Weekly Practice Schedule
March 1st-7th, 2020
Thursday 3/5 and Friday 3/6 Morning Practices will be at Lakeland HS due to a closure for the Robotics Competition at MHS.
No practice Saturday 3/7 due to the South Lyon meet (sign up).
All other practices will run as scheduled. Please CLICK HERE to visit our website, and view the MAC weekly practice schedule. |
|
News:
 1. Milford Meltdown (meters meet) Saturday, March 14th. Calling all MAC Swimmers! This is our home meet and our chance to shine! We want the biggest turnout of all the teams! If you have never done a meet before it is a great way to get your feet wet (pun intended). We encourage ALL MAC swimmers to swim this meet from rookie to seasoned veteran! At our home pool you are less likely to have jitters about finding your way, parking, warm-ups, etc – everything feels comfortable. You will have lots of teammate support to give you advice and cheer you on from the beginning to end of your race. The events that you swim are truly the smallest part of the meet and the only one nervous about the swimming part is you! Once you finish your swim, you get to enjoy the best part of the meet, supporting and meeting all your amazing MAC teammates! Racing also gives you an opportunity to track your progress if you attend practice regularly. If you are at all watching your times you can use those times to set goals for State Meet and earn those Gold Medals in our MAC Olympics!
Please bring a “healthy” snack to pass. Because this our “home meet” the MAC team is responsible for providing snacks and water for all the swimmers and volunteers at our meet. Some examples of things that people have brought in the past are: bars, fruit, water bottles, bagels, etc. We will have a table set up by the office when you come in to drop off all snacks.
The Penguins will be providing all the volunteers for the meet but if you have a spouse or family member that will also be attending and would like to help out we love to have extra hands on deck! Have them find Kris in the the office or e-mail her before the meet to get assigned a task.
2. South Lyon meet is THIS Saturday, March 7th 2020. For complete details, and to register visit: MichiganMasters.com
3. NEXT week, ALL morning practices will be at Lakeland High School…Monday – Thursday March 9th-12th. The location for Friday March 13th isTBA.
4. STATE MEET 2020. Please let us know what events you are swimming and your RELAY AVAILABILITY at www.milfordathleticclub.org. Use the Google Doc to fill out your availability for the two relays on Saturday and two relays on Sunday. The password to access this document is: macswimmers. It typically does not work well on mobile browsers. |
|
Swimmer of the Week:
Sue Haapaniemi
 I’ve always been active in sports. I’m a physical education major, a former teacher and a former basketball coach. I played basketball and field hockey at Hillsdale College, and volleyball at Central Michigan and MSU (where I was on the B team, but my son informs me that I was officially a D1 athlete). After two years of teaching, I earned a Masters degree in exercise physiology and have worked in Cardiac Rehabilitation and Stress Testing for the last 40 years.
For the first 25 years after college, I was an avid runner. I competed in several 5K, 10K and half marathons every year, and completed one full marathon. I was quite successful at running and was terribly sad when I had to give it up at age 50 due to nagging orthopedic issues. Around that time, I went back to work full-time and started going to the gym for exercise. But working out indoors on the treadmill and machines was not my thing. I would put in my time without purpose or passion. I wasn’t having any fun!
 During that time my friend Ann Ward was swimming with something called a “Masters Swim Team.” I wasn’t sure what that was, but Ann was clearly loving it. She talked about it all the time and started encouraging me to join, but being on a swim team seemed foreign and unimaginable to me. Ann was an accomplished swimmer, having swum in high school, and for that reason I really thought swimming competitively was beyond me. Certainly, I could swim, and I had earned certifications in Lifesaving and WSI—but I never had stroke training or any thing close to it. However, thanks to Ann’s persistent urging, I finally gave MAC a try. Suzanne Grebe was the coach at the time, and she welcomed me with open arms. Almost immediately I was having a blast!
I am in my eighth year on the MAC team and will soon compete in my eighth State Meet. I truly feel so lucky and privileged to be on a team and training in a pool with such amazing athletes of all age groups.
Although I’ve learned how to do the different strokes, dive off the blocks and swim fast (relatively speaking), my favorite genre is open water swimming. I just love it, and I thank MAC for turning me on to it! To date, I have successfully competed in six Swim-to-the-Moon 5K open-water events! Now, I’ve reached the point where I can’t wait for the weather to warm up every spring so that I can start training in the lakes around here and up north where my family vacations every year. Before I joined MAC, I rarely went into Lake Michigan on these trips. Now I swim in the lake for a mile or more at a time. So, thanks to MAC, our amazing coaches, our teammates and the opportunities that come with Masters swimming, I have landed on this marvelous new dimension in my life! Go MAC!
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:
400 (75 sw, 25 kick on back arms at side)
300 kick snorkel and fins optional –
(75 build, 25 hard-50 build, 50 hard-25 build, 75 hard)
400 IM (25 scull, 50 1 arm, 25 long-low stroke count)
25 fly, 50 bk, 75 br :10 rest @pace (comfortable speed/perfect technique)
:15 rest
100 IM Timed (100%)
150 FR w/paddles and bouy, low stroke count
100 FR hold paddles no bouy (high forearm/elbow above and below water)
150 FR w/paddles and bouy, low stroke count
3×50 BK, BR, FR @ 1:00 (interval to give 15 rest) @pace
2×100 FR @pace (low stroke count for effort) :15 rest
200 FR TIMED :30 rest
100 IM TIMED (match (within :05))
150 FR w/paddles only low stroke count
100 FR hold paddles (technique/high elbow)
150 FR w/paddles (low stroke count -1)
50 best non-FR :15 rest @pace
4×25 best non-FR @:45 (good rest but not too much) @comfort speed-100 all around (cruise speed 100% where you can hold technique/stroke count/kick/body position without losing water)
100 Best TIMED :30 rest
200 FR TIMED :30 rest (match)
100 IM TIMED (match)
400 FR start at low stroke count for first 100 then subtract 1 stroke for each 100 after. What do you have to do to subtract stroke? |
|
Monthly Feature Article:
Go on a Journey with your Least Favorite Stoke…
By: Coach Melissa Richardson
 You hear it in the locker room as you’re changing…you see it on the wipe off board when you walk in…or maybe you got a heads up from a friend. The workout today is focused on your most dreaded stroke __________. Fill in the blank – we all have one. For me, it’s the dreaded, terrifying, and exhausting breaststroke.
How do you approach a workout like this? Do you whine and rush through it? Do you feign an injury and modify it? Do you take an extended bathroom break that just happens to coincide with the toughest set?
I recently encountered a tough set that happened to be in the aforementioned breaststroke, the most mind-boggling, deceivingly hard stroke of all times (in my opinion). And I’ll be honest – I didn’t want to do it. Due to some recent life obstacles, I haven’t been swimming much and feel very out of shape. It was going to be hard, it was going to be long, and again, it was BREASTSTROKE.
I jumped in and got started. The first 25 was okay but I was exhausted after my first turn and pullout. The stroke felt foreign to me – like I haven’t done it in 5 years – and I could tell my speed was veeerrrryy slow. The set was long and I had a lot of time to think. I stuck with it and a strange thing happened. I started thinking and remembered all the things I try to work on with that stroke – those little mantras that swim around in our brain:
Squeeze your elbows
Hunch your shoulders
GLIDE!!
Touch your ankles together on the kick
Undulate!!!
All of the sudden, it felt a little better. With every 25, I was bringing more of it together and applying all the things chanting through my mind. I knew I wasn’t going fast, but felt like if I could watch a video of it from above, the stroke itself would have looked better than when I first started.
This would have never happened had it not been a long, focused breaststroke workout. If it was a short set, I would have rushed to get through it and moved on. But when a set is challenging and long, sometimes you have no other option but to truly think about what you’re doing. For instance, I realized during one of the drills that my closed-fist breaststroke didn’t feel that different to me from my normal breaststroke. Hmmm…that’s not good. I kept going (again, long set, lots of time to think) and realized there must be something wrong with my catch for it to feel that way. I must not be using my hands to grab water, like I do in freestyle and back. And am I dropping my elbows? Light bulb moment! We had a lot more breaststroke to do that day and I was able to think about my hands and my catch and try to make it better.
I can’t tell you that I loved the practice when this day was over. I got tired and I’m sure my stroke fell apart by the end but I will say I loved what it did for me as a swimmer. As I left the pool, I thought about how I went on a journey with breaststroke. I went from mentally whining about the workout (okay, some verbal whining too) to thinking about what I was doing, re-connecting with the stroke, and swimming it to exhaustion. Try your own personal journey with your least favorite stroke – you just might surprise yourself and find it’s not that bad! |
|
Countdown to State Meet Begins!
Friday-Sunday, March 27-29, 2020
East Kentwood High School
Kentwood, Michigan
MAC Team information can be found on our website: CLICK HERE |
|
 Swim Your Way to Bronze, Silver and Gold!
Earn Bronze, Silver and Gold medals by swimming events in practices, at meets, and at the 2020 State Meet. You can set goals to challenge yourself, race against teammates and even participate in our Medal Ceremony next spring! For complete details, visit our website – CLICK HERE
KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PROGRESS…
CLICK HERE to download a printable PDF worksheet, to keep track of your MAC Olympics progress, events and times, in addition to writing on the banner on the pool deck. |
|
|
|
Spread The Word:
Share the fun and fitness we have created at MAC!. We now have a flyer available on deck. It gives details about MAC and MAC Lite. Thank you for being a part of the MAC Family! To view the flier, CLICK HERE for a printable PDF. |
|
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, March 7th, South Lyon Spring Swim Meet
Saturday, March 14th, Milford Meltdown Swim Meet
Friday-Sunday, March 27-29, Michigan State Championship Meet in Kentwood, MI. |
|
Team Communication:
We use REMIND app/website, to send out last minute schedule changes, or messages. To sign up, and for more information – CLICK HERE |
|
|
