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Confirming the Not Good At That list

I did something unusual today. I got in a pool.

Now, I like the water. One of my earliest memories is being fished out of the deep end of a pool I had no business being in. As a child the local YMCA had the fish-themed swimming lessons and I made it up to the shark level. I was a certified lifeguard, back in the old style where you had to go get people and in the kinder, gentler, let’s don’t get hurt or sued and throw in a float instead style. I have memories, for some thing or other, of turning blue jeans into a floatation device. I’ve treaded water for more than an hour. I’ve been a SCUBA diver for two decades.

I’m good with the water, at peace with what I can and can’t do there, particularly below the surface. You still have some control of things there. If you know yourself you have fairly defined ideas of your limits, and that is satisfying and comforting; I’m not afraid of the water because I know what I am and what I am not, he said, hoping that sounded wise. But I treat it recreationally.

One thing I am not is a lap swimmer.

Never could hold a straight line. That’s just the basic problem. Olympic and national champion swimming coach David Marsh once told me “You have to respect someone willing to spend hours and hours, swimming hundreds of laps, to shave a thousandth of a second off of their best time.”

I respect that level of dedication and discipline, even more in the context of things I’d never do. I’m not that kind of swimmer.

So there I was today, cool new reflective race goggles, in an outside lane of an outdoor pool with the temperature hovering around 65 degrees and falling and trying to swim.

I haven’t done anything more than tread water or float on my back in a year or so.

Today I just tried to make the goggles fit. They didn’t. Water got in. I don’t like water in my eyes. So I quickly realized you don’t clear goggles like you would clear a diving mask:

It just brings in more water. Because your nose isn’t inside the confined area, of course. But, hey, the training is never forgotten. So up on the rope line, work on the goggles. Swim a bit, fiddle a bit, swim a bit, drown my eyes awhile. And so on. Finally this was resolved. Finally I can swim. Only I’ve all but forgotten how to breathe. I like to breathe. Breathing, in my book, is vastly underrated. This goes on in a thoroughly unsatisfying manner.

Finally it all comes together. I can see. I can breathe. I can actually think about the stroke. I get through four circuits of the freestyle stroke — really bringing my arms and shoulders out of the water and overhead and down properly — and realize this hurts my shoulder. So the now 10-month old injury and surgery still limits me.

So I do other things, try other strokes. Back to the sidestroke and a modified breaststroke and my favorite: underwater, handcuffed criminal stroke.

But I did 700 meters — a warmup, really — which is more than I would have done otherwise.

Also, it turned cold again today. Chilly, in fact. Downright unseasonable and noticeable, too. I’d complain, but there is snow in places like Iowa and Minnesota that would also like a bit of May, thank you. I’ve mentioned it. Remarked, maybe. But I haven’t complained too much. And if I have, it was entirely good-natured, because some places are dealing with unseasonal May snows.

But I would like spring to come back, because the first part of summer can hurt if it just shows up without a preamble.

Tonight, baseball:

After falling 6-1 to Ole Miss tonight, Auburn is now 16-51 against the SEC in the big four sports — football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball — since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament. That’s a bad year.

adventures / Auburn / baseball / cycling / football / weekend — Comments Off
6
Apr 13

Go Jack, go!

Today we went for a bike ride. I am on the cusp of going from the high-end of a slow rider to the low-end of a medium rider and I don’t understand this degree of progress whatsoever. So I am not very good, but I hold my own when riding with The Yankee, who is now an amateur racer.

There’s a 13 mile circle of bypass road around the town proper and we did that today. I just stayed on her back wheel for the first half. There are two “big” hills on that route. (It is coastal-plains-flat here so I qualify our hills.) When the second hill game I bent to the left and passed her.

I am good on this one hill, because I have figured out a way that I can essentially keep my pace or accelerate all the way up it. It involves closing my eyes, counting out pedal strokes and shifting to an easier gear all the way “up.”

So today I shifted down, start counting, shift up, start counting. Normally I go through about 10 strokes per gear on that hill and it keeps everything working pretty well. Only today I overcounted my pedal strokes and that just killed everything on that hill. I counted to 20 in the second gear and that was too much so then there’s the lactic acid build up and so on. I got greedy.

In cycling, commentators could say “Bang. Dropped him just like that.” Which is to say you left the other person standing still as you accelerated away from them. I was trying to do that, but I could not because I got greedy. So I pulled away from her modestly, but I was really trying to assert my control of that particular hill.

So I let her catch up to me at the next light and we rode on the rest of our route.

She stopped when she got to the distance of her first upcoming race and looked on her computer at the pace she was setting and she was very pleased. She said “I’m going to ride hard the rest of the way home to try to boost my average pace.”

I just happened to be in front of her right there, so I started off, standing up and generating more power so that I can get out of her way since she wants to go hard and she’d stopped on this little incline. She goes right by me.

Bang. She dropped me.

Nice day for Auburn sports and technology. We listened to the baseball game on the iPhone app as the Tigers beat Texas A&M at College Station. They finally found the string of at bats they’ve been struggling to put together and it paid off on the scoreboard, felling the Aggies 10-5.

Three home runs contributed to a 9-0 lead in the fourth inning, and then the usually solid pitching simply had to hold things together which, happily, was exactly how it went.

Later in the evening we watched the regional gymnastics meet. Twelfth-ranked Auburn notched a school record regional score of 196.700. That put them third in Gainesville tonight. The top two of each region move on to nationals. That score in any other region would have advanced, but instead they were third behind Florida and Minnesota.

Sophomore Bri Guy and freshman Caitlin Atkinson both advance to the NCAA Gymnastics championships, so, the future is very bright for the gymnastics team.

Finally, I share this video to make you cry. On fourth-and-one the running back breaks a 69-yard touchdown run that cleared the benches in celebration. It is the best of sports and youth and humanity and perseverance and this little guy can run:

More about Team Jack.

And his big run:

Asked what he was thinking when he ran onto the field, Jack said, “Scoring a touchdown.”

And when he broke free and scored? “It felt awesome.” And the crowd reaction? “Really awesome.”

[…]

Jack was diagnosed with cancer in April 2011 and has had two surgeries. He’s now on a two-week break from a 60-week chemotherapy regimen.

Andy said Jack is “doing great” and that an MRI at Children’s Hospital in Boston showed that the tumor has shrunk substantially in the past year.

The official Team Jack shirt.

Auburn / baseball / cycling / Friday / Samford / video — Comments Off
5
Apr 13

“Even though we’re presidents, can we still hug?”

Late in the day, just before the sun gives way to dusk. My shoulder has been bothering me a bit this week, and so I found the opportunity to treat it with the foam roller, where you take a hard piece of cylindrical as big as a small melon and roll it between your body and the floor, using your mass as the therapeutic engine. (Even though doing so with shoulders can be tricky, because you are not, under pain of all holistic devices, supposed to use the foam roller on bone. And your shoulder has lots of those.)

Allie grew indignant. Because I was in her sun. So I scooted over two feet.

So everything here is fine this lovely day.

I spent the day reading news and students’ work and grading things and writing stuff. I got in a little time on the bicycle, too, feeling like I was going nowhere fast until I would glance down at my computer and see that I was pulling off a remarkable (for me) pace. I have many questions I need to ask of someone who knows things about bikes and gears and pace.

We listened to the Auburn baseball game — they beat somebody! — over the app on my phone. I pretended like it was an AM feed, and that there was constant bleed from nearby stations. In my mind it was a gospel station, a bit of sermon, a bit of choir, mixed with a station blaring Jerry Lee Lewis and the occasional crackle of someone broadcasting farm reports.

Pretty sure I’m the only 30-something in the 21st century imagining things like that.

Anyway, Auburn downed Texas A&M 6-4 in 10 innings. All of the things that have happened to that team didn’t happen tonight. All of the things they’ve been waiting for finally showed up. On the season they are stranding eight runners a game and have lost four by two runs or less, plating people being the big problem so far this year. No wonder teams say they take it one game at a time. You’d go mad trying to find reason in the aggregate.

But, tonight, they are 18-12, 2-8, and could win a conference series on a Saturday.

One of my students shared this, President Obama meeting Kid President. It is a great tour of the Oval Office, and a nice moment all politics aside. Boy meets hero! Hero shares time and message! Everyone is thrilled!

Also, there’s the Emancipation Proclamation, just hanging on the wall. Remarkable.

“Even though we’re presidents, can we still hug?” Great moment.

Have a great weekend!

Alabama / Auburn / baseball / photo / weekend — Comments Off
30
Mar 13

The baseball Iron Bowl, game three

With the weekend series tied 1-1, Auburn and Alabama met again to decide the three-game set. Ryan Tella doubled down the right field line in the first inning and probably has a sore neck for his troubles. Mikey White probably has a bruise on his leg:

Will Kendall, still returning from last year’s Tommy John surgery, had another solid outing under his rehab pitch count. He went three innings and allowed only one hit and one run. He walked two and recorded two strikeouts. That’s Austen Smith leading off first for Alabama:

Daniel Koger was solid in long relief. He pitched six innings, walked three, allowed only one hit and one run:

Auburn’s second baseman Jordan Ebert beats a throw back to first. Not that it mattered much. He’d be out on a double play soon after:

And despite pitching a two-hitter, Auburn was down two runs in the ninth inning. Alabama’s Spencer Turnbull was pitching a complete game, with a great defense behind him. Auburn would not get a runner to second base after the first inning.

Auburn hit into four double plays today.

Ryan Tella lined out in the ninth inning:

Auburn lost 2-0 today and have now dropped the first three series of the year.

The biggest problem right now is the bats. Only two players in the lineup are hitting over .300. (To be fair, in conference play they’ve faced five incredible starting pitchers.) The Tigers left two on base today — a statistical anomaly because of all of the double plays. Auburn is stranding eight runners a game so far this season.

The Tigers are 10-44 against the SEC in the major sports – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball – since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament.

Alabama / Auburn / baseball / cycling / Friday / friends / iPhone / photo — Comments Off
29
Mar 13

The baseball Iron Bowl, game two

Alabama’s second baseman, Kyle Overstreet who is really quite good, committed an error in the sixth inning tonight. Naturally the helpful fans at Plainsman Park pointed this out.

By then Auburn had the game under control. They found their first lead in conference play, which came in their 66th inning of conference play. The Tigers’ bats came alive again in the fifth, putting four more runs on the board and Auburn finally won one, 6-3.

Check out the highlights, particularly the gem in the ninth inning at the three minute mark:

So, now, Auburn is 10-43 against the SEC in the major sports – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball – since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament. It has been the worst year ever since Title IX in terms of a cumulative conference record.

But a beautiful day otherwise. Got out for a quick ride on the bike and was about seven miles from home on a quite road that has been closed because the bridge two miles down was out for construction. I heard a nice ting!-ting!-ting! doppler off to the left and behind me.

It seemed important to stop, to see what had just fallen off my bicycle. And I was happy to realize that the brakes were still working and the wheels weren’t falling off.

Finally I realized it was the metal clamp that holds my bag to the seat post and saddle rails. So we spent a while looking for the parts. I’d hit a bump and something felt loose, so up and down the shoulders, stomping on plumes of grass and bending over to peer at ever dark piece of material near the roadway.

After about an hour I found the metallic piece, realized that was the only part I was missing, so that’s a win. I only have to replace two screws. And get home in time for the baseball game, managing only an impressive 10 miles for my troubles.

But I had a turkey burger for dinner, we closed down a restaurant with our friends Adam and Jessica and that somehow makes it all better.

It was a good afternoon as we head into a great weekend. Hope yours is even better!