This week's dive meet was at Chaffey college again.  This time, it was just a meet against a couple of other schools--not an invitational.

We only competed one board and we could decide.  I opted for the 1m this time.  I have such a new list, that I just wanted the chance to compete that list again and get some more experience under my belt in that area.

Last week, my 1m score was 153.25.  I had a couple of dives that I didn't do very well on at all.  This week, I got a 205.35!!  I'd set a goal previously to break 200 and this week I did it.  This was my personal best by A LOT!!  My highest score on 1m before this was 180.50.  I was so excited.  I also got first place, which was great, but the journey has really become more about my personal growth rather than winning or not winning.  A couple of weeks ago was a good example of that when I won first place, but my personal score went down.  I was disappointed in how I did at that meet, in spite of the fact that I'd won.

That said, it was still awesome to come in first place!

On the diet front, it's still a constant battle.  I've been relatively good throughout the week, but EVERY weekend is a disaster.  Today I went to Universal Studios with the wife and kids and I think I tried ALL the desserts there.  It tasted so good and seemed like a fine thing to do at the time.  Now I have a horrible stomach ache, on top of feeling guilty about eating such garbage when I should be focusing on being the best I can be during dive season.

Part of the journey, I suppose.

Part of my weight loss journey has been what I call the Ellen Diet...watch Ellen, work out, lose weight.  Here's a quick video about it.

Greg Louganis and I went on the show Good Morning San Diego on Thursday.  It was a lot of fun!  Carlos Amezcua was phenomenal.  His ability to control the interview and steer it in exactly the right direction was amazing!  He made me comfortable, not really nervous and I felt like he extracted the perfect combination of humor and human emotion.  Here's the segment:

http://www.kusi.com/Clip/12275895/new-book-big-fat-diver

Greg Louganis and I will be on Good Morning San Diego tomorrow morning, 3/10/2016 at 9:20.  You can stream live at KUSI.com or I'll try to get a copy of the segment after it's done.

This week has proved to be quite painful so far.  More smacks.  In fact, it's been so much and so hard that my leg looks like a cheetah.

On the plus side, I've got some new dives I'm going to try out at the competition this weekend.  I may not fare as well as I have the past three weeks because of it, but I'd rather start competing them now and increase my DD and get use to doing them.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Now off to bed as I have to get up in 5 hours to leave for San Diego.  Should be a fun trip!

The meet this weekend came with mixed results.  The diving event was sandwiched between a bunch of swim events and it was all done in a single afternoon.  As such, there was only time to compete a single board.  We could choose, which was nice, although it looks like they called it 1m, regardless of what we actually competed.

That said, I chose the 3m.  It was great because almost everyone else was on 1m.  So during warm ups I pretty much had the board to myself.

When the announcer called for the divers to warm up, I shed my shorts and t-shirt so I was just in my speedo.  As I walked towards the boards, I overheard someone comment to the person next to them, "Is he a diver?"

I just kept walking and smirked inside my head.  Oh, just you wait, I thought to myself.  I ascended the ladder to the top of the 3m.  I knew people were watching and I was actually horribly nervous.  I set the fulcrum to the appropriate spot.  Took my position towards the back of the board and did my approach.  The first jump in my warm up is always just that--a jump.  My hurdle was good, my height was good and I was ready for the second jump.  This time, it's just a back jump.  I executed that as I felt I should.  I got out of the pool and climbed the ladder for my first real dive--a back dive straight.  It's not very complex, but looks nice when done correctly.  I could FEEL the eyes on me.  The area got gradually more and more silent.  I jumped up, looked back and dove it in.  I felt like it was straight in.  Silence.  Just the sound of being underwater.  As I broke back up through the surface, I could hear people clapping.

My dives got progressively more complex and I felt like the tone had shifted from, Why is that fat, old guy in a Speedo to having the entire area cheering for me.

Once the actual competition began, it was all eyes on the individual diving--even more so than warm ups.  This was nerve-racking.  I got nervous and blew a couple of dives that I'd worked on earlier in the week and had finally been able to take them up enough to stick them in properly.  I scored low on those dives.  I was hoping at this meet I'd get to the 200 point mark.  My best had been 180 on the 3m.

I ended up scoring 166 which was disappointing.  I did take first place, so that part of course was great, but I felt disappointed in myself for not turning in my best set of dives.

I have a meet this week again.  This time it's at 8 am on Friday!  Which means I have to leave the house by about 5:15 am.  Ugh!  But there's one thing I've always said, There are two things in life getting up early for...skiing and diving.