Buck's Holiday Spirit

Hard to believe it really is the holiday season - what with 80 degree temperatures, beaches and no snow to speak of. Actually - there's a lot of snow to speak of - but its all up north. After this morning's workout we made a quick run to Sonic where the Trans Siberian Orchestra came over the speakers prompting this artistic outburst from Buck.

Venice Diaries: Day Seven- Buck ''The Sand-Man'' Hoover

This last week has definitely the hardest week of the year. Unfortunately, I have been kicking all week because of nerve damage in my elbow. The team has gotten stronger as the week progresses and I think we have begun to find our potential.

Sleeping in until 7:45 AM was the first unusual event of the morning. Other than that it was like every other morning until I jumped in the van and Greg explained that someone had left a valve open at the YMCA and the pool lost about three feet of water. Then coach added, "The best part about the ocean is that it is never closed" I could not imagine what was to come next.

Once we passed the turn for the beach, I had no clue where we were headed. We pulled into Venice Beach High School and found their little pool. What was even better was the fact that we couldn't find a way in. We ended up jumping the fence which oddly enough, Pat had a little trouble making it over. The morning was the warmest thus far so when I saw the pool steaming I could not imagine how warm it was. It felt like we were swimming in bath water with floating debris consisting of broken lane line and shreds of the protective tarp. The team did standard warm up and I kicked like usual. The main set for the guys was 9x200 IM's. After that we gave the pool to Coe College and headed to the beach. After Jeff grabbed coaches computer that he almost left there.

On our way to the beach we got our van ride dosage of Guns & Roses that we have heard every time we rode in the van. We arrived at the beach and Greg told us to run to the first guard post. It seemed pretty familiar considering it was the Biatholon course. After the 2 mile run, we arrived back to Greg and Tom instructing us to lay in the sand and do what ever they said.

We came back to the hotel covered in sand, hungry, and ready to shower. A group of people went with Greg to Sonic and most of us slept. I did not have the energy to make it there so I instructed Pat to bring me back a burger and shake while I slept. The alarm went off signaling the third to last practice of the trip.

The pool was still about a foot below normal level waist high for most of us but Pat still could not find his footing. Coach told me to sit this practice out to give my legs a rest from all the kicking i have been doing. I watched the sprint group do a set of 12x 200's and the distance group do what they do.

Room 247's main task tonight was to eat as much as possible of the food we bought so that none of it would go to waste. Trella and Jeff made us pasta like every night and Pat cooked his little pizza bites. Steve cooked up his chicken Alfredo thingy. Well its past my bed time and Steve is complaining so I'm off to bed.

One more day left, Two more practices. Its been a challenging but fun week.