Smoothie Saturday... and More!

Well it's another "Smoothie Saturday" at the Northwest Rec facility today. Mary Chris, Mother Motley, Edwina and others will be mixing up some fantastic concoctions for the general public any moment now--until about noon or so.

This event happens to fall on a day when Rose Park is hosting a triathlon in 38 degree weather, with light flurries hovering on the valley floor. That's Utah spring for you.

It's been another unbelievable week at Race Swami. What have we been up to since we last offered up a blog and a smoothie for our avid reader (that is not a typo--we do in fact, have one reader)?

To recap: Practices involved lots of technique, lots of endurance, lots of legs, lots of returning SWAMIS, lots of board meeting minutes, lots of tweets at twitter.com/@raceswami, lots of visionary work for the future of SWAMI, lots of creativity in terms of balancing real work, fantasy work, work we wish we were doing, and work work.

There is your SWAMI WEEK IN REVIEW for you, avid reader.

Today too, we have goal setting adventures scheduled for 12-2pm with the coaches. This is when SWAMIS young and teenaged, go over their planned goals for the pending long course season. We're looking to help build dreams, confidence and dedication to push towards said goals... and hopefully, instill the values of hard work, commitment and determination to the mix. We wanna winners in every facet of "the process"... winners don;t necessarily necessitate that you "win the race", but rather, how you go about getting the most out of yourself. That's a winner in SWAMI's book... knowing that regardless of the circumstances... regardless of the fact that you're looking at some serious obstacles, that you give it all you've got and that this in and of itself is what constitutes "the winner." It's great to win a race. It's cool to finish first, if that is what you set out to do for yourself. But it's also pretty awesome when you just dropped 13 seconds in a race, or you touched the wall for the first time in an event you never swam in your life.

Perspective. That's all it is... what's your idea of "winning"... that's part of the goal-setting process. We love to build the foundation of perfection for all our kids. We love proper butterfly---and we expect it. These are the tools for giving our kids a chance at "winning." But in the end, it's not the place that matters... it's giving a kid the power to empower themselves; to enhance their experience in this sport so that the experience becomes a part of their self and that the self then is enhanced by growth.

My late coach, KP, gave me these tools when I was a youngster, and these tools have been with me ever since, enabling me to be someone who can, for the most part, function in a society that begs for functionality. RACE SWAMI is Mastering the ART of Swimming to be sure, but in the bigger picture, Mastering Oneself to be a Functioning Human Being in the Human Race. (Note to Reader: We thought about making that the tagline on the shirt, but it was rather long, and looked kinda stupid and "self-importanty" so we stuck to the mantra, "less is more".)

Okay so there's the soapbox jargon for this Saturday. Perhaps more of this blogging tomorrow or Monday... or when there's a moment in time when reflection is needed and must be shared.

Toodles!