Masters Swimming Ontario Provincial Championships 2014

Last weekend John and I went to Windsor for the 2014 Masters Swimming Ontario Provincial Championship.

It was held at the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Center, a brand new facility that really knocked my socks off. The pool was beautiful and there was a nice seating area above it with a lot of natural light. But, even more amazing, they also had this indoor water park in the next room:

 

I kind of wanted to ditch the meet and go hang out in there. If I were a kid in Windsor I would want to be there 24/7.

My first event, 100m free, was on Saturday morning. My time: 1:17:11. Faster than my seed time but basically the same as I swam two weeks ago at a time trial. It's hard to make big improvements in this distance in a period of weeks. Every second means a lot in the short distances so I was pleased that I was able to maintain the same time as the time trial. Over all, I've dropped over two and a half minutes in that event over the course of the year.

In the afternoon I also swam the 50m free in 34:08. That was a drop of more than 3 and a half minutes over the course of the season, but again, the same basic time I'd achieved a couple weeks prior. It's even harder to drop seconds in the 50m free and I'm happy that I maintained the same time. That race didn't go quite as I'd hoped. I only planned on taking one breath on the first length, but I got too much water in my mouth and had to take two more before the turn. But I did as well as I could.

50m start:

50m after the turn:

The final event on Saturday was the 400m free, which I entered sort of on a whim. I wanted to do about 4 events, mostly on Saturday, and it seemed like the lesser of the other evils. In high school, I only ever swam this event once, after which my coach and I agreed that it was just not the event for me. But things change. The shorter, faster distances seem to get harder to maintain as I get older. As my current coach, Alex, pointed out, our triathlon club training is geared more toward longer distances so it's no wonder that this distance is starting to agree with me.
In the fall, at a time trial held at practice, I swam the 400m in 7:30. About 3 weeks before Provincials, I swam it in 6:35 and I was shocked and thrilled with the huge drop. Then, about 2 weeks before, I swam 6:07 at a time trial, so I was hoping to come in around the same time (especially since the two other times had basically stayed the same). Instead, I came in at 6:00:07. Third place in my age group! They organized the heats for this event by seed time (instead of by age) so my 7:30 seed time put me in a very slow heat. I lapped the other people in the heat more than once, but I knew it wouldn't effect the over all place until all the 30-34 swimmers had finished. But after I learned that I got 3rd place, I went to the lobby to collect my medal.

I'm still shocked by the 400. It was never my event. I was never a distance person (and in a lot of ways I still prefer the mental aspect of the shorter races). But this one has changed my mind. In large part, I think the improvement comes from my coach, Alex, who gave me a new strategy for the 400. It goes like this:
150 "easy speed," just maintaining something fast but holding back a bit
100 build, increasing speed
150 everything you have left.

I think I can work on this to improve my time and go below the 6 minute mark. I think I'm still sandbagging a bit too much at the beginning (all the distance stuff still seems so new). But mentally this just makes it so much easier and I had enough left to really haul ass on the last 50 meters.

This picture is from just after I finished. If you expand the pic, you can probably see my name on the black and white screen up top. Only three times are listed because only three of us were done and mine has the (1) next to it. Woohoo!

My final event was the 100m IM on Sunday morning. I swam it in 1:30:04. That was probably less than a second slower than I swam it two weeks before, but I had to just let it go. Competing in short spurts with long stretches in between was much harder mentally than I'm used to right now. It's still a drop of almost 3 minutes over the course of the year and I have to feel good about that.


This year has been tough, mentally and physically.  Since my dissertation proposal was approved in May I've been writing as fast as possible and I've felt the pressure of the clock as I try to finish my degree. I also haven't made as much progress as I would have liked in terms of healing my stress fracture. After 6 months without running I went to the doctor, who really didn't have much more to say. I've had an MRI and I'm in physical therapy, and I just have to wait until it feels better. Not running has been hard in some ways - I missed doing the fall races and running in the beautiful fall weather (although I can't say I was sorry to miss running in the horrible Winter we've had). I'd still like to be able to run with the dog. But honestly, I'm kind of over it. I kind of don't care anymore if I get to run again. I'd just like it to not hurt while I'm walking around. My PT likes to hear that because it means I won't run again until I'm absolutely ready, but it feels more like apathy than patience.

In light of all that, returning to swimming and discovering the Triathlon Club have both been such blessings this year. I sacrifice much less for swimming than I did for running, in terms of injuries and time, and I get a lot more in return. It's so apparent that I'm a much better and more efficient swimmer than I ever was a runner. Swimming in meets has been fun, but I also get so much enjoyment and stress relief just by getting in the water. I'm grateful that I've been able to do that this year. Plus I've made new friends on the Triathlon Club and I've gotten to experience some multi-sport events as part of a relay team. If I can run in the fall, then I'll participate in those events as an individual, and that would be nice. But I can still enjoy masters swimming without all of the physical pain I had to endure to run long distances.

Swimming all the time has had a visible affect on my body. I'm not as lean as I was when I ran all the time and it's been hard to understand that as it's happened. In the past I had used my body weight to determine how healthy I was and I've been challenged to measure my health in other ways this year, while still trying to maintain a healthy weight. The Provincial meet was interesting on that front, too. Lots of the participants are older - I think the oldest woman was 88 and she swam the 200m free! - and you know old ladies are uninhibited in the locker room! I saw more naked old ladies than...I normally do. I also saw some women much closer to my age and even a few years younger who were clearly competitive swimmers all their lives and were built like tanks. Impressive, strong tanks built from pure muscle. They weren't thin, either. It occurred to me that they probably have trouble shopping for clothes, too. It was really encouraging to see these women who didn't fit the conventional feminine body type but who were absolutely killing it in the pool.

John and I were both way too impressed with Windsor in this way that makes me think it's time to leave London. Windsor seemed to draw more money from tourism, being a border town, and that meant more interesting restaurants and bars than we have in London (of course, if I lived there for a year I might change my mind). We ate at some fun restaurants: The Loose Goose (great happy hour specials), Carrots and Dates Cafe (perfect mid-day swim meet veg food), and Capri's Pizza. Sharing an excellent pizza and a bottle of wine while watching House Hunters was the perfect activity for Saturday night after a day of competition. John also enjoyed a trip to Salute Espresso in between the morning and afternoon events. We also had a great brunch at the Twisted Apron on Sunday before leaving town.

Just before dinner on Saturday we went to the tap room of the Walkerville Brewing Co. This picture obviously doesn't do this beer any justice, but I had the milk stout and it was pretty great. We were impressed with everything we tried. The only one I didn't get to try was the IPA, but the Kolsch, the lager, and the milk stout were all A+. The brewery is fairly new so they are still in the process of getting ready to distribute. They said they expect to have cans in the LCBO by this summer and I would definitely buy their beer.

The Provincial meet was the last big meet of the year for the masters swimming community. In the mean time, there's a more informal summer meet in London that I hope to do in July. And this weekend is the Western Triathln Club Spring Fling - 500m swim + 5K run or 750 swim +7K run, or a relay. I'm swimming in a relay and I'm thrilled that I get to participate. After I swim I'll be there to time other participants and help keep things running smoothly. I didn't know I was swimming in it until two days before and it may be hard to compete two weekends in a row. But the point is just to have fun and get more points for Western so I'm pretty excited!

Also, classes end for me on Monday which means I can finally write at home in my py-jams instead of coming into campus to teach. Hooray for "summer" break!

Honeymooning in Asheville Part 4

During the first couple of rainy days in Asheville, I would look at the forecast for Saturday and think yes. Saturday will be my day. My voice will be back and it's not supposed to rain. And later on I figured I wouldn't be (as) motion sick by then. So we planned a long hike in the Blue Ridge mountains. Our first stop was the Visitor's Center in the Blue Ridge Parkway, a sort of national park highway that extends through several states with various scenic spots and places to hike and be outdoorsy along the way. I was impressed with the resources and quality of the visitor's center, shown below.

A park ranger steered us toward a trail that led to a waterfall, and after consulting the map, we were on our way. Unfortunately, the Blue Ridge Parkway winds quite a bit, and we determined after a few minutes that we should abandon our original idea and try a different path. It wasn't a hard decision to make, since we saw plenty of places along the road with parked cars and trailheads. We decided to try one of the trails along the road and hoped it led somewhere interesting. It was marked with white paint on the trees per usual, but we never saw anything indicating how far we'd gone, or where we were going. 

Most of the trail was wide and clear enough that we could have run on it, but it was also a pretty steep grade. We hiked for over an hour in one direction and then turned back. Based on the tree line and all the climbing we kept thinking that the top MUST be close. But we never came to any kind of look out point or clearing. The path just seemed to keep going. We veered off on a smaller path near the top to see if there was a view. The only thing we came upon was an abandoned camp site that didn't look too old to me and the whole thing kind of gave me the creeps. So back down the mountain we went, setting a timer on my phone to remind us to drink from our fuel belts every 15 minutes.

We bought sandwiches at City Bakery before heading out and ate them when we returned to the car. We were both hungry and tired by that point, and those sandwiches were pretty much the best thing I'd ever eaten.

Before leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway we stopped at the Folk Art Museum. 

First we looked at funny things in the gift shop, like these 3" musical instruments. 

I jokingly suggested that we buy one of these hand carved wooden hats for our future dog and John pointed out that they cost about $95.

Then we saw exhibits of folksy art, like cornhusks made into dolls and other figurines.

Large moose statue.

Then it was time to drive a little further to Black Mountain, NC to taste beer at Pisgah Brewing. 

Their bourbon barrel stout was also delicious, and I was happy that it came in 4 oz pours. This might have been John's favorite brewery, but it's hard to choose a favorite in a place like this. Like a lot of the breweries we visited, Pisgah is basically a giant warehouse with the garage door open. Across the parking lot they had a music venue with a little hippie festival set up. Those tents had booths with people selling soap and petitioning to legalize marijuana. You know, the usual. 

John knew of another brewery in Black Mountain so we left Pisgah to try to look around the little town, and we took turns sitting in this rocking chair at the visitor's center.

I know you're thinking, "Black Mountain? Like, the Black Mountain?"

And the answer is yes, it's the same place where John Cage and his friends started Black Mountain college. We saw a historical marker about it in the downtown area. 

We walked around and found a bakery where John got a pastry. 

I offered to keep driving if he wanted to taste more beer, but I think Pisgah did him in. John was officially out done by the breweries of North Carolina. 

Once we had returned to Asheville and washed the mud off, we went to Salsa's for dinner. We hemmed and hawed for a while before choosing this place, and we were so glad we did. It's like you can throw a dart at a map of Asheville and find a good restaurant. We both had an enchilada dish that was out of this world. 

The next morning we had one final southern breakfast at Mayfel's, a New Orlean's style place that had some of the best vegan sausage I've ever tried and heavenly grits. It was a great end to our stay in Asheville. 

And so our trip to NC came to a close. We both feel like we just scratched the surface in terms of food, beer, and hiking in the area. I hope we can go back!

Pre-Wedding Ann Arbor Trip, June 2013

Before heading down to Bloomington for the Weddingstravaganza, John and I decided to take a little trip to Ann Arbor. We realized that we'd taken very little time off since the holidays except to wedding plan, and that wasn't very relaxing. Ann Arbor is on the way, and we've enjoyed visiting there last Christmas and last summer. 

It was going to be perfect: three nights in a town we love, good food, good beer, fun thing to see and do. 

And then I got the random summer stomach flu that was traveling around London at the time. It wasn't pretty. I tried to eat like a normal person for the first day, and that ended poorly. We spend the end of our first night in the hotel, John eating pizza while I ate a microwave cup of rice, some applesauce, and sparkling water. We booked a room at the Microtel Inn and Suites, expecting it to be fine but nothing special, especially for the bargain price of $60 per night on Priceline (score!). But due to a scheduling issue on their end, we were upgraded to a large suite for the same price. Considering I had to spend more time than expected in the hotel room, I was grateful to have such a nice place to drink my carbonated water.

After lots of meds and the BRAT diet, I was able to at least walk around like a normal person the next day. We hit up some of the Ann Arbor sights, like Comet Coffee for espresso. 

Comet Coffee is in the Nickels Arcade, a pretty, covered shopping/eatery strip near campus. 

That afternoon we eventually made it to Ashley's, a tap room with tons of stuff on tap and in bottles. We've visited before and I wanted to see if there was some not-too-bitter beer that my stomach would agree with. I was in luck!

This time of year I always want to try fruit beers, but I'm often disappointed by their syrupy sweetness. Samuel Smith's, however, is delightful. It tastes sort of like strawberry ice cream. I'm on a mission to try their other varieties. 

Not sure what John ordered, but probably a Michigan beer with a high ABV, judging from the above photo. 

Above: Ashley's just turned 30 (like John!). To celebrate, they commissioned beers from various Michigan breweries. I think John enjoyed the cherry black ale (if I'm remembering correctly) from Dark Horse.

Below: John is fascinated by construction sites. He continuously marveled at this whole in the ground.

Nearly every restaurant/bar in Ann Arbor seemed to have a fun happy hour special, so we took advantage of the one at Seva, a vegetarian restaurant we both love. Since we'd already had some beer, we enjoyed the 1/2 price bottle of wine special and some small plates.

Happy Place.

One evening we decided to go see a movie after we noticed Blazing Saddles on the line up. It was showing at a beautiful old theatre downtown.

Afterward we headed to Blue Tractor for a basket of biscuits as a late night snack. I was lucky that my stomach could handle biscuits and beer by this point.

Not shown: we also went for a run at a park near the hotel, but since I'd been out commission for several days with the flu, it was sort of a meh run from my perspective. 

Let all this discussion of sickness and less than stellar runs, as well as adjusted expectations, serve as foreshadowing for the weeks before and after the wedding. Oh boy.

Christmas Vacay 2012: Ann Arbor

Last year when we got engaged, John and I decided to take a trip to Niagara on the Lake, ON. We decided that a short trip at the start of the holidays is our new preferred gift to each other, and so this year we went to Ann Arbor, MI. It was also a convenient place to stop on the way south to Bloomington for Christmas. This was our second trip to Ann Arbor, as we visited it for Music Theory Midwest last summer. Even after two trips, I could definitely spend another weekend there sometime. There are so many restaurants I still want to try.

For lunch, went to Seva, one of the vegetarian restaurants in town. Here's their TLT (tempeh, lettuc, tomato, with cheddar and guac) and steamed kale on the side. Everything there looks SO good. And apparently my aunt Becky is friends with their owner! Small world.

We spent some time wandering around in all the little stores downtown. I felt like we were acting very Canadian, as it was pretty windy, cold, and snowy, but John and I were so excited. "It's snowing! It looks like Christmas! This weather is fantastic!"

Bongs and Thongs, one of the charming Ann Arbor stores.

If we're close friends, then you're likely to receive a card from me from this stationary store, Rock Paper Scissors. 

West Side Book Shop.

John wanted to take an espresso break before we started tasting beer - obviously the real reason we selected Ann Arbor for vacation. We stopped in at Espresso Bar, whose espresso John raved about. I had some chamomile tea while we wrote a funny note to Sargibso. This place was one of several options for brunch that we considered. It was hard to choose, and I was thrilled with Cafe Zola below, but I could have awesome brunch there every day for a week without repeating a place. Ugh. 

Then it was time for the beer tasting to begin. Our first stop was Blue Tractor, a brewery and bbq place. 

We both agreed that Blue Tractor was the most consistently good beer we had. It also had a nice atmosphere and a good looking menu - I would definitely go back for dinner. You can read the list of beers on the photo below. I think my favorite was the Sudworth Bock, but I also liked the Bearded Pig Pilsner, which I think would be a great beer to have on hand at a party. One of the consistent characteristics that I generally liked was the crispness. Everything was very crisp, light, and had a nice finish.

The Wassail Ale was also really good and reminded me of the (Canadian) Great Lakes Winter Ale, with some nice warm spice. Neither of us liked the Mint Chocolate Stout, but I think that's because neither of us like chocolate and mint together. If you really like peppermint patties or those minty girl scout cookies, you would probably love this beer. I could tell it was a good beer, but really not for me. I also generally liked the Pitmaster Porter more than I expected (what is happening to me? I like dark beer now? I guess). 

The bar tender was impressed with my method of taking notes on a coaster.

We also stopped in at Ashley's, a bar with a ridiculous number of beers on tap and in bottles, not to mention a varied whiskey selection. This is a must-stop place for a beer lover. 

They gave us a pretty serious beer guide that started with info on various types of beers, and then page after page of available beers. 

I only ordered one beer there: Bourbon Barrel Wizard, from Short's in Bellaire, MI (no picture, so seasonal that they only show up in bars and maybe on site). This beer....where do I even start? It's like Kentucky Bourbon Ale, in that it's aged in bourbon barrels, but it's darker than that beer. The bourbon flavor is a lot stronger, too. Since it's such a strong beer (11% ABV), I just had the one. And I loved it. While we were there it made me think of that quote we learned in undergrad music history. I don't remember it exactly, but at some point, Schubert said something to the effect of, "But who can do anything after Beethoven?" That's how I would describe this beer. How could anything be as good as that? 

(It may have been the beer that made me led me to make such a comparison)

We also happened by a liquor store that sold these mini-Rogues. I didn't buy them, but look how cute! The Dogfish Heads next to them are regular sized beer bottles, just for scale. The Rogues would be like bombers for American Girl dolls.

Next stop: Jolly Pumpkin, where we ordered both the flight of 9 beers and a plate of cheese, olives, veggies, bread, etc. Perfect for that point in the day.

After visiting this brewery twice, my feeling is that the beer is somewhat inconsistent. Some of the beers I think are outstanding, but a lot of them are kind of meh. It's not about the sourness - the sour beers are generally my favorites there. I just don't think I'd go out of my way to buy them. The food, on the other hand, is amazing. I really want to stop in Ann Arbor sometime and eat dinner there on our way back from IN. Everything on their menu looks delicious and they have several vegetarian options.

More coaster notes.

In fact, I wish we'd eaten dinner at Jolly Pumpkin instead of at Sava (not to be confused with Seva). Sava was good but not great. The food was pretty good, and the restaurant had gorgeous decorations, but John felt his food didn't taste particularly fresh. Of course, it didn't help that I was pretty tired from walking around all day and drinking beer. 

Before hitting the road on Saturday, we worked out in the hotel gym and then went to Cafe Zola for brunch. Both John and I had savory crepes, a spinach and a mushroom crepe respectively. Their menu is pretty huge, with many things that caught my attention. That's fresh squeezed OJ to the right of my plate, and a basket of homemade breads just above it, with almond-hazelnut and herb butter. I would definitely make a point of going back to Cafe Zola.

After brunch we hit the road for Indiana where we're spending Christmas with my family. They have more snow than London, where we have none!  

Side note: I counted the walking around as a WALK IT OUT work out, and my run as a FIRST TIME, as it was my first run in Ann Arbor. That meant I got another GYMGO, my sixth! Only one more day of Gym Christmas 2012.