First short course meet of the season!

Today was the first meet of the short course season and I had a total blast!  There were five of us at the meet, which is quite a sizable crew for us (sadly that is indeed a large number from our team, but I'm hoping to greatly expand that this season!).

Today, in order, I swam the 200 back, 50 free on the 200 free relay, 100 fly, 100 back, 50 fly on the 200 medley relay, and the 100 free.  It was my first time swimming either backstroke event since February or March, and the first time swimming them after some serious technique work over the last few months--to be fair, I did swim them over the summer, but that was long course, which as far as I'm concerned, doesn't count.  It was my first time swimming the 100 fly since April, but I haven't trained for it at all since then.  And for the 100 free, that was my first time swimming it in a meet since 2004 or 2005, and I've done zero training for that event.  I've done a bit of free training (aimed at the 200) over the past few weeks, but I don't have an aerobic base for it at all.  I'm in the same boat for the 100 fly.

200 back: I was quite nervous about this one.  The last time I swam it, I really wasn't feeling well and ended up not pleased at all with how I swam it at the meet back in February.  On the other hand, I had a markedly higher aerobic base at the time than I do now.  Anyhoo, I had a fairly good start and the first 50 felt great.  Second 50 felt good, too.  For some unbeknownst reason, my brain then told me that I'd die if I held at that pace, so I tried to take it down a notch on the third 50.  And then I promptly realized, going into the final 50, that I wasn't in fact going to die, so I picked it up on the last two laps.  Oops.  From the watch, my splits were a 32.43, 36.39, 37.42, and 36.63.  The clock time was a 2:22.93, which is a Masters PR and about 2 seconds faster than February!  Watching the video, I realized my turns are freakishly slow.  That is, the turn speed going into the wall is slow; coming off the wall I'm fine.  So, with faster turns, proper pacing, and the aerobic base I'll have later in the season, I am pretty confident that I'll be able to take that 2:22 down to below a 2:15 pretty easily.  The Nationals cut is a 2:12.94, which should be achievable by March or so.  While I've got loooooots of work to do on the 200 back over the course of the season, all things considered, this was a hell of a start!

200 free relay: I haven't worked on my sprint free at all since...ever...so I wasn't too worried about the relay.  On top of that, we were racing against one other relay...which was a 65+ women's relay.  And on top of THAT, our relay was not a legal relay, as the other guy on the relay is an unattached swimmer.  Over the summer, I dabbled a bit with trying my hand at galloping.  It's a freestyle technique where both strokes are out of sync and do not follow the same technique.  I haven't touched it since then, but since this was just a fun relay for us, I decided to give it a shot in this race.  Didn't turn out too shabbily, and I went a 26.40 per my watch.  If I'd really sprinted, probably would have been somewhere in the 25s.

100 fly: Ow!  This was right after the 200 free relay.  There was supposed to be a 400 medley relay, then one heat of the 100 fly before mine.  Well, there was no 400 medley relay.  As a result, I had enough time to take my goggles off, walk partway back to my bag, then turn around to head back to the blocks.  I wasn't mentally or physically ready for the race, and it showed.  I originally did not plan to go super fast (relatively speaking) on this one, just wanted to see where I was in my training, and see how much time I need to drop over the course of the season.  While my overall pace was slow, I was fine for the first 50...then started feeling the burn from the 50 free and the inherent nature of the 100 fly at about the 65 yard mark.  My watch splits were 30.29 and 35.99 for a clock time of 1:06.44.  Lots of room for improvement.  Without that 50 free right before, I most likely would have been well under 1:05.  Oh well.

100 back: Yes!  I had a lot of fun with this one and beat the #1 seed!  I had the second overall seed going into the event, with the girl in the lane next to me seeded 2 seconds faster than me.  I had decent turns (well, better than the ones in the 200 back) and good arm speed, but I burned out at the 75 from just overall tiredness.  If this race had been earlier, I might have been able to eke out another second or so, but I will definitely take it!  Per my watch, my splits were 30.94 and 33.70 for a 1:04.64, a full 2 seconds faster than my best from last season, giving me a new Masters PR!  The Nats cut is a 1:01.71, which I feel is definitely within reach, maybe even within just a couple of months.  Just speeding up my turns would probably cut off a second, then being fresh and rested would take care of another second or so, and then the rest will come from technique and aerobic improvements.

200 medley relay: I was starting to really feel it in my legs by this point.  I swam the fly leg of the relay and had a decent swim.  I split a 27.47 per the watch, but if we hadn't been swimming against invisible opponents, I probably could have split a 26 something.  Oh well, it was a fun relay!

100 free: My legs were gone and I was overall pretty pooped at this point.  I hadn't swum the 100 free since 2004 or 2005, so my original goal was to break a 58.  By this point in the meet, feeling as I was, I lowered the bar on that goal and changed it to breaking a minute.  My free actually looks surprisingly competent.  Definitely nothing spectacular by any means, but much stronger than I thought while swimming it.  Watch got my splits at 27.47 and 30.92 for a clock time of 58.56.  I'll definitely take it!  On the downside, it looks like I'm still crossing over with my right arm on the pull, although it doesn't appear to cross over as much as it used to.

Cars, cars, everywhere, and not a car to call my own

(Forewarning: this is a long post about cars, nothing about me getting back in shape or anything of the sort)

Since Ivan the Terrible (my former car, the Kia Sorento) went into the shop, never to emerge again, I've been renting cars.  Turns out that by sharing my sister's car for part of the week and renting for a four day weekend, I can always have a car available...and pay about $150 a month less than I was paying on my lease.  Go figure.

Anyhoo, I'm now saving up to buy another car.  I plan to save up for the next six months or so, until I have at least $7,000 on hand for a down payment.  Whatever car I get, I won't finance more than $25,000.  If I find a car that would require more than a $7,000 down payment to get under that $25,000 mark, then I'll either pick another car or keep saving.  I've got several key requirements for the vehicle (in no particular order):

1. It has to be large enough to carry four adults comfortably.  With carpooling to Masters meets, a small car is a no-go.  It also needs to have a decent sized trunk/cargo area.  4 seater convertibles with tiny trunks are out. ;-)
2. With me driving more due to coaching, I'm mandating that I get an all wheel drive car--if I'll potentially be carrying passengers in inclement weather, I feel much more comfortable with all wheel drive.  I carried passengers in my front wheel drive Avalon in inclement weather while in college, and that was not a reassuring feeling at all.
3. It needs to be at least entry level luxury.  I like luxury cars and there are plenty of used ones in my price range, so this shouldn't be hard.
4. The car needs to average at least 20 combined mpg.  Fuel economy isn't as big a deal as it was when I lived in Charleston, since even with all my coaching now, I still drove more back then.  In addition, said coaching job will give me a fairly significant income boost per month, so a higher gas bill per month will be more than covered by the increased income.
5. The car needs to have at least average reliability.  It doesn't necessarily need to be something with rock solid reliability (but hey, I wouldn't complain if it was), but I need a car that isn't in the shop every other week.  That being said, if it's of average reliability or better, I don't really mind too much if it's a more expensive car to repair.  That coaching income will help out quite a bit on that front.
6. The car needs a good sound system.  It doesn't need to be a top of the market sound system, but it needs to sound good.  I always listen to music when I'm in the car, so I won't settle for a substandard sound system.  The better the sound system, the happier I am.
7. The controls need to be relatively straightforward.
8. The car needs to be at least moderately fun to drive.

Let me back track a bit.  My dream car is the Audi Q5 3.0 TDI, which doesn't come out till next fall, I believe.  Ideally, I'd get it no earlier than the second model year, giving Audi time to work out any initial kinks.  That would put me at the fall of 2014 or later.  When I leased the Sorento back in the spring, I got a three year lease with the assumption that when it was up in spring of 2015, I'd go ahead and buy the Q5 at that time.  Now that I don't have a car anymore, I need something to tide me over till 2014/2015.

I made some key mistakes when I got the Sorento.

1. In my drive to get a car with at least a 3 year factory warranty (to cover the length of the lease, anything beyond that was just gravy), I didn't look at any used cars. As a result, I paid a large chunk of change for a new one when I could have gotten more for my money by getting a used vehicle that still had a warranty.
2. Coming from the Toyota Avalon I'd had for four years, I was adamant that I wanted an SUV. I didn't look at a single sedan. After having driven a number of rental sedans over the last month and a half or so, I really don't mind them. I could've gotten a nicer new sedan for less money.
3. I didn't check my credit report scores from all three bureaus before going in to sign the lease. Experian and Transunion showed a peachy keen credit score. However, the dealer pulled my credit score from Equifax. That bureau claimed that I was seriously delinquent on my student loans (which I'm not), so Kia totally bent me over on the lease details.  I was paying a 15 something percent interest rate, and it didn't even cross my mind to challenge them on it.  On a side note, I'm still having problems with Equifax.

I started looking at cars online a couple of weeks ago, but didn't narrow down my search until a few days ago.  I really enjoyed having an SUV, so first I decided to look at SUVs on the market.  There are a number of Q5s on the market in my price range, so that is a very distinct possibility.  My other option is to go for a sedan (trucks and vans are out of the question).  If I go the sedan route, I'm leaning rather strongly towards a relatively late model year luxury sedan.  As far as sedans go, I'd want at least a midsize, if not a full size sedan.  I don't get claustrophobic, per se, but I can't shake the feeling of driving a clown car when I drive a compact or intermediate sedan.  With all that in mind, here are all the SUVs and sedans that started out on my research list (all used, preferably no more than 5 years old, with at least one year of the factory warranty still left):

• Audi Q5
• Audi A6 (sedan or wagon)
• Audi A8
• BMW 5 series (sedan or wagon)
• BMW 7 series
• Infiniti M
• Mercedes E class (sedan or wagon)
• Mercedes S class
• Mercedes GLK
• Lexus GS
• Lexus LS

Since I created that list, I've done research into the various models.

• Lexus is out.  While they are ridiculously comfortable, they are generally just as wallowy as the Avalon  I had.  There are plenty of used GS and LS models in my price range, but it comes down to that wallowy ride.  I test drove a 2009 LS for fun back in 2009 and noted that at the time.  Besides that, I thought the LS was awesome, though.
• The BMW 5 series is out.  I ended up test driving a 2011 5 series sedan this past Saturday and was entirely less than impressed.  The interior was quite nice (besides the seats being vinyl rather than leather), but the controls were quite confusing and it had terrible throttle response--I'd push the gas pedal down, it'd delay for a good second, and then would jerk forward.  On top of that, the shifter and control stalks on the steering wheel column ticked me off.  The driving experience wasn't all that impressive, either.
• The BMW 7 series is probably out.  Looking at the JD Power reliability ratings, some years are better than others, but reliability as a whole is generally pretty shoddy.  Besides, it has the same shifter, controls, and control stalks as the 5 series.  Ixnay on atthay.
• I haven't done much research into the Infiniti M yet.  All I know is that JD Power rates some model years quite poorly.
• The Mercedes E class is probably out.  I haven't test driven one yet, but I'm not a huge fan of Mercedes' control schemes, and don't like that they have the nav display so low down on the dashboard.  Reliability is also a mixed bag.
• Same thing with the GLK.  I did take one for a test drive back in the spring, and thought it wasn't bad, but the interior was rather austere.  Quite luxurious, just austere.
• Same with the Mercedes S class--haven't test driven it, but reliability is a mixed bag and not a huge fan of the controls.  My other concern is that I'm not particularly keen on the exterior of the vehicle.  Whenever I look at one, I just get a sense of general snootiness.
• The Audi Q5 is always an option.  I've test driven a Q5 several times and still have it at the top of my list.  As far as SUVs go, it's definitely the one I'd get.
• I haven't test driven the Audi A6 yet.  I intended to do it last weekend, but that didn't happen.  Hopefully this weekend.  Anyways, on paper it looks quite good, and the 2007 model year has great reliability according to JD Power.  Without having driven it, I see one huge flaw.  There is only one usable cup holder in the front.  There is a second one under the arm rest, but if you use it you can't use  the arm rest, and vice versa.  Really?  When I test drive it, I'll play around with it to see just how bad that is.
• I test drove the Audi A8 this past Saturday and was very impressed.  The one I drove was a 2009 fully loaded regular wheelbase model (sport package, ventilated/massaging front seats, extra leather package, Alcantara package, B&O sound system).  The seats were ridiculously comfortable, the controls were intuitive enough for me, and the test drive was quite satisfying.  The quattro handling is a lot of fun (the salesman had me take the curvy off ramp from the highway without braking, and it felt like it was glued to the road, with no body roll) and the car has plenty of oomph, while delivering a quiet and compliant ride.  The car had the B&O audio option, which is insane.  New, it's a $6,300 option, and I can see why.  By far the best speakers I've heard in any car (the Q5 also has a B&O option, but it is a substantially lower tier model than the one in the A8, but even the Q5's B&O speakers are great).  I haven't seen any long term reliability data, but the A8s in my price range (2007-some 2009 models) all are rated pretty well for initial reliability.  On top of all that, I think it's a dang good looking car.  The BMWs are too flashy, the Mercedes seem too snooty, but the Audis are understated.

So, for now, I'm leaning towards the Q5 if I go the SUV route, and the A8 if I go back to a sedan.  I really, really liked the A8 when I test drove it.  Here's how the Q5 and the A8 rate on my eight criteria on a 1-10 scale:

Criteria	2007-2009 Audi A8	2009-2011 Audi Q5
Ability to carry 4 passengers And their cargo	10 8	8 10
All wheel drive	10	10
Luxury level	10	7
Fuel economy	7	7
Reliability	7	7
Sound system	8 (base) 10 (B&O option)	7 (base) 9 (B&O option)
Controls usability/simplicity	8	8
Fun to drive	8	8
Total	76 (78 with B&O)	72 (75 with B&O)

For now I'm setting my sights on either of these two for the next six months as I save money for a down payment, although I'm leaning just a shade more towards the A8 than the Q5 at the moment.  In the spring, as I start searching in earnest, I'll revisit this list and see if I've changed my opinion of any of the cars.

EDIT: Corrected some typos and updated the grading chart for the two Audis.

First SCY practice since May!

Well, to be fair, it was a solo practice--this is the team's last week of outdoor practices, but they're at my least favorite of the outdoor pools, so I'm electing to swim on my own instead.  Let's see, swimming outdoors, in a less than awesome pool, with run down lane ropes?  Or swim indoors in a nice pool with good lane ropes and consistent lighting?  That's a no brainer for me!

Have I mentioned how much I prefer indoor swimming to outdoor swimming?

Anyhoo, I had a nice 5100 yard practice planned out.  It was a practice I pulled from the Stroke/IM coach on the USMS forums.  There are several coaches who post practices on the forum year round, and I've pulled some of their practices for my non-team swims.  I only managed to get through a 3150 of this one today (I posted the reason as to why I didn't swim the whole thing on facebook), but I noticed three big things:

1. After having done some free work with Katie in a lesson and having been spending a fair amount of time swimming/pulling free with paddles, I *think* my right arm pull is starting to improve.  I found out during my freestyle lesson with Katie that when I catch with my right hand, instead of catching with my hand flat in the water, it's actually turned inwards a bit.  So then when I try to pull straight back, while I am pulling straight back from where my hand is facing, it's not facing the wall behind me.  It's facing the wall off to the left and behind me, so when I pull straight back, I'm pulling across my body.  Not as much as I used to in high school, but still pulling across.  Blast it.  Anyways, I've been working on proper hand position at the catch and pulling wider, as well as working with paddles.  Sans paddles today, it felt like I was pulling more at the correct angle.  I'll have to have Katie or one of the other coaches verify it, but it felt a lot better.  On the flip side...now my left arm pull feels out of whack.  I don't know if it's because my balance in the water has changed or if I somehow screwed up that pull.  Again, I'll have to have one of the coaches take a look.
2. With all that focus on hand placement and proper pulling, my freestyle is rather slow right now.  I'd say a good deal of that is due to my not training at all for freestyle this summer, and my lower aerobic base compared to the spring (I was doing 6-9 practices a week then, compared to the 3-4 I've been doing this summer).  Part of my practice was 8 x 100 free (3 on 1:25, 3 on 1:20, 2 on 1:15), twice through, with some other stuff in between.  I had to push to make the 1:15s, and the 1:20s weren't a cake walk, although I made them without breaking a sweat.  I'm pretty confident that I'll get back into the swing of things pretty quickly and make the 1:15s be pretty easy not too long into the season.
3. I was flat out surprised with my backstroke speed!  I haven't been focused on my backstroke times in practice all summer, and wasn't at all impressed with my times at the Hains Point LCM meet in July.  I'm much more attuned to SCY, though, as everything else seems all wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.  Back in the spring, as I was deep in the training before Nats, back when I wasn't doing much backstroke training at all, I was hard pressed to break a :35 in a 50 back from a push.  At an all out sprint, I hit :34 once that I can remember.  Today, one of my sets was 12 x 50 backstroke from a push on :45.  I held :40s for the first 10 without breaking a sweat.  On the last two, I bumped it up to about 85% effort and did :36 on both.  At a full sprint, I'm positive I would've easily been under a :34!  And this is with me only having really trained technique all summer, not having built up much of an aerobic base!  I'm super pumped about that!  With a good hard month and a half of training before the first important meet of the season (last weekend of October, the first local SCY meet), I should be able to break both my 50 and 100 back marks I set in the spring.  With a full season of training, I should be able to make great strides towards reaching my old backstroke times!  I'm almost beyond excited now!

We start up indoors next week, so I'm super excited to hit the water at ramming speed!

Oh, and in a side reference to #3: Don't blink.