I skip a bike ride. So yesterday I felt pretty miserable all day at work. Stomach cramps and a general malaise is how I would describe it. The Madster had something similar on Tuesday. I was able to bike home from work without any embarrassing gastro-intestinal episodes, and when I got there, I piled the younger two into the car and off we went to KyKy's swim meet. She was in 4 JV races. We missed her anchoring a medley relay, but I think she swam a :33 on her split. Next was 200 free - 2:57. Not a great time, but she's never swum that race before so she doesn't know how to attack it. She swam the 100 in 1:18 and her split on the 400 free relay was 1:16. Not too bad. I wish the coaches would spend more time with the girls on technical stuff - stroke work, starts, turns. It's an easy way to shave time without having to kill the girls with swimming massive amounts of yards. Besides, if they're swimming all these yards and reinforcing bad technique, you've just made your life much more difficult for yourself as a coach. Southwest lost the meet. There were a couple hundred people crammed into the pool for the meet, and at times it was absolutely deafening. It was one of the more exciting dual meets I have ever been to. The two teams have another dual meet again later this season. It will be hard for Southwest to beat South from what I've seen. South has too much depth in the freestyle events for SW to overcome.
After the meet Madster and 'Nika and I were waiting in the hallway for KyKy. We bought some water from the concession stand, and it was very cold, which felt good after spending nearly three hours in the pool. I was feeling ok standing out in the hall, but when we left the building I crashed. It wasn't that cold outside, probably in the low 60's, but that, in combination with the cold water, pushed me over the edge. I felt like I had hypothermia almost immediately upon getting outside. I wasn't shivering, I was shuddering. We got in the car and I cranked the heat up and actually dreaded the walk from the garage to the house because I thought it would be so cold.
Now Wednesdays are my "book club" night. I get together with 3 other friends and we sit around on Matthew's porch and discuss a book we are jointly reading. And drink some wine. We really do discuss the books though. So far we've read all or parts of "God: A Biography" by Jack Miles, "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. I really, really cherish this time with these guys. Often I don't get to bed until 2:30 am because of the intensity of the discussion. So last night we were going to forgo the discussion for a while and go on a little after dark bike ride on the trails around the city. We did this once before, and I was looking forward to last night. Alas, when I got home I called Matthew, told him I wasn't coming because I felt so crappy, and went straight to bed at 9:30, pulling two comforters over myself to warm up. I happened to wake up at 2:45 and I thought, "I've just slept 5 hours more than I normally get on Wednesday night." Still feeling a bit crummy today so I didn't bike, which bums me out because that would have been 4 days in a row of bike commuting - 108 miles not driven.
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I'm not sure if the Stocking family swimmers are all aware of the changes at the CIHS pool, so I'm going to fill you in.
The last many years there have been no starting blocks because the pool depth doesn't meet whatever new safety standards. So, the swimmers have been starting off the pool deck. It looks rather strange. AND, the Cambridge Invitationals are no longer, because no one else wants to start off the pool deck any more than necessary. Of course the diving well didn't meet above mentioned standards, either. SO, the pool has been upgraded and remodeled over the summer. In fact, the girls swim team started practicing this summer in Ogilvie (I didn't know there was a pool up there) and there was no summer swim lessons or AAU swimming because of the construction. I don't think the girls have any home meets scheduled this fall and I'm not sure where the construction project is at in terms of finishing up. I have heard that the starting blocks will be at the south end of the pool. There was some talk of expanding to 8 lanes, but that would have required way too much reconfiguring (read $$). There was also some hope of expanding the fan seating area, but alas, I don't think that happened either. I'll fill you all in on what the pool looks like if there is ever another home meet. HoHo is still coaching the girls. Some things never change.
It's fun to relive the glory days thru Kysa. If there are any meets on the north side, let me know. I'd sure try to get down.
...and there WERE no summer swim lessons...
sorry
Hey, I hope you are feeling better!
What did you think of "Irresistible Revolution?"
When is CIHS going to get a MTB team?
Neil - I liked Irresistable Revolution quite a bit. What I liked most is that "Dude" (as we call Claiborne in our little group) is trying to find a middle way. Not a theology of poverty (asceticism) or of wealth (prosperity gospel), but a theology of enough. I'd like to see lots of high school and college kids read this book so they are introduced to a way of thinking about our consumer culture and how we've all been co-opted by it. I like the tone of the book. It is not written to make you feel guilty about how you are living your life now, but rather invites you to try something new, and hopefully liberating. Dude's "revolution" is supposed to take place on a thousand small fronts rather than promoting change on the silly, cosmic, wish dream level. If we all start doing a bunch of small things, it will hopefully add up to make a real difference. His jokey style gets annoying, but that's a minor quibble.
MTB team? From what Terri tells me, there's some pretty awesome roadies up there. Better yet, how about an indoor velodrome?
It's hard to picture the CHS pool without starting blocks... not sure how starting off the pool deck can improve your times, but hey-- I'm sure many records have been broken despite not having the blocks. It's funny to think about changing "safety standards" for the pool, as I can remember at free swim on Sunday & Mondays nights, if the right people were in charge, we were allowed to jump off the lifeguard tower (or whatever it was called). I'm sure that today that would be considered life-endangering. Ahhh, the good old days.
And how old is Scott Sholund these days? 108?
I'm curious to know how many swimmers broke some part of their body when diving off those unsafe starting blocks all those years. Could it be... NONE?! What a stupid waste of the school district's money to have to make all those changes.
Incidentally, regarding the lifeguard tower: are they making any changes to that? Or are the guards expected to risk their lives to save the drowning?
And Jen, I apparently never went to open swim on the right nights. I've never jumped off that tower, and I was a lifeguard!
Oh I don't know if that the pool was re-done simply for the starting blocks. That thing was closing in on 40 years old and probably needed a major overhaul. But I agree that the number of competitive swimmers who have been critically injured starting a race from a starting block into a 3 foot deep pool, is probably close to zero nationwide. It's the dimwits who are not competitive swimmers that are breaking their necks diving off of starting blocks into pools and causing mass hysteria about the danger of diving blocks. The answer would be quite simple. If you're not on the swim team, don't even get up on the blocks. If critical injuries were taken this seriously across all high school sports, there would be no friggin' football at all, or it would be reduced to flag football. How much do you want to bet that with the new and improved pool they won't allow the use of starting blocks during open swim? So point well taken Tracy. They really shouldn't have deepened the pool for starting blocks only. Will they allow the use of the diving board anymore even with a deeper diving well? I'd be shocked if they did.
Unfortunately, the lifeguard tower has gone the way of naked moringing swim practices. I have fond memories of jumping off the tower, throwing folding chairs off the tower and even sitting in folding chairs while jumping off the tower.
Come to think of it, I have some fond memories of naked morning swim practices, too.
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