Bloody starts
The workout before a meet, it is customary to do starts and turns practice. So we did an easy 1500 or so warm up and started working on our turns.
As you can see, these starting blocks are solid plastic with 90 degree grooves alternating to give traction. The problem is, that also provides sharp edges. I do a track start, one foot in front of the other, and my rear foot slides some on the start. Most of the time I cut my toe on the first start, just enough to be irritating but its no big deal.
Today’s first start, I must have really ripped the skin good, or I must have opened the wound up more on the later starts. I was standing on the side of the pool waiting to start doing the relay starts, got up did my relay start, and after I broke the surface, everyone said “Mike, your bleeding.”
No big deal I thought, I must has left a toe print on the block or something. But instead, there was a small pool of blood where I was standing, and blood was dripping off the block. Nice. I didn’t even notice how badly I was bleeding until I grabbed my shirt to stop the bleeding, and noticed I was leaving a prints behind as I was walking.
So I got some nuskin sprayed on, a bandaid and duct tape. I think I will try to find something better than ducttape for tomorrows meet, but it let me get back up on the blocks and practice relay starts without offending anyone by bleeding all over the place.
Blood doesn’t bother me, and it definately is not something I worry about at the pool. There isn’t much that can be considered communicable in a clorinated environment.