Swim Your Heart Out meet

Guess where we were over Valentine's weekend?

Yep, back at the Jenks pool!

It was a smallish meet due to the entry limits for each swimmer, which was only three events per day instead of the usual number of four.

My daughter's not taking huge chunks of time off some of her events, but instead it's the smaller increments that count, especially in the shorter distances.

If you are looking at the previous meets that I've posted, you'll notice that while she swam the event before (400 IM) she had no previous recorded time. It has to do with meter vs. yard pools. She swam the 400 IM in her home pool in meters, but the Jenks pool is in yards. 50 meters is a farther distance than 50 yards and can add up to 3 seconds per 50.

So my daughter swam these events, plus two relays.

Saturday:
100 Free -- 1:04.60 -- -1.07 missed qualifying by 0.52 second
200 Fly -- 2:44.62 -- nt - 4.50 second over 
50 Free -- 29.59 -- -1.66 (on an interesting note, she swam a 28.55 on her relay! but she was a middle leg and it won't 'officially' count) Qualified

Sunday:
200 Free -- 2:19.91 -- -0.98 -- Qualified by 5.03 seconds
100 Fly -- 1:14.68 -- -0.47 -- missed qualifying by 1.19 seconds
400 IM -- 5:29.76 -- nt (qualified for OK Age Groups by over 15 seconds) Qualified

We enjoyed Valentine's day dinner on Sunday night.

All dressed up with some place to go! Yes, I'm short, only 5'1" when I'm standing tall and have my big hair going on. And yes, those are 5" stilettos . . .

Being goofy.

Later Peeps!

Swim Meet! -- again

This last weekend, the hubs and I sat in a chlorine-scented sauna for hours, where we learned to contort ours bodies into a ridiculously tiny space on uncomfortable bleacher seats.

Yes, my friends, we were at a swim meet . . . at our home pool.

Two summers ago, some school bond money went into the renovation of the pool. Even I, with no knowledge of how much something like this would cost, knew that a couple hundred thousand dollars wouldn't buy them much.  It didn't. I won't go into the other major items that weren't addressed, but I will go into the problem of ventilation.

Supposedly the ventilation system was 'fixed'. If it was fixed, then it's hard to call it a good fix.

Though it was a small swim meet, the bleachers were packed every single day.

The bleachers aren't bad if there are only a few observers, but when people are packed in like sardines, sitting in the bleachers is a miserable experience.

You couldn't walk down a row because the knees of the people in the upper row are directly in the backs of the people in the lower row. It was only when someone got up to go to the bathroom could you feel a slight breeze from the ventilation. One of the swim moms said that before the ventilation fix the temperature would be about 120 degrees, well, I guess what they did worked because it was only about 98 degrees up there. . . yeah, still not comfortable!

Griping over with for now, I have to say that my kidlet did a great job swimming considering she managed to sprain her wrist the previous Sunday while roller skating. Last Tuesday, I took her into the doc for exam and then x-rays.

It wasn't broken, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Luckily, since it was a medical issue, she was allowed to wear a wrap to help support it.

This is where having an animal supply place nearby comes in handy. I tried to find a Vetrap-type product at a sporting goods store, but all I found was Kineseology tape. Er, it wasn't waterproof. I made it to the animal supply place on Thursday.

Oh, what is Vetrap, you ask?

Have you ever gone into the doctor's office and had them draw blood?

I think it goes by a different name, Medrap, or something like that. Its the stretchy sticky skin tone stuff they wrap around the cotton ball they put over the needle hole.

The cool thing about Vetrap, other than the cheaper price, is the fact that it comes in a myriad of colors. I picked up hot pink, blue and purple.

. . . and for once, I could pick out my kid from the sea of similarly dressed and swim capped kids milling around waiting for their heat to start. 

Sometimes having a meet at your home pool makes it difficult to get out of 'practice' mode and into competition mode, but my daughter killed it on Friday night. So much so that I think she spent the rest of the weekend in recovery mode!

One thing to note: a swimmer might add time to their event, but they BEST time in a two year period will be used to seed them in the heat line up. 

I think that's right, but don't quote me!

Friday:
400 Medley -- no previous time -- 6:04.41 -- She killed it! She beat the OAG qualifying time by 15 seconds!
400 Free -- no previous time -- 5:39.91 -- I felt sorry for the girls who swam the 400 IM because they had to turn around and swim the 400 Free less than 10 minutes later! She was just 5 seconds off from qualifying for OAG, and totally exhausted, I might add!
Saturday:
200 Free -- 2:37.21-- previously qualified for OAG's --added 1 second.
100 Back --1:23.86 --minus 0.36 seconds
100 Fly -- 1:23.77 --added  0.35 seconds
50 Free -- 33.74 -- minus 0.95 seconds
Sunday: 
200 Back --2:55.93 -- Previously qualified for OAGs- added 4 seconds
100 Breast -- 1:35.60 -- minus 2.00
100 Free -- 1:13.07 -- added 0.18 seconds
200 Fly -- 3:05.86 -- no previous time

All in all, the kidlet had a great meet--especially competing with a bunged up wrist!

Later, Peeps!

Swim Meet -- Turkey Gobbler

This last weekend we spent both days at the Jenks Natatorium.

The bulkhead marks the 25 yards on the pool.

And my daughter had a GREAT SWIM MEET! There is something about that pool that she really likes.

Okay, I already schooled y'all about short course vs. long course, right?

This is short course season, which means the pool length is either 25 meters or 25 yards. If a swimmer is swimming a 100 meter event, then there are 3 turns for each stroke . . . and three chances to screw up. :-)  The important thing to realize that in short course that if you don't have good turns you can easily add A LOT of time.

This is actually something my horse friends would understand. You hit a fence too far away, your horse either 1) takes the jump, but it throws their rhythm and might take a rail, 2) adds a short step and 'chips' the jump, which throws the rhythm off and might still take a rail.

The right answer to all of this is pacing. If a rider can count strides--this is learned ability--they can adjust the horse's stride evenly, longer or shorter, on the way to the jump until you hit the perfect 'spot' to take off from, comfortably, evenly and in rhythm.

The same goes for swimming.

You have to hit the wall hard and in stroke to get the most out of your turn.

Out of the kidlet's eight events she qualified for OAG's in the 13-14 age group in three of them.

...erm, my daughter isn't 13 yet. .

And all three of them are in the 200 meter length . . . she missed qualifying for the 200 Breast stroke by 3 seconds. :-( She had never swum the 200 breast before, so this was a VERY good time even if she didn't qualify!

A couple of weeks ago, she moved up to the 'gold' team, which is composed of 13 and older swimmers. She's swimming with older kids and high school swimmers AND she swimming for two hours every day instead of 1 1/2 hours.

She took time off every event. I think it's working for her.

Here's the breakdown of her events:
Event -- time -- +/- time

100 Yard Free -- 1:05.67 -- -3.14
*200 Yard IM -- 2:36.99 -- -6.62
100 Yard Back -- 1:15.87 -- -3.89
200 Yard Breast -- 3:03.64 -- no previous time

----------------------------------------------------

*200 Yard Back -- 2:34.86 -- no previous time
*200 Yard Free -- 2:20.89 -- -7.65
100 Yard Fly -- 1:15.15 -- -2.24
100 Yard Breast -- 1:27.93 -- -0.78

* Qualified for Oklahoma Age Group finals March 2014

Again, she had a great meet! She missed qualifying for the 200 Breast by 3 seconds. Most of the 100's she missed by a second or two, with the exception of 100 Breast which is 4 seconds off pace. BUT she knew she messed up. After the meet she confessed that she thought it was a 200 instead of 100, and had been conserving her energy. She did turn it on during the last 25 yards, but it was too late . . . and she still shaved time off her previous time!

That's it for now.

Later, Peeps!

Lagniappe!

I had good intentions of posting the final installment of my WDW Magic Kingdom rides, but that didn't happen.

Why?

Because I was having to do two major computer scans to remove some Trojan virus that managed to be riding the coat tails of one of the Disney maps I had found on Google Images.

I think it's gone, but it didn't seem to be one that was harmful to others. As it seemed to simply hijack my Google browser. *fingers crossed*

When I do finally get the ride blog written, the maps that I will be using as reference will be the one's I scanned off my own computer--hopefully sometime this week.

I guess today I'll post a little Lagniappe!  I forgot which version I'm currently working on!

I don't know about y'all, but early this year as I set my goals, I promised myself that I would read 50 books. I've managed to read 50--well, I'm reading number 50 right now--but I can't say that all of them were books as some were short stories or novellas . . . and one of them I never finished. I did note on my non-finished book that it was "boring". And life is too short to read boring books. 

And the last book to round out my list is:  House of Hades by Rick Riordan.

Wow! That man can write! And it's so much fun to see how he manages to make mythology come alive!

It doesn't help that my kitchen is torn up.

Hubs and I have debated about looking for a house around the kidlet's school to alleviate some of the driving issues. We've come to the conclusion that 1) we can't afford one, 2) the ones that we can afford would need some serious renovation.

So we decided to update our house. Little stuff, not a total remodel. And if we change our minds, our house isn't 'dated'.

To that end, hubs has ripped out the tile backsplash and is putting in glass tiles. I'll blog about it when the work is completed. He's still cutting tons of tiles to finish the corner and side. Yesterday, he put up half sheets to finish the walls and then worked on the outlet cuts.

It's really coming together nicely!

This weekend was also the kidlet's first Short Course swim meet of the season. Well, she did do a duel meet a couple of weeks ago, but that was more to get her head into the game.

Though she isn't 13 yet, she needs to work to get the times set for 13-14 year olds since the time Oklahoma Age Groups comes around (March), she'll need those times to qualify. Actually, she did quite well by shaving time off of everything she was entered in, BUT it wasn't enough to qualify for any OAG event.

But, as I said, she has until March to make those newer, and harder, times.

We'll see, since she will be moving up to the Gold team, she may just want to survive the longer hours of practice!

I'll be making candy again. I did finish five boxes of Sea Salt Caramels for the winners of the Brenda Novak auction last May . . . until hubs decided to rip my kitchen apart. So candy making will be put on hold until he's finished with this endeavor.

Though he should be finished sometime this week. As I mentioned, he has a corner and one side to finish cutting. Then one of us will have to seal the quartz pieces before he grouts the wall and then caulks the edges before I can put everything back on the counter.

This week will be a short school week as it's Fall Break. I'll attend Parent-Teacher conferences while the kidlet is doing a service project with her classmates on Wednesday. And she'll be home for a four day weekend. I hope to finally finish GNOME WITHOUT A HOME today. I know this picture book has taken me FOREVER to finish! I've been thinking about it a lot, but finding the time to sit and put the words to paper are tough.

Goal for today: GNOME WITHOUT A HOME

I also need to keep working on DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER, as the kidlet actually read FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS and wants to see what happens next!

If I focus the next two months, I should finish DRAGON by the end of the year. It'll need tweaking, but it will be finished!

I guess that's all I have for now. I need to put my walking clothes on and wait for the sun to rise. Once I finish my walk, I'll finish my story!

Later, Peeps!

Stars and Stripes Long Course Meet

This weekend the hubs and I got 'numb butt' at another swim meet. It was a local meet and not very big, which meant it started later and ended sooner. But we were still there for 5-6 hours when you include the time we had to get the kidlet there for warm-ups.
The saving grace was that we didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn and drive a couple hours before sitting for six hours only to drive back home. And I actually got my walk finished an hour earlier to have it finished before we went to the meet.

So win-win . . .  plus, on Saturday, I won some cash with a local radio station's, 106.9 K-Hits,  money machine.

I managed to catch $27 in ones (officially $26, but later discovered another $1 shoved in my bra!). It wasn't much, but it was more than I had 30 seconds earlier! The only reason I strapped on their fanny pack was to keep the money from falling out of my shirt when I shoved it down the neckline of my shirt.

We also learned at this meet to bring our camp chairs. The bleachers had a large space at the top where you could park the chairs, so we snagged a couple of spots both days. It wasn't the premium location, but when you only get up four times to watch your kid swim, it was ideal.

During the down time, I managed to read three out of six contest entries. I still have to comment on one entry and then I need to tackle the 'newbie' writer entry.

But back to the swim meet . . . my kidlet had a wonderful meet, but then again, she always does at the Jenks natatorium. It's a beautiful pool! This is set up for long course, which makes the pool 50 meters--Olympic-sized in length.

We also discovered, once again, that my daughter isn't a sprinter and 50 meter sprints in any stoke isn't her thing. BUT she shaved time off every single even she was entered in!

Saturday:
200 meter IM --    3:06.55    - 6.70 
50 meter Fly --      41.17       -5.22 missed by 1.64 seconds
100 meter Back -- 1:28.35    -2.64 missed by 1.84 seconds
50 meter Free --    34.96       -1.57 missed by 0.56 seconds
Sunday:
100 meter Fly --     1:32.65    -8.92
200 meter Free --    2:51.88   -6.57
50 meter Back --     41.26      -11.18
100 meter Breast -- 1:45.86   -18.72 missed by 2.67 seconds

Everything in green qualified her for Long Course Age Group finals at the end of the month, plus two she qualified for at another meet: 200 Back and 200 Breast.

Considering how short long course season is, the kidlet had a great run and took tons of time off her previous times.

Later, Peeps!

Aloha Long Course Meet

This last weekend we watched the kidlet swim in her first, and probably only, long course meet of the season. We have various camps and other things going on that it will be difficult to fit a weekend swim meet into the schedule.

I insisted upon this meet because:

• it was in Jenks and only 15 minutes from our house
• we could do all 3 days without much cost other than the actual events (no hotel, no eating out--beyond our normal, no excessive driving, etc)

Little did I realize:

• this meet took place the weekend before finals
• Sunday would be cancelled mid-meet, due to tornadoes
• there's a really cool app for this--Meet Mobile--search for the meet, find your swimmer, favorite them, and it gives you all the times, seed times, place times, split times, etc.

Long course is tougher for most kids. The pool is 50 meters long--Olympic-sized--and swimming that distance without the break for a turn is tough on most of the kids who routinely practice in a 25 yard pool.

Most of the kidlet's events were NT--not timed--which means she's never swam that particular event in an official meet before. She swims the distances, but not in long course version.

Prior to the meet being cancelled, the kidlet was having a really good meet, earning 90 points. I have no idea what the 'point' system is, but it gives you the points on the app. I think it helps in overall team ranking and swimmer ranking--to help rank them when they are NT for an event, but really, I have no clue.

On Friday:
200 IM, shaving 27.58 seconds off her previous time with a time of 3:13.25 putting her in 10 place for all the 12 & Unders who swam--missed OAG by A LOT, but it was her first Long Course event since last summer.

On Saturday, we spent a hellish day on the bleachers as the morning session went over by an hour, but we arrived when we were supposed to be there . . . seven hours later we hobbled out, crippled for the evening.

Here's Saturday's events:

She swam the 200 Free Relay with the 'C' group of senior girls from Swim Tulsa. She was the youngest one on this team as the girls had all 'aged up' (when you turn 13, you automatically swim with Gold team) in the past six months. The team finished 12 overall, from a NT seeded position of 16, with a time of 2:20.36. She swam the third leg with the second fasted time of the team--34.43 seconds.

200 Meter Free--no seeded time--2:58.45--missed qualifying for Long Course Age Groups (OAG) by 1 second.
100 Meter Back--NT--1:30.99-- Missed qualifying for OAG by 4 seconds
200 Meter Breast --NT--3:44.85--Qualified for OAG (by 1 second)
50 Meter Free--NT--36.53--Missed qualifying by 2 seconds. Even if she could use her relay split time, she would have missed qualifying by 0.03 seconds.
 
Sunday:
200 Meter Back -- NT -- 3:06.39--Qualified for OAG (by 8 seconds)

And then, after sitting there for five hours they cancelled the meet--This was when we heard about the Shawnee tornado. She wasn't able to swim the 100 Fly, 100 Breast, or 100 Free, but all-in-all, she had a wonderful meet.

It was hard for her to know how fast to swim when she didn't have a previous time in an event, plus many times the other NT's in the heat scratched and she was swimming against only one or two other girls.

That's it for now.

Later, Peeps!

Turkey Splash Swim Meet

Wow! What a weekend! Talk about exciting!

The brouhaha started a little over a month ago when the EAT Turkey swim meet in OKC shut out the three big teams in NE Oklahoma . . . on purpose.

Here's the dealio--Swim Tulsa, Jenks and P66 (Bartlesville) are three huge swim clubs. At big meets, we tend to bring over 300 entrants, especially in the 12 & under age group, this makes the meets last an incredible length of time, especially if the host team only has one 25-yard pool for short course season. We're talking meets lasting from 8 AM until 8 PM, when the official ASA time limit for 12 & unders is supposed to be 4 hours or less. So the host team for the EAT Turkey meet set the cap limit of 300 entrants, which was met by the two big teams in OKC, leaving NE OK in the cold.

So Jenks scrambled.

Jenks is a small town south-west-ish of Tulsa that's been growing rapidly. Their high school now looks like a college campus with an assortment of buildings. A couple of years ago they built a state-of-the-art natatorium--the water and air circulation system was looked at by the Olympic trials people this last summer. It's a wonderful Olympic-sized pool which has bulkheads to make into 2 25-yard pools--which they used at their last HUGE meet, boys on one side, girls on the other side.

And Jenks pulled off a sanctioned tri-team meet in less than a month. GO JENKS!

Since Jenks is a 15-20 minute drive versus a 2+ hour drive, we signed her up for both days, leaving it up to Coach Tony which events to put her in. The meet was open for Seniors, which means any age swimmer could swim and the times were pre-seeded, there were a couple of 45+ year old women swimming. One of the women is in my WW group and she's ranked as the faster freestyler in her age-group, the other lady is an open swimmer who usually swims lakes/ponds, but uses the meets like this to work on her times . . . no, neither one won over the teenagers.

Saturday morning rolls around, the meet doesn't start until 10 AM, but you have to get there early for practice. They were running a 500 Free so it was over 1.5 hours later before the kidlet was in her first event . . . of course, she managed to eat all her snacks during this time.

I don't know what was going on, but something lit a fire under her butt, or it was the three bowls of Capt'n Crunch Peanut Butter cereal.

Saturday:
Event / time / age group placing / qualified for finals / difference from previous time
50 Fly / 36.85 / 7th / missed by +0.4 seconds /-6.17 seconds
100 Free / 1.12.30 / 9th / missed by +1.5 seconds /-5.06 seconds
50 Breast / 43.93 / 8th / missed by +0.6 seconds / -3.33 seconds
50 Free /33.46 / 13th / missed by +0.4 seconds / -0.66 seconds

Sunday:
100 IM / 1:18.79 / 6th / QUALIFIED / -11.84 seconds
100 Fly / 1:22.38 / 6th / QUALIFIED / -11.66 seconds
200 Free / 2:35.33 / 4th / QUALIFIED / -14.11 seconds
*50 Back / 37.5 / 7th / QUALIFIED / -3 seconds

* we left before the official results were posted, and as of this blog, they are not posted on my daughter's swim results list.

All in all, it was a very exciting meet. My only instruction was to try to win her heat. She managed that in almost all her heats, but if she didn't win it was because it was a serious horse race to the end.

I'm very proud of her. She did a wonderful job!

Later, Peeps!

Swim Meet

This last weekend, we attended the kidlet's swim meet at a local venue.

Yes, I used the word 'venue'. Because it's an Olympic-regulation sized pool at a local high school. This place is amazing with 8-50 meter lanes, state of the art air circulation system, and the water uses 'cutting edge' technology for sanitation.

It doesn't seem to be chlorine because the kidlet didn't smell like she'd been in a swimming pool all morning! It's really, really nice. . . though it still has bleachers in the balcony for the parents to sit on.

Alas, it's not the pool she normally swims in. :-(

Which meant we went to the local Academy to buy some sproingy stadium chairs with backs.

It made all the difference. In between heats, the hubs worked on his computer and I crocheted. Usually when I crochet, my hands will start to sweat because the humidity is so high, but not at Jenks.

Anyhoo, last year was the first time the kidlet swam competitively and Jenks was her first short course meet.

What is short course?

Good question. In fact it was one that I asked when we went to our first meet. Short course season starts in September and ends with Age Group finals/Sectionals during the first of March. Then water polo season starts, March-April. Then long course May-July. August is usually Long course Age Group finals and Sectionals.

Short course is 25 meter or 25 yard pools. Times will be higher because there are more turns involved.

For example: the kidlet raced her first 500 Freestyle race. She psyched herself out about it. Trying to tell her that she routinely swims that in practice didn't matter. She was freaking . . . and it took place right after the 200 Free relay. In the 500 Free, you have to swim 20 laps, which means 19 flip turns. I can imagine the counting must be tough. Luckily, her teammates helped out. At the non-starting block part of the pool. they had a plastic placard that they put in the water to let the swimmer know how many laps they did (1,3,5,etc) When the red square is up, then it's a 25 yard race to the finish!

For her first 500 ever, she had a very respectable time of 7.20.37 minutes, and ended up 15th out of 20.

This year, they had the boys compete on one end of the pool and the girls on the other end. Thank goodness! Because we would have been there all day! Every day the boys finished about 1-2 HOURS before the girls did. Yes, there were that many girls.

Many of the events had around 21-23 heats with 8 girls per heat. Do the math.

That's a lot of kids!

Even with separating out the 10 & Unders, there were still up to 73-78 11/12 year olds.

Last year, the goal was to establish times in the events. This year the goal is to shave time off her previous times. Here were her events:
Saturday:
500 Free--first time to ever swim this.
100 Free--remained the same--paced with kid next to her instead of pushing past.
100 Back-not timed previously. Only 2 seconds off 'B' time goal.
200 Medley (IM)--took 5 seconds off time
Sunday:
100 Fly-- took 9 seconds off previous time
50 Free--took 1.5 seconds off previous time which put her at "B" time. Now goal is to get "A" times.
100 Breast--took 13 seconds off previous time
200 Free--took 23 seconds off previous time

The kidlet didn't win any ribbons, but she shaved seconds off her every time she'd been seeded in. In many events she was barely out of 'B' standard times by only one or two seconds, BUT she did make "B" time for her 50 Free. That was an exciting heat since most of the girls were neck-and-neck the entire race!

I don't know when she'll have another meet. We have to look at the schedule to see what works for us.

I'll post about it when it's relevant!

Later, Peeps!