Mission Viejo California

May 20 - 22, 2023 was the final leg of the USA Swimming TYR Pro Swim Series for the 2023 season was held in Mission Viejo, CA, at the Marguerite Aquatic Complex.

I competed in this pool back in 2014 when I was still in High School, and I hadn’t been back since, so the first day driving around the area and swimming in the pool started to bring back a lot of fun memories. Some parts of the pool seemed just how I remembered it but, there were obviously some brand-new features.

The city spent $11 million in completely renovating the facility. The main competition pool, warm-up pool, and diving tank were taken down to their shells and totally rebuilt. There is a new huge multi-platform diving tower. It’s the only tower on the west coast able to accommodate synchronized diving. New mechanical and storage buildings were built, new bleachers with shade structures, and areas for dry-land workouts. You can watch this cool time-lapse video of the renovation project.

The trip to Southern California was almost perfect. Who knew it was going to be colder and rainier in California than back in Canada… not me! Southern Californians have a phrase for the weather for late May into early June – “May grey June gloom”, and I was surprised to see how accurate that statement was. Let’s just say I ended up having to wear a few extra layers on the way to the pool for morning practices.

This swim meet, along with all the other stops of the TYR Pro Swim Series earlier in the year, had strong competition in every event. I swam the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke races and the 200m freestyle. At this meet, I swam some events that are not my primary events, or ones I don’t usually focus on. It’s important to race ‘off events’ occasionally and use them as training opportunities. I was happy of the results of my swims too. I finished 2nd in the 200m breaststroke and swam one of my fastest times this season. One of the goals for ‘in-season’ racing, or racing when you’re tired, is to see how close or how much faster can you go compared to when you are ‘tapered’ or rested. Meets like these are good ‘checkpoints’ to have for different parts of the season.

I was in California for 2 extra weeks, making a mini ‘training camp’ out of it while also getting to see part of the country I haven’t been to in a while. The Mission Viejo Nadadores, the club team that trains out of this facility, has Olympians and World Championship medalists on their roster, so I had a great group to train with and lots of teammates to push me in practice. A very welcoming team, with one swimmer I used to train and go to school with at University of Tennessee! It’s amazing and I am lucky to have so many connections I have made through the sport that allows me to travel to almost any place around the world.

Since I was there for so long, I wanted to make the most of my trip with family outside of the water too. One weekend, we traveled to the city of Temecula, and went to the Leoness Winery to taste wine and tour the vineyard. This was the one sunny day, so it worked out perfectly to make this a weekend excursion away from the pool. Temecula has over 50 wineries scattered across its rolling hills and open terrain. It has a really unique climate, much different from Napa Valley and other Californian vineyard hotspots. The two differ in humidity levels throughout the summer months, with Temecula being in a drier climate, resulting in a variety of sweetness and alcohol contents of the wine. The drier the air is, the less rainfall and run off, making for a more flavourful grape and stronger wine.

Other getaway trips were spent in San Diego and Laguna Beach. Vintage markets, art galleries, and good food filled the rest of my time in Southern California. I will for sure be back to visit family again and explore more of the west coast. California hosts a lot of swim meets each year, so I plan to come back again soon, but maybe later in the summer next time… according to the weather…