Catch up {Make a Splash, a few good sets, and the flu}

I'll call this post the "Catch-up" post because I have been a bad blogger.

Make a Splash
A few weeks ago {really it was a month, but I am resisting to let time fly by as quickly as it is, so I'll call it just a few weeks} we traveled to Akron, OH. We got to visit Mark's family who live in Akron and Mark got to participate in a Make a Splash event at a local YMCA. You can read about it here. A big shout out to Andrew Appleby and John {we call him Johnny, but I think he is now going with the more professional, "John"} Albrecht! Thanks for including us.

Mark also hosted a clinic in Hudson, OH that weekend. He is quite modest considering all of his accomplishments, but I could see a little twinkle in his eye as he looked up to the pool record board and saw his name still nailed to it. I believe the date next to the time was 1999.

A Few Good Sets {One of my favorite movies of all time is A Few Good Men... not sure why this came to mind, but I thought you might want to know}
Remember our trip to Charlotte for the UltraSwim? Mark walked away from the meet a little disappointed. I walked away from the meet not knowing exactly how to feel and definitely didn't know how to talk about it with Mark. You can read about it here. Well, the day after Mark returned from Charlotte, he sat down with Brett (his coach) and discussed how he was feeling, how he was swimming, and how he wanted to feel and swim going forward. With a few minor tweaks, not a total deviance from the plan, Mark is back on track. After a few weeks of coming home and saying nothing more than, "It was just okay," to respond to my question "How was practice?" it was nice to see Mark excited to come home and gush about good sets and fun practices. He has regained his overall positive attitude about the plan and his direction.

Mark tries very hard to balance listening to his body and listening to his coach. In Charlotte, Marks body was telling him to talk to his coach. He did. They're both {or should I say all three: Mark, Brett, and Mark's body} happy and excited about the coming weeks.

The Flu
It got us. Ugh. Not really much more to say than that... or at least nothing more that I think you would enjoy reading about.

Oh yeah... and today is our everyday Olympian's birthday! Happy birthday, Old Man River. 29?! You're old.