Lara’s Blog

Lara is back in Tucson all safe and sound.  The traveling from Singapore to Arizona, via Korea and Atlanta, Georgia took forever.  Crazy for Lara.  She’s glad that’s done!  On the day after Thanksgiving, Lara’s back to swim practice getting ready for one more swim meet for 2009.  University of Arizona and a few post-grads are headed to Austin, Texas on Wednesday, December 2 for the Texas Invitational at UT Austin.  Traditionally, Arizona goes to this meet all tapered and ready to swim fast for the team to get as many NCAA cuts as possible.  Since Lara is no longer on the university swim team, she can actually relax a little and swim for fun.  Just off this huge world tour, it will be interesting to see if swimming short course meters for 6 weeks affects her short course yards events.  I am always pleasantly surprised with what Lara comes up with.
And anyone who follows swimming knows all about the high tech suits that made their appearance shortly before the 2008 Olympics.  The suits have caused huge controversies and have been considered to artificially enhance a swimmer’s ability. Just check out how many world records have been broken in the last 18 months.  It’s insane.   So FINA has approved new rules for the suits effective January 2010.  The fabric of the suit must meet certain standards, so no rubber material or prosthetic type attachments.  Women may wear legs that stop above the knees and no zipper closures.  Men also may wear suits to above the knees, but nothing above the navel.
In essence, this will be the last meet that Lara will wear any of these suits.  Lara’s reaction?  She can’t wait until  the new rules to ban the high tech suits happens.  She wants a more fair playing field, because the suits help some body types more than others.  And Lara was making excellent progress with her times before the high tech suits invaded.  Not to mention that Nike got out of the competition suit area and that meant less sponsoring available for the up and coming professional swimmers.  It’s been a wild ride, now it will be interesting to see where swimming goes next.
And I am looking forward to being reunited with Lara in Austin so I can do what I do best, cheer her on and be the best swim mom that I know how to be.  Go Cats!  Go Lara!

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I just finished talking with Lara on skype and asked her a few questions about her experiences on this world tour.   Whitney Myers, Lara’s traveling companion for the past 6 weeks was also in the room answering my questions.  First of all, the two agreed on how close they’ve become and have enjoyed being each other’s closest friend, colleague, and even coach.  They’ve had to rely totally on each other, push each other and also give each other advice.  That’s another new situation for Lara, being at major meets without her coach.  Besides relying on Whitney, Lara also had alot of help from South African Swimmers, Roland Schoeman and Lyndon Ferns and American swimmer, Aaron Peirsol.
Lara said that she’s learned alot and that her eyes have been opened to new ways of doing things.  First of all, should she decide to do the World Cup again, there needs to be different preparation with her training.  She needs to concentrate on more fine tuning with techniques.  Especially nailing the turns and finishes.  Lara said that on her 50 fly last night, she swam an awesome stroke, but her turn was very sloppy.  That costs valuable time, especially in the short distance sprint races where there is no room for error.
Lara sounded great.  She has some evaluating to do for her post-grad goals so she can be all set for 2012 Olympic Trials.  She is definitely glad that she had this experience on the world tour and she and Whitney would love to do it again in the future.  I say that there’s no stopping her now and man, isn’t this all just too exciting?  My baby girl up on the world stage.  I’m sure Keith is smiling from heaven.

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I finally figured out on the FINA page that I can look at the results by event, or click at the top to see the results by day 1 or day 2.  This made it alot easier to see what was happening in what order when I awoke at 2:30 am and could not get back to sleep.  So what the heck, I trudged down to the computer to see how my daughter was fairing on the other side of the world.  Luckily this is the last stop for the World Cup Swimming and Lara will be on her way back to the states on Tuesday.   That will be very nice!
On day 1, Lara competed in the 50 back and the 50 free.  In the back prelims, Lara swam a 28.07 which was good enough to qualify for finals.  She finished sixth with a time of 27.65 and had the fastest reaction time off the block with a .57.  How does she do that?  It’s not even her favorite stroke.  The winner of the back’s time was a 26.55.
As for the 50 free, in prelims Lara swam a 24.28 and she placed third in finals with a 24.04 with a reaction time of .65. She got to be back on the podium with the top three finish.  And the winner of the 50 free did a 23.27.  Funny, Lara swam faster 50 frees, her best a 23.85 at the previous World Cup meets and did not place.  So even though she got third, she may have wished that she had gone faster.
On day 2, Lara placed ninth in the 100 free in 55.90, her splits were 26.55 and 29.35.  Lara needs to work on that second half then she’ll be fairly dangerous in that event.  For the 50 fly, Lara swam a 26.61 in prelims, then got fourth with a 25.44.  The winner came in at 24.38.  Nice job for Lara shaving more than a second off her prelim time.
What a great experience this world tour has been.  Lara has learned alot and seen alot.  I am anxious to talk with her on Skype to get any last comments about what this has all meant for her.  In the meantime, I’m sure that there is some celebrating going on in Singapore as I write this, for a great journey.

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I am so proud of Lara.  She did a great job in Berlin, our motherland!  Understand that this is the first time that Lara has competed at this distance, short course meters.  Lara is the definition of a sprinter.  And in a splash and dash, there is no room for error.   Lara is the American record holder in the 50 yard free.  She has that race down, to the perfect start, great pull out, excellent turn and a big finish.  This race is second nature to Lara.  But with the 50 meter free in short course, the timing may be a little off due to the extra distance.  Math 101, a meter is longer than a yard!  So the automatic execution is not quite there yet.  So Lara has been disappointed in her 50 free results at the last two World Cup meets, the one in Durban and now Berlin.  In Durban Lara went a 23.99.  and in Berlin she did a 23.85.  She’s getting faster, but just good enough for a 5th place finish.
Sunday, November 15 was a new day and the 50 fly came together for Lara.  She got on the podium with a third place finish which entitles her to prize money.  According to swimmingworld magazine.com, “…while Lara Jackson of the U.S. took third in 25.17.  That effort beat her American record set during prelims with a 25.61.”
Lara’s email to me after stated, “Was disappointed with my free but the 50 fly was great.  I was thinking about it and at AZ my 50 fly was the first thing to come around too.”  Meaning as a freshman, Lara struggled every day with doubts about whether she belonged on a Division I swim team.  Then in the middle of her freshman year she earned a spot on the 200 medley relay with the 50 fly.  I guess history does repeat itself.  Watch out Singapore!

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I have included the link for the FINA World Cup Swimming information page so you can follow Lara’s progress in Berlin and then in Singapore.  Lara is having a blast seeing the world.  It’s an experience of a life time!

http://www.fina.org/project/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=107&Itemid=541

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I am a little late posting the results due to my checking the English version on the web page, www.meetingbz.it/.  Silly me!  I needed to check the results in Italian or German.  Now I can report on what happened.  Allow me first to qualify what Lara told me.  There were alot of swimmers at this meet and it was very crowded!  Lara said that she wasn’t able to warm up properly, nor warm down at all.  The facilities did not accommodate all the participants.  And the warm ups were very chaotic with swimmers practicing dives right into lanes where people were swimming.  In the US we are used to having separate lanes for swimming and and separate start and turn lanes.  So Lara managed the best that she could.
The Arena suit company sponsored for Lara to be at this meet and she was tagged on with Aaron Peirsol’s participation at this meet, his being the big name.  Fairly nice to have the World Record holder in the back give you tips on your little 50 short course meters back event.  Just one of the perks.
Voila, here are Lara’s results.  In the 50 Delfin or farfalla (butterfly), Lara finished third with a 26.58.  The 100 Lagen or Misti (IM), Lara made out with 7th with a time of 103.17.  The 50 Rucken or Dorso (can you figure this one out?), Lara was 5th with 28.19.  And the 50 Kraul or Stile libero she was third with 24.64.
Next stop, Berlin, Germany.  According to Carly’s source, it happens to be the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall coming down.  Is that not totally awesome!  At times, Lara lives the charmed life.  And hopefully in the home country of her grandparents, Lara will shine.  Viel Gluck am Lara!

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www.meetingbz.it

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Lara and her fellow swimming companion, Whitney Myers spent the last week with friends in Lyon, France training for their next meets.  The girls did take a couple of days to travel by train to Paris and take in the sights.  I posted some pictures on my Facebook page and from the looks of those photos, they had an awesome time.
On Tuesday, November 3, Whitney will travel to Moscow for the next World Cup Meet.  Lara has an appearance commitment to swim at a meet in Bolzano, Italy November 7 and 8.  Looking at the map, Bolzano is in northern Italy in the heart of the Italian Alps.  I’m sure the scenery will be breathtaking.  Oh, and Lara gets to make her appearance with Aaron Peirsol and Cullen Jones.  Not bad company for an up and coming swimmer.
I am searching for the website for the Bolzano meet and if I find one I will be sure to post it so we can follow the results.  Anyone read Italian?

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