Swimming for a cause

People who train for long distance events often decide to put their hard work to good use and use their events to support a charity close to their hearts. In marathons, triathlons, cycling events, etc there is no shortage of "teams in training" and other such groups. See, training for athletic events is essentially a selfish endeavor - we put tremendous amounts of time and energy into pursuing our goals, but this is of little benefit to others or to society as a whole. But by supporting a cause, athletes are able to use their events to serve a greater purpose.

I counted myself as lucky since neither myself nor my immediate family members were inflicted with any serious maladies (mental quirks? Yes. Questionable tendencies? Perhaps. But no serious maladies to speak of). That was until very recently, when I noticed some changes in my favorite little man.



Sneakers has been losing some of the hair on his chest and under his legs. He has been itching and scratching these areas as well, meaning his problem is more than pug pattern hair loss. It turns out the little guy is seriously allergic to something. It's not life threatening, but it is a terrible nuisance that deserves our sympathies.

Sneakers requires a bath once a week, in special medicated shampoo. After he is lathered up, he must remain all soapy for a full 10 min before he can be rinsed (and before he can rub himself dry on our furniture).

As you can see, Sneakers is being amazingly brave and tolerant of his weekly bath. Much more distressing is the special diet that the vet has put him on. He can eat nothing except his special dog food (made of rabbits, potatoes, and kangaroo meat) and carrots for his treats. He gets nothing else! As any pug would tell you, carrots are NOT treats. Sneakers is hungry for some better food and I don't blame him one bit.




So I'd like to take this opportunity to raise awareness for K9 skin allergies, a very common problem among pugs. The next time you see a pug with a sparse patch of hair do not stare - the pug is a hero, doing his best to get by on carrot treats!

Week 12:
Mon: rest
Tues: swim 6000 yds, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 4500, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 5200, 40 min abs
Fri: swim 14,000
Sat: run 5 mi
Sun: swim 6,300 walk 3 mi
Total: swim 36,000 yds, walk/run 14 mi, 50 min abs

New York!

The Ducks in Central Park

Not much swimming news to report this week. You may have figured it out already, but I take every 3rd week as a recovery week and this was one of those.

Week 11:
Mon: swim 4100 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 4600
Wed: swim 4100
Thurs: swim 5600
Fri: swim 7600 30 min abs
Sat: in NY - walk 1 million miles
Sun: in NY - walk 1 million miles
Total: swim 26,000 yds, 70 min abs, walk 2 million miles



More interestingly, Jason and I went to NYC this weekend to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. We left on a 6:00am flight on Sat. morning and returned at midnight on Sun night to squeeze as much fun into the weekend as we possibly could. It was a blast! Jason had never been there before and true to expectation he had much diarrhea of the finger (my name for his excessive, explosive picture taking).

Here are a few:

Swimming to my own beat....

I am sad to report that after a short 3 and a half months of life, my SwimM3 player has passed on. Perhaps it is now making music in a better place, blasting Bruce Springsteen and Kanye West for long distances swimmers in the sky.

As soon as I find the receipt, box, etc I will mail it back and try to get it repaired/replaced. But having swum this whole week with no music except the voices in my head, I've realized how dependent I've become on this little device. From now on, I'm going to use my SwimP3 player only during long swims (yes, I know I said this before, but this time I mean it!)


R.I.P, swimP3


Making my own music

Week 10:
Mon: swim 4100 yds
Tues: swim 4700
Wed: swim 4100
Thurs: swim 4800
Fri: swim 10,000
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 5300, run 6 mi
Total: swim 31,000 yds, run 6 mi

Stroke of genius

Have you ever had one of those thoughts that, once conceived, you knew that your life - and dare I say it, the world - would never be the same? A moment of truth so profound that its ripples were bound to shape not only your life but those of generations to come? Well, dear friends, I had one such revelation this week. It can be summed up in one word - slurpees.

This weekend Karen had to go out of town, so we did our long swim on Friday after work. We didn't have much time (a 13,000 yard practice takes us about 3 hr, 15 min. The Homestead pool closes at 8:30, so we both had to rush over after work). I also didn't have time to eat much that day, so I grabbed a quick bagel and then stopped at a gas station to pick up some Gatorade. That's when I saw it - sitting inconspicuously in the corner, its juicy insides sloshing around in frozen splendor. The slurpee machine. It hit me - wouldn't a slurpee be a tastier, more concentrated form of Gatorade?

Just as expected, the slurpee proved itself to be a delightful little energy drink. The only problem was, I had only one and it lasted through only the 1st half hour of the workout. After it was gone, I made it through the rest of the practice with noticeably less vigor.

Outside of Halloween, there aren't many occasions where it's desirable to squeeze as much sugar into your body as possible, but long swims might be one of them. Next time I will skip the Gatorade and have 2 or 3 slurpees instead. Of course this will necessitate another kind of training...

Training for the inevitable brain freeze


Now, there are bound to be naysayers. Some might say that the icy waters of the English Channel would not be the place for the consumption of a frozen beverage. But that is the way with all great ideas. Did people not laugh when Galileo said that the earth revolved around the sun?

Week 9:

Mon: swim 5100 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 5300
Wed: swim 4200, 40 min abs
Thurs: swim 4000
Fri: swim 13,000
Sat: run 7 mi, walk 2mi
Sun: walk 2 mi, swim 3400, 10 min core exercises

Total: swim 35,000, walk/run 11 mi, 90 min abs/core exercises