Swim Rant

Previous Swim Rant: The too-warm water temp. at our pool. Before I pestered the HOA about the HVAC system not working properly, the water temp. had climbed to 88(!!!) degrees, the air temp. was anywhere from 85-95 and the humidity level was hitting 74%. These were dangerous conditions for anybody with health issues. For me, it was tough to train in, to say the least. Current Swim Rave: The HVAC was fixed! The air temp. was 80 degrees, this afternoon!! The humidity level was 60%!!! And, the water temp. was 82!!!! :banana: :bouncing: :wiggle: :applaud: :bliss: Extra Bonus: In the one week period the water temp. was dropping after the HVAC was repaired, I shaved 5 seconds off my 200 breaststroke! :bliss: 5 sec drop is awesome! I had one coach that would assign a set like 150's on the 2:15......then tell us to leave on the :23 or something crazy. That's just crazy!

I had one coach that would assign a set like 150's on the 2:15......then tell us to leave on the :23 or something crazy. I do this with my age groupers. I do it because after 6 years of being in the program they STILL can not read a clock correctly, even after having it explained over and over. It's not that they don't know how, it's that they do not focus on it. So starting at the 11, or the 17 or the 22 FORCES them to pay attention, well, it's that or we start the set over and over and over again. I don't do it all the time but I use it when I have to.

Previous Swim Rant: The too-warm water temp. at our pool. Before I pestered the HOA about the HVAC system not working properly, the water temp. had climbed to 88(!!!) degrees, the air temp. was anywhere from 85-95 and the humidity level was hitting 74%. These were dangerous conditions for anybody with health issues. For me, it was tough to train in, to say the least. Current Swim Rave: The HVAC was fixed! The air temp. was 80 degrees, this afternoon!! The humidity level was 60%!!! And, the water temp. was 82!!!! :banana: :bouncing: :wiggle: :applaud: :bliss: Extra Bonus: In the one week period the water temp. was dropping after the HVAC was repaired, I shaved 5 seconds off my 200 breaststroke! :bliss: Yay!!! Enjoy it while you can, it'll be too cold for noodling soon :bolt:

And now my rant for the day.... Lets have Waco hold the TAAF summer games..... They have an outdoor 25yd by 6 lane pool 4ft - 6ft depth. It'll be on the weekend following the hottest week of the year there is no shade, the pool is surrounded by an expanse of concrete and there's no warm-up/cool down facilities either. Good luck swimmers! To be fair, the organisers did make the best of it - there were plenty of tents, lots of water stations and places to leave your shoes, but sheeesh - the joke was if you could fry an egg on the concrete, could you boil an egg in the pool? I hope the rest of the sporting facilities were better!

Thanks, Philo, 'Shark, and 'Fly! :) 'Fly, if I wasn't so dead-set on getting as much of my workout in as possible before 9AM (when I get kicked out of lap swimming), I would savor the sounds of the noodlers whining, "Ohhhhh, it's tooooo coooooold!" :bolt: As it is, I time it so I hit the wall at the stroke of 9AM! Then, I get out, rinse my stuff off under the shower, then hop in with the noodlers to get some extra water time. It's fun doing everything at triple speed (at least!) while they stand there and talk with each other and pretend to do what the lady on the cd tells them to do. I actually get a decent workout in while the ladies float around like whales. My favorite one is jogging in place as fast as I can and doing breaststroke with my arms at hyper speed. I get it going so fast it looks like the water is boiling. :D Then, I just love it when the lady on the cd says to go to the side of the pool and do flutter kicks "as fast as you can". :D

My favorite one is jogging in place as fast as I can and doing breaststroke with my arms at hyper speed. I get it going so fast it looks like the water is boiling. :D Is there any video of this on youtube? :D

Is there any video of this on youtube? :D Darn, I'm at work, so I can't access You Tube to see the video that got posted. I can hardly wait to see it when I get home! :afraid: But, really, if those darn noodlers (all 6 or 8 of them- sheeeesh) "need" the entire blasted pool for their class, then I have to join them to stay in the pool. And, really, it IS a good additional workout, IF you do what you need to do, to turn "Beginning Water Aerobics" into "Super Duper Advanced Water Aerobics". :bump: I may look like a fool doing it :blush:, but at least I'm getting a good aerobic workout on top of my swim sets! :wiggle:

Wearing flip-flops working in my back yard yesterday, while moving a large potted christmas fern to a shady area to set it down, I felt a stinging sensation on the toes of my left foot. To my surprise I was standing on the tail of copperhead snake :doh: and it was very pissed off at me. She struck me three times before I even saw her. Now I've just recieved my final antivenum IV and should be home tomarrow but I had to miss out on swimming today and don't plan to try until Friday Nevertheless, just a warning here for everybody to be carefull outside this time of year. I never thought this would happen to me but it did. Luckily I was home when it happened, but if your out hiking or mountain biking in the middle of nowhere, just make sure you have a plan.

Wearing flip-flops working in my back yard yesterday, while moving a large potted christmas fern to a shady area to set it down, I felt a stinging sensation on the toes of my left foot. To my surprise I was standing on the tail of copperhead snake :doh: and it was very pissed off at me. She struck me three times before I even saw her. Now I've just recieved my final antivenum IV and should be home tomarrow but I had to miss out on swimming today and don't plan to try until Friday Nevertheless, just a warning here for everybody to be carefull outside this time of year. I never thought this would happen to me but it did. Luckily I was home when it happened, but if your out hiking or mountain biking in the middle of nowhere, just make sure you have a plan. Yikes! Had that happened to me, I would have required a change of underwear in addition to the antivenin. I really, really dislike snakes. Glad you're okay.

Wearing flip-flops working in my back yard yesterday, while moving a large potted christmas fern to a shady area to set it down, I felt a stinging sensation on the toes of my left foot. To my surprise I was standing on the tail of copperhead snake :doh: and it was very pissed off at me. She struck me three times before I even saw her. Now I've just recieved my final antivenum IV and should be home tomarrow but I had to miss out on swimming today and don't plan to try until Friday Nevertheless, just a warning here for everybody to be carefull outside this time of year. I never thought this would happen to me but it did. Luckily I was home when it happened, but if your out hiking or mountain biking in the middle of nowhere, just make sure you have a plan. :eek: My brother almost stepped on a rattle snake while hiking--it blended into the leaves. He saw it just in time. This was in NE US--somehow I think of poisonous snakes as inhabiting western or southern states. I see a few black or garter snakes in the park near where I live, but they are basically not dangerous. A black snake gave me a start once--I'd dropped something and was looking for it in the grass--and suddenly a black snake began moving within inches of my hand. Be careful out there! Glad you got treated in time, Steve!