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I took Monday off for some rest after Sundays meet. Today I'm back in the pool and plan on doing dryland training later tonight. As the leaves begin to change here in Michigan I'm hoping to make it to a few metroparks and enjoy the fall weather. I'm way overdue on rollerblading after my ankle injury and I have to make up for it before the snow hits.

Time to hop in the pool!

Shortly after arriving at the Milan High School, they informed us that the timing system was down but they would be hand timing everybody. I was disappointed but I had already come all that way to swim and wasn't about to leave. Apparently the people who pre-registered knew about the timing issue which was the reason for the drastically low attendance at 37 swimmers! Since there's always an element of human error to manual timing, combined with High School girls text messaging while timing, I wouldn't take the times seriously. It ended up being a mediocre meet for me.

I'm here at the Milan High School bright and early. Swimming 5 events:

100 IM
50 Fly
50 Free
50 Back
100 Back

I swam a short practice tonight at the Hartland Community Rec Center. I kept it brief since I have a meet in the morning. I topped off my practice with a few trips down the waterslide! I've always wanted to get a waterslide on video and tonight I made it happen with my waterproof camera. I'll process the videos and post them here! Below is a picture of the pool area:

I jumped in the pool tonight for my typical 3,000 yard practice. I felt great after my 500 warmup and 5x100's kick on the 1:30. I was making the 100's on the 1:20 so I knew I was performing pretty well. I started my 5x100's IM, my first 100 felt great. My second 100 felt like something drained every ounce of my energy at the 50 yard wall. I finished the 100 and hung out on the wall for a minute to determine what could have happened. I knew I didn't eat a lot today and when I began piecing together my diet for the day I realized I was running on empty.

I'm back in it! I've lost a pound each day for the last 4 days. I'm sure partially from the fact that I've averaged 17 hour work days, but I've also been eating plenty and in the pool 1 hour each day. I feel good and I'm happy to be down closer to my ideal weight. I'll be in the pool later and hoping to visit Coach Jones again today.

I have the Milan Masters Meet this weekend, I'm excited to race again for the first time in 2 months!

Today I made it a priority to visit Coach Jones in hospital. This is one of those times I wish I could write more on my blog, but it's not appropriate. I'll keep it simple:

I had a chance to swim at my hometown Brighton High School pool tonight. As I enter the pool area I'm always greeted with fond memories of my age group swimming days. Although EMU's Jones Natatorium is my favorite pool, nothing quite feels like home like the Brighton High School pool. The few times I've practiced there since I graduated in '99 have been with the high school team in a structured training environment.

I had a chance to swim at EMU yesterday before taking some photo's for the University Team. They're hoping these pictures will be featured on a poster which will be distributed around campus and to local businesses. After a little photoshop work, I removed the tile floor and the pool in the background, this is what was left:

I've done a really poor job on updating this lately! The good news is that I've been in the water every day and doing dryland! I'm eager to bury myself in training even more. Lately I've been swimming for only 45mins to an hour each day but I know I'm making progress. I need to lose these 10 lbs I gained while being lazy! Weight is holding steady at 177 (whoa!).