Swim team #4

This is getting ridiculous.

I love my swim teams in Houston.  My first team (H2OUSTON Swims) was incredible - I swam with them for 3 years until I switched jobs and they moved pools, making it nearly impossible to make workouts and get to work at a reasonable time.  I then joined MAC Aquatics and was with them for 4 years.  Some of these people became my closest friends, one of my teammates was like my long lost older sister.  The coaches were awesome.  These groups were my family. When I think of the things that I miss about Houston, MACA is right up there at the top of the list.  :sniff:

Since moving here, I've been on the following teams:

• Highlands Ranch Masters - really good and fast group, I learned a lot, but I also was the slowest in the pool.  And they weren't the most friendly group.  Not sure if that was them being typical of Highlands Ranch or that I came off as one of those "triathlete" swimmers, but I swam with them for 5 months and I never even learned anyone's name.  When we bought the house, driving 30+ minutes to make a 5:15 AM swim practice became something I was unwilling to do.  So I joined....
• Colorado Athletic Club - nice club, similar to MAC, outdoor pool.  I swam with them from June - September.  The group was nice enough but they weren't very competitive.  The coach seemed like he was forced into coaching Masters at 5:30 AM so he could coach the little kids, which resulted in him coming off as not really caring about our team.  Also, he seemd to prepare workouts for the lowest common denominator, which meant I was not challenged.  The nail in the coffin was when he had us do a number of broken 125s: 75 with 15 seconds rest then 50 with 10 seconds rest.  This is not a broken 125, this is a 75 followed by a 50 with way too much rest.  When I asked him about this, he said it was so we could reset and really focus on that 50.  mkay!  Also, this club was expensive and didn't seem to have many classes that I was interested in.  Spin class wasn't anything special and all of their yoga classes were during the day.  I did the math and figured I could save $600 a year if I joined...
• Parker Recreation Center - your standard rec center with a way too warm pool (85 degrees).  I have friends on this team (including the coach) but I am really bored.  I like the coach as a person, but I'm not very thrilled with him as a coach.  He gets his workouts from a triathlon book, which means that we don't do any drills and we only do freestyle.  Boring.  Also, he's been gone a lot (work and skiing).  He's not the most organized person - he'll frequently email us the next day's workout at 8:15 or later the night prior.  I'm not paying approximately $6/session for someone to email me a workout from a book.  I can do that on my own thankyouverymuch.  I'm also irritated that I'm lucky to hit 3,000 yards a workout.  We pay for masters on a 6 week basis.  The most recent session ended last week, so I'm going to give this new team a whirl.

I just signed up at Lifetime Fitness last night, mainly for the masters team.  Word on the street is that the indoor pool is 81 degrees (which is do-able) and they swim outside in the summers.  The lanes are a bit smaller than traditional lanes, but apparently only 6-10 people show up to the morning practice.  That means 2 people per lane.  I can handle that.  And they have multiple coaches with collegiate swimming backgrounds. NOT triathlon backgrounds.  This means that hopefully we'll do some drills and maybe swim something other than freestyle.  Practice is limited to an hour (again, lame) but its early enough where I can stay and get in some bonus yards if I want to.  The club is beautiful, and while not cheap, its cheaper than Colo Athletic Club, and about the same price as MACA.  And they have hot vinyasa yoga, that hopefully I can add into my schedule. 

Here's hoping that this 4th team works!