You know what's scary about this? I was born in June 1974, I turned 31 16 days ago.
You Are 31 Years Old |
31
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.
13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!
40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.
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Gym
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May. 5th, 2005 @ 01:36 pm
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I've been swimming since the swimathon (and since my son was born on the 31st of March!), but struggling to keep up with the 3 times per week. 2 times is more likely and sometimes even just one. Of course, I'm getting a few games of squash in most weeks too, so it's not too bad..
Anyway, today I had a gym induction (my fourth ever!). A very nice woman gently took me through a few machines putting me on average programmes, and then got to the rowing machine. She set it to do 1k and told me to get on with it. Now, as per usual on that machine, I managed my 1k keeping pace reasonably well (started at 1:48/500m and ended up at 1:52/500m). Managed it in 3:49. I've no idea if that's good, bad or indifferent, but I do know that I rolled off the machine and wanted to vomit for about 2 mins afterwards.
Oh well, I'm going to try and get to the gym twice, and the pool twice per week. Not much hope of that happening, but I can try :)mood:  hopeful |
Ever get the feeling people get a totally wrong idea about who you are and what you do? It occurred to me the other day that the mental image I have of people is usually proven pretty inaccurate eventually and conversley people probably have a dodgy idea of me. Things that came to mind were this journal (and therefore fitness levels, how much of life is taken up by sport), my rather obscure IRC name (genderless, sounds slightly Russian to me), my nationality. I wonder if any of my personality survives all of this?
I think this is one of the attractions of blogging. Your chance to put forward an image that you think is more accurate than just the passing one that people would normally get. The thing is that I can only be bothered to write about something specific, trying to vet what other random events from personal life might be relevant and sufficiently non-personal seems like too much work.
Oh well, I guess I could go in the direction of posting quiz results every few days ;) |
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Sure, I pulled about four muscles, sure I have no idea how long or how far and sure it was way tiring than it should have been but, I SWAM, I SWAM! Also, in my squash league, I won a 3 month gym membership. Not only does that mean free swimming for 3 months, but also reduced price squash and I get to use the gym (who's equipment is all about 3 or 4 months old). I really must take advantage of this and work on my leg stamina, maybe even spinning! |
Well, I'm a predictable beast if nothing else. Last year I started a fitness regime based around swimming. In order to keep it up I set myself a target, this year's swimathon. It worked, I swam on average 3 times a week, I even lost some weight towards the end, and I've lost some bodyfat from various places.
Now however, as you can see below, the swimathon is over, the motivation is gone. Excuses are plenty at the moment; I just had a second kid, Arthur John was born on the 31st. Work piles up very quickly when I try to take a few days off. However, it means that I've now gone quite a few days without swimming, it's been over a week since I even got in a pool!
Oh well, maybe I should find another target? I think my friends and family are tapped out on the sponsorship thing though!mood: unmotivated music: sound of rain, does that count? |
| » Proof positive |
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Just a quick show off post :)
Mar. 24th, 2005 @ 05:50 pm
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| » Completed! |
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Swam: 5000m in 1hr 58 minutes
Well, at least I survived it! I went a little slower than I'd expected, but generally did OK. I had two goals. First was to try and hit 1:45 and the second was to not go over 2hrs! Nice to get at least one. I made no attempt whatsoever to count how many lengths I was doing as there was someone who was doing that poolside. As it turns out she thinks she got a bit confused as a relay team of four joined in all at once as well as two of us doing 5k. There was one person doing that 10k, as I left the pool she still had another 160 lengths to go. Hope she made it :)
Anyway, I got a medal, I got a cap, I got a certificate, my elbows, knees and shoulders hurt like buggery. Onwards and upwards. I just have to make sure that I actually get out and swim 3x per week now with no motivation. At least, not till next swimathon :)
Mar. 24th, 2005 @ 05:06 pm
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| » Back in the 50m pool |
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Swam: 1500m
For today's second to last warmup I headed for the 50m pool that I used over christmas. I figured that since my usual pool was hosting the swimathon all week, it was probably a good idea to go elsewhere! I'm glad I did as it's a much nicer experience there. Not only did I get a full 50m lane to myself almost the whole time, but the simple difference of having twice as much space lets me get into a rythym much more easily. It didn't make much difference to my timings either, on average it took me 1:06 per length. Still very slow by some comparisons but I'm happy enough with it.
Anyway, the swimathon is now on Thursday instead of today. They moved me because everyone had booked to turn up today and I had no problem with doing it on Thursday instead. I've finally managed to get some sponsorship as well :)
WEIGHT: 85.5 KG
HEART RATE - RESTING: 60 BPM
HEART RATE - MAXIMUM: 155 BPM
FLEXIBILITY: 12 CMS from the floor
WELL-BEING RATING: 7
NO.OF SWIMS THIS WEEK: 3
Mar. 21st, 2005 @ 03:58 pm
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| » Off topic |
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In celebration of the fact that as of Tuesday I've got nothing to write about (is it possible to change your LJ name?)....
Bacardi 151
Congratulations! You're 139 proof, with specific scores in beer (80) , wine (150), and liquor (86). |
| All right. No more messing around. Your knowledge of alcohol is so high that you have drinking and getting plastered down to a science. Sure, you could get wasted drinking beer, but who needs all those trips to the bathroom? You head straight for the bar and pick up that which is most efficient. |
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My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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You scored higher than 73% on proof |
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You scored higher than 89% on beer index |
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You scored higher than 99% on wine index |
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You scored higher than 90% on liquor index |
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Mar. 17th, 2005 @ 10:25 am
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| » Nothing much... |
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Swam: 1500m in 30 mins..
Actually, I either swam 1550 or 1500m, once again who knows! That was the second last swim I'll be doing before the Swimathon. Sponsorship has been a little slower than I'd hoped, so far about 50 or 60 pounds has been pledged. I guess that I don't much like being approached to sponsor a random charity either.
At this late stage, I'm a little suprised that I haven't improved more. I've been putting quite a lot of time into the pool sessions and basically my improvement has been from about 1800m-2250m in a 45-50 minute session. That just doesn't seem like a lot. I suppose if I want to make any dramatic improvements I'd have to either get lessons or put a lot more time in. I don't think either of those is going to happen soon!
Mar. 16th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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| » Final week |
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Swam: 1500m in 30 mins.
Well, it's my final week of preparation. Rather than slogging it out as usual, I'm going to do three or four 30min sessions, just trying to push myself a bit. Today was the first, nice empty pool (max three others), so it all went well. I managed to push my crawl so it was going a reasonable amount faster than my breast stroke. Although it sounds as if that should be easy, since I can' barely kick, it's not!
Basically managed to maintain a 30second per length average for 60 lengths, so I'm happy enough with that.
One of the other two in the pool was a much stronger swimmer than I am, another was faster, but only 15-20% faster! I was talking to them afterwards and was happy to hear one was an ex-ironman competitor and the other tried to make sure he did one race a year. I'm happy to be left in the dust by people with that kind of commitment!
Mar. 14th, 2005 @ 02:24 pm
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| » Almost there for 5k.... |
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Swam: 2100m
Well, I'm almost there on my 5k preparation. Just one more week of reasonably relaxed swimming then I've gotta do it. After having swam 4k and had a tough game of squash (lost 3-1) yesterday, today was hard going. But I managed to get to the pool, and that's what matters!
The excellent news is that after 6 months of swimming, playing squash, trying to eat reasonably well etc, I've finally lost a bit of weight! Was 86kg when I got on the scales this morning! Personally I think it was the 4k swim, I think I lost a part of myself in that long 1.5hrs! I've also noticed that my resting heartrate has dropped 5-10 bpm to 55! That's the lowest I've ever had, I MUST be getting fitter. Trousers still don't fit though.
Well, second to final statistics, though I might keep logging these in future. Hell, maybe my post-swimathon journal will consist of 3x per week distance swam, and 1x per week health stats!
WEIGHT: 86 KG
HEART RATE - RESTING: 55 BPM
HEART RATE - MAXIMUM: 160 BPM
FLEXIBILITY: 16 CMS from the floor
WELL-BEING RATING: 8
NO.OF SWIMS THIS WEEK: 3 (including a 4k prep swim!)
Mar. 11th, 2005 @ 03:34 pm
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| » Long distance swimming (well, kinda) |
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Swam 4000m today in preparation for the 5k swim in a week and a half.
I did it almost completely breast stroke (as I think I'll be doing for the 5k), and it took me 1hr 26 mins, 57 seconds. That's well on target for doing the swimathon in less than 2hours.
As usual, I've really got no idea whether I counted the lengths accurately or not. It gets even tougher when you do 160! Not only did I repeatedly loose my place, but after swimming 80 lengths I thought to myself, "right, now do that again!". So all in all, there's a chance I did either 3900m or 4100m :)
Anyway, one more swim this week, then some shorter ones next week (hopefully four times), and then the swimathon. The problem then will be keeping up the routine. Especially as I'll probably have a new baby in the house then as well.
Mar. 9th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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| » Swimming |
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Swam: 2200m
Chatting to a chap in the changing rooms afterwards, he commented that he swims 6 times a week. Seems like a lot of spare time! But anyway, he also mentioned that he dropped his wedding ring in the pool today (and retrieved it). This happened because he had lost weight. NOT as you might think from the 6 swims, actually because his kitchen was being re-done and he was unable to snack day and night. Oh well, no suprise that I've still not really lost any significant weight then?
Anyway, managed to exhaust myself pretty well today, did a simple 10 lengths breast as fast as I could (concentrating on style quite a lot though), 10 lengths freestyle (mostly arms only, flick of the legs from time to time if they start to go awry), repeat. Had an appointment to get to, so I couldn't do an extra 50m to keep my usual 2250!
Anyway, hopefully Wednesday I'll be able to find the time to double that distance, and again on Friday. Feel free to sponsor me (if anyone reads this!)
Mar. 7th, 2005 @ 04:00 pm
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| » End of the week. |
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I've been feeling pretty crap on and off for a while now, and it's really cutting into my swimming time. However, managed to get out today, and hopefully I'll be up to a few swims next week too. Wednesday and Friday will hopefully be 4k sessions to rev up to the 21st.
I've also started getting sponsorship for the dirty deed. A grand total of £20 so far, I guess I'll have to pester people a little more :)
Anyway, ending stats for the week are as usual pretty unchanging:
WEIGHT: 187 KG
HEART RATE - RESTING: 65 BPM
HEART RATE - MAXIMUM: 170 BPM
FLEXIBILITY: 16 CMS from the floor
WELL-BEING RATING: 3 (caught the cold that's doing the rounds)
NO.OF SWIMS THIS WEEK: 2
Mar. 4th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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| » In sickness and in health |
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Well, I'm not feeling 100% yet, but my nose was working enough to get out and do some swimming. So, today I actually got out there. Only managed 2100m, but I do feel as if I've had a workout, so that's not so bad. I really should figure out some other exercises that are going to make it easier to get blood to my legs, I can barely breathe fast enough when I'm kicking properly.
Anyway, it's now less than three weeks till I'm doing a 5000m swim, so first of all i really should get some sponsorship, and second of all I'm going to have to bite the bullet soon and get out for a 4k swim just to make sure I CAN do more than 2500!
Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow... I think I'll try 4k once or twice next week if I can find the time!
Mar. 3rd, 2005 @ 04:10 pm
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| » Feeling ill, getting lazy. |
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Well, it's actually 2nd March now as I update this. I went swimming on friday and did OK, 2250m (which is becoming the norm now). It's only three weeks to the swimathon now, and my sinuses have gone out of control. I've been surviving by living off Afrin (a US nasal spray that was lingering in the bathroom cabinet), when I don't use it I feel as if someone's inflating a baloon at the top of my nose.
Anyway, last week my stats were as follows, I just hope I sort myself out soon so I can have some fitness ready for the actual swim!
RESULTS FOR WEEK 3
WEIGHT: 187.5 KG
HEART RATE - RESTING: 70 BPM
HEART RATE - MAXIMUM: 160 BPM
FLEXIBILITY: 12 CMS from the floor
WELL-BEING RATING: 7
NO.OF SWIMS THIS WEEK: 1
Feb. 25th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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| » I swam again! + updated stats.. |
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Distance: 2250m
I'm now swimming a new pattern all of my own. 400m breast stroke, 200m front crawl (Both moderate to strong pace), then 50m freestyle sprint. I think it uses up my energy a little more due to a little diversity. An odd quirk is that the third freestyle sprint appears to be the fastest one (assuming I manage to keep it going to the end of the 50m), once again technique is everything. I guess I'm thinking more about the style by then?
It's also stats update day, next week is pretty busy with other things (including squash, so not all rest!), so I won't get many opportunities to swim. Ho hum.
RESULTS FOR WEEK 3
WEIGHT: 87KG
HEART RATE - RESTING: 70bpm
HEART RATE - MAXIMUM: 160bpm
FLEXIBILITY: 15cm
WELL-BEING RATING: 7
NO.OF SWIMS THIS WEEK: 4 (2150, ?, 2250, 2250)
Feb. 18th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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| » Swam... |
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Distance 2250m
I came, I saw and I swam. I must buy a float so I can work on my arms more easily, that or bite the bullet and improve my kicking technique.
Feb. 17th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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| » Drills and technique |
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I'm not even going to start with a "most recent swim" here because I simply didn't keep count today. I got in the pool, swam a few hundred meters and felt really tired. I figured today was as good a day as any to do drills for the first time. I didn't have a pull-bouy or kickboard, but I figured I'd go ahead and split up arms and legs anyway for a few lengths.
I started off by swimming freestyle arms only. I was amazed! My length speed was between 25 and 28 seconds (not far off what I do normally, possibly identical) and I was not getting as tired as I usually do. In fact, I found it pretty easy going to go six strokes between breathing. My only problem was keeping my legs somewhat straight, that'd be fixed with a bouy.
Next I had a go at kicking only. I managed a single length in 37 seconds, and the next one closer to 40. Frankly if I didn't push off at the start I don't think I'd make a length. So, all in all, I've discovered that my problem with freestyle speed is NOT my triceps (as I thought), but in fact my legs. They tire me out so much I'm breathing twice or three times as often and throwing my entire stroke off balance. I guess I'll have to get out on my bike more often to toughen them up!
Feb. 15th, 2005 @ 12:00 pm
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