5 September 2026 I had signed up for tomorrow's Berks & South Bucks County Masters meet awhile back (as I do), both to swim in the Bracknell Leisure Centre pool and to get some "racing reps" in. I entered before I figured out the travel logistics to arrive in time for the "day of event" confirmation (check-in by 9:15am) Then, a number of weeks ago, I saw the 3 bus - 1 tube - 1 train approximately three-hour journey that would have required me to leave home at 5:30am ... and

29 August 2026 It's been a relaxing week since I swam the 400 IM at the European Masters Championships in Slovakia, but recovery time is over because the Swim England Masters Championships kick off in eight weeks at the excellent Ponds Forge International Sports Centre: Reflecting back on the summer of training and racing, I had three big lessons: Vacation after the event - My wife and I had a great holiday, sandwiching in the 2/3 days of racing in Bratislava between 3 days i

23 August 2026 My 1,001 pool quest originally started from a desire to get and stay healthy after a period of intense work and business travel while building a startup tech company between mid-2002 and 2007. After the sale of that company later in 2007, I realized I had let my work consume me ... and let my nascent masters swimming career (begun in 2001) and attention to fitness fall far too low in my priorities. It's not like my work life got a lot less intense after I sta

28 July 2026 I had written a post last fall after I was particularly chuffed with my race execution and splits on a 200 fly I swam at Millfield School, where my 50 splits as a percentage of total time worked out to: 22.9% 25.8% 25.7% 25.5% I was reminded of how beautiful a perfectly executed 200 fly can be as I watched Lewis Clareburt control his pace, be comfortable in his strategy, bide his time and appear to storm home the last 50 to win the 200 fly at last night's Comm

27 July 2026 It's around this mid-year mark that Masters swimmers get to see how we fared around the world, with World Aquatics' annual publication of the global Top 10 performances by age group, by event and for both Short (SCM) and Long (SCM) course. It's always an interesting time: Who aged up - into or out of the age group? Who got focused and laid down some great swims? Who came back to the sport or came out of the woodwork? As another year went by, did we "slow down s

21 July 2026 Note - this is a very belated post that I thought I had published on August 7, 2022 after my father and I swam at the 2022 USMS LCM National Championships in Richmond, Virginia. I was chatting with my swimming family about trying to get our gang back together for some family relays at next summer's 2027 USMS LCM Nationals in Richmond. I wanted to look back to this post ... which I found unfinished in my drafts! It's high time I finished this. I had written thi

18 July 2026 I really, really wanted to love the new Canary Wharf Sea Lanes. Maia came up from Brighton to spend the weekend in London with us ... and the timing was pretty perfect as it was almost three years ago to the day (July 9, 2023) that we had swum together in the "OG" Sea Lanes pool down in Brighton. We booked our swim for 3pm and had absolutely perfect conditions, with fairly skies and the water chilled, but not too chilled. The location is less than a ten minute

11 July 2026 As Elton John sang ... "… It's getting late have you seen my mates Ma tell me when the boys get here It's seven o'clock and I want to rock ..." The boys (and girls) were out, but no bellies full of beer because Saturday night was allright for racing at the Life Leisure Grand Central pool in Stockport for the Cheshire County Masters SCM Championships: I cannot recall when I first learned of this pool, but the facility, dating to an urban regeneration project in th

4 July 2026 King Charles happens to be in residence this weekend at nearby Palace of Holyroodhouse, but, though he was a keen swimmer in his youth, I didn't see him at either Friday or Saturday morning's long course lane swimming times at the fantastic Royal Commonwealth Pool: Speaking of royalty, this pool was officially opened January 16, 1970 by Princess Anne and it was her first ever solo official visit. This facility also has the superlative as the only pool to ever hos

30 June 2026 As I was planning our move to London in 2023 and started swimming around the town on visits that summer, I started to learn about English lido culture and began to hear about this apparently magical, 90-meter long unheated Tooting Bec Lido in south London, London's longest lido (and, I believe, second only to Cambridge's 91-meter / 100 yard length Jesus Green Lido in terms of longest pools in England). I did make it down to the indoor, 33-meter long Tooting Leisu