Aaron's blog

Back to school, and now back to the pool. Yep, training has resumed after some down time since the Paris meet. Coach Reese (who’s the college coach at Texas and also our Olympic coach) has got us swimming once a day for now, but the load should be picking up as we get back into better shape.

I swam about 6,000 yards the other day. It sounds like a lot (well, it is), but we break it up so we’re not swimming it all at once. We’ll do something like swim three 200-yard rounds, then three 100-yard rounds, then three 50-yard rounds, and then we’ll rest and start all over. We also shake it up by practicing different strokes.

Ugh. I’m almost done with school! Don’t get me wrong, I really do dig school. It’s just that I’ve been at Texas for so long, and I’m ready for my next big adventure. I just started a couple weeks back – let the countdown begin! I know, however, that I will miss learning and will try to find other avenues to continue learning.

I’ve got 13 units to knock out before I can get a move on, and I even had a bit of a scare when I found out my last class was canceled! All the sudden I found myself looking for any class to make up that last hour, even piano and music classes. Luckily, one of my profs is letting me work as his assistant, so I should be all set to graduate after this semester.

Hey racers, I hope your summers have been as memorable and crazy as mine. I know I told you a little bit about the Paris swim meet I competed in, and I told you a bit about Costa Rica (more on that later), but I did a lot of other traveling this summer, too.

I was fortunate enough to head back to my native California and spend some days there. I haven’t been home for about a year, so it was great seeing my family and a bunch of my friends who I haven’t seen if forever. I also took in some waves at a few of my favorite local beaches.

Also, I flew out to Tennessee for a couple days and chilled at a buddy’s house in the Nashville area. I’d never been to the Volunteer State before, and I must say I wasn’t expecting the landscape to be so beautiful. What a pleasant surprise! The house was right on this glassy lake, barely any other boats. I enjoyed spending some time with the guys.

Buenos dias muchachos y muchachas! I’m back from gorgeous Costa Rica, where I was relaxing for eight whole days. Yeah, I love Costa Rica so much that my dad and I are having a house built there. With any luck, it’ll be finished by the first of next year, so I’m stoked about that.

I rode across the longest zip line in the country. And they had some great surf while I was down there, too, some of it head high or bigger and water temps around 80 degrees. I never claimed to be any surfing pro or anything (I’m not well versed in aerials and the like) I just ride the faces and throw in the occasional cut back every now and then.

So I mentioned how my dad and I are having this house built in Costa Rica. Until it’s finished, though, anytime I come out here I have to stay in hotels. The hotel we’re staying in this trip is only a hundred yards or so from the beach and the best part: The Harmony Hotel is green!

Pretty cool, right? It’s not so tough to be green (don’t let that frog fool you). The hotel takes simple measures to ensure their environmental impact is as minimal as possible. They allot how much hot water each room receives each day, they have recycle bins right in the rooms and are very big into conserving water and towels and all that.

Hey everyone, just checking in for a minute ... I'm taking it easy for a while in Costa Rica. I love it over here - surfing and simply chillen.

I've become one with the ocean lately and it's got me thinking a lot of about this Race for the Oceans project I'm working on. This race is important for everyone's best interest, whether they've ever even seen the ocean or not.

The ocean is a huge chunk of this planet - a source of food, recreation, money. A vibrant ecosystem thrives beneath the waves. We owe it to not only ourselves but our posterity as well to preserve this precious resource. ...

What's up, swim fans? I've been a little MIA the past few weeks. Maybe you heard I was competing at the Paris Open. ...

Paris is a beautiful city, and I was stoked to have a little time to soak up some of the atmosphere. I felt pretty good about my swimming, too, but I have a lot of training to do in preparation for Beijing.

I'm still feeling pretty jet-lagged, though, so I'm gonna chill out for a few and enjoy some much needed R 'n' R.

By the way, have you added me as your Myspace friend yet??

AP

I'm headed out in just two days ... I'm so stoked!

AP

Today is my birthday - the big 2-4.

Most competitive swimmers are headed to Indianapolis at the end of this month for the U.S. Nationals competition, but alas, I won’t be there. Instead, I’m off to the City of Lights for the Paris Swimming Open.

I’ve never been to Paris before, so I can’t wait to take in the sights and the food.

More than 20 nations are supposed to be at this competition, which should be a nice opportunity to see what I need to work on and who I need to watch out for with the Olympics only a year or so away. I plan on swimming well and having a great time.

No one ever said the training for the summer Olympics in Beijing would be a pleasure cruise. I’ve been working hard in the pool and on land, believe it or not, to improve my swimming.

I was very pleased with my performance at the recent Texas Senior Circuit Championship where I broke the 2-minute mark for the 200-meter butterfly. Maybe you’re wondering what I was doing swimming the butterfly when everyone’s so used to seeing me compete in the backstroke. Well, when I was a kid I swam everything. Yet when a swimmer begins swimming on the international level, he/she usually begins to focus on their best stroke, and mine just happened to be backstroke. Eventually, people forget that you swim anything else but I’ve always trained those other strokes. Nonetheless, my breaststoke is still lacking. It’s tough to be a contender in all the strokes at an international level. But I do practice all the swimming strokes during my workouts – I like to shake things up from time to time.