Sunday, July 20, 2008

Club Wolverine Meet - Eastern Michigan University

Is it completely redundant for someone from Michigan to complain about road construction in the summer? Yikes! You leave three hours for a two hour trip and you still have to take a 10 mile detour to get where you're going on time!! And the stories of road rage -- SHEESH! You'd think we were back in Jersey.

Anyway, this weekend is a pretty big meet, and that mean everything from the number of clubs who entered, to the size of the pool (it's 10 lanes, 50 meters). There is every level of diving board and platform, and the EMU swimming and diving team is apparently the BEST in the Mid-America conference, judging by the number of championship banners they have hanging from the ceiling of the natatorium.

But -- sitting at this event was a humidifying experience. You may think I mean humilating, but I don't. I mean HUMIDFYING. Yes, it's an indoor pool and it must be 87 degrees in the viewing stands. The so-called fans they have strategically positioned barely move the air up there. Ther was a river running down my back the entire time I was there. The kids were getting tired just sitting around waiting to swim.

I should have signed Lexy up for more events because, as I said, this is a huge meet and it was completely full. They weren't allowing kids to sign up for extra events when they check in, as they sometimes do. So we must be content to swim two events each day.

Saturday, Lexy swam the 50 Breaststroke and took off 1.1 seconds to finish with another best time. The 100 Free was a different story entirely. She lost 5 seconds off her best time. I chalk this up to the heat in the building and the sheer amount of time she had to wait between events. We are hopeful that Sunday will be better.

Check out Lexy's USA Swimming portal at: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=457&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&perid=95dfc6ad-3973-4151-91c1-5b235b4fbde9

Sunday was better in that we were done by 4 pm, but it was still hot and humid up there in the viewer stands. Lexy's two events for Sunday were the 50 Free and the 50 Back. While she didn't get a best time in the 50 Free, she was only about one secondoff. However, she did take off a second in her 50 Backstroke for a new best time of 54.35.

One more meet for Lexy to swim at 8 & Under; then she'll age up to the 9 & 10 category, and a whole new set of challenges.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

BAYS Beat the Heat! (or Beat Your Record!)

Bay City has the weirdest set up for a community center. It's down by the riverfront, but it's behind a bunch of warehouses, and wedged between the railroad and the river. On Saturday morning a Very Loud Train rumbled by during warm-ups; I was wondering what would happen if another came by during the meet.

On Saturday, Lexy swam three 50-Meter events: Free, Breast and Fly. She won all three, with one new best time in the 50 Breast (59.75). It was warm but very cloudy, which was great because the sun was not beating down on us the whole time. It started to rain at about 10 am, but it wasn't thundering or lightning, so we just kept going.

Sunday the sun was out and I dragged the whole family over there to support Lexy through her last two events: 50 Back and 100 Free. Our coaching for Lex for the 50 Back was "Keep your head back!" She won even though she added a second or two. She said the sun was in her eyes (which was possible!).

The best event, by far, though, was the 100. She was so far ahead, she was about a third of the way back by the time the next closest swimmer was turning. I think she had a good tailwind (it was pretty windy!) and she took off about a second to finish at 1:33.70.

Five blue ribbons later, we concluded that perhaps Lexy just isn't being challenged. We have one more travel meet this season, next weekend, at Eastern Michigan University. While she's already signed up for all the 50's, she's agreed to give more 100's and 200's a try. We'll do a few "deck entries" for a couple events she hasn't tried before, and we'll see how she does!