Cheers to a Year of Good Swimming
Oh what a year. Swimming has been a constant companion throughout the ups and downs and I am so lucky to be able to get to a pool when I want to. I truly love all of the pools I visit, despite their occasional quirks, and am grateful for the staff that run them.
Best quirk of 2018.
“Swim at your own risk.”
For the record, the 74 degrees was a great water temperature for swimming!
I am also thankful for the masters swim club I belong to, Southern California Aquatics, or SCAQ. The hour long coached workouts are fantastic, and I have gotten to know some amazing people. The coaches have given me tips that drastically improved my stroke and I am a better swimmer for it:
Take a breath with every stroke: more oxygen comes in and is available to your muscles.
Your hand enters the water with your thumb extended, and maintain extension through the stroke.
Use fins to strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, and ankles.
My favorite pic of 2018.
Sprucing up this website and giving it some real personality was another accomplishment this year. While the site has existed for some time, I was only using the basic design elements offered by Squarespace. I decided to ask a past co-worker to create a brand, logo, color palette, and design a more efficient structure for the website. Mallory Cohn accomplished all of that and her design turned out better than I could ever have imagined. I absolutely love the design she created and hope to do more with it in 2019. Take a look at the graphics she developed…I think I need to finally get some swim caps printed!
And of course, the John Argue Swim Stadium has remained the best kept swimming pool secret in all of Los Angeles. Despite limited hours and frequent closures (the pool must close when NFL, collegiate, and MLS games take place, and there are several music festivals that consume the entirely of Expo Park) the pool is impeccable and I always, always, always get to swim in a lane by myself even on the hottest of summer days. The fact that it was the home of the 1932 Olympics makes swimming there even more special.
