Weekend Swimming Adventures, Plus a Visit to MD Tattoo Studio
On Saturday, I had a fun little travel day. I pulled out of my driveway at 4:50 am to head to Conejo Valley to catch a morning workout with my team, Conejo Valley Multisport Masters (on a daily basis, I train by myself at a pool here in town, but at meets, I am attached to CVMM and am always welcome to train with them when I can get down there).
Flipturn (those are my feet!) - Photo by Rob Dumouchel
It was a great practice, led by Coach Jeff, aka the King of Pain (nobody warned me of this beforehand - ha ha). We got in a little over 5,000 yards by 8:30, so that definitely got the day rolling.
Coach Jeff - Photo courtesy of Rob Dumouchel
My friend Rob (who runs the fantastic RobAquatics blog) was there and introduced me to many swimmers that I hadn't met before. He also lives far from the CVMM pool and is a satellite swimmer for the team like I am...and it just so happens that we picked the same weekend to mosey down to the Valley.
Photo by Rob Dumouchel
After practice and a nice breakfast, Rob and I drove to another pool in Simi Valley to attend a Backstroke Clinic run by Coaches Ahelee and Nancy. My backstroke definitely needs some TLC, so I was happy to get some pointers from these two outstanding instructors.
With Coaches Ahelee and Nancy
Here are some fun underwater photos from Rob's camera taken after the clinic.
Rob & Jinxi Underwater: Photo courtesy of Rob Dumouchel
With Helene: Photo courtesy of Rob Dumouchel
After my two pool adventures, I hopped on over to Northridge to visit Mike DeVries and his wonderful crew: Katelyn, Jeff, Josh, and Jamie (London wasn't there on Saturday, unfortunately) at MD Tattoo Studio.
Since I have been training consistently for the upcoming US Masters Nationals meet in May, the necessity to stay in the water consistently has made getting tattooed a little tricky (gotta stay out of chlorine for a week)... so I have had to put aside a few ink projects and thus haven't got to see my MD buddies for awhile. So it was really great to catch up and hang out for the afternoon. While I was there, I also confirmed an appointment with Mike in June at the Ink & Iron Tattoo Festival in Long Beach and am ecstatic about the piece we have planned.
It was also fun to talk about Tattoo Prodigies, the book that Mike, Jamie and I worked so hard on this last year, and which JUST came out this week. I will be doing a blog in the next few days, with lots of detail about all that it entails, but here are a few sneak peek photos below.
Yay for fun weekends!
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 8:58AM
Reader Comments (10)
I loved this post!
hey lovely .. this may be a wired question to ask but ... what was coach jeff last name ?
Cool. Looks great.
awesome
I am so happy for you that you found a fun team to swim with. Are there no good programs in the Riverside area? It will be fun to see you in May! I think I'm gonna get a butt kickin' from you in the water! Love the pics!!!
ooh! thats so cool! are you guys going to sell more books? cuz that'll be so rad!
sweetness! must must must see the new ink!! i hope it turns out sexy!
What a rad day! Tattoo shops and swimming. Does it get any better? :)
WOOHOO YAY for fun weekend getaways!!!! i love the underwater shots how cool did those come out. i'll be routin for ya all the way to national's. i can't wait to see what the next piece is gonna be, i'm so excited for you. looking forward to the blog's about the book....it looks amazing!!! love ya
I love reading about your swimming! I'm in awe that you're a satellite swimmer! After swimming with a team, I don't think I have enough motivation to do it on my own, so huge kudos to you. I love all the pictures. Seriously, let's discuss how adorable you are. I'll start: You're ADORABLE!! Hopefully you're putting to use the info from the clinic. That's always my issue: at the clinic everything is hunky-dory and then I just slip back into what I was doing before.
Anyway, I can't wait to hear about how you do in May, which I know is going to be awesome! :)