Fuck!
Fucking fuckity fuck fucks!
I had such high hopes for week 19, especially since week 18 was such a pisser of a back slide. Yet here it is, Thursday night and it's the first time I have made it to the gym all week.
Granted Monday I was still recovering from a steak/beer/adrenaline fueled weekend and sleep deprivation.
Tuesday I wanted to spend time with the wife and daughter because they had been at the beach since Friday.
Yesterday I just plain punked out because I didn't feel like busting my muscle fibers for a few hours then coming home to the backup report AND two hours of work so I just spent my time sitting at my desk and watching the daily show on hulu while I wittled away at 20+ servers.
But today, despite it being hellacious and grandiose in its grotesquery, I managed to haul out my resolve, shake loose the moth balls and suffer mightily in the pursuit of fitness. That sentiment rings a little hollow considering the abysmal quality of my diet over the past few days. Luckily I still have a 13000 MC buffer which still gives me about 24 days before I start falling behind the average.
It's amazing how I find myself in the same situation yet again, not even 10% of the way through the project, and how gods damned easy it is to fall behind and not be able to catch up. Pathetic sounding as it may be that's sort of a recurring them in my life since graduating college. Years pass with little to show for them and as galling as it is I still find it nearly impossible to counter 'just getting by' with meaningful events and useful activity like writing.
However I have hauled out some notebooks and started working earnestly on the sci-fi epic yet again. I try to make sure I write at least SOMETHING every day and when creativity fails I transcribe/edit what I have written previously.
It's amazing how after 7 years of intermittent work and nearly constant thought about this piece of literary history I intend to compose some parts are pristine and glorious as I wrote them so long ago. Others have to be picked apart for choice phrases or ideas and largely immolated to make room for better and bigger ideas.
Structure is still a massive problem since about half the story is written in present tense and the other half was conceived as a past tense endeavor. No matter how hard I try it seems like I always default to intermingling the two and its hell to catch and repair as I go.
At any rate, progress continues but not tonight.
Tonight I am Beta-reading a short story for one Peter Watts. I wish I could share the details but alas I cannot.
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Week 18 Update: Injury and misery
It was a sad week, just a hair under my typical quota. 3.550 MC which isn't terrible and it would have been much better but my frickin' knee flipped out on me on Friday.
I got in a decent 1500 on Tuesday, 1200 on Thursday and I was well on my way to somewhere in between on Friday when a constant ache in my knee started to fuck up my concentration. Around 600 it got to the point where I couldn't stand the thought of keeping it up.
Sacrificing a body part, especially one connected to my quadriceps (my biggest source of calorie output other than my brain perhaps) just isn't worth losing for a single workout.
The good news is that I have already banged out 2450 for the week which means another good workout or 3 decent walks will get me back up to speed. Hopefully I can get a couple good ones in before Friday and the drunken debauchery of this weekend won't offset my progress too badly.
I plan to consume roughly 5 MC of alcoholic beverages and the only exercise I will be getting will include carrying my computer roughly 50 feet, swigging said alcoholic beverages and jumping out of my chair to scream obscenities during the LAN party portion of the festivities.
Good times, good times.
I got in a decent 1500 on Tuesday, 1200 on Thursday and I was well on my way to somewhere in between on Friday when a constant ache in my knee started to fuck up my concentration. Around 600 it got to the point where I couldn't stand the thought of keeping it up.
Sacrificing a body part, especially one connected to my quadriceps (my biggest source of calorie output other than my brain perhaps) just isn't worth losing for a single workout.
The good news is that I have already banged out 2450 for the week which means another good workout or 3 decent walks will get me back up to speed. Hopefully I can get a couple good ones in before Friday and the drunken debauchery of this weekend won't offset my progress too badly.
I plan to consume roughly 5 MC of alcoholic beverages and the only exercise I will be getting will include carrying my computer roughly 50 feet, swigging said alcoholic beverages and jumping out of my chair to scream obscenities during the LAN party portion of the festivities.
Good times, good times.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Day 120: 4 months of FUCK YEAH
The journey so far:
120 days since Feb. 1st.
62 gym workouts
100+ miles walked around the neighborhood
Net loss so far 18 pounds since Feb 1st. Net loss since last year is approximately 32 pounds.
Now I can say that but it doesn't really convey a tangible sense of the progress so far. Here's a little math and then a more visual example.
1 pound of butter (4 sticks) carries 3200 calories. If you're up to scratch on your nutrition you know that one pound of fat has about 3500 calories. The difference comes from some water and milk solids in said butter.
Now 18 pounds of fat in the body are sure to include some water, protein and bloodvessels so we'll use it as an analog for body fat. 18 pounds of butter is 72 sticks of net fat loss over the span of 16 weeks.
That's about .6 sticks of butter PER DAY for about 4 months.
Oh and here's a picture of 20 pounds of fat for comparison.
Mmm, bacon. At my current level of progress, despite the 2 week slow down, I could probably live on bacon and still lose weight.
120 days since Feb. 1st.
62 gym workouts
100+ miles walked around the neighborhood
Net loss so far 18 pounds since Feb 1st. Net loss since last year is approximately 32 pounds.
Now I can say that but it doesn't really convey a tangible sense of the progress so far. Here's a little math and then a more visual example.
1 pound of butter (4 sticks) carries 3200 calories. If you're up to scratch on your nutrition you know that one pound of fat has about 3500 calories. The difference comes from some water and milk solids in said butter.
Now 18 pounds of fat in the body are sure to include some water, protein and bloodvessels so we'll use it as an analog for body fat. 18 pounds of butter is 72 sticks of net fat loss over the span of 16 weeks.
That's about .6 sticks of butter PER DAY for about 4 months.
Oh and here's a picture of 20 pounds of fat for comparison.
Mmm, bacon. At my current level of progress, despite the 2 week slow down, I could probably live on bacon and still lose weight.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Week 15/16 Update: Still alive, somehow still on track
I'm too lazy to type this crap out again or copy pasta it for ya but here's a screenie.
I believe I am now in the phase where the sexy aspects of the project have worn off, the cheering crowds at the base of the hill are long behind and I have emerged from the treeline only to stare at a vertical climb that will take another (projected) 56 months to complete.
The attrition of late and suffering motivation are proving to be greater hindrances than anticipated though I am still performing at a comfortable margin above the necessary level. How this is possible I do not know.
Needless to say the effort is ongoing and swinging over into maintenance mode is taking some real adjustments, mental and physical. When you're not excited and seeing that first burst of weightloss its hard to stay supercharged for a protracted period of time. However there is hope and as of today's mad session and extra long walk I am already more than halfway done for the week.
Tomorrow shall bring fresh challenges, perhaps defeat and perhaps still another step towards victory.
I believe I am now in the phase where the sexy aspects of the project have worn off, the cheering crowds at the base of the hill are long behind and I have emerged from the treeline only to stare at a vertical climb that will take another (projected) 56 months to complete.
The attrition of late and suffering motivation are proving to be greater hindrances than anticipated though I am still performing at a comfortable margin above the necessary level. How this is possible I do not know.
Needless to say the effort is ongoing and swinging over into maintenance mode is taking some real adjustments, mental and physical. When you're not excited and seeing that first burst of weightloss its hard to stay supercharged for a protracted period of time. However there is hope and as of today's mad session and extra long walk I am already more than halfway done for the week.
Tomorrow shall bring fresh challenges, perhaps defeat and perhaps still another step towards victory.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
102 Days: Can't even keep my damn milestones...
So it's been a fucked up sort of fortnight. Stretching back over the week I found myself nearly single for a while, crashing my reluctant coworker's pad in raleigh and discussing the finer points of end game raiding whilst put up by a former roomate in Cary.
I have been slack as hell on the project though I remain adamant that last weeks shortfall will be reclaimed in short time. I'm still way above my projected average though its been harder and harder to drag myself out to the gym.
Also my nightly constitutionals just seem to drag on and on. Maybe I need a new neighborhood to tramp around in. Who knows.
I also started a new plan to do some terrestrial modifications to the woods behind my house. It started as an ambitious plan to clean the forest of dangerous poisonous plants, sharp pointy rocks and anything that might harbor the dreaded copperhead. So I started hacking and slashing my way through the foliage and some ideas started creeping into my head about water conservation and some much needed surgery for the yard.
Tomorrow I will make a short video detailing my progress thus far and possibly outlining the scope of the new endeavor. There are a number of obstacles to consider: a giant dead tree and me with no handy way to dismantle it, innumerable rocks, roots and creepers and of course good old fashioned North Carolina RED CLAY. I swear the shit halts time and space whenever a shovel hits it.
Plenty of good fodder for the compost heap at least. Now content yourself with some stats.
Current Status: 66+ MC (projected average is 54.3) Daily average remains in the 600 range and the weekly average is hovering at 4.8 MC.
Also my weight is now about 220 though after the Papa John's it is probably higher. Damn your better ingredients and gut-destroying business model!!!!
I have been slack as hell on the project though I remain adamant that last weeks shortfall will be reclaimed in short time. I'm still way above my projected average though its been harder and harder to drag myself out to the gym.
Also my nightly constitutionals just seem to drag on and on. Maybe I need a new neighborhood to tramp around in. Who knows.
I also started a new plan to do some terrestrial modifications to the woods behind my house. It started as an ambitious plan to clean the forest of dangerous poisonous plants, sharp pointy rocks and anything that might harbor the dreaded copperhead. So I started hacking and slashing my way through the foliage and some ideas started creeping into my head about water conservation and some much needed surgery for the yard.
Tomorrow I will make a short video detailing my progress thus far and possibly outlining the scope of the new endeavor. There are a number of obstacles to consider: a giant dead tree and me with no handy way to dismantle it, innumerable rocks, roots and creepers and of course good old fashioned North Carolina RED CLAY. I swear the shit halts time and space whenever a shovel hits it.
Plenty of good fodder for the compost heap at least. Now content yourself with some stats.
Current Status: 66+ MC (projected average is 54.3) Daily average remains in the 600 range and the weekly average is hovering at 4.8 MC.
Also my weight is now about 220 though after the Papa John's it is probably higher. Damn your better ingredients and gut-destroying business model!!!!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Week 9 Update: Only one more weight update per month from now on.
So I marked the occasion, this being the 64th day of the Gigacalorie project by tidying up my progress marker. It's just a simple Excel spreadsheet that tallies up my daily contributions, weekly totals and my average progress per day and per week.
It was interesting to look back at the past 2 months, for which sweaty rides home and constantly aching muscles have dominated my schedule. Beyond the initial 'breaking' of my daily routine I have consumed 4 containers of protein powder, 12 gallons of milk (skim all the way baby!) and my workout/post-workout water consumption is probably something like 14 gallons of water.
Now granularity is nice but there's no real secret to what I am doing. You push the body hard enough and primal forces carry you the rest of the way. There are a few additional forces that make the task at hand both easier and harder. I'll start with the bottlenecks and conclude with the boons.
First and foremost, as I have said before, the enormity of burning 1 million kilocalories is as daunting and vast as the horizon inside the eye of a hurricane. Every day that I work out I come home and gleefully tally my progress like a pasty gamer tracking his experience points onto worn out graph paper.
Today the total stands at 42,930. Two months of cardiovascular brutality and anerobic malevolence done to my person has brought me 4.293% of the way to my goal. Or you could say I only have 95.707% to go until I am done.
Hell and damnation it's almost unbelievable. I could have moved a volume of bricks the size of my house (solid mass, not hollow) BY HAND in the same interval. Or I could have walked to texas and back by now. That would be a decent workout in and of itself but no, I am making scandalousy slow progress by the usual standards. It's terrifying of itself but when you consider that I am actually 8 Mcals AHEAD of schedule (more than 2 weeks progress at the alloted rate) it is all the more frustrating.
So there's that, and the physical toll is not much better. My arms, legs and back ache more or less constantly. My hands tremble at the keyboard and my voice is strained when speaking to clients, my wife and my daughter. I am the alarm clock whose snooze button has been pressed many thousand times too many.
Finally there's the whole body image issue to consider. My current progress (assuming naively that it's all net calories) equals about 12 pounds of body mass. My actual weight loss dipped down to ten pounds a few weeks ago and has since flatlined at around 8. Maybe that's positive because I am growing muscle or my bones are miraculousy hardening into granite from my considerable intake of bovine lactose but I sure as shit don't 'feel' like I am much lighter.
Natalie and friends swear I look different but my mental self portrait as a chubby guy with moderate body hair has yet to be at odds with its optical counterpart. I try to assuage my anxiety with the intellectual notion that even if I'm not flinging fat particles at escape velocity that at least I'm getting healthy and that's a noble goal without the secondary side effects of increased social acceptability.
There's just not enough positive reinforcement. But there is some, which I will outline now before things get too depressing.
Perks include getting to see scantily clad sweaty chicks of various levels of attractiveness on a tri-weekly basis. This might sound shady coming from a married dude but it's nice to add a simple addendum to my mental assessments of the girls around town. For years it has just been 'well i'm not gonna bang that girl' and hopefully in a year or so i'll be able to append: 'but I could if I really wanted to.'
I guess that sounds shady from any perspective but it motivates and I need all the momentum I can muster.
Secondly food tastes so fucking good when you're starving that it's not even funny. My second greatest meal of all time was a hot bowl of noodle soup on the fringe of Bangkok's red light district in no small part because I was ravenous at the time. Don't get me wrong if I could get it that soup would be my breakfast every day that I didn't feel like fresh pad thai but being hungry as hell made it all the better. Now thanks to my jacked up metabolism I am more or less constantly hungry so most of what I eat tastes great.
Some might consider that a negative aspect but I try to see it as a constant opportunity to make the right choice and reach for the banana instead of the bacon. (Side note: I have actually had banana wrapped in bacon and it's quite good)
Finally, and I know this was included in the negatives already, but what little progress I am able to measure cheers me greatly. It never ceases to amaze me how much effort, will and saline go into my weekly regimen and I need look no further than my bicep for proof that I am doing something right.
What once lay undefined amidst a slab of adipose tissue I can now trace with a finger or pinpoint with my eyes. It's not that much, a little crest of whipcord rising above a sea of pudge. Yet however much the body and mind wail for attention and results I can take solace that my little friend is already there to greet me.
All I need to do is keep feeding him and he will grow to dominate my self-image. I'll also need every scrap of muscle fiber I can wield to hold up my own ego when I triumphantly announce my victory in some format or another.
According to the projected outcome that date will be Feb. 1 2014. However at my current rate I will be toasting my victory with a frothy protein shake more than one year early. If I can sustain this rate of expenditure I may just modify the terms of the project.
I think I'll wait a year or two before I make that canonical though.
It was interesting to look back at the past 2 months, for which sweaty rides home and constantly aching muscles have dominated my schedule. Beyond the initial 'breaking' of my daily routine I have consumed 4 containers of protein powder, 12 gallons of milk (skim all the way baby!) and my workout/post-workout water consumption is probably something like 14 gallons of water.
Now granularity is nice but there's no real secret to what I am doing. You push the body hard enough and primal forces carry you the rest of the way. There are a few additional forces that make the task at hand both easier and harder. I'll start with the bottlenecks and conclude with the boons.
First and foremost, as I have said before, the enormity of burning 1 million kilocalories is as daunting and vast as the horizon inside the eye of a hurricane. Every day that I work out I come home and gleefully tally my progress like a pasty gamer tracking his experience points onto worn out graph paper.
Today the total stands at 42,930. Two months of cardiovascular brutality and anerobic malevolence done to my person has brought me 4.293% of the way to my goal. Or you could say I only have 95.707% to go until I am done.
Hell and damnation it's almost unbelievable. I could have moved a volume of bricks the size of my house (solid mass, not hollow) BY HAND in the same interval. Or I could have walked to texas and back by now. That would be a decent workout in and of itself but no, I am making scandalousy slow progress by the usual standards. It's terrifying of itself but when you consider that I am actually 8 Mcals AHEAD of schedule (more than 2 weeks progress at the alloted rate) it is all the more frustrating.
So there's that, and the physical toll is not much better. My arms, legs and back ache more or less constantly. My hands tremble at the keyboard and my voice is strained when speaking to clients, my wife and my daughter. I am the alarm clock whose snooze button has been pressed many thousand times too many.
Finally there's the whole body image issue to consider. My current progress (assuming naively that it's all net calories) equals about 12 pounds of body mass. My actual weight loss dipped down to ten pounds a few weeks ago and has since flatlined at around 8. Maybe that's positive because I am growing muscle or my bones are miraculousy hardening into granite from my considerable intake of bovine lactose but I sure as shit don't 'feel' like I am much lighter.
Natalie and friends swear I look different but my mental self portrait as a chubby guy with moderate body hair has yet to be at odds with its optical counterpart. I try to assuage my anxiety with the intellectual notion that even if I'm not flinging fat particles at escape velocity that at least I'm getting healthy and that's a noble goal without the secondary side effects of increased social acceptability.
There's just not enough positive reinforcement. But there is some, which I will outline now before things get too depressing.
Perks include getting to see scantily clad sweaty chicks of various levels of attractiveness on a tri-weekly basis. This might sound shady coming from a married dude but it's nice to add a simple addendum to my mental assessments of the girls around town. For years it has just been 'well i'm not gonna bang that girl' and hopefully in a year or so i'll be able to append: 'but I could if I really wanted to.'
I guess that sounds shady from any perspective but it motivates and I need all the momentum I can muster.
Secondly food tastes so fucking good when you're starving that it's not even funny. My second greatest meal of all time was a hot bowl of noodle soup on the fringe of Bangkok's red light district in no small part because I was ravenous at the time. Don't get me wrong if I could get it that soup would be my breakfast every day that I didn't feel like fresh pad thai but being hungry as hell made it all the better. Now thanks to my jacked up metabolism I am more or less constantly hungry so most of what I eat tastes great.
Some might consider that a negative aspect but I try to see it as a constant opportunity to make the right choice and reach for the banana instead of the bacon. (Side note: I have actually had banana wrapped in bacon and it's quite good)
Finally, and I know this was included in the negatives already, but what little progress I am able to measure cheers me greatly. It never ceases to amaze me how much effort, will and saline go into my weekly regimen and I need look no further than my bicep for proof that I am doing something right.
What once lay undefined amidst a slab of adipose tissue I can now trace with a finger or pinpoint with my eyes. It's not that much, a little crest of whipcord rising above a sea of pudge. Yet however much the body and mind wail for attention and results I can take solace that my little friend is already there to greet me.
All I need to do is keep feeding him and he will grow to dominate my self-image. I'll also need every scrap of muscle fiber I can wield to hold up my own ego when I triumphantly announce my victory in some format or another.
According to the projected outcome that date will be Feb. 1 2014. However at my current rate I will be toasting my victory with a frothy protein shake more than one year early. If I can sustain this rate of expenditure I may just modify the terms of the project.
I think I'll wait a year or two before I make that canonical though.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Someone noticed!!!
Well its official. I got my first solicitation due to my blog today. I can't tell you how warm and gooey that makes me feel. Wait. Nope, just some gas.
That said today's post relates to my favorite aquatic activity...2nd favorite if you include this.
That means swimming! For perspective I will include a rough diagram of how the pool at the local Y is set up.
So thats the pool. Primarily I swim in lanes 1 or 2. It should be noted that Lane 1 sucks it with two people because there's metal stuff sticking out from the side. The hollow squares are lifeguard 'towers' which I included only because the text feature of mspaint is so freaking clumsy.
Yesterday I was cutting it up in lane 1. A larger female was swimming to my right in lane 2. (the bottom of the picture is where I orient myself.) Part of swimming etiquette is that when you're in a lane by yourself you are obligated by common courtesy to allow exactly one other person into your lane. That way 2 people can swim and only marginally get in each other's way. Usually when you're the person who wants to jump in on another lane you hang out at one end and wait for the person to hit the wall and then belt out heymancanisharealanewithyourealquick!?
They say yes, you jump in, and huzzah.
Yesterday this woman was standing at the foot of my lane wearing normal clothes speaking directly to the woman next to me. I thought it an odd mix of postures (keep in mind 93% of the time I'm under water and only glance up for breaths every few seconds) but I had a few laps to finish so I went on my way. If she really wanted to swim in my lane she could just put her feet in.
Now as I came to a halt at the (bottom) wall I took a rest between my 1000 yd freestyle and my 400 yard mixed stroke sets for a drink of water and some stretches. As I did this the women to my right conversed in all manner of 'technical' speak relating to swimming strategies. Strategy in the pool to me usually means that you're up to no good but hey, different strokes.
After a few minutes I deduced that this CHARLATAN was none other than a sports psychologist from the other woman's church. For ease we'll call them Swimmer and Talker. Talker had a lot of interesting ideas and I wanted to slap out a few tidbits in case any other would-be sports psychos feel the need to dispense this tripe as advice.
Shitty Statement the First: "Some people swim a length freestyle and then get out of breath so they just swim the next length doing backstroke to catch their breath."
I might agree with this if you were talking to a 4 year old. To someone so small a 25 yd pool looks like an underwater football field. To a six foot tall woman...not so much. I watched this woman breathe just fine with the usual 'turn your head out of the water and inhale method.' Why switch to backstroke?
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything to prove that breathing in swimming is almost as important as your stroke technique and physical fitness. During my early days as a swimmer I would just breathe whenever I could or felt compelled to. When you're using a majority of the body's slow-twitch muscles you want to pant like when you're running hard but you cannot do it.
That sucks but then again swimming for an hour burns about 900 calories (for me, for you its different and there's a lot of leeway for temperature, time of day and all that mess.) It isn't a good idea to base life decisions on personal experience *but everyone does it so I can too!!* but I strongly believe that part of swimming's overall efficacy is due to simulated altitude training.
Think about it!!! Most of the time you're breathing in-out-in-out all day every day. When else do you have to wait a few seconds between breaths? Never. There's plenty of analogies I could use but lets think about Milk. Thats right milk.
2% milk has more calories because its 2% milkfat. Skim on the other hand is more or less calcium water with some lactose thrown in for color and opacity. The body is a very deterministic system and you can only usually get it to change by forcing change upon it. That said sealevel air is like 2% and high-altitude air is leaner skim. By spacing out breaths you're diluting the available air (milkfat in this example) with water. Adding a little water to 2% doesn't change the milkfat content but the calorie density lightens.
Its not a very good analogy but it still seems logical to me that a broken supply of rich air balances out to similar levels of rarefied air *at altitude.*
Shitty statement the 2nd: "Lifting weights and doing aerobics will help your swimming."
I do not disagree with this statement. I can't. It is without doubt a true and honest configuration of words.
Despite that I still consider it bad advice for several reasons. I have known swimmers my whole life who tear a hammy or blast out their shoulder or something terrible happens to a part of them that ought to remain firmly affixed to bone or muscle. And these bad things almost ALWAYS happen outside the pool
Now consider this. You're a newb in the fitness world. You are asking advice how to maximize the safety and effectiveness of your aquatic workouts. If you don't know about basic principles of fitness then you're probably unaware of certain fundamental differences between cardio and weight training or aerobic vs anerobic exercises. It's a good way to get hurt.
Shitty Statement the Third: "A lot of people forget to keep kicking no matter what. Even if you're just doing your cool off make sure you're still kicking at least twice per stroke (during freestyle and back stroke)"
Where to begin. I'll throw in a caveat that girls swim differently than boys. Doodz have a lot more upper body strength to rely on but men and women alike are held to certain principles of physics and biology.
Kicking uses a lot of energy which is good for burning calories. However kicking has a very low ratio of energy use to actual forward motion. In fact unless you're wearing fins or you're at a swim meet where not kicking will get you in trouble its wise to barely kick at all. I'll come back to this sentiment with the fourth and final statement.
Suffice to say I have done my fair share of swimming. Kicking actively belongs during sprints and when you're using a kickboard explicitly to increase leg strength. During laps or medium paced exercises the legs are more useful for balance and stability than for speed.
Shitty Final Statement: "The most important factor in swimming is strength."
Even typing this makes me want to link to Penn and Teller Bullshit just to hear Penn's loud bombastic voice screaming about how inane this is. Maybe for some 'elvis never did no drugs' action also.
The fundamental principle of swimming is not physical strength. The greats of any sport will naturally have great strength but it is technique that really defines just about any athlete. Think of how great dancers and gymnasts would be with their bodies but without the years of training for the balance and rhythm that coincide.
Swimming takes balance, it takes grace and it takes an extreme measure of focus to do it right.
Lets analyze these things. Balance seems a little silly in the water. After all you're being supported completely by a buoyant force equal to the mass of water that your body displaces. That force is uniform. Your body however is not.
Side note: Its actually easier for chubby people to swim than well-muscled types. With a wad of belly fat your pool profile looks like --- that. If you're muscle-dense your legs sink and your torso tilts like / so you have to swim at an upward angle. Granted once you start moving your body acts like an airfoil but lets not digress.
Grace is not something often attributed to me. If you've seen the bizarre flailing ineptitude of my dancing you should know what I mean. However pathetic I may appear above ground my fluidity underwater is lovely. Not one percent of all the people in the world can swim like I can.
I take pride in that.
Focus is key for the usual reasons and a few unusual ones as well. Timing strokes, breaths, kicks and turns takes a lot of mental dexterity to do well. Its not hard to not to do well but if you want to coordinate a smooth approach to the wall, an artful turn and all without having to break stroke for a breath well that takes something special.
Yes of course I am biased but only because I love to swim and I know what benefit it can hold for both myself an others.
I'm nearing the end of sane posting limits (actually I've gone on typing all the way around the world and I am coming back to the starting line now) so I will sign off.
09.18.2007 - 2 Miles
09.20.2007 - 1.5 Miles
09.22.2007 - 1.66 Miles.
That said today's post relates to my favorite aquatic activity...2nd favorite if you include this.
That means swimming! For perspective I will include a rough diagram of how the pool at the local Y is set up.
So thats the pool. Primarily I swim in lanes 1 or 2. It should be noted that Lane 1 sucks it with two people because there's metal stuff sticking out from the side. The hollow squares are lifeguard 'towers' which I included only because the text feature of mspaint is so freaking clumsy.
Yesterday I was cutting it up in lane 1. A larger female was swimming to my right in lane 2. (the bottom of the picture is where I orient myself.) Part of swimming etiquette is that when you're in a lane by yourself you are obligated by common courtesy to allow exactly one other person into your lane. That way 2 people can swim and only marginally get in each other's way. Usually when you're the person who wants to jump in on another lane you hang out at one end and wait for the person to hit the wall and then belt out heymancanisharealanewithyourealquick!?
They say yes, you jump in, and huzzah.
Yesterday this woman was standing at the foot of my lane wearing normal clothes speaking directly to the woman next to me. I thought it an odd mix of postures (keep in mind 93% of the time I'm under water and only glance up for breaths every few seconds) but I had a few laps to finish so I went on my way. If she really wanted to swim in my lane she could just put her feet in.
Now as I came to a halt at the (bottom) wall I took a rest between my 1000 yd freestyle and my 400 yard mixed stroke sets for a drink of water and some stretches. As I did this the women to my right conversed in all manner of 'technical' speak relating to swimming strategies. Strategy in the pool to me usually means that you're up to no good but hey, different strokes.
After a few minutes I deduced that this CHARLATAN was none other than a sports psychologist from the other woman's church. For ease we'll call them Swimmer and Talker. Talker had a lot of interesting ideas and I wanted to slap out a few tidbits in case any other would-be sports psychos feel the need to dispense this tripe as advice.
Shitty Statement the First: "Some people swim a length freestyle and then get out of breath so they just swim the next length doing backstroke to catch their breath."
I might agree with this if you were talking to a 4 year old. To someone so small a 25 yd pool looks like an underwater football field. To a six foot tall woman...not so much. I watched this woman breathe just fine with the usual 'turn your head out of the water and inhale method.' Why switch to backstroke?
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything to prove that breathing in swimming is almost as important as your stroke technique and physical fitness. During my early days as a swimmer I would just breathe whenever I could or felt compelled to. When you're using a majority of the body's slow-twitch muscles you want to pant like when you're running hard but you cannot do it.
That sucks but then again swimming for an hour burns about 900 calories (for me, for you its different and there's a lot of leeway for temperature, time of day and all that mess.) It isn't a good idea to base life decisions on personal experience *but everyone does it so I can too!!* but I strongly believe that part of swimming's overall efficacy is due to simulated altitude training.
Think about it!!! Most of the time you're breathing in-out-in-out all day every day. When else do you have to wait a few seconds between breaths? Never. There's plenty of analogies I could use but lets think about Milk. Thats right milk.
2% milk has more calories because its 2% milkfat. Skim on the other hand is more or less calcium water with some lactose thrown in for color and opacity. The body is a very deterministic system and you can only usually get it to change by forcing change upon it. That said sealevel air is like 2% and high-altitude air is leaner skim. By spacing out breaths you're diluting the available air (milkfat in this example) with water. Adding a little water to 2% doesn't change the milkfat content but the calorie density lightens.
Its not a very good analogy but it still seems logical to me that a broken supply of rich air balances out to similar levels of rarefied air *at altitude.*
Shitty statement the 2nd: "Lifting weights and doing aerobics will help your swimming."
I do not disagree with this statement. I can't. It is without doubt a true and honest configuration of words.
Despite that I still consider it bad advice for several reasons. I have known swimmers my whole life who tear a hammy or blast out their shoulder or something terrible happens to a part of them that ought to remain firmly affixed to bone or muscle. And these bad things almost ALWAYS happen outside the pool
Now consider this. You're a newb in the fitness world. You are asking advice how to maximize the safety and effectiveness of your aquatic workouts. If you don't know about basic principles of fitness then you're probably unaware of certain fundamental differences between cardio and weight training or aerobic vs anerobic exercises. It's a good way to get hurt.
Shitty Statement the Third: "A lot of people forget to keep kicking no matter what. Even if you're just doing your cool off make sure you're still kicking at least twice per stroke (during freestyle and back stroke)"
Where to begin. I'll throw in a caveat that girls swim differently than boys. Doodz have a lot more upper body strength to rely on but men and women alike are held to certain principles of physics and biology.
Kicking uses a lot of energy which is good for burning calories. However kicking has a very low ratio of energy use to actual forward motion. In fact unless you're wearing fins or you're at a swim meet where not kicking will get you in trouble its wise to barely kick at all. I'll come back to this sentiment with the fourth and final statement.
Suffice to say I have done my fair share of swimming. Kicking actively belongs during sprints and when you're using a kickboard explicitly to increase leg strength. During laps or medium paced exercises the legs are more useful for balance and stability than for speed.
Shitty Final Statement: "The most important factor in swimming is strength."
Even typing this makes me want to link to Penn and Teller Bullshit just to hear Penn's loud bombastic voice screaming about how inane this is. Maybe for some 'elvis never did no drugs' action also.
The fundamental principle of swimming is not physical strength. The greats of any sport will naturally have great strength but it is technique that really defines just about any athlete. Think of how great dancers and gymnasts would be with their bodies but without the years of training for the balance and rhythm that coincide.
Swimming takes balance, it takes grace and it takes an extreme measure of focus to do it right.
Lets analyze these things. Balance seems a little silly in the water. After all you're being supported completely by a buoyant force equal to the mass of water that your body displaces. That force is uniform. Your body however is not.
Side note: Its actually easier for chubby people to swim than well-muscled types. With a wad of belly fat your pool profile looks like --- that. If you're muscle-dense your legs sink and your torso tilts like / so you have to swim at an upward angle. Granted once you start moving your body acts like an airfoil but lets not digress.
Grace is not something often attributed to me. If you've seen the bizarre flailing ineptitude of my dancing you should know what I mean. However pathetic I may appear above ground my fluidity underwater is lovely. Not one percent of all the people in the world can swim like I can.
I take pride in that.
Focus is key for the usual reasons and a few unusual ones as well. Timing strokes, breaths, kicks and turns takes a lot of mental dexterity to do well. Its not hard to not to do well but if you want to coordinate a smooth approach to the wall, an artful turn and all without having to break stroke for a breath well that takes something special.
Yes of course I am biased but only because I love to swim and I know what benefit it can hold for both myself an others.
I'm nearing the end of sane posting limits (actually I've gone on typing all the way around the world and I am coming back to the starting line now) so I will sign off.
09.18.2007 - 2 Miles
09.20.2007 - 1.5 Miles
09.22.2007 - 1.66 Miles.
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