Bcc: Early Birds (37 addresses); Whitecaps (57 addresses), Nightcaps (28 addresses)

Important Notes

Volunteers Needed: The Carleton Varsity team is hosting a swim meet between Brock U, Ottawa U and Carleton this Sunday, October 28th from 8-10am (hardly early at all when you consider the time change on Saturday night:-) !).  If anyone can make it (timers and other helpers are needed), that would be great.  There will be free pizza after the meet for all volunteers!!  Let Lynn know if you are interested.

Announcements

Carleton Masters in the News!: David Moore (Early Birds) and his wife were featured in a Citizen article last week on couples working in High Tech.  He works at Nortel and she works at Cisco (the photo caption is: "Sleeping with the Enemy")!  I'll be posting the article on the bulletin board.

Suggestions for Workouts or Interested in Making up a Workout or a Set?: If you have suggestions for the workouts or if you'd like to try making up a workout or a set in a workout, just talk to your coach.  By special request, the "A" Whitecaps group will do a flipper set this Thursday.

Swim Team Fundraiser: The Carleton Varsity Ravens Swim Team (along with the other Varsity teams), is selling Senators Hockey Tickets for "Raven's Night" at the Corel Centre on Thursday, January 24th, 7pm, Senator's vs. the Boston Bruins.  The tickets (300s rows J-L, valued at $60) are being sold for $40, $10 of which goes towards the Varsity team.  Deadline for buying tickets is the end of November.  Contact Lynn if interested.

Waterpolo Team Fundraiser: The Carleton Men's Varsity Ravens Waterpolo Team is selling tulip bulbs as a fund raiser and in support of the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Tulip Festival.  A "50th Anniversary Garden Box" (containing 50 tulip bulbs) costs $19.95 (buy 4, get a 5th free).  Again, let Lynn know if you are interested.

Interested in Copies of the Workouts?: If you are interested in getting copies of some Masters workouts ahead of time, let me know. I usually e-mail out the week’s workouts on Sunday.

Triathletes: Check out Rudy Hollywood’s (Whitecaps) website: http://www.trirudy.com and subscribe to the daily tri-news e-mail.

Dear Coach:  Does it really make any difference if I swim in shorts, rather than a Speedo-style suit?  Just Wondering

Dear J. Wondering:  Yes, it makes a *big* difference.  John Waring, Varsity Swim Team Head Coach, who has a Masters and is working on his Ph.D. in the area of swim suit drag, gives a "back of the envelope" estimate of 8-10% improvement if you switch from shorts to Speedo.  Shorts slow you down for several reasons.  The extra material weighs more.  The pockets hold water and act as mini-anchors, and the loose material contributes to even more drag.  John also reports that swimming with extra drag went out with the 80s -- back then we all trained with several loose bathing suits, T-shirts, jeans, and even buckets tied to a rope around our waists.  The problem is that the extra drag makes you to swim differently (read: worse!) -- you are forced to move your hand in a less than optimal way to overcome the drag.  (The opposite of wearing flippers to "learn" what it's like to swim fast!)  Note that Speedo makes suits in many styles, including a "jammer" style (like bicycle shorts), so it's not necessary to expose any more skin than with shorts :-) !

Dear Coach: I have adjusted my backstroke arm position as you suggested and find I'm moving from side to side as well as going forward.  What's wrong?  Also, I can really feel it in my lats (back muscles).  Is that ok?  Improving Backstroker

Dear I. Backstroker: Sounds like your arm position is good -- if your back muscles are coming in to play, that's great!  Increasing the roll in your backstroke allows you to use the big back muscles which will give you much better results than just using your (smaller) arm muscles.  To avoid the side to side motion, ensure that the palm of your hand is facing the wall you're swimming away from during the catch, pull and finish phases of your stroke.  (If your hand is at an angle, you will have a tendency to go sideways.)

Early Birds and Night Caps Notes

Are you interested in doing time trials during some workouts this term?  If so, let Lynn know and we'll work out a way to do time trials (probably one lane per workout), so that it won't disrupt the other swimmers.

Attendance leaders: Those of you who swam with Early Birds over the summer will remember that I tracked the attendance and recognized those with the best weekday attendance (i.e. excluding Saturdays).  I'm doing that for both Early Birds and Night Caps this Fall.  So far the leaders are:

Fall times for private Masters lessons are Monday 4-5pm, Wednesday 8-9pm, Saturday noon-1pm, and Saturday 7-8pm. Contact Lynn for more information and prices.

See you at the pool!

Lynn