Hello, swim friends!
A few of you have been asking about the status of our newly forming team (technically called a workout group in US Masters Swimming), so I thought I’d send out an email to let you know what’s going on!
JOINING USMS AND SOMA (Southern Oregon Masters Aquatics)
As of November 1st (but not before that day!) you will be able to renew or join USMS under our new workout group, Southern Oregon Masters Aquatics (abbreviated SOMA). Here’s a link to the page to do so:
When you go to choose your affiliation, be sure to choose the following:
LMSC: (OR) Oregon
Club: Oregon Masters (OREG)
Workout Group: Southern Oregon Masters Aquatics (SOMA)
If you have any questions about the process, feel free to email or give me a call. Remember, you’ll need to wait until November 1st to join in order to choose our new Southern Oregon Masters Aquatics (SOMA) workout group.
WHAT DOES USMS MEMBERSHIP GET ME?
Some of the highlights are access to printable workouts at usms.org, ability to participate in USMS sanctioned events (such as open water swims, swim meets and virtual events) and a subscription to SWIMMER magazine.
A fairly comprehensive list of membership benefits can be found here:
I’ll also print you out a “USMS cool kid card” if you want one to carry with you 
Seriously though, USMS is a well-run organization with a great mission and is definitely worth contributing to with a membership at the very least.
OFFERING MY ASSISTANCE
I’m happy to offer help to anyone with their swimming goals. Whether that involves helping you find a partner or group for fitness swimming, plotting out a workout plan for an upcoming event, regularly training for swim competitions, or simply learning better stroke technique and/or how to swim all four of the strokes. I would love to help!
I know quite a few of you have goals, such as swimming 3000 yards in less than an hour or preparing for the 11-mile Portland Bridge Swim next year. I’m happy to help craft training plans to achieve those goals and meet up regularly to check in on technique advice. If you’d like help, feel free contact me to arrange a time to meet up.
NETWORKING AND SWIMMING TOGETHER
Currently, we have a core group who swims together weekdays (M-F) between 5:30am and 7am and at 8:30 on Sundays at the Superior Athletic Club. If you come to swim with us at that time and let me know you’d like some coaching or feedback on your stroke(s), I’d be happy to oblige. I’m sure Mark would as well!
If you regularly swim at Superior at a different time, and I know some of you do, can you please let me know the days and time you swim and if you’d like to have more people join you? If you are swimming somewhere else, like the Medford YMCA, please let me know the time and days you swim, if you wouldn’t mind having people joining you.
If you’d like to be put in contact with someone to workout with, let me know. And although the season has passed this year, let me know if you’re interested in open water swimming as well. There is an open water group who regularly swims during the summer months and I would be happy to put people in contact with the group next spring. They normally start swimming in Emigrant Lake sometime in May.
UPCOMING EVENTS
A list of events in Oregon can be found on the Oregon Masters Swimming website:
There are quite a number of us who plan to attend the Puget Sounds Masters SCM Championship Meet on November 18th and 19th (the weekend before Thanksgiving). It would be great to see more people come to that meet! Details about the event and registration for the event can be found here:
Also, from now through November 15th, the 3000 and 6000 yard ePostal National Championships are running. These are national events put on by USMS but can be swum in any short course pool of your choice. Results are submitted online and tabulated by 5-year age groups of everyone who chooses to swim the event. I’d encourage everyone to do both of them. I will time anyone who wants to do them! Just let me know when! Here’s more information about the event:
I do all of the USMS ePostal National Championships (there are 5 total) each year. They’re great training swims and an excellent way to measure progress and one’s current fitness level.
I will be heading down to North Bend, Oregon on October 29th to do my 6000-yard ePostal swim, starting at 10am. Ralph Mohr, our swim friend out on the coast of southern Oregon, has arranged for us to have time to do our swims in the North Bend Municipal Pool, which is deeper and cooler than the Superior pool (or any pool in the Rogue Valley), thus allowing for a faster swim. Anyone who is interested in doing a 3000 or 6000 yard swim in a faster pool should consider carpooling with me!
And lastly, but far from least, I would love for everyone on this email list to consider swimming with us at the Oregon Association Championships in the spring. The venue and date have yet to be chosen, but it will likely be in Corvallis on April 20-22, 2018. I will email as soon as I know the confirmed location and dates. This is the biggest and best meet of the year in Oregon and the only meet in which we would all swim together as a team. We always plan dinner and fun together too, after the meet on Friday and Saturday evening. It’s really a blast! Plan to attend!
See you all poolside sometime soon!