Conferences
So I felt kind of like one of those spectacular Olympic skaters who fell in the middle of their program at some point on Thursday. Got back up, kept going, finished strong.
Thursday night I babysat Lana, which pretty much meant that I got out of practice, walked to her house, was met by her harassed mother and told that everyone was leaving the house - including Lana - until about 9, and the parents would get back whenever their train got back. Sure, fine, whatever. A little apprehensive b/c Conferences, right, but no biggie. So I actually scrounged around for food (which usually I just do without... awkward scrounging a house that isn't yours) and read my book. Figured out the tv with Lana's help, so I got to watch some of the men's ice skating & the women's half-pipe. I ended up falling asleep on the couch (another usual no-no) probably around 11:30; parents got home a little before 1.
Went back to DK, crashed, woke up at 6 a little disoriented. We drove to F&M, and warm-up actually felt spectacular. But my morning 500 felt awful - just couldn't get in the rhythm, didn't have a song stuck in my head, stuck in a 'oh no, I've got to be going faster' hysteria-kinda-thing. 5:26. I was beat out by one of my sophomores, Jackie, - who I don't think has ever beaten me in the 5, who dropped a good 10-15 seconds to a lifetime best. I knew she was coming back; I was so glad to see that I was as well - she was seated 14th, I was 16th. Anne made finals, we made consols.
So tonight I made myself be less cocky, took my warm-up out a little slower (pacing 31s instead of 29s), and got to swim a 200 free relay before my 500. Anchor a 2 free relay, actually. So adrenaline, yay. 26.1 50-split. This is GOOD, specially for me. Got out, dried off, tried to calm Jackie down, swam again. Had a little bit of POTC playing in my head, kicked my legs into gear, split the race much better than the morning one. It hurt, but not too bad, and the time got faster, but not by too much. 5:23, I beat out Jackie (who took another second off to a 5:24) and though I'm frustrated because Conferences is the time when my 500 actually gets faster from year-to-year and this is an EHS time, coming back to bite me, it was a pretty good finish. 14th.
And then I cheered, and jumped up and down, and ran into other people who used to swim for EHS (one Dickinson, one F&M) and said hi to my parents, and used up all the batteries in my camera being the swimming paparazzi. (Which will end up on FB soon, maybe tomorrow afternoon if I'm bored.)
200 free, 800 free relay tomorrow.
Thursday night I babysat Lana, which pretty much meant that I got out of practice, walked to her house, was met by her harassed mother and told that everyone was leaving the house - including Lana - until about 9, and the parents would get back whenever their train got back. Sure, fine, whatever. A little apprehensive b/c Conferences, right, but no biggie. So I actually scrounged around for food (which usually I just do without... awkward scrounging a house that isn't yours) and read my book. Figured out the tv with Lana's help, so I got to watch some of the men's ice skating & the women's half-pipe. I ended up falling asleep on the couch (another usual no-no) probably around 11:30; parents got home a little before 1.
Went back to DK, crashed, woke up at 6 a little disoriented. We drove to F&M, and warm-up actually felt spectacular. But my morning 500 felt awful - just couldn't get in the rhythm, didn't have a song stuck in my head, stuck in a 'oh no, I've got to be going faster' hysteria-kinda-thing. 5:26. I was beat out by one of my sophomores, Jackie, - who I don't think has ever beaten me in the 5, who dropped a good 10-15 seconds to a lifetime best. I knew she was coming back; I was so glad to see that I was as well - she was seated 14th, I was 16th. Anne made finals, we made consols.
So tonight I made myself be less cocky, took my warm-up out a little slower (pacing 31s instead of 29s), and got to swim a 200 free relay before my 500. Anchor a 2 free relay, actually. So adrenaline, yay. 26.1 50-split. This is GOOD, specially for me. Got out, dried off, tried to calm Jackie down, swam again. Had a little bit of POTC playing in my head, kicked my legs into gear, split the race much better than the morning one. It hurt, but not too bad, and the time got faster, but not by too much. 5:23, I beat out Jackie (who took another second off to a 5:24) and though I'm frustrated because Conferences is the time when my 500 actually gets faster from year-to-year and this is an EHS time, coming back to bite me, it was a pretty good finish. 14th.
And then I cheered, and jumped up and down, and ran into other people who used to swim for EHS (one Dickinson, one F&M) and said hi to my parents, and used up all the batteries in my camera being the swimming paparazzi. (Which will end up on FB soon, maybe tomorrow afternoon if I'm bored.)
200 free, 800 free relay tomorrow.