Mar
24
Here We Grow Again!
As MTSC Masters continues to MARCH ON FITNESS this month, we have almost exploded at the seams! We are happy to announce that we will add the following workouts during the week to help open up some lane space in our regularly scheduled workouts.
Most of you have noticed the small group that has been swimming from 6:30-7:30 a.m. on Tuesday & Thursday mornings. While this began as an entry level group, it has taken on a life of its own, and it is now time to put these practices on the official schedule.
This is a perfect group for entry level to intermediate level swimmers, even though we welcome swimmers of all skill levels! Mark it on your calendars as workouts are happening this week – we’ll see you on deck.
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Middle Tennessee Triathlon Club Update
Middle Tennessee Triathlon Club will have a meeting with coach Barry Baird this Sunday, March 27th at 4:30 p.m. in the Endurance Geeks lab. If you are new to the team, you can find the Endurance Geeks lab by driving to the back parking lot and entering through the double doors on the ground level.
The purpose of this meeting is to look at the Sat. a.m. swim/bike workouts that are planned, and explain the open water season that is rapidly approaching. While all of you are busy managing your family and training time, we will plan to be brief and adhere to a one hour meeting.
MTTC is also organizing relays for the Music City Triathlon. Last year we put together 13 teams, and this year would like to have at least 20. This year, the race will include a masters division for those who are 40 and older (yes, you don’t have to compete against 19 year olds any more…). If you are interested in swimming on one of these relays – please let Ron know at workout next week.
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Mackey Fish Fry–Saturday, April 9th
Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the Mackey’s annual fish fry to be held on Saturday April 9th. This is a great time of fellowship with team members and fun time to celebrate SPRING!! Please RSVP to Bart or Bethany at 615-826-5670. This will also be the kick-off meeting for SWIM ACROSS AMERICA that will be scheduled for Saturday, August 20th. We will be asking for volunteers who can help do committee work to help organize and find sponsors, and reach out to other swimmers who would be interested in participating in this event. Be committed!
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Open Water Events
Noblesville Indiana Masters (NASTI )will be hosting an open water long distance championship event on June 18th in Noblesville, Indiana. The event consist of a 25K solo swim, or two other relay opportunities. Relays consist of 3 (single gender –all male or all female) teams or a 4 x 5k (2 male, 2 female) mixed relay team. Event will be held at the South Harbor Club House at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville. If you are interested in this event, talk to Ron at workout.
Big Shoulders Open Water Classic is one of the premier open water events held in the United States. Registration is open now and they are limiting the field to 1,000 swimmers this year. If you are remotely interested in competing in this event, you should enter NOW as they are filling up fast and ahead of registration numbers from this time last year.
To register, go to www.bigshoulders.org. Once you have done that – let Marisa Gordon know you are going, as she is arranging hotels for this event. Chicago is a blast and we stay one block from Michigan Avenue and the Miracle Mile. It’s a great event to bring a spouse or significant other along who might not enjoy swimming, but would love to take in the sights and scenes of Chicago. |
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Open Water Training for MTSC on Old Hickory Lake
Alright everyone … I hear you about OPEN WATER WORKOUTS! Here is a rough sketch of what the season will look like for all of you “over achievers” out there! Check back on our website for more detailed information the first week of April.
Many of you have asked if we can get in NOW with wetsuits. I am open to that if we have a large group who want to participate. But as for now …our open water curriculum will begin Thursday evening, May 19th beginning at 6:30 from the dock behind coach Ron’s house. These swims are safe and escorted by kayak. Swims in early May focus on competence and allowing swimmers to feel comfortable in the open water environment. Intensity and duration builds as we continue to progress through the summer.
The following dates and focus have been established to compliment our yearly training cycle that takes place in our pool workouts:
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Swim Clinic Opportunity
Our Olympians always inspire us, and they are tremendous athletes that we can emulate. Next week, Sheila Taormina will be in Nashville on March 30 and 31 conducting two swim clinics in the downtown area. Talk about inspiration …Taormina has competed as an Olympian in Swimming, Triathlon, and the sport of Modern Pentathlon. She will be teaching on Wednesday, March 30 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Baptist Wellness Center, and on Thursday, March 31 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. at Centennial Sportsplex.
Here is the fee structure:
Sessions are 2 hours each and include halo bands. If you would like to reserve a spot contact Ashley Whitney at triash@gmail.com.
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Vote for Julie for “Faces of Fitness”!
Seems like our MTSC Masters are always outdoing the competition. Julie Shuck, who swims with our “Breakfast Club”, is vying for Fitness Magazine’s Faces of Fitness on Facebook. Julie is a great example of how fitness should be a factor in everyone’s life–she ran the Boston Marathon while she was three months pregnant with her third child! Follow this link to vote for Julie: http://photos.fitnessmagazine.com/face-of-fitness-contest/12/2011/38. You can vote for her once daily, so let’s support Julie–maybe she’ll take us to Hawaii with her! 
Jan
26
Starting the New Year RIGHT!:
Way to go, MTSC Masters on capturing the TRIFECTA—the Men’s Women’s and Team titles — at the Barbara Stevens Invitational Meet in Bowling Green, KY! What a way to start the year!
Our women outdistanced the competition with 160 points over Lakeside, KY with 90points, and Arizona Masters with 70 points.
The men outscored all competition with 418 points, followed by Western Kentucky Green Gators, 386, and SwimLouisville 165.
In the Combined scores, MTSC again took top honors with 578 points, followed by WKGG 386, and the YMCA of Middle Tennessee 187.
Individually, our swimmers earned 20 new national qualifying times and set 10 meet records. Here’s a rundown of who made NQTs at the meet and qualified to swim at Nationals:
In the men’s events, Doug Thain had a perfect day. Thain, who competes in the 50-54 age group, won five events, and earned national time standards and set new meet records in each event he swam– 50 freestyle (24.28), 200 freestyle (1:56.16), 500 freestyle (5:15.90), 50 backstroke (27.85) and the 100 butterfly (1:03.21).
Dennis Mullins and Cody Chlasta also had five individual wins each. Dennis achieved the national time standards and set new meet records in the 50 and 200 backstroke events. Cody pulled down five national qualifying times in the sprint 50’s of each competitive stroke and the 100 yard IM. Keeping it in the family, older brother Scott Chlasta achieved four national cuts by winning the 50 and 100 freestyle, and placing second in the 50 back and 100 yard IM.
MTSC’s Will Fuqua was not to be outdone, earning four individual wins and setting three new meet records. Will won the 50 (30.17),100 (1:06.33) and 200 breaststroke (2:31.89), all in record time. His winning times in the 50 and 200 breaststroke were all under the national qualifying time. He rounded out the day with a win in the 100 Individual Medley (1:01.57).
Roger Lancina, who just turned 70 years young, won the 200 and 500 yard freestyle events. He also competed in the 50 (44.13) and 100 (1:39.41) yard breaststroke, establishing new meet records and earning national qualifying times.
The ABCs of NQTs
Speaking of National Qualifying times; many of you have commented, “These times are so fast – how do they determine the criteria for these time standards?”
* Yes, most of these standards are incredibly fast. Here is how the standards are determined: They take the three year average of the USMS Top Ten 10th place time and then add a conversion factor of 15% for 50’s and 100’s, and 10% for events 200 and beyond.
Next question …
Do I have to qualify to swim at nationals, or can I just sign up to go?
* The national meet draws the best swimmers from across the US. In order to manage a meet of that size, swimmers must qualify to attend. When a swimmer makes a cut, they are also allowed one bonus event that they might not qualify for. The only way a ‘non-qualified’ swimmer can attend is that they can go and enter one event only per-day.
Nationals are very exciting and very fast. They are hosted at some of the finest swim venues in the US. It is a great environment where many of our past Olympians, national champions, and ex-collegiate athletes turn in some inspiring performances. Many of our swimmers who have only gone to swim one event per day come back inspired at the level of competition and fitness that they observe at this meet.
MTSC will plan to attend summer long course nationals at Auburn later this summer.
Honors for our Team!:
Jon Jepsen: One of our teammates recently received a tremendous honor that we must share because he is too humble to share it himself. Jon Jepsen was honored for his commitment and coaching excellence in developing Indiana swimming this past weekend in Munster, Indiana. He was honored at the dedication of the new 50 meter pool that was built on the high school campus. As a coach, Jon has put as many kids on division I college teams as any other coach in our country. Jon is an example of someone who still “walks the walk and doesn’t just talk the talk” as he still competes at 74 years of age. It is a pleasure to have Jon involved in our MTSC program and we are honored that he chooses our group to train with. Congratulations, Jon!
Doug Thain: What can we say about Doug Thain, besides WOW! Doug, or “The Natural” as we call him, ended the short course meters season with three #1 national rankings in the men’s 50-54 age group. He leads the nation in the 100 yard backstroke, 200 and 400 meter freestyle. Doug finds himself in the presence of some of our nations elite swimmers from the past decades. Congratulations Doug – your hard work and dedication inspire all of us every day at workout and dry land training! You make it look easy!
Swim and Spin this Saturday:
Swim and Spin starts this Saturday. Bring your bike and trainer; there’s no time like the present to train for the upcoming triathlon season! Swim is at 8:15; spin is at 9:15 in the Geeks lab. Unload your bikes at 8:00. If you need a trainer, call us at 822-8800.
Check out our NEW BLOG and Swim Tips!
At MTSC Masters, if you’ve heard it first, you heard it here! We have relaunched our blog (http://mtscmasters.com/mtscmastersblog/)! We hope you really enjoy it! One big addition is our Video Tip, which will appear on both our blog and our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MTSCMasters). There are even more new ideas coming, so be sure to subscribe to the blog while you are checking it out.
Have a great week and we’ll see you on deck!
Jan
16
Hello, Master Swimmers! Glad that you’re all off to a great start in 2011. First, I want to congratulate all of you on winning the men’s division, women’s division, and combined team division championships at the Barbara Stevens Memorial Meet in Bowling Green. What a great way to begin our year! As we dive in to our winter training, our sets are going to get a little more intense with progressive heart-rate sets. This will launch you into a spectacular spring season. Check back here often because we will be offering training tips, information on nutrition, and dry-land training. New Feature: Please make sure you subscribe to our blog, so you are informed whenever we put up a new post. See you on deck! Here is our first “Tip of the Month”!
Jan
10
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With 100 100s, we started the year Shredded, but fit, we attacked Bowling Green
We think that our athletes deserve all the best
Combining science and sport helped us to achieve Our team got some press on the national scale
Compete? Yes, we did on a national scale. Even open water made our team members compete
MTTC was born with a particular reason
When summer was hottest, we needed a party
Now, open water swimmers are a whole different breed.
Before summer’s end, we held our inaugural event— From sweet little Ansley to Jackson and John Janel, Craig and Ashley, our Olympians three We showed all our swimmers our Southern roots One mile, a half mile—any distance they selected. We’ll continue our quest, to see cancer defeated.
As the days became shorter, it soon became fall. G.O.A.T. presents tasks, both mental and physical A walk through the park with our mascot Otis Back to Ron’s, then to the pool Otis went. At the end of the morning, we gathered for lunch Before we knew it, it was already December Now, recapping a year isn’t a perfect science.
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Oct
21
This month at MTSC Masters, we will have three different opportunities for competition and fitness challenge. Next weekend, there are two different swim meets that you can attend. GRIN is hosting a two day short course meters meet in Indianapolis, with a full compliment of events on October 30 & 31st. Crimson Tide Aquatics in Tuscaloosa is also hosting a short course yards meet on October 30th. This meet’s focus is on sprint events.
Additionally, we are focusing on our team goals during the 30-60-90 challenge with a focus on 30 minutes of exercise five times per week through the month of October. Other upcoming events in our “Territory Ahead” include G.O.A.T. (Great Outdoor Adventure Tour) on November 6th and the Louisville Invitational (short course meters) in Louisville on November 21st. Mark your calendars now and we’ll see you on deck. – Ron
Feb
3
We’re tall people. Short people. Thin people. Not so thin people. Older people. Younger people. People who swam in college. People who just learned to swim and seek new challenges. People who are in perfect health. People who face struggles each day because of chronic illnesses.
We’re proud to say that one of our MTSC Masters has received a bit of national 
Swimming for Life is what masters swimming is all about. Swimming is truly a sport that you can enjoy for a lifetime. Knees and hips get a lot of wear and tear from pounding the pavement; the water offers an equally challenging workout without the stress on the joints.
Seeking new challenges keeps life interesting. The women of MTTC, our new tri club, have requested a women’s swim and spin midweek workout. To that end, we are launching our Women’s Swim and Spin this Thursday at 9:30 in the Endurance Geeks’ Human Performance Lab. For your convenience, you can drive around to the back of the building and unload your bikes there.
Our regular Saturday Swim and Spin that normally meets on the pool deck will also meet in the Endurance Geeks’ Human Performance Lab at 9:30 because our new starting blocks are being installed!
Next, we advance our mission to bring the very best medical personnel and credentialed coaches to our athletes. To accomplish this, our Doctors Summit will continue this month. Dr. Brandon Jenkins will speak to the Middle Tennessee Triathlon Club on Sunday afternoon, February 28th at 1:30 p.m. He will speak about
Mark your calendar for Saturday, March 6th at 9:30 a.m. (immediately after our masters’ workout) where MTSC’s own Dr. Dave Trenner of Vanderbilt Sports Medicine will be our featured speaker. This session will be open to anyone in the Hendersonville running/multisport community who is interested. This open forum will address treatment and prevention of injuries to the foot and ankle that are common to runners and triathletes, such as plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendonitis. Dr. Trenner does a terrific job of addressing these concerns. We encourage any of you who wish to attend and have a specific concern to ask Dr. Trenner, to please email it in advance to commandoswimmer@hotmail.com in order to keep our meeting pertinent, focused and streamlined. This session will meet in our Multi-use Room.
Since February is a month all about the heart, our regular MTSC Masters’ workouts will focus on progressive heart rate sets. This will be an exciting phase in our training cycle that will be sure to inspire us through these bleak mid-winter months.
Jan
21
We’ll see you on deck!
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