MAC Monthly: January, 2021

MAC IS BACK!

NEW January Pool Schedule:  Starting Monday 1/18/2021

To swim with MAC you will need a current MAC Swim Membership.
Please visit www.MilfordAthleticClub.org to purchase a membership.

Monday:  10:00-11:30 am LHS – Coach Jim
Tuesday: 7:00-8:30 pm LHS – Coach Melissa
Wednesday: 9:15-10:45 am MHS – Coach Dianne
Thursday: 7:00-8:30 pm LHS – Coach Dianne
Friday: 10:00-11:30 am LHS – Coach Janette
Saturday: 7:30-9:00 am LHS – Coach Jim

LHS = Lakeland High School,  MHS = Milford High School

Please submit MAC Health Screen BEFORE EACH PRACTICE.  – CLICK HERE

*At this time – these are the best times and locations we could reserve. We have been working closely with Huron Valley Pools & Fitness, as they are working to build staff, to open up more times, locations, and options.  We will inform the team as soon as a new schedule is available 

MAC Swim Memberships:

All MAC swim memberships were extended 2 months due to the mandated shut-down.  Anyone affected by this change should have received an e-mail with your new expiration date. If not, please contact:  macincmembership@gmail.com

USMS Membership:

Please remember to renew your USMS membership for 2021 before returning to the pool. Our insurance coverage requires that all swimmers register for USMS membership. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Monthly Feature Article:

2020 is OVER…
2021 – What Will it Bring?

By: MAC Staff

As 2020 began, we were on track to once again for another State Championship in Kentwood. Our MAC Olympics challenge to get everyone ready to swim meet events kicked off with a bang. People were in the pool and working hard to be ready to defend our title. When the EMU meet in January was the first meet in Michigan to ever be nullified, we should have known what kind of year it was going to be!

Along comes March.  Along with the rest of the world, our MAC meet, all practices and the State Meet were all canceled.  Through the disappointment MAC rallied, and we created the first of our many virtual competitions, the MAC Virtual State Meet.  This competition was a huge success, and truly proved the value and what a family the MAC team truly is.  We competed in list of events and supported each other and our local community. Friends and neighbors were coerced to join us and we all laughed at each others antics on the MAC Facebook page. It brought us all together in a time we had to be apart.

Due to the success of the MAC Virtual State Meet, other events such as MAC-Athlon, MAC Bingo, MACsGiving, and the 12 Days of ChristMAC followed. We learned that it is possible to be active and social and support each other outside the pool in this new socially distanced life we are living. We were also able to support our community with both actions and donations during this time where many local businesses are struggling.

Throughout the year, we were able to pursue our first love: being in the water. Our open water practices and events, Walnut Creek Country Club swims, and The Sports Club swims, helped us to get through until we were able to get MAC back to our home pools and start regular practices. Saturday Swim Spots at Dunham Lake and Big Swims let us reconnect and be back in a group environment.  A big thanks to Carol Schemanske, Candi Good, and Trish Ham, and Tom Welsh for hosting these events. Since our main summer event, Swim to the Moon was canceled this year, we created MAC to the Moon. After a week’s postponement due to weather, it was a huge success and much fun for all.

Along came October with a return to practices and a whole new MAC. MAC is now a own non-profit LLC and is no longer managed by Huron Valley Pools and Fitness.  This change gives the team much more freedom to evolve and not be under so many restrictions. Unfortunately, while we are no longer run by HVP&F, we are still using their pools and the mandated shut-down in November closed all group practices yet again.

As we look forward to next week and the return to practices, we also look ahead to the remainder of 2021 and what it may bring. We are hopeful for a return to meets by the end of the calendar year. We look forward to more open swim events and practices. We now know that it is possible to swim in earlier spring than we ever thought possible and have our wetsuits and are ready to go! We look forward to consistent practices in the pool and are hopeful that 2021 brings no more pool cancellations. We look forward to a large team social where we can reconnect with friends we haven’t been able to see and meet the new ones that joined us during this journey.

We are MAC and we are Family. Hope to see you at the pool soon!

USMS Go The Distance Logo Color
This is a FREE USMS event for swimmers to track their mileage throughout the year. You can set a goal, achieve milestones, and see where you stack up against other swimmers across the country. Our own Carol Schemanske was the leader in her age group for 2020 by more than 300 miles! Way to go Carol – thanks for being an inspiration to all of us. What can you achieve this year? You must be a current USMS member and sign into your account to join.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO USMS WEBSITE AND REGISTER

Spotlight Swimmer of the Month:

Elizabeth Schmaltz

It’s funny because I joined the team the week of statemeet in 2012, yet I remember walking onto the pool deck for the first time like it happened yesterday. I was super nervous, had never done anything swimming related beyond handstand contests and I remember giving myself a little peptalk even before I got out of my car. I remember thinking no one would know I was new unless I told them, so the plan was not to say anything. I was going to strut onto that pool deck like I had never done anything other than swim my whole life. I hate to ruin the end of a good story, but my brilliant plan lasted exactly ten minutes.

I remember walking onto the pool deck and it was nothing but chaos. Anyone whose been around for a while knows the team hype and excitement that happens the week before going to statemeet. People asking each other about the events they were swimming, hopes of dropping time in specific events and talking about how much they were looking forward to the meet. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, but I knew I wanted to find out. It was then that the coach at the time found me standing in the middle of the pool deck and she introduced herself. She asked me if I swam all four strokes – I absolutely lied and said I did because I didn’t even know there were four strokes! I totally thought I had it in the bag and that I was going to wow everyone on that deck with my amazing abilities! Annnd…… then Suzanne asked me what my 100 pace time was and I stood there and blinked at her.  I had no idea what she was talking about and she knew it! She was holding a clipboard at the time, she laughed, hit me on the back with it and told me to hop into lane two and swim a couple of hundred to warm up. I walked myself down to lane 8, Suzanne followed me down there, scooped her arm around me and personally ushered me to lane two, whispering something about a 100 free being four lengths of the pool. From there, I was basically hooked! I slowly started making friends, learning what intervals were (and how to try and stay on them!), learning all four strokes and competing.

I didn’t compete in anything other than choir through high school and at the time I joined the team, I was running races and biking all over the state. I really joined the team to figure out how to swim with 500 other people going in the same direction I was at the same time for triathlons. As I got more involved with swimming, I decided I wanted to focus on one sport I loved instead of trying to figure out balancing all three.  I started out swimming a TON of freestyle because I loved it and because I didn’t know how to do anything else! Somehow, back and fly have crept in over the years and butterfly has become my absolute favorite stroke to swim. Partially because it’s awesome and makes me feel like a total badass, but also because it’s challenging and I love a good challenge. If you’re reading this and wondering why I didn’t include breaststroke in that list too, it’s not a typo. Breaststroke and I do not get along, though I swim it as part of an IM because there’s no way around it, and a 400 IM is one of my most favorite things to swim.

Swimming and I have come a long way since I stood paralyzed on the deck my first day! Swimming has been my sanity saver this year, my social life as I’ve made some of my closest friends in life on this team. It’s also taught me a lot of life lessons and at times is a very humbling sport. I’ve had strangers from the team hug me after a tough race, or high five me after an awesome race! One of my most favorite memories is when we were at statemeet in Grand Rapids about five years ago – I was swimming my first 400 IM and was absolutely terrified. I dove in, and by the time I touched the wall on the first 25, Maria Veen, Clisty Kinlin and April Maunu were already there cheering as loudly as they could. I touched the wall at the 50 and Nat Evans and Ron Vanderchove were squatting by the block cheering and telling me when to switch strokes. By the end of the 400, there was a line of blue parkas on the side of the pool cheering, waving and yelling at me to get my elbows up. Half of the people cheering had no idea who I was or what was happening, but they were there waiting for me to get out of the pool with hugs and high fives at the end.  Oh man, that race and that feeling of being completely enveloped with the awesomeness that is this team, is one that will stay with me for a long time.

I could talk for a long time about this team and my experiences with it but will leave it there for now. You can usually find me in evening practices hovering around lane four avoiding breastroke as much as possible.

MAC Swimmers are the greatest advertisements of all! We love how you share your stories on social media, with friends, etc. We would like to share your stories as well. Each week we will highlight a MAC Swimmer so we can learn more about the team.

Weekly Featured Workout:


Distance Free
In Honor of Irene Kennedy

Warm Up:  300 swim

Warm-up Set: 
• 8 x 25 scull with freestyle kick @ r=5

• 9×50 w/paddles and fins – each set of 3-one arm(25r/25l), people paddle, swim – 1-3 right p/left f, 4-6 left p/right f), 7-9 both paddles and fins

 

Main Set:
Swim as one continuous set:
1 x 800 pull long and strong@ r=20
2 x 400 swim descend 1-2 @r=15
4 x 75 kick @r=10
6 x 200 swim best avg @r=10
4 x 75 kick @r=10
2 x 400 swim des 1-2 @r=15
1 x 800 pull long and strong

Drill Set:

8 x 25 drill @ 45 or r=15

Warmdown: 200 swim
Additional MAC workouts are available on the MAC website – CLICK HERE.