Day 39

Swam 36 laps.

Did my 4 groups of 9 with the 9s being broken into 3 with 1 fast and 2 slow laps each.  It went fine - I found myself wanting to swim fast more often, but unable to because of a lack of stamina.  The result of going faster was that I finished my 36 laps in only 38.5 minutes -- 2.14 minutes per 100 yards -- a new personal best.

I am becoming more aware of the asymmetry of my stroke -- I don't know if it's because I'm unskilled, or because I can only breathe comfortably on one side, or because my left shoulder is worse than my right.  Maybe I'll get a lesson... one day.

Day 38

A mixed bag today - On the down side I truncated several of my weight sets (skipped squats, did only 2 sets of lat pulls and overhead press) because i was feeling very sore (still!) from Tuesday.  I think it may have been the jogging that hit me so hard.

The bright side of today was that despite sore legs I jogged for 9 solid minutes at 7.2mph which is more than a mile!  This is a positive trade-off in my mind - I think lengthier jogging bespeaks greater general fitness better than specific lifts.  I am more interested in cardiovascular health than strength.

Any time I can cannibalize lifting to fuel vigorous cardio, I will do so.

Day 37

Swam 36 laps (or maybe as many as 40 -- it's hard to count).

I was very stiff/sore from yesterday's lifting -- not sure why it was so hard -- but as i've previously noted that soreness disappears while I'm in the water.  It was still boring, and I was angry for the first 18 laps or so.  I wonder if all exercisers find the first half of their workout to be the harder because of how much remains.

I've decided to mitigate the monotony by breaking the 36 laps into 4 groups of 9 (stopping for breath between), and doing the 9 lap block in a pattern of three threes:

• normal, normal, fast.
• normal, normal, fast.
• normal, normal, very fast.

This might also count as interval training and help me get stronger/faster, but my goal is just to divert myself from the oppressive boredom of being face down in a pool of water for an hour.

Day 36

Completed the 3 sets of 12 reps routine.  It was still very, very hard on my arms, was harder than usual on my legs too.  Somehow I am getting weaker.

I figured by now I'd have adapted to the 3x12 -- this is the 4th time I've done it and it's spanned 3 calendar weeks.  I don't think this would be the "overtraining" I hear about, but I'll keep an eye on it.

The good news is that i was able to jog a mile in my warm-up.  I was feeling fairly spry - possibly because i went later (after some morning meetings) or was well-fed (I ate at home this morning).  Whatever the case, I jogged at 7.2mph for 10 minutes and so went over a mile.  That's a big "milestone" for me, since it was just last week that i nearly perished trying to jog for 3 minutes.

Current exercise mindset:

• weights: vexing, but not daunting.
• jogging: improving, but uninteresting.
• swimming: increasingly tiresome.
• biking: occasionally appealing.

Day 35

Lousy day swimming - only 24 laps.

It wasn't really a physical limitation, I just had a really hard time getting into it -- it was all I could do to keep from quitting after about 12.  I pushed and got up to 18, and climbed out of the pool.  Then conscience kicked in and I went back and swam 2 hard laps to see if a change of pace helped.  Then i swam 2 more normal laps.  Then I climbed out again.  Then i got back in once more and swam two more hard ones.

The good news is that I:

• resisted the temptation to quit super early
• swam 100 yards in 1:40, which is a mere minute off of the world record.

The bad news is that for no physical reason I despised swimming and gave up at 2/3 of my normal distance.

It's tempting to blame the time change, or the weekend's above-average activity, but I think I just "wasn't into it."  If I can't get back in the game later this week I'll need to find something I can do instead -- perhaps try the couch-to-5k jogging system, or maybe step up my biking now that the weather is hopefully improving.

Weekend 7

A few physical activities worth noting from this weekend -

• Family walk to and from the doughnut store = 1.8mi - blue line
• Bike with Clark to friends' house = 6.4 miles - green line
• Family walk in the park = ~1 mile - purple loop
• Family walk in the woods = ~1 mile - red line (second picture)

View Out and About Mar 9-10 2013 in a larger map

The walk down near my work:

View Out and About Mar 9-10 2013 in a larger map

Week 7

Week 7 was a week of faltering and perseverance, but also of breakthrough and hope.

The lifting was very hard for me, and I wasn't able to do it fully on Tuesday (but, with difficulty, succeeded on Thursday).  The swimming saw a huge increase in the amount of consecutive laps I can do between rests OR the speed I can swim (but not both).

I feel run down after this week -- it might be that i slept less, or ate differently, or pushed harder in some of the workouts.  I'll be extra glad for the break this weekend.

Hopefully next week my body's response to these various challenges will continue to jell and I'll find a more comfortable rhythm (that still lets me progress).

I've still not lost any weight, but my belly is smaller while my arms and chest are subtly bigger.  I need to refine my diet a little - my body wants more food than it used to, and I'm not sure what to give it.  This week's practice of feeding it giant strombolis daily was enjoyable, but probably not a good long-term plan.