Go out and vote. I don't care who you vote for, as long as you vote the way YOU want. Just get out and exercise your right to participate in the democratic process. Notice I'm not telling you whom I'm voting for, or for whom you should vote. Just go vote. Of course, this presupposes you're of legal voting age and have not already voted... but that's another story. The rest of you, go vote now. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200... and remember, if you live in Illinois, the polls close at 7pm. Good thing, too... I'm not gonna get to go vote until after practice.

I wrote last year that Dara Torres did something special. Little did I know that she'd outdo herself in grand fashion by winning the 100 free at Olympic Trials. That's right, a forty-one year old qualified for a fifth Olympic team. It's pretty impressive to think that at 41, you can do lifetime bests in the sprints at that level. It makes me wish I had the scratch to hire a team of stretchers, trainers, and nannies. In any case, my hat's off to you again, Dara. Go show the Chinese what drug-free and fast looks like... just don't forget to wear your contacts so you can see the scoreboard. I hope that Tessa makes it to China to make an appearance on the medal stand.

Some workouts I put together for Swimming World a few months ago have become the May 2008 Masters workout card. Titled "Emphasis on Diversity," the workouts represent 5 days of diverse training, as we like to do in the middle of hard training at Academy Bullets Masters. Check it out on p.32 (the left page of the centerfold)!

This weekend, I did a clinic on breaststroke with the Carthage College women's team. We spent two hours the first night on the mother lode of breaststroke drills, and I promised the ladies some handouts. Here they are:

• The first one is a revision of a handout I created a long time ago to introduce wave breaststroke to a number of primarily freestyle coaches. It gives an overview of what I'm trying to do with the stroke.
   
• Page 2 of the second handout provides more of a swimmer's perspective on the stroke and the drills that we've done thus far.
   
• The third file is a proof of the article that appeared in the May/June issue of USMS SWIMMER on the breaststroke pullout.

Enjoy!

update 2008-5-21: The last time I updated the software that drives the website, I forgot to fix the links above. They should be viewable again... sorry about that!

For those of you who don't keep up on these kinds of things, something extraordinary just happened.

In 2000, Dara Torres became the oldest person (person, meaning male or female) to set an American Record in swimming. She was 33. For those of you who were counting, that was seven years ago.

Tonight, Dara Torres reset the record for the oldest person to set an American record in swimming, swimming a lifetime best in the 50 free by a tenth.... at age 40.

For those of you who need a little perspective, Dara Torres won her first Olympic gold medal at 17 in 1984 as part of the 400 free relay. Eleven months later, Michael Phelps was born. She has now been the top female 50 freestyler in the US during 3 different decades, and during 4 different presidencies. Chew on that for a while.

Dara has legitimate potential to make her fifth Olympic team in 2008. Mind you, Dara was not swimming competitively between 1992 and 1999, or between 2000 and 2005, thus not even trying to make the Olympic teams in 1996 and 2004. Dara also gave birth to a daughter in 2006. Yes, she had a child last year and broke the AR in the 50 by a tenth tonight.

It gives us old dudes some hope to keep doing lifetime bests for a while, at the very least... otherwise, I am simply blown away. I don't think any of us have ever seen anything like it, but I hope we have the opportunity to see more. My hat's off to you, Dara. Keep up the outstanding work, and keep bringing Tessa to the awards stand with you.

So, those of you who've been watching the site for a while might recognize this look and feel. While the stylesheet isn't quite perfect, it is getting there, slowly. Sooner or later I'll get it the way I like it.

For now, this lays out the workouts a LOT better than the other theme, so I'm going to stick with it.

Those of you who are CSS-inclined might want to weigh in... but please don't get on my case about the Mozilla-specific CSS elements (those of you using IE don't see the rounded corners on the green boxes... sooner or later I'll just nuke 'em altogether).

Meanwhile, enjoy, or something.

So I'm doing a short-axis clinic today at The Wellness Center in Arlington Heights. For folks who want to see my cheat sheet/tips page for the attendees, check this out.

Wow... maybe Jack McCoy will be his Attorney General. It's gotta be better than what we've got now.

I have an old buddy (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, or something) who is now a Microsoft employee. When I found out where he was working recently, I couldn't resist but ask him why he joined the Empire. Since we had both enjoyed watching "Mirror, Mirror" and the Star Wars movies more than once in the distant past, the question left room for any number of loaded answers regarding the evil perceptions of his employer.

Unsolicited, he responded thus:

"How did I end up on the ISS Enterprise? Why, I’m trying to fight off those space hippies searching for “The Way to Eden” over at the Goog, naturally."

Made my day.

(HINT: References are provided for the uninitiated).

It's a good thing my job doesn't depend on the frequency of my publishing. At least I do get published occasionally, like in next month's USMS SWIMMER. Check it out when it hits your mailbox!