Lara’s Blog

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So Lara completed her second meet of the long course season.  Lara is still getting used to competing again after spending the spring semester concentrating on her studies.  On Friday of the meet, Lara swam the 100 free in prelims and finals, plus swam the lead off leg for the Tucson Ford “B” relay.  She’s back under one minute, but was hoping to go a little faster.  Saturday was an off day, so she swam the 100 breast in prelims for fun.  Got to rest Saturday evening from competition.  Sunday was 50 free day and Lara was geared up for that event.  In the morning Lara was second seed after prelims for finals that evening.  Her prelim time was 25.78 from her seed time of 24.71.  In finals Lara tied for seventh with a 25.84.  The 14 year old Aussie won with a 25.13.  I know that Lara does not swim her fastest at the beginning of the season.  In fact, in the past Lara has avoided swimming the 50 to compete in “off” races such as the 200 IM or the 200 free.  But I also know that Lara is quite competitive and does not like coming in at the bottom of the pack.  So I tentatively sent her a text message telling her that I love her.  I was relieved when I saw her reply, “Yea, I’m not too worried.  I had some good elements on my race today but it’s all about learning what to fix and where to go from here.”  So back to Tucson to work hard and to get ready to go to the LA Grand Prix Meet July 8-11.  Then begin the taper for US Nationals.  Lara, you are right on track!

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http://twitter.com/

Long course season is about to begin for Lara.  Next weekend is the Southwest Tucson Classic Meet at the University of Arizona pool.  The meet begins Thursday evening, June 10 and concludes Sunday evening, June 13.  I love going to this meet.  Hard to believe I actually look forward to this when it is so oppressively hot in Tucson in the summer.  But our family has such found memories of this meet.  We first took Lara to compete in Tucson when she was just 11 years old swimming age group level.  We continued to return to this meet most years.  We did not realize back then that Lara would actually end up going to college here AND swimming on the  Division I  University of Arizona Swim Team.  Woo-hoo!   So this will start out the summer season for Lara.  Lara had an excellent semester focusing on her studies during the spring.  But this summer it’s all about her swimming.  She’s training hard and gearing up.
Which brings me to this post.  I will definitely be blogging about how Lara’s season is going on this site.  But I want to try out my tweeting skills.  Some of you may be familiar with Twitter, but let me give you a few instructions.  Go on the Twitter.com website link and look for ElPasoMartina.  You can sign up to follow my tweets.  And you can also allow updates of my tweets to go to your cell phone as well.  So convenient, eh?
As the season progresses and I attend or follow any of the meets in which Lara participates, I can send out up to the minute tweets.  So get connected if you want to “play” along.
Here’s the schedule for the rest of the summer.  Lara will travel to the Santa Clara International Grand Prix Swim Meet June 17-20.  The Janet Evans International Grand Prix Swim Meet in LA, California is July 8-11.  Then I will be joining Lara in Irvine, California August 3-7 for the Conoco Philips US National Championships.  Hopefully Lara will qualify out of that meet for 2010 Pan Pacific Championships August 18-22, also in Irvine, California.  So hopefully I’ll have lots of opportunity to both blog and tweet all about Lara and our family swim experiences.  Go Lara!  I believe in you.  You have greatness in you.  Her Dad always believed that.

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