November 17th-23rd, 2020

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Weekly Practice Schedule

November 17th-23rd, 2020

ALL morning practices will be at Lakeland High School.  Monday through Friday March 9th-13th.   All PM practices will run as scheduled this week. Please CLICK HERE to visit our website, and view the MAC weekly practice schedule.

No Saturday practice; we expect to see everyone on Saturday as we host the Milford Meltdown at MHS!

News:

1. Great job to all who swam at the South Lyon swim meet on Saturday.  With 28 swimmers in attendance for MAC, it was a great meet. We will expect that many and more this weekend when we host the Milford Meltdown! The MAC team included: Libby Silverson, Lexi Abernethy, Danielle Gardon, Hong Weng, Clisty Kinlin, Melissa Richardson, Janette Heaton, Mitzi Amelon, Nathalie Gardon, Sue Haapaniemi, Marilyn Reichenbach, Carol Schemanske, Ryan Noechel, Greg Banish, Kevin Storch, Jeff Yencer, Brandon Marriott, Mike Smith, Bill Caldwell, George Sveda, John Cassidy, Mike Schuldinger, Chuck Olson, Dave Roberts, Dave Shears, Bill Porter, Don Kroeger, and April Maunu (for cheering).

Congratulations Kevin Storch, for winning the MAC meet attendance raffle of a $10 Lottery ticket.

2. 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.

3. State Meet Team Dinner:  Join us on Saturday March 28th, during State Meet, for a Team Dinner at  The Hampton Innstarting at 6:30pm. Friends and family are welcome! The cost is $20/person. There is a gluten free option as well that you can select when you purchase your meal. We have set up a link on the MAC website CLICK HERE which will not only count your RSVPs but also collect online payment. BYOB or beverages! Please RSVP by Monday, March 23.

4. Are you swimming at 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.  Please fill out your availability by FRIDAY MARCH 20TH.  There is a lot of work that goes into organizing team relays, so your input is greatly appreciated.

Swimmer of the Week:

Kim Riley

Hi everyone! First a shout out to all my lanemates, or anyone else who’s had the misfortune of sharing a lane with me. Thank you so much for your patience, since I never know what we’re doing.

In my youth I never displayed any athletic interest nor talent to be quite honest. The only shining hope was that I loved being in the water and my parents didn’t worry about me drowning. As I reached my early teens I joined my first swim team, but that only lasted about two years. So, I had a basic understanding of swimming, but as I would later learn, we were taught to swim “the wrong way” back in those days.

As I leveled up into adulthood, my love of swimming remained, but I was basically left on my own for training. For years I would inconsistently find a pool, swim a few laps and feel unusually confident about my performance. In 2008, the summer Olympics were quite the motivator and that is when I finally decided to join my first Master’s swim team. For five years I swam there regularly, but never had an interest in racing. In 2013 I moved to Michigan and searched frantically for a new team to join, but had no luck. It wasn’t until 2015, or 2016 (can’t remember when exactly) I stumbled upon MAC. The first day I showed up I really liked how everything was run. The on deck coaching was nothing like I’d ever experienced. Additionally, nearly everyone trains to race, and that was new too.

I’ve been with MAC since then and feel so fortunate to have found them. Coaches actually train technique, work starts including relay, turns, finishes, everything to extract the best in each swimmer. They will help you find your strengths and make them stronger, at the same time diminish your weaknesses. One key train of thought I have learned from being exposed to this training is to never assume you can’t make changes. Have faith in the feedback provided, even if it doesn’t click right away, because when it’s least expected it all falls into place.

Finally, my favorite part about being a member of MAC is the solid unification of our team. During meets, from the minute you’re on the block, at all your turns, and as you catch your breath on the finish, someone is always cheering for you. No one races alone, and we will seek out our teammates so that we can shout for them to swim faster. It’s such a great atmosphere, very encouraging. Makes the cold water, ridiculously hard sets (parachutes, no oxygen, drop a stroke, drop time, do some more math, etc.) all worth it.

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:

 

3×50 #25 freestyle + 25 Bk @:10
2×100 #50 freestyle + 50 backstroke @:15

1×200 #100 freestyle + 100 Bk @:20

————

550

 

1x 100 freestyle with 10 sec. rest

4 x 25 back kick@ :40

2 x 100 freestyle with 10 sec. rest

4 x 25 Bk kick @ :40

3x 100 freestyle with 10 sec. rest

4 x 25 Bk kick @ :40

4x 100 freestyle with 10 sec. rest

4 x 25 Bk kick@ :40

5x 100 freestyle with 10 sec. rest

4 x 25 Bk kick @ :40

200 easy

————

2150/2750

 

Set 3 – race pace BK

4 X:

4×25 fast with fins @ :40 (+15 sec. at end of 4th rep)

3×50 at 200 pace @ 1:00

2×25 hard @ :40

100 easy at end of each set

————

3750/4350

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 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

Coach Contact Info:

Dianne: h2oranger@hotmail.com
Kris: macswimgoblue@gmail.com
Jim: jimjtg@icloud.com
Maria: carpelacusnatavi@gmail.com
Melissa: jrichardson90@comcast.net