and I'm back!

Shadow Cliffs. Looking cool. Ready to get cold!

I haven't wrote much here in the past two weeks. There has been a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of what-have-yous.

Vickee's grandmother has been in and out of the hospital for various ailments ranging from low blood sodium to a broken ankle. We hope that she'll come home this weekend. She will miss Thanksgiving.

We have some relatives that just came over from the Philippines. They are adjusting well, though they said that I drove to fast from the airport... I was obeying the speed limit.

As for my training, I'll get you caught up.

We did an open water swim (about 1 mile) at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton. It was chilly, but not the coldest I have ever encountered. There was the constant fear of "Swimmer's Itch" (as posted on flyers at the park). Apparently there are these snails whose larvae are microscopic. They tend to attach and burrow into your skin. They are harmless, but what a thought, eh? To avoid it... other than not swimming there... is to towel off well after rinsing yourself with copius amounts of water.

I did a track workout recently where we did 16 minutes at 10K pace with a 20 second pick-up at sprint pace followed by a 2 minute cool down. We did that 3 times. The goal for the season is to have a foot fall turnover of 90 or better (that is one foot hitting the ground 90 times per minute, or 180 steps per minute). I was happy to hear from Coach Alex that he clocked me at around 85. I think I am pushing 6-7 miles per hour.

I also got videotaped swimming. The last time I was videotaped, my butt dragged through the water, I had no streamline... in short, I was slow. Fast forward 2 years and Coach Wayne said that I looked great. I do have the tendency to cross my arms, and my body roll is best when I breathe. So I will work on that.

I've raised $500 for the Leukemia Society. Make sure to donate if you get a chance. Anything you can contribute.

Well, that's it for now. I hope to be back on this blog thing regularly, so check back. Have a great holiday! GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Swim and furniture lifting program part II

My swim on Wednesday night went well. I stopped sinking. I've concentrated more on streamlining in the water, i.e. keeping my body as long as possible. What was happening was that I was rolling over onto my back while swimming. This imbalance was causing me to sink.

Tomorrow, I'm moving furniture to Sacramento for my wife's aunt. The moving crew is essentially me and Vickee, my wife. I'll get to flex those big ol' guns again.

By the way, this move was supposed to happen last Saturday, but good ol' U-haul messed up. I went to go pick up my truck in San Leandro. The guy that handles all truck rentals wasn't there. On top of that, he wasn't coming in until Monday! I had a reservation... I suspect they just lost another customer in me. Tomorrow I'm using Budget truck rentals.

Pull-up bars and the IKEA weight lifting program

I managed to get in a few quality workouts this week. I am trying to be consistent with my weight training as well. This brings me to my first item.

I have a pull-up bar upstairs in my house. Everytime (almost) I see it, I do 5 pull-ups. By biceps feel pretty good, and they look bigger! Well, there is less of me, so maybe it's an optical illusion.

In addition to the pull-ups, I've been doing push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, squats, abs, etc. But the best workout happened this past weekend.

IKEA was having a 15% off everything sale. We went on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I lifted about 200 lb. of awkwardly shaped furniture. Now, I'm sore (and poor).

Lastly, I worked on my swimming last night. I think I was able to refine my technique such that my hips don't sink. And, the pool was empty because of Halloween. Cool!