So we have our final 2009 milestone in front of us, the NE SCM Championships this weekend. All of my swimmers that are going are ready for this moment. For us, it is not a meet in the sense that we are going as a team to win team points or a banner. That is not what this meet means to us. It is much simpler. Each swimmer has a goal and a plan to achieve. The months of training are done. Whatever happens, happens, and in the end the only ones who care about the result are the swimmer and the coach. So then what happens next?

Well, Monday still comes after Sunday in the calendar and that means back to work. The next milestone is only 4 months away and that is the NE SCY Championships at the end of March. For my swimmers going to Georgia, this is their final milestone in training for Nats. For those not going to Nats, its a waypoint on the way to open water swims this summer or Puerto Rico in August.

So come Monday we are going to do things a little different this year to wrap up a great 2009. We have a contest at West Side which starts Monday. Each West Sider was paired into teams of two. Each team is responsible for writing one workout…their dream workout…and they have to deliver it to the coaches. We then give the workout on a predetermined day between the 14th and the 31st. Every swimmer gets a scorecard and has to guess which team wrote which workout. The swimmer that gets the most right gets dollah dollah bills y’all. And then it’s on to 2010 and the start of our 3rd year as a club.

In 2010, we are changing the script…the paradigm for most teams in New England is to run 3 4-month sessions in the year. We have done the same for some time but are changing that because it no longer makes sense to us. Starting in 2010, we are changing our first session to run for 5 months which will bring us to the end of May. There are several significant milestones in May for swimmers and it now makes perfect sense to run them to the milestones instead of just before. Further, since our summer session is broken into open water and pool swimming distance workouts, that will now only be a 3 month session to specifically cater to those triathletes and OW’s who need to peak in July. Again…it makes perfect sense as the session will end on a huge milestone. Then, its a 4 month ride to the end of the year for SCM Champs again.

West Side will also mark 2010 by hosting an event that is one of a kind. Details on that are being finalized but we expect that it will be a significant event in USMS swimming. Stay tuned for more details on that in the coming days…

So we start turning the corner on another year and the West Side philosophy remains the core of our program. Train hard, swim hard, achieve. It’s how we do what we do.

Respek!!!