Coeur d'Alene

I’m still alive and well, don’t worry! I know it’s been a while (like six days!) since I’ve last updated. That volleyball game was so intense! Even more than the previous one.

The team that they played was tied with them for the top spot in the conference, and it was apparent as they played that they were evenly matched in skill. Our ladies won the first game, lost the next two, and powered through to win the fourth game. In the fifth game, the victor has 15 points as opposed to the normal 25, so this game was a bit more fast paced. The score was tied at 15-15 and Whitworth scored a point. However, because of some stupid technicality, the point was taken away. Stupid. Then, the other team scored a few points and won.

It was so sad! All of us swim guys had gone to the pool to put on our speedos so that we could streak around after they had won, but I guess that will have to wait until the next game. A few guys on the team know a few of the volleyball players and they’ve said that they are for sure coming to support us at our swim meets, so that’s really cool! We supported them very well, and actually, some guys from Mac (Whitworth’s version of a frat house but not quite the same) also painted up and helped us root them on.

After the game, Costco had a special night for Whitworth students, so Korey and I got a ride from Devon and we totally loaded up on food. I only spent $63! So now I have industrial amounts of food. And I forgot my underwear and shirt in her car, but don't worry about that story.

Last week was also midterms, but I only had them in one of my classes. In calc and chem, I had some tests two weeks ago, and I did fairly well on them, but in biology I had my second lecture exam and cumulative lab final on Wednesday and Thursday and I think that they went pretty well, too. Yay!

Another significant happening this week is, once again, the recovery of my pec! It felt really good on Monday, so I swam an hour instead of the recommended 40 minutes. However, that, along with lifting, made me pretty sore the next day. But I swam again on Tuesday, and I swam for only about 40 minutes Wednesday, so then my pec felt really good Thursday again, so I swam a whole practice! Surprisingly, I’m not that out of shape and I’m relatively close to where I used to be. Well, in freestyle. I can’t mix in any other strokes until next week. Today (Friday), I was really sore from yet another deep tissue massage I endured yesterday, but probably also from swimming a full practice. Oh, and also I’m probably really sore from lifting yesterday too, because we did some high-weight stuff. Rory made me leg press 550 pounds, and I’m not exaggerating. I think I broke my ankles. Just kidding, they’re fine now.

So, next weekend is our first swim meet, and it’s a little sprint meet thing. I think that by next weekend I should be at about 100%, but I’m supposed to try to sprint either at tomorrow’s practice or next Monday to see if I can handle sprinting. I know that I can handle intense swimming, but maybe not quite sprint intensity. But we’ll see. I really hope I can do the meet, even though it’s not a huge deal.

Tonight there is this haunted house in Mac that is apparently usually pretty legitimate actually. I guess you’re supposed to wear a costume to it, but I don’t have anything but my speedo. Speaking of dressing up, our team does “fancy Fridays”, where we dress up fancy on Fridays (obviously). I don’t have that many fancy clothes though, so I have to go and buy some, sometime.  I’ve just worn sweats…I think those are pretty fancy.

Also, tomorrow, the team is going to dockside in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which is this place that has these things called big gooeys, which are giant bowls filled with 5000 calories of joy. The entire two weeks I just spent working my butt off were all for naught. Kbye!

MOOOONEY

Hello everyone! My calc exam went well yesterday. So did practice(s). I’m still recovering from the massage though, like it feels like I got punched so hard like 5 times in the same spot! Ice is totally the answer though. And I started taking ibuproFUN 3x per day to alleviate swelling and pain, but only for 10 days so I don’t die.

Today was Saturday practice. Crazy, right? Saturday practice on a Saturday? Anyways, it was lactate day, so I sat around and drank milk and ate yogurt. Sorry, bad joke. But really, I did have yogurt after practice. And I swam warmup and used fins  and just kicked really, really fast for the lactate set, which has now made my legs sooooo sore and tired. I probably should nap today, but there are so many worthwhile things to do, like things that are totally a waste of time but oh so much fun!

Last night, a majority of the swim team went to cheer on the volleyball girls. We got eleven guys (including me!) to paint up, and spell the word “Volleyball!”. I was an “L”. Everyone else who didn’t paint was lame and just wore clothes. That paint is really itchy and peely too. I’m pretty sure that if you add baby shampoo, it makes it smoother.

Anyways, we all crowded into Kalen’s hippie van, and it was really crowded and uncomfortable. And we were late, so we went kinda fast. We ran in screaming though, and stood on the side opposite the fans so they could admire our handiwork, and, of course, so that the volleyball girls would see us better.

I had never gone and watched an intense volleyball game before, other than seeing a few rounds in the Olympics of the 2v2s for beach volleyball. It was actually fun to watch. Our girls are really good at volleyball! For those of you who don’t know, in order to win the game, three rounds of up to five total rounds must be won with 25 points, or by margin of two if it comes down to the tie near 25. The girls won the first round. The second round was super crazy! The girls were down 20-24, game point, and then they scored and totally caught up to the other team (PLU). However, they didn’t win with 26 points. Or 28. The game went on until the winning score was 29-31, Whitworth. It was so epic that I got goosepimples. Then, PLU kinda sorta gave up a little bit and Whitworth took the third game home.

I guess it’s tradition that we cheer on the volleyball girls every year so that they come to our two home meets and support us back. As master Rory Buck says, “If you want a friend, be a friend.” I’m sure someone else quoted that first, so if you ever say it, don’t give that South African scoundrel the credit.

Tonight is another volleyball game against a team that is at the top of the conference along with the Lady Bucs. It shall be intense and sweaty, and we’ll be there all painted up again! That’s actually where I’m headed now.

iEstoy Cansado!

Stephan thinks that since I haven’t updated the blog in a week, I’ve “stopped” blogging. False. What happened was that I “started” swimming. The quotation marks are necessary in both cases. In the latter, it’s because I started swimming for 10 minutes on Monday, and I also did the weight circuit and 45 minutes of biking plus doing rehab exercises at the trainer. But overall, very little real swimming took place.

Forty-five minutes of biking is boring, makes me really sweaty, and makes me lose feeling in my bum for about 5 minutes after I get off.

Also, don’t underestimate the term “rehab” as doing a bunch of stuff with 2lb dumbbells. They weigh three pounds. No, but seriously, I have to do 30 reps of seven different stretch band exercises, and they make my shoulders burn like no other and I pour sweat.

Each day this week, I’ve done +5 minutes a day of swimming in order to build up my strength and endurance. There is no pain in my pec, but there has been some inflammation in my biceps tendon outside of the water (though it is no problem while I swim). However, there is definitely a tugging sensation in my pec since the scar tissue is still present and not fully broken down yet.

This morning, I went to the chiropractor/massage therapist again, and got tortured again, but it wasn’t quite as bad as last time. I got my front worked extra well, so I was kind of inflamed so I ice cupped it up just now.

In other news, school is still going quite swimmingly I’d say. I had a chem exam yesterday that I felt pretty strong on, and a calc exam tomorrow that I have to do some reviewing for. Also, next week is the second (and final) animal bio lecture exam, and the cumulative bio lab exam. That’s hardcore. But I think I’ll be prepared for it.

For those of you who read my blog like it’s your daily bread, and can’t get enough of me, you can set up a twitter account and follow me @swimnicht. I think that’s my screen name. Yeah, cause that way, you can see all the interesting things I think about or have the need to express during the day.

Honestly, nothing that fascinating has been happening lately, which is okay by me because swimming is taking enough of a toll on me. I took a 3 hour nap on Tuesday, which was glorious. Also, I’m eating a lot of food which is so awesome. OH! And today or tomorrow I think I should be getting a highly anticipated care package from mommy with dress shoes and winter hats and my pro ball-mouse, so then I can play DotA really well again and be warm and stylish all at the same time! I hope that made sense. Probably not.

Shout out again to Grandma and Grandpa! I love you guys and hope you’re doing amazing!

blahghg

Well, I can’t come off as happy and chipper in all of my postings because that would be an inaccurately reflection of myself. I’m kinda bummed right now because of my pec, which has become quite the motif if you haven’t noticed.

I dare believe it’s true because of the mental aspect of healing, but I feel that swimming on Tuesday may have been detrimental to the process. I mentioned I was sore after swimming. However, after heating and stretching in the trainer’s the next day, I felt able to do all of the exercises well enough.

On Thursday, I got my deep tissue massage and IT WAS PAINFUL. It wasn’t a day-in-the-spa type of deal, no way. She got all up in there! She seriously stuck her fingers inside my body and squeezed my neck and skull in weird attachment points and made me whimper and cry. I was like, “oh, I’ll be sore for a few days after, but it’s okay because then I’ll feel better after I recover. It’s Saturday and I’m still sore and I actually had a knot in my back for a few days, but that’s gone now.

Cheree explained to me that I will now begin to build up my endurance by doing stuff with higher reps with the stretch bands, and then eventually, I will do lower reps and higher resistance to build more strength and power. The crappy thing is that we start season on Monday and she gives me about two more weeks until I’ll be able to swim unrestricted.

On Monday, I only get to swim for 10 minutes and then I have to sit on the bike and do other lifting and dryland stuff. Oh, and I have to do it during morning practice….and maybe the second practice too, which I hope isn’t the case because that would feel like overkill on my legs. But, who knows. Today, Steve is talking with Cheree to get an idea of what her plan is for me. But I’m kind of disappointed.

On the bright side, I’ve been getting quite the number of letters lately! I got one from Ceci and Snobells, and Gma and Gpa! And I wrote Gma and Gpa back, so you guys should expect a letter to come within the next week. I didn’t write the animals back because they’re too dumb to read or do anything else.

And school is going well.  I can’t believe it’s two weeks from midterms. Crazay. 

Season Starts Soon.

My oh my it has been so long since I’ve last updated my loyal following from the US, Canada, and Germany. Represent! Anyways, since my memory on trivial events isn’t that great, I’ll highlight the…uh…highlights, I guess, from the past week.

As I stated, I had calc and bio exams, and I basically bashed them on the bridge of the nose. However, chemistry is still the bane of my existence. The class itself hasn’t gotten much better, so I’m going to see about switching sections or something. I’m at least going to talk to my advisor about it. We have another chem exam next week, which made my stress vs. time graph shoot through the roof. I illustrated one this morning. Basically, if I integrate it from 5^th grade to next Wednesday, I’ll have the approximation on my shortened lifespan.

This weekend was more or less not raucous at all. On Friday night/Saturday morning (it’s hard to judge when your “night” goes until 4am), I did some rather mellow activities. I got about 7 or 8 people in my room to watch Prince of Persia until about midnight, and then I went to the swim house to play some DotA until 4, when I returned to my room for slumbering purposes.

Oh yeah, last Friday, Korey also had a pre-frosh/swim recruit. I felt bad sort of because I didn’t really talk to him (Nathan was his name) or hang with the team, but I wasn’t the one getting paid so then I felt less bad hahahaha. Anyways, he seemed pretty cool, but I just think it seems really early to visit but that’s probably because I did my visits until rather late in the academic year.

On Saturday, I slept for a while, then went to Goodwill to buy some clothes for the following day. You see, our guys small group thought it would be a good idea to go roller-skating with a girls small group on Sunday evening. At this roller-skating place, it was to be a retro-themed eve, and so we determined it would be to our best interests to wear dazzling suits of style and poor 70s fashion. At Goodwill I bought this nice caramel-brown suit and a bright purple and blue collared shirt for underneath, all for about 8 dollars. What a steal!

The rest of the day I spent not doing much in particular; so little, in fact, that I can scarcely remember doing anything at all. I played some Guitar Hero, whence I stretched my skills by playing on hard. Also, at midnight, about 7 guys and I went out to a place called Shari’s for pie and hot chocolate (SO good), and then we went to delinquently chill at this construction site for deep man talk. The sky was so clear and the moon was huge, yellow, and waxing. ‘Twas beautiful. The night was titled “Riley’s Bro-mitzvah”.

That night was pretty good for sleep, considering I got to bed at 3:15 and woke up at about 9:50 to get ready for church. The church I went to was one that AJ went to last week and he liked. I thought it was okay, not bad, whatever. It was a college-age group which was cool but I think there are better churches, in my opinion. After the service we went to a really really nice neighborhood and had lunch in this really nice house.

When I got back to campus, I had to (first, take care of some bathroom business, and then) go to my small group for bible study-age. After that, I slept from about 3-6:15 because I was so dog tired from not sleeping. Then, I got ready for skating.

Skating was pretty cool I guess, but roller skates are so awkward, so I switched to inline roller blades which was more what I’m used to. I only wiped out once because I was trying to do a 360. It wasn’t embarrassing because I stood up tried to look really cool and smooth. Just kidding, I was embarrassed.

As far as the “small group date” aspect goes, it was kind of a failure because only one girl from their small group showed up to our 7 or so guys, so the small group girls leader invited some of her friends. It was fun anyways though, and the roller-skating place had REALLY good pizza.

This week is going pretty well. Chem lab was rather painful but shorter than last week. My pec is getting stronger from rehab and it felt really good yesterday, so I decided to swim, like 700 yards even after stepping it up in rehab with more exercises. In retrospect, this wasn’t that good of an idea because I was sore last night and a bit today from that. I’m really anxious for my massage tomorrow.

I think I forgot to mention my massage. Last week Thursday, I went to this place called Advanced Health Chiropractics or something along those lines, and I got some Active Release Therapy (ART) and some cold laser on my pec, along with getting my back, shoulder, and neck cracked. I felt so good after that. I have a deep tissue massage and appointment to get it worked immediately after, tomorrow morning. I’m really hoping that that will go a long way with me and that I will be able to do some swimming without discomfort next Monday, because that’s when the season starts. Cheree, the trainer, said that at the very least I’ll be doing restricted practices next week. But still, it’s kind of like a big UGH that I’ve been trying to recover this stupid thing for so long.

Anyways, that’s my life, how’s yours?