Michael Phelps smiles during a workout at the University of Michigan's Canham Natatorium on Thursday. Phelps is competing at the Eric Namesnik Michigan Grand Prix this weekend.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Michael Phelps was back in familiar waters Thursday, swimming practice laps at the University of Michigan’s Canham Natatorium. The 16-time Olympic medalist posed for pictures on the pool deck and had reporters and cameras charting his every stroke.

It was a far cry from the four years Phelps trained in the same pool leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics in relative anonymity. Practicing before sunrise helps one’s efforts to fly -- or swim -- under the radar.

As Phelps prepared for the Eric Namesnik Michigan Grand Prix, which takes place Friday through Sunday at Canham, he took an occasional break to talk with old friends and coaches that he got to know when he trained in Ann Arbor from 2004-08.

“It’s fun to be back. Being able to be back,” Phelps said. “I drove past my old house earlier, we were talking about all the old restaurants and everything around and were able to get a little taste this afternoon for Maize and Blue.”

Phelps came to Ann Arbor when his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, accepted the head coaching position at Michigan and Club Wolverine in 2004. Bowman also left in 2008.

"It’s kind of like coming home. even though we weren’t here for that long,” Bowman said, “It’s great to see all the familiar faces, all the people that have worked here. Like Michael said, we had some really great memories.” Phelps was bit of a rock star when he first stepped foot on Michigan's campus. He already had six gold and two bronze medals to his name from the 2004 Athens Olympics and talk of him making a run at Mark Spitz’s record seven gold medals was already the buzz.

Phelps capitalized on being a 19-year-old with celebrity status in a college town, but said those aren’t the memories he plans to revisit this weekend.

“I’ve gotten a lot older and it takes a lot longer time for my body to recover from doing anything,” he said. “So I’m a lot more tame than I was back in my day.”

Of course that shortened recovery time doesn’t just apply to partying, but to training as well. That's why Phelps recently started sleeping in a hypoxic tent that simulates elevation and promotes healing.

Despite his need for lengthier recoveries, Phelps will swim in seven events this weekend: two Friday, three Saturday and two Sunday.

“That’s what Bob put me in and we’re going to try a couple different events here, so it should be fun,” Phelps said.

Phelps has said for quite some time that the 2012 London Olympics would be his last and he was singing the same tune on Thursday.

He said preparing for his final go around was tougher than he thought at the beginning as he rededicated himself after a six month layoff. But now that he’s full bore into his final run, nostalgia is starting to set in for places like Ann Arbor.

“When we were in Austin (his mom) was like, ‘This is where you broke your first world record and this could be the last time you swim here,’” Phelps said, “She’s been traveling around meet to meet, just trying to remember all the memories we’ve had at all the great pools we’ve been able to compete in.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at petercunningham@annarbor.com or 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.