KCCC

The clock is ticking, and excitement is building. As a swimming fan, U.S. Olympic Trials is approaching fast. Directly after that will be the meet I've been training for Marriott USMS Summer Nationals. But, I have some business to take care of first. That's the swim meet in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge.

First, if you haven't been here before, I'm a father of a child with Autism and I'm competing in the 2012 US Masters Swimming Summer Nationals, and raising money for the Ozark Center For Autism. Go here for my intro blog.

Okay, my last blog was a bit of a downer. When you live with Autism, you get constant reminders that it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it gets overwhelming. But this post is about something much more fun. The Kansas City Corporate Challenge is kind of a coporate olympics. A wide range of events that spans over two months every summer. The event is not unique to Kansas City, but it is the oldest, and by far the biggest in the nation. After more than 30 years, it has grown to over 160 companies are involved with well over 10,000 participants. The swim meet usually has roughly 1,100 swimmers, and fills every bit of 4 evenings . It's a pretty big deal. And KCCC was started to promote health & fitness, so it's a pretty cool deal, too.

I work for Burns & McDonnell, and engineering and construction firm headquartered here in Kansas City. We take the KCCC very seriously. We have won the overall trophy for Division B (divisions are based on company size) for 8 consecutive years, and we have won the swim meet for Division B for 7 consecutive years. And this year, we are the presenting sponsor. I am one of four swim coaches, with Joe Pacey, Jamie Precht, and Hilary Fellows. Four coaches may sound excessive, but there are a ton of duties shared amongst us, including running practices/tryouts, recruiting and coordinating a team for the meet. Of course we are expected to maintain our normal workload all the while. The swim meet is just 11 days away now. The last week or so, the other coaches and I have been working feverishly to recruit swimmers. We learned years ago the participation is the way to win this meet. We could try to maximize our points, and only use our best swimmers in every event. But, that would mean much fewer people get to experience the meet.

Every year we have several people that have not competed in a swim meet for many years, and some never have. They always have an amazing time. We hear it every year, "That was fun! I'm going to practice so I can do better next year!" Well, as you can imagine, most do not follow through on that promise. But, some do. And they accidentally become a more fit and healthy person in the process. And that is what is exciting about KCCC. Sure, the competition is fun, seeing and racing against old friends, maybe chasing after a record or two. When you see someone come back for their second year, and see them drop massive amounts of time from the previous year, that is real fun! We don't see it often, but we do see it, and it is really awesome when we do! Because we know the KCCC swim meet has improved their lives.

Thanks to the efforts of all of our swim coaches and the courage of many, right now our roster stands at 61 swimmers! Now that will be tough to hold. There is always last minute travel plans, illnesses or injuries that get in the way. But, it's looking line a pretty sure bet it will be the most swimmers any company has ever brought to the KCCC swim meet. That means we have the best chance of somebody coming back next year, having accidentally become a more healthy and fit person than they would have been without KCCC.

Now here is sometihng fun. Go to the KCCC website. You notice it has a slide show. Look for 4 people showing their muscles. Yep, that's my freestyle relay team, and that's me on the right! Now, wait for it to cycle through until you see that picture again, and look at the picture to the right of it. Yep, that's me running the mile! How cool is that?!

TRAINING:
Training has been going well, but time to improve before my meet is getting short.

Tuesday I did another workout from Jeff Commings' Blog. I did his workout from Tuesday June 5. I was a bit sluggish and tired, but managed to squeeze out a pretty quick 50 at the end.

Wednesday was my last gym workout, so I set out to make it a good one. I went to my Workout Trainer App, and picked 3 of the hardest workouts I could find. I did Muscle Memory, Fat Burner Deluxe, and 5 Min Arms & Abs. The goal was to test my toughness, I knew these workouts would do that.

This morning, I went to the GoSwim.tv website for a workout. I've mentioned here before, this is an awesome site for swimming info, no matter what level of swimmer you are. On the right, under Practices, click on Gold, and then Main Set Tuesday - Fast. I just added a warmup and short kick set before it, and a warm down at the end, and I had a full workout. I struggled this morning, and I knew I would after yesterdays workout. I expect more out of tomorrow, my first workout of my taper!!