Relaaaaaaax

After almost 2 weeks, I swam again today. Two week lull was largely due to the allergy I had which led to colds. Am on medication this whole week with Neozep, Carbocisteine and Virlix. Tip: take virlix when you seem to have cold especially when sneezing comes form old musty and dusty paper. Was earlier today than usual since I piced up Che's report card. Lots of rowdy kids at pool and a lonesome girl. I managed just 4 slow laps in about 50 mins. since I was resting/ watching most of the time.

Arms felt really tired today even at the pool. Maybe it's time to stack on Glutamax and Creatine again. I realized that the comfortable feel for the water can be experienced after a few easy laps. Then be conscious of getting relaxed in the water and taking it easy. Be sure to switch off the panic button when full, unstretched, just arrived, just drank, just eaten - in other words, not yet relaxed. It also helps to feeeeel, scull the water and do simulated strokes before swimming.

I realized that in the past outings when I didn't yet know how to swim, the few episodes that I thought I was successful, I was already getting into a RELAXED state. So, to enjoy early on, it is very important to enter into a very RELAXED state. I guess it is critical that you enter this state first before venturing into deep water. I was sweating today at the office. It's either the weather outside or the workout I had or both.

Jed's Island

Had a super fun time at Jed's Island in Calumpit, Bulacan. It's a resort with several pools for adults and kids. There was one adult pool that was 15 feet deep and had a diving board. I didn't get to try that one though much as I want to try treading coz there were many jumping and diving tarzans. It looked really deep coz the water appeared dark blue.

The ghastly thing about this resort is this funky color scheme of blue, pink and yellow in virtually everything! Even the Bahay Kubo we took as our cottage was colored this way! There's the cottage at the left with Che, Sandra, Renz, Irene (all waving at me like I was some celebrity ) and Mama inside.

Just a week before, the Lunchtime tv noonshow "Eat Bulaga" held a special summer show in this location. The pic at the right was taken on the actual stage used by the tv clowns of the show. The stage was specially decorated for this purpose. This probably explains the newly painted bright colors everywhere.

The kids had a super fun time. There were some slides for the kids. See the three screamers at the left. They were so loud screaming their lungs out EVERYTIME they formed this "Train-Chain" and slid down together.

Even the littlest ones had their portion of the resort. The pic at the right shows the tadpoles pretending to be sharks. Renz got a kick out of congregating with other toddlers. He was particularly bragging about his aqua goggles. Well, they aren't his (they're Irene's) but who among the tadpoles knew?

There's a pic of the four kids posing with their mandatory "peace" sign. It was difficult at first to get all four to pose. Renz was busy showing off to the other tadpoles. To see more pictures click here.

The final shot after packing up and before heading on home. This was taken at the infamous hanging bridge. There's something about this bridge that makes the passersby just want to rock it by jumping and swaying it. It's like they want to dismantle this huge thing or test how strong it is. I don't know what's with these people.

Overall, it was enjoyable and tiring (esp for me driving) as well. The long trip from our house to Bulacan and back was very well worth it.

Broken Gogs

5 laps: No added drills. I was rushing to car coz a few guys were playing basketball near it. Something/ one even hit the left side mirror but no damage done. Bad news: The hook of one eyepiece (where the nose bridge attaches)of my blue goggles broke when I attempted to pull off my goggles by holding the eyepieces. Don't do that! Grrrr... Lesson learned is to NEVER PULL THE EYEPIECES to remove the goggles from the head. Pull on the bands. It's also ok to hold on the eyepieces BUT hold the bands connecting to it as well. The idea is not to stress the weak link which is the hook. Now what to do? Buy a new pair? Anyway, I decided to throw them away but just add them to my repair kit as "spare parts" for the other blue goggles.

Presently I still have 1 black, 1 amber. Maybe I should just buy all ambers or all blues so that repair kit can become more useful. Sure if I could still manage to find this model. This model is cheap at Php349 and fits extremely well for me. Maybe I should visit Cinderella at Megamall to buy. I started to use these since Aug 30, 2004. They didn't even last a year. Since it's summer, maybe I'll just use the black goggles.

Isn't it great that I didn't get a coach? Otherwise, I won't be able to swim at lunch or at any other time I want. I felt some pain at back of the head in the office. Must be tiredness. I timed the 5 laps today (1 min bet lengths) and managed 16 minutes.

5 laps: 1 min rest. Felt really good . I felt that I could do 5 more given enough rest! Practiced 5 flip turns. Why do I have this fear that I'll hit the wall? Practiced sidekick for the sidestroke. Couldn't really extend to streamline. Need to practice more. Tried sighting techniques using freestyle and breaststroke techniques. Works really well for me. Could be fun. Tried various floats - star, jellyfish.

3 laps: Practiced flip turns this way. From 12.5m, towards wall, do 5 turns. For each turn do 1 left stroke, breath (right stroke) and flip. Rest without walking then continue. Don't streamline/ glide from standing position. Immediately stroke with left. Was able to maintain the 9 CPL only for 1st 2 laps. I think am getting better with breath control on flip turns. There's no more "tinapa" smell (strong chlorine), but sneezed on the 1st 2 attempts.

2 laps: Didn't have much time coz Che called in late, 12:06 to be fetched. Am still able to put in 9 cycles per length after much gliding and keeping the head low, but it seems slower. Practiced flip turns and did maybe 10. Am not getting more used to the dizzying and sore sinuses. Practiced 3 turns at the wall. I still need to be closer to it. Am just afraid of crashing my heels on the deck.

CPL at 9

3 Laps: Green pool. Had to fetch Che at 11:27. I noticed a few lengths where I can do 9 cycles per length (CPL) or 18 strokes per length (SPL). To do this:

1. Strong pushoff
2. Maximize glide
3. Keep head down to streamline
4. When breathing during stroke, keep head profile low
5. Use the hip snap/ core muscles
6. Be symmetrical (side-to-side)

With the workout above and a mefenamic acid tablet, it seems that my body pains from the weekend (frisbee, cutting junk paper) seem to have gone.

Goal Ideas

3 Laps: Did some 6-7 practice flipturns. I didn't feel I did or train enough. Maybe I need to go back to 5 laps minimum. Had some serious sinus pain due to the standing turns. Some stuff to think about regarding goals:

• Action items to PHYSICALLY accomplish goal
• Action items to MENTALLY accomplish goal
• Accomplishments
• Things to keep working on
• This week's goals
• Strategies for attaining goals
• Obstacles the might prevent in achieveing goals

Today did some early morning rotator cuff exercises, dumbbell alternate curls and shoulder presses. Did not feel soreness within the day.

Circus Crowd

3 Laps: Did the circus come to town? There was a crowd today of 20-25 people with kids. What a riot! People eating and drinking everywhere. Needless to say, there wasn any real swimming with these people except for 2 "tarzans". One kid who was problably impressed by me asked if I was an athlete in serious training. Yah, right. A middle-aged rotund guy "in serious need of exercise" is more like it! I did 5 standing flipturns and some gliding flipturns. It felt like I was tilting to my right and was unsure if I'll be facing the wall upon landing feet on it. I need to be thoroughly familiar with this movement. Tomorrow, start working on the kick/pushoff without the wall.