Toss the Kickboard

pc1/86/110-70
I brought the car and yup, I'm back at the pool today. Somehow, taking the service bus seemed a lot better. Maybe I've become so accustomed to it already - ya know, having your "own" driver with free time on the way to the office.

Anyway, I feel I could chuck kickboard soon. It's slowly becoming a crutch rather than an aid. I suppose it has served its purpose of helping me with the drills on left-side breathing. And this is in aiding me to float more and not sink too much when I breath left.

I generally don't mind the kids that hang around the pool everytime I swim whether they're there for P.E. classses or whatnot. But the kids today were something else. They were swearing and saying curse words like there's no tomorrow. I mean what's up with that? Even the girls do it. The shower water's cold, they swear. The pool water's cold, they swear. Goodness. I wasn't raised that way and neither are my kids so it's simply disgusting to hear all that swearing.

Luckily my time at the pool is mostly underwater so I don't need to hear all that *&^%$#@! swearing.

I Need a Break

Yeah, I know. Haven't had an entry for days. This thing called "work" keeps rudely interrupting my fun activities. I had to do so much stuff at the office that I'm just rarin' to go back swimming. Oh well. I need a break.

T-shirt Day

Funny, today I was dressing up and I was wearing one of my boring usual office shirts. I said to myself "heck, why don't I just wear a t-shirt today." And so I did and it felt liberating! You see, for so many years I don't ever recall wearing a t-shirt at the office. Heh.

But hey, today's Friday and it might as well be a dress-down day. And I suppose it goes well with my colorful backpack. Sandra, my 5-grader was the last who used this bag. The bag has the markings 1996 and so it's much older than Sandra, actually.


Anyway, it's only the first month for this year 2008 and I'm already experiencing/ doing new stuff. Right. Out with old and in with the new! I mean habits, of course.

Bilateral Sawing

While the car's out for mega repairs, I took the opportunity to cut the remaining (some rotting) thick branches in the empty garage. Some of them were 5 to 6 feet in length. But with the trusty 14 TPI hacksaw, I was ready. Here's a pic with some of the branches cut already.


I just took it easy with the sawing with plenty of rests in between. I even watched DVD's in between("We Are Marshall" and "Last King of Scotland"). I thought I lost a body part when I saw blood red color on a piece of bucked firewood. See the bolo (machete) on the background.


Turns out I managed to hack a few red berry-like thingies from a nearby plant. The berry juice splat onto a piece of wood. Whew! I did get a blister though on my right hand from all the chopping.


Here's the lot after 2 days. The rest of the bucked and chopped wood is now in the yellow hi-sol pails in the background.


As I become more ambidextrous on this sawing thing, I feel more balanced. Sawing with one arm requires the opposite leg to step on the lumber. So if I saw with the right arm, the left leg steps on the lumber. If left, then the right leg does it. With the balanced sawing I now feel both my glutes (butt) sore.
I don't feel very tired on the right side of the body anymore. Now, I feel tired on BOTH sides of the body.

Djok Taym:

Renz: Papa, gusto ko po ng dog na Shi-tzu.
Me: Shi-tzu? Meron na tayong Shi-tzu!
Renz: Saan po?
Me: Aba, iyang si Snoopy, iyan ang original na Shi-tzu!
Renz: Hindi po, lola na po siya eh!

Foundation Day at Laco 2008

Today was Sandra's Foundation Day at Laco. We still don't have the car so DH and Renz tagged along with the school service. DH brought the camera and here are a few pics.

A surprised Dada waiting with schoolmates at the shed.


Since it rained, the field demo was transferred to the gym. Dada's number had the song "Beautiful Girls". Here's a snippet of the number.



Clowning around with Renz. Laco's grounds seem to have been beautifully landscaped now.

It'll be the Shuttle Service Bus from now on

With the car out for major MAJOR repairs, I took the service bus today. I'm so very lucky that the bus is just right here waiting in my subdivision. If I don't see it when I get there, it just means it has departed and then I turn back to walk and get the car (assuming it's working of course). I don't wait for the bus anymore. It "waits" for me up to 7:40am. So there's no time lost waiting and worrying whether or not the bus has come and gone. None of that dreaded chasing for the bus either. I hope it will always be this simple.

Riding the bus made me a little nauseated, at least initially. I suppose it's been some time since I rode in a bus and all that sudden braking and stop-and-go did it. It was a welcome break though to be NOT driving. With my hands free, I could do some drafting of blog entries. Cool, eh? Now I no longer lose my thoughts for blog entries coz I was driving and was unable to put them on paper.

I recall when I was taking the shuttle service bus before (pre-family car), I was ALWAYS reading. The bus number was B-3 (Binan). I'd buy newspapers to read in the bus. I read Manila Standard and occasionally, Philippine Star and Daily Inquirer. And I would be totally oblivious to the world while I was reading. Now, I'm writing.

And I'm taking this opportunity to do more walking too. I guess the secret to making walking pleasurable is the shoes and bag. I've been using cracs/crocs so that handles the shoe part and I'm using an old hardly used backpack for my bag. Funny, after having been used to walking as a regular exercise, the walk around the neighborhood to go to the shuttle service bus and back is nothing to me already. I leave the house at 7:30am to get to the bus at 7:40. So at a fast clip, I could make it in 5 to 7 minutes which is minor compared to the 15 minutes that I'm used to 2 or 3 times a day!

Super Size Me

Super Size Me is an old old film that I've seen splashed on the papers many moons ago yet didn't give it a second look.


Well, I somehow took interest on the content which is a documentary on a person's 30-day experiment eating nothing but McDonald's food. The movie essentially exposes the evils of fast food in general. Anyway, I finally got a VCD copy right at Astrovision at SM Munti. And the price has been slashed to Php99. Yeah, lucky me. We watched it after I walked home. Hope the kids learned a thing or too there (and got scared in the process too!).

While I was looking for some images, I stumbled on some funny toons below:

No Car and more Left Arm Sawing

I did some sawing today with my left arm and remarkably, the action didn't feel as awkward as before. Yup, I'm slowly getting into the groove sawing with the left arm. And there was no soreness afterwards either, just the usual tiredness. The action also entails stepping on the timber with the opposite leg, the right leg. Had there been more dry timber (been raining yesterday), I wouldn've sawn more. Here's Renz out in the rain yesterday and Sandra (with the hat) chasing him with the hose.


We had the car fixed yesterday for the radiator leak, engine oil leak and a host of other complaints. The soonest I could get it is Monday, so that means I'd need to take the shuttle bus if not commute.

Way back, I wrote out my reasons for using the car everyday in this entry. Well, since I don't and can't (for budget contraints) swim everyday anymore, I'm thinking of simply taking the shuttle or service bus in going to work.

1. I'm not entertaining any inquiries to the apartment and so bringing the car isn't for this purpose anymore.
2. I no longer swim everyday like I did in my previous pool. And the reason is it's cost prohibitive in the new pool.
3. On days that I don't swim, I typically come in and go home at standard office hours. So no need to stay back at work and no need to come in earlier than usual.

Bilateral breathing feels so much faster

pc1/90.5/80-110
After the 2 kickboard drills, which was about 70% of my session today, I breathed on the left using normal freestyle. And then I also breathed bilaterally. Wow, I felt like I was going so much faster. Or was that the after effect of previously going so slow with the kickboard drills? At any rate, I thought I was riding high on the water. It felt good. There were still some awkward left breaths but that will eventually go away after more of the drills.

I think I'll be bringing the trusty kickboard on the weeks to come. The white sealant on the kickboard has been holding up so far. Gosh I'm so excited. It's that excitement one feels when one gets into a milestone in a journey. I think I'll be more confident and efficient once I'll do it naturally and flawlessly. Something more to feel proud of.

Beat Up Kickboard

Today I put in white sealant on the cracks on the "family" kickboard. I call it "family" coz I never really used it as I generally disdain the use of pool toys. So, it bacame a toy for the kids whenever we went swimming. And since it was made of styrofoam it eventually had cracks and dents everywhere. This, after being tossed to who who knows where everytime we bring it.


And now I'll be using for my left-side breathing drills so guess who'll fix it up? Not that I'm complaining. Heck the markings are all faded already. I remember buying this kickboard for Php100 on our first ever swim lessons at Starland, Metropolis in 1996?


Update on Stretching
Evening:
Quads and Hams Stretching. (Alternate the stretches with warm compress)
Morning:
Hot compress on shoulder.
Stretch cords and light dumbbells.

Why did you marry him/her?

Without anything else to write (sorry, my swims are infrequent), this entry is about Sandra's homework in Religion. The question was to ask each of the parents, why did you marry mom/dad.

Here are DH's answers:

1. "Dahil mahal ko siya" I thought the question was about qualities so this shouldn't have been in.
2. "Matalino"
3. "Masinop" Actually, this was her polite way of saying kuripot.
4. "Magaling kumanta" But then she realized I wasn't singing when she met me, so she said to scratch it off.

Here are my answers:

1. "Aba, sexy na, beauty pa!" DH couldn't help smirking on this one and I don't think the teacher would like that.
2. "Magaling sa mga gawaing bahay: magluto, mamalengke, pagaasikaso." I had to qualify that statement by saying that she can be so self-reliant on many things.
3. "Mapagaruga (caring/nurturing), maalalahanin (thoughtful), masipag, etc..." I could've gone on and on when she said "Tama na, napapaiyak na ako..."

And just the other night, Renz was especially talkative. I guessed he was tired, ready to sleep but was just yakking himself awake. Here's the tail end of our conversation in bed:

Renz: Alam ko po kung bakit ako ang pinakabata sa mga magpi-pinsan!
Me: Ow? O, bakit pala?
Renz: Kasi po, late na nagasawa si mama.
Me: Eh, bakit naman late na nagasawa si mama mo?
Renz: Kasi po hinintay ka niya eh. (I'm already half-laughing at this point)
Me: Talaga? Bakit naman niya ako hinintay?
Renz: Kasi po mahal ka niya, eh? (and I thought he'd be saying "naghintay po siya ng pogi")

Left Side Breathing

pc1/89/80-130
Today I started left-side breathing with drills I learned from the Korean swim videos. And for these initial 2 exercises, I used a kickboard.

1. Stationary left-side breathing with kickboard. The right arm holds the kickboard and is extended forward. The tip of the kickboard can touch the wall. With the left arm at the side, breath in at the left side and exhale down. This is essentially stationary coz no stroking is done. The kicking is just to balance the body horizontally.
   
   
2. Left-side stroking with kickboard. Hold the kickboard with both hands and push off. Stroke with the left arm only and breath to the left. Be sure the left hand's thumb brushes the thigh on exit. This ensures the palm is facing inward. It may be tough at first coz a 6-beat kick may be required to be balanced. Upon reaching the "T" of the lane line, slow down and raise the kickboard so it doesn't slam onto the wall.

The drills were very good. I didn't feel pain while doing the exercises. Even though the water was cool, the 6-beat kick kept my heart-rate and temp up.

Over the past weekends, I bought 3 books, used but very cheap. And I must say I'm learning a lot (techniques and factoids). The first book is Swim for the Health of It by Ernest Maglischo and Cathy Brennan. And the second is Swim Swim: A Complete Handbook for Fitness Swimmers by Katherine Vaz and Chip Zempel. Both for Php70, dirt cheap, although Magishcho's books is more useful.


And just last weekend I bought for Php95 an old hard-bound book Exercising for Fitness by Time-Life publications. Nice. Thank God for BookSale and the mall by my doorstep.

Meridian Stretching

I became fascinated with an American swimmer's (Dara Torres) training techniques which includes a lot of stretching. The lady's 40 years old and presently trains for the Beijing Olympics! Stretching takes her 90 minutes with 2 people stretching her whole body. After my shoulder therapy with a physical therapist, I can appreciate the value of physical therapy stretching. And so I'm trying to find out and learn more. Here's an interesting video on Resistive Stretching.



Here are some interesting stretches:

Fighting Depression

pc1/91/70-110
We have a relative who seems to be sinking in depression. He's a good man with a good family. Last Christmas day, he was quiet most of the time. He wasn't gregarious before but he just wasn't his usual self. Before, we'd talk about the future: plans, careers, family. He is the godfather of my daughter. Seeing him depressed makes me sad. I asked DH if this good friend of ours had any sport or exercise hobby because I knew it was one way of preventing depression or keeping it at bay.

I caught a snippet of an article in WebMD. It was about fighting anxiety and depression. The bulk of it talked about meds and behavior therapy but towards the end, a bit about exercise. Anyway, here's the excerpt to which I fully agree.

Exercise is an important adjunct to any therapy. Exercise directly alters levels of neurohormones involved in circuits of emotion. It calms the hyperactivity of the nervous system and improves function of the brain's emotion-sensing network. It also improves the ability of the body to tolerate stress. What's more, it changes people's perception of themselves, providing a sense of personal mastery and positive self-regard. It also reduces negative thinking.

However, just telling a distressed person to exercise is futile, as depression destroys initiative. The best thing a loved one can do is to simply announce: "Let's go for a walk." Then accompany the person out the door.

New Year 2008

With the new SM Muntinlupa Mall nearby, we've been seeing fireworks display every Saturday at 7pm in December. And naturally, there were fireworks at New Year's Eve. Only the girls were up and about at that time though. Renz was too sleepy and became irritable when woken up. I suppose he was super happy and became tired from all that lighting of the sparklers and pop-pap. It was his first to do those stuff.

New Year's day was slow though. It was just the time to take it easy and relax. Here's Karen and Renz pulling to swing themselves at the hammock.


Some fun at the rooftop. All shots were taken by DH.