My Progress and Swimming

The BAD

I was going to leave this diet thing as a loose set of rules cause the weight training was going to give me monstrous cravings and I didn’t want to be suffering. I would love to be able to say that I am not losing the weight because it’s just extra water required from my new weight training program. But, alas, the reason is actually because I am such a good hunter.

Yeah that’s right. I can track down one of the most elusive prey in the world and pounce at the last second after all the other beasts in the jungle are long asleep and everyone thought they would be safe. I am talking about the Cheetos cheetah. I devoured the poor thing. Ravenously. So I think about the late night hunt the next morning and wonder to myself about my logic. Am I not doing the south beach diet properly because I wont get enough to eat? Well, no I can eat all I want, it just has to be on the approved food list. Why then?

So not only am I having trouble with the late night snacks, but I am finding that I am much more tired with all this working out. I am still going to be late though. This is giving me trouble waking up and when I am running late I just grab a bowl of cereal instead of cook myself eggs. So the whole little theory about making my blood chemistry conducive to losing not gaining weight has fallen apart at the seams. As shown on the scale this morning with a reading of 220.0. Now I gotta tell you I tried everything to get it to 219.8. Although in the scheme of things it is insignificant, it seemed important this morning. I dried my hair extra well, still 220.0. I tried to go to the bathroom again, still 220.0. I tried to brush my teeth and spit a bunch more than normal… still 220.0. I had to give up I was running late or I may have thought of something else.

I will try going to be early this week to take care of both problems. I can’t eat if I am sleeping and I can’t sleep past the first alarm if I am well rested.

The UGLY

So I did not get the bike and run in for the mini-triathlon, about the only thing I am doing all out is writing this blog. I did get the swimming in though. That was sure a funny sight. I did the first 100 yards in 2:45. This may or may not be a horrible time, but it certainly had a lot of problems in the “proper technique” area. There was an older woman in the pool, (I have no idea how old but she was old enough to be my mom), and she was steadily swimming along. I started my little swim and before I was three quarters of the way across the pool I had my breathing screwed up and started coming up for gasping breaths. Now I was way ahead of her but by the time I sputtered and gasped my way to four laps I had dramatically slowed to her pace and had to rest at the end long enough for her to catch up and pass me. I don’t know what it is with the ladies kicking my ass…

So I spent the next 8 laps working on my technique. The best time I got for two laps was 1:10 and the best time for a single lap was 0:25. These times were improved solely by technique and the ability to keep my head down in the water and keep swimming. I am having a lot of trouble though with form. The natural speed that I feel like I should be swimming is far to fast to do more than 40 yards without breathing issues. I need to try and find my natural rhythm that I can keep up with. It just feels weird to kick slow as it seems so inefficient.

The GOOD

I am still pumped about the overall plan. What plan doesn’t hit a few speed bumps here and there? My wife and I are also going to do the weight on Saturday. So we will be doing that 3 days a week. We will actually be doing more than the American College of Sports Medicine recommends. Well, in that one category anyway. I am feeling great progress in my various muscles. The biceps no longer feel like they are being torn off my arm and in fact they feel pretty good. I tense up my muscles and I feel like I am stronger already. We will be going in tonight to start week 2. I am working on my charts to show my progress in graphical form and should be ready to put it up later this week.

I just looked up the triathlon I am going to do. It is 500 meter swim, 11 mile bike, and 3 mile run. So I am thinking about redoing my mini-triathlon measurements as 1/3 of the real thing. So the 1 mile run is fine but the swim needs to adjust up to 6 laps (150 yards) and the bike down to 3 miles. I still have to find time to fit these into my schedule. I feel like this new program gives me no time for the stuff I was previously doing. Some things are just more important I guess. We are putting the kids into swimming lessons and other classes too so we will find ourselves at the YMCA every Saturday morning whether we wanted to talk each other out of it or not we will not be able to for the next 6 weeks. That’s a good thing.