****####****
WARNING ****####****
Over
compulsion, over thinking, and overweight are present below.
With
eleven weeks until the 1500 meter freestyle race in Commerce, California I have
decided to forego weightlifting for the remainder of my training. I need more
water time to ensure I have the base to push through the last 500 meters of the
race. My workout schedule into tapper, which should be two weeks out from the
December 1st meet, will be Monday – Friday mornings 5:30-7:00 (4000
– 4700 yards per day) and Saturday a long cardio session in the gym. If I get a
free lunch in my work week I get 30 minutes of cardio as an added bonus. Stopping weights this far out of a shave meet is a
calculated risk.
By putting
down the weights and shifting focus to the pool I gain increased flexibility
and endurance, but will lose a great source of leg strengthening and weight
loss. Even though I am two decades removed from my competitive swimming days I
have not lost the feel in water. Unlike people who begin swimming for
competition sake in their adult years, typically they are training for
triathlons, I grew up in the sport with a distinct advantage over the best of the
triathlete transplants. Swimming comes natural to me no matter how fat I get. My long arm
stroke, two-beat kick, and rapid heart-rate deceleration makes me a very
efficient swimmer. Good for training now as a fat forty-something, and will
also benefit me well into my old age… but bad for weight loss. For years swimming
has not been my primary weight loss because I have relied on weightlifting and
stationary cardio machines. Many non-swimmers get too enjoy swimming as a
phenomenal source of weight loss. Not I. When it comes to training
I can swim long distances at a speed that will crush most non-native adult
swimmers, yet I am running the risk my weight will still be to high going into
the meet. I must continue a restricted caloric intake and healthy dietary
choices.
At the
beginning of May I committed to a “Biggest Loser” work weight loss contest with
a very high 249 weigh-in. After twelve weeks of gym, swim, and diet the scales
subtracted twenty pounds. (I took second place.) Since early August when I
added a fourth day of swimming I have lost seven additional pounds; 222. My
first 1500 short course meter swim came after the first Destination 195 contest in 2009: I weighed 209, my driver's license claimed I was 33 years old, and
I wore a full body race suit. (The suits were banned a month later.) The clock read
17:42.48. To give perspective of that time compared to all other 1500s without
the suit and heavier weight.
2009 17:42.48 209 lbs
2010 18:13.84 215 lbs2011 18:21.70 220 lbs
2014 18:25.13 224 lbs
2015 18:44.27 231 lbs
To amp up
my fixation with the 1500 meter race to Level: Stalker Tunnel Vision Obsession, and because I
have a lot of me time in my head from 5:30-7:00 a.m. Monday – Friday, I do hypothetical
100 split calculations for the race. My 2009 pace averaged 1:10.83 per 100. If
I were to drop the pace to an even 1:10.00 per 100 meters this coming December I
would finish 17:30.00, which would put me a solid #2 in the country for my age group. Pull out your smart phone and launch the stopwatch app
to see what .83 of a second looks like. Hit START with your index finger, then
touch the top of your phone with the same finger, and back to STOP as fast as you can. That little
participation exercise is roughly the amount of time I will need to shave off
each 100 meter split to break 17:30.00. A faster turn over, more water caught
at the point of entry, or a list of ten other possibilities could easily remove the eight
tenths needed. What if I could take off two more seconds per 100 meters?... 16:59!!! This race is my white whale.
