I already feel faster Daddy.

So it was only fitting that I, as Head Coach, returned the favor…

(yes I bought one for my IT department too )

I thought Desert Eagles were illegal in Massachusetts?

Another awesome weekend for the West Siders. 26 swims…22 PR’s…As a training milestone meet, SCM Champs shows us where we are in our training as we prepare for the Spring. In this case…with a few very close exceptions, I would say we are in the right place. There will be some fine tuning over the next three months as we prep for NE SCY Champs and then its on to Georgia.

NE SCM Champs is one of the biggest and best meets in the country and, despite the world record ruinations by illegal suit wearers this weekend, was an awesome meet all around. Thanks to Ed Gendreau from Great Bay Masters and all of his support staff including the timers and refs for putting together another great meet!! Thanks also to Rob Butcher and Kyle Deery from USMS for our new kickass banner and for all of their support.

Our meet videos are here [non-distance events]: West Side Youtube Page

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This is why Coach Nate loves his swimmers.

Well…I never thought I would say this but BIG UPS to Michael Phelps for being one of only a handful (<5) people who swam in the FINA World Cup Series this week in a normal suit. By normal I mean, the kind of suit you actually have to work in, not the kind that slap-chops seconds off your time. The AP is calling it the "old-style" suit...I just prefer to call it a normal suit. The kind that makes all your little bits party together and gives your crack a chance to breathe.

He missed qualifying for the 100 free and 100 back. He qualified 7th in the 100 IM. Bowman and Phelps have a plan and its a damn good one. Let all the other people keep wearing the illegal suits and get a head start on learning how to compete the right way. Bravo!!

Craig Lord also has an opinion on this…

Here are some more pics from the last few days in the FINA EU World Cup Series…

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What an awesome weekend for West Siders!

To start off…on Saturday three of the West Side Warrior Women went up to the Canadian border for an open water event nicknamed the “Kingdom Swim”. Coach Ellen, LT and Kim participated in this inaugural event. Coach Ellen and Lynn swam the 10 mile and Kim swam the 3 mile. Coach Ellen got 4th overall (out of 36) and 3rd overall for non-wetsuits with a time of 4:30.10. Lynn swam a 5:21.57, non-wet suited, and placed 8th. Kim swam a 1:32.41 to get 3rd place for non-wet suited and 12th overall out of the 3 milers (of which there were 38). This was a very difficult open water swim given the head current coming home and the 3 mile stretch on the back half with no markers. Simply bad ass swimming…

On Sunday the West Side Men performed with top notch results at the Lake Placid Ironman. Gary, Ted and Matt went up and it was clear that the time spent in the water paid off. Gary went 10:39.28 (1:05.23 Swim/145th overall/27th in age group) just beating out Ted who went 10:41.27 (1:04.41 Swim/152nd overall/36th in age group). Matt went 14:02:06 (1:09.41 Swim/1444th overall/168th in age group) for his FIRST Ironman. Great stuff Men!

Over at the Marlborough Tri, Matt Nuffort took home 6th place with a 1:07.00 and Steve aka Juice, took 10th place with a 1:10.23. Great job guys!

And last but certainly not least…Elaine left on Saturday for her English Channel swim. We wish her the best of luck!!! You can follow her progress here…we are not sure which day she is going off because it requires very excellent timing but when she does, we will update here.

Pics from Memphre…

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Juicebox – 2nd Overall, 1st in Age Group
GD – 6th Overall (ran last mile barefoot), 2nd in Age Group
Burkey – 204th Overall, 2nd in Age Group

Respek!!