 50m backstroke.  It's a good event for Spencer, but not quite as good as his 50m freestyle.  We thought he'd do well...and he did.  Not only did he shave over 7 seconds off his personal best, he beat the Divisional cut time by almost a full second!  What a great way to start the day.  Spencer was really excited, as well as Coach Cody.  It seems all the hard work was paying off.  Here's the video from his 50m backstroke.  He placed 1st in his heat and 1st overall for this event.

http://youtu.be/DF1OdWt3dZM

Next up were a couple of 25m events, the butterfly and breaststroke.  He killed it on both of these too, scoring personal best times in both.  Then came the fourth event, his 50m freestyle.  This is the one I had been waiting for all day.  The Divisional cut time was 37.29 seconds and his personal best was 40.32 seconds...he needed to shave over 3 seconds off this personal best to make the cut.  He's been working hard in practice on improving his flip turns and breathing, along with stroke technique. 

He was waiting on deck for his heat and I saw him give me the thumbs up, so I knew he was feeling good about this race.  He got up on the blocks, adjusted his goggles and waited for the starting sound.  The starting horn went off and away he went.  He had a strong stroke, good breathing and made a great flip turn.  After it was all said and done, he finished 2nd in his heat and 2nd overall with a time of 37.26 seconds, just 0.03 seconds faster than the Divisional cut time.  More importantly, he made his Divisional cut time in a second event!  According to his coach, no other Barracuda swimmer (his swim level) has ever made two Divisional cut times.  And all Spencer cared about was the fact that Dad was going to buy lunch today!  Here's the winning race.

http://youtu.be/oVtl01ocuMc

More updates to come in the next few weeks on his progress.

Polar Bear Plunge swim meet

This weekend is the first of 3 in a row where Spencer has swim meets.  He did okay today, placing 2nd in the 25m free, 3rd in the 50m breast, 3rd in the 25m backstroke and 4th in the 100m free.  Unfortunately, he had a disqualification in his 50m butterfly due to a false start.  He's still improving his times which is a good thing.  Tomorrow (Sunday), he will be pushing to achieve his Divisional cut times in both 50m free and 50m backstroke.  If he makes the Divisional cut times, he'll go on to swim at the Divisional meet in March.  If he doesn't make the cut times tomorrow, he can still try at the meet next weekend and the meet in Elkhart the last weekend of February.  When (not if) he makes his cut times, I'll be sure to post those races here.

Here's his 25m freestyle, which he took 2nd place in today.  His time of 17:20 seconds was very fast, and we would expect him to turn a 35-36 second 50m freestyle based on today's time.  The Divisional cut time for th 50m freestyle is 37.49 seconds.  With some good sleep and a carb-loading dinner tonight, he should do well tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0f26CzN4lY

Syd's Kindergarten program

Syd's kindergarten class had their winter program last night.  It was called The Big Snow Show, all about things related to snow.  Ironically, it was snowing like crazy when we left to go to the school.  All the kids had to make a snowman costume in a theme they chose.  Syd was a Snow Doctor.  She didn't really talk about the rehearsals leading up to last night, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  To our pleasant surprise, she and the rest of the kids sang 8 songs and Syd even played the xylophone for one of them!  She did great, not forgetting any of the words.  Here's a link to a video for one of the songs:

http://youtu.be/OVkUVci3GCI

And here's a photo from last night:



And here she is with her kindergarten teacher, Ms. Boyer: (sorry about the focus...it was a quick photo)

Watch out, Michael Phelps!

You all know Michael Phelps, the 14-time Olympic gold medal swimmer. 

Today, Spencer earned his first notch at knocking Mr. Phelps off the podium by winning his first swim meet!  He earned the High Point distinction for this 8 & under swim meet. 

Of the 10 individual events over the 2-day meet, Spencer got (3) 1st place finishes, (3) 2nd place finishes and (4) 3rd place finishes.  He was also on the 100m IM relay,placing 2nd on Saturday and on the 100m freestyle relay today, taking 1st place. 

Here's his 50m freestyle race from today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUUleDTTkGg

Although he's a very well-rounded swimmer, Spencer definitely shines in freestyle.  During the 100m IM relay on Saturday, his team got a great start from their first swimmer, then lost just a bit from the two younger swimmers in the 2nd and 3rd spots.  Then it was up to Spencer swimming the anchor leg to try for the win.  We didn't get the split time, but it was definitely his best 25m freestyle to date.  He needed about 3-5 more yards to catch the other team's last swimmer, but came up short. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdlg2tr2UYc


They made up for it today by winning the 100m freestyle relay.  Then, hearing he had won the meet as top swimmer, it was icing on the cake. 

I bet Michael Phelps can't wear a cape made from a towel like these guys.  To be 8 years old again...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

It only took ten years, one near-miss on a house fire and 3,500 imported twinkling Christmas lights to pull off a victory this year...We won first place in our subdivision's lighting contest!  I thought my work this year was pretty good, at least judged by my best supporters Spencer and Syd, yet there were some other homes in our neighborhood who I thought would take the awards this year.  And hats off to our friends and neighbors down the street, the Frank's, for taking in second place.  It was a good holiday on Buckeye Run!  Here's the winner:

All this took about 8 hours on the day after Thanksgiving to put up.  Trust me, there is a method to my madness, as I've planned, diagrammed and calculated amp ratings for weeks prior to all this. 

Ironically, it only took 1 hour to take it all down and put away.  Here's a photo of everything in the garage this Saturday:

You'll notice a couple of crates on the floor next to the table:

These are a portion the lights I bought during the sales right before Christmas when everything was heavily discounted.  I'm thinking I'll have roughly another 1,000 lights next year.  Now, you won't see me on any Extreme Christmas light shows on TLC or the Discovery Channel, but I'm going for win #2 next year.  There, I admitted it.  I have a problem and I'm okay with it.