3033 items (1250 unread) in 5 feeds
My Life in the Slow Lane
(133 unread)
[xml|www]
My Life in the Slow Lane : Things that go bump in the night
[xml|www]
Livejournal
(1 unread)
NSFW
(1116 unread)
The Great Cock Hunt
(24 unread)
[xml|www]
the17thman
(1092 unread)
[xml|www]
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
hallows_reviews! This community will allow posting as early as possible on July 21, 2007 (UK time).
It was the early 1950s. Ludwig had been imprisoned by the communist government in a work camp—there was no term of imprisonment, he would leave once he had “changed his mind”—so for countless days he worked in the coal mines. He was imprisoned not so much for his own beliefs but for those of his father, a prolific published author and journalist, who spoke out against the excesses of communism. One night, the night of the twelfth of September, he escaped.
I may not have a great backstroke or any form of technique but for some reason I am pretty fast. So backstroke week is one of the easiest weeks of our 5 Part Stroke Week. This week is backstroke (1), then freestyle (2), followed by breaststroke (3), then butterfly (4) and finishing up with IM (5).
Warm Up.
Took it pretty easy and did about a 350.
Then it was time to drill, drill, drill. All working on backstroke.
2x50's backstroke sculling. no kick just sculling.
2x50's backstroke one arm right arm only on 60
2x50's backstroke one arm left arm only on 60
Pull Set:
200 Backstroke Pull on 3:15. I had over 30 seconds rest but had to wait for the rest of the lane to catch up.
2x100's Freestyle Pull on 1:30
4x50's Backstroke Pull on 60
Kick Set:
6x50's Kick. Odds Back / Evens Choie on 60
Main Set:
10x100's broken as follows...
2x100 Free on 1:25
2x75's Free/25 back on 1:30
2x50's free/50 back on 1:35
2x25 free/75 back on 1:40
2x100 back on 1:45
Next:
10x100's broken as follows...
2x100 IM on 1:45
2x50 butterfly / 50 backstroke on 1:45
2x50 backstroke / 50 breaststroke on 1:45
2x50 backstroke / 50 freestyle on 1:45
2x100 IM on 1:45
Final:
10x100's broken as follows...
2x50 Free on 40
2x50 Back on 45
2x50 Free on 40
2x50 Butterfly on 45
2x50 Back on 45
OUCH! I sprinted most of this workout. The final set of broken 100's were a killer. Pretty much less than 5 seconds rest on each 50.
I woke up this morning and felt pretty good so I decided to head to swim practice. Warm up was pretty easy. I just did a 500 at a very slow pace. Stopping to chit chat along the way.
Drill:
12x75's on 1:15 broken as follows...
25 drill backstroke / 50 swim freestyle
25 swim freestyle / 25 drill backstroke / 25 swim freestyle
50 swim freestyle / 25 drill backstroke
75 backstroke swim
repeat for a total of 12x75's.
Kick:
10x50's Kick on 60
Main Set:
3x
150 Free on 2:00
100 IM on 1:30
50 Stroke on 60 backstroke
25 Fast on 30 backstroke
Finishing Up:
2x400 Swim alternating 100 Free / 100 Back
As usual Thursday morning was gym time for about an hour. Did my boring typical circuit set...
After work I headed to the 7pm swim workout for another day of backstroke week. Warm up was a mixed 600.
After that it was some 50 drill work. It was a bunch of 50's. Forget what and how many.
Then a warm up back set:
6x100 alternating free / back
6x50 free / back
Main Free Set:
10x100's Free
1:35, 1:15, 1:30, 1:15, 1:25, 1:15, 1:20, 1:15, 1:15, 1:15
These intervals were for the slower fast lane. The other lane had a 1:10 base instead of the 1:15 and the interval went down to a 1:05 at the end. I should have swam with them but wimped out. That 1:05 scared me.
Kick Set:
200 kick
2x50's kick
100 kick
2x50's kick
don't know the intervals. it was touch and go for me. I hate kicking!
Last but not least...
400 Pull Breath free 3/5/7 then backstroke pull
Okay I'm posting this Monday but back dating the post. That means I really don't remember much about the workout.
Warm Up:
250
Warm Up Set:
2x200 One Free / One Back All Drill
4x50's Back
200 Backstroke Kick
4x50's Backstroke Kick
2x100 alternating Free on 1:20 Back on 1:40
4x50 Back on 50
Main Set:
50 Back on 50
2x200 Back on 3:00 descend
50 Beast on 50
2x200 Free on 2:30 descend
50 easy
50 Back on 50
4x100 's Back on 1:40
50 Breast on 60
4x100 Free on 1:15/1:20/1:10/1:10
The one thing I do remember is that in the 2nd 200 Free I pulled to a full length lead over my lane mate and finished it at 2:10. I felt great about that. I'm still on my roll.
I’m still feeling totally spaced out and just not myself at all. It’s been an interesting experiment in who knows me well, actually, because those who do know me well have noticed the change. I now use slow, slurred speech and sluggish movements and everyone else doesn’t see any change. Should that worry me? The other night Lala was convinced that I was upset about something because I was being so quiet and evasive of her constant ‘are you ok’s. The truth was there was nothing on my mind. At all. I was a total blank slate: no thoughts, no emotion. But no pain! The drug is working!Would you want me when I’m not myself?
So yeh, on the up side, the shooting and tingling nerve pain appears to have gone—“for now at least” says the pessimist in me—and even the ever-present muscle ache has lessened considerably during the day, only rearing its ugly head at night. So who knows, it may just work yet. The question will be whether the current feelings of crapulence are my body getting used to having carbamazepine in the system, or whether this is how I am always going to feel while taking it. If it’s the latter then there’ll be some hard questions because while I love the whole no pain thing, there is no way I can live like this on a long term basis. Hey, “crapulence” is in the dictionary…no squiggly red line. How cool is that!?Wait it out while I am someone else?
I have to say though, this experience has given me a new respect for people who have to take hardcore pain killers on a regular basis to control their pain—the only thing getting me through this is the knowledge that it’s (hopefully) transient. I just wish it would hurry up and fuck off—I have homework to do!Would you want me when I’m not myself?
Pretty much took Saturday as a rest day and did my boring circuit weights on Sunday morning.
Looong day today. Just a quick post to share a photo.
This morning I woke up and made it to the 6am swim. Figuring this was the first day of freestyle week it would be a challenging workout. It was not. It was nothing more than a warm up at best. I never complain about a workout being too easy. But today was not only too easy but almost a waste of my time. Drill 25 and drill another 25. As I've stated before it is my belief that anyone can do anything for a 25. It is sooo pointless. If I get out of work on time I'll be attending tonights workout to get a workout in.
Warm Up:
600 mixed on my own.
4x50's Kick.
25 drill
25 more drill
25 even more drill
25 of another drill
4x100 25 drill / 50 swim / 25 drill.
400 Pull
4x100 on 1:30 25 Free 50 Back 25 Free
50 Breast
50 Back
200 warmdown
Most of the workout was not on any interval. All the lanes were sent off at the same time. Then I'd wait and wait for everyone to be done. Have the coach explain the next part. Then go. Then repeat. Workout got old and boring very quickly.
This being SCY (Short Course Yards) Season I went online to look at upcoming swim meets. It looks like I'll most likely only swim at 2 swim meets this season. One on Nov 3 and then Regionals in December. I'm too lazy to drive to Santa Clarita or Mission Viejo. I only mention this as I had to go back to one of my own posts 4 months ago to look up my personal best times. I've decided to repost them as this blog is my only personal record keeping of these times. Here they are:
SHORT COURSE YARDS:
50 Yard Free 00:25.45
100 Yard Free 00:55.79
200 Yard Free 02:02.17
500 Yard Free 05:28.06
1650 Yard Free 18:42.77
50 Yard Butterfly 00:28.09
100 Yard Butterfly 01:00.46
50 Yard Back 00:30.10
50 Yard Breast 00:36.35
100 Yard Backstroke 01:02.66
SHORT COURSE METERS:
50 Meter Free: 28.46
100 M Free 1:00.96
200 M Free 02:12.23
400 M Free 04:40.71
800 M Free 10:20.21
1500 Meter Free: 18:45.69
100 M IM 01:13.49
100 M Butterfly 01:09.55
200 Meter Butterfly: 2:29.98
50 M Backstroke 00:33.28
Being a Wii owner and a swimmer I've been checking the video games blogs trying to find more information on the November release of "Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games". After watching various trailers and looking at stills Sega finally released the first trailer with swimming in it. It's short but hey it's something. I so can't wait. I'm a huge Mario and Sonic fan so the two characters in one game is in my own geeky way, exciting. Here it is...
Last night at 6:30 I sat at my desk debating if I should hit the night time swim after feeling not challenged by the morning practice. After a few minutes of trying to decide if I should attempt another practice I decided not to go and take Monday as a day of rest. One practice is enough even if it wasn't much of a workout.
This morning I hit the gym at 6:15am and did my usual 60 minute weight circuit training.
Looking forward to getting out of work at 6:35 at the latest to make it to swim tonight.
In response to yesterday's post regarding this being Short Course Yards Season Scott asked:
Do you have a preference between yards or meters, and if so why? As a Canadian we don't race yards so the incentive to travel to a U.S. meet to gain the opportunity to do so is pretty low. For us outside the U.S. the question is short-course or long-course.
Well Scott I practice in Short Course Yards all year long and to be honest the difference between Meters and Yards isn't all that much so I really don't have a pref. I do wish that the US would give up on Yards and jump on over to just Meters but with the 100's if not 1000's of pools that are only Yards that would limit swim competition seems that I end up swimming more Meter meets but I think that is just how the season plays out. For the last few years the SCM Regional have been in Long Beach which is a quick drive away so I end up swimming at that meet every year. Also last year the Gay Games swimming was SCM so some of my best overall times were done in Short Course Meters.
The one thing I do prefer is Short Course over Long Course. Even as a kid in Age Group swimming I just hated Long Course. Mainly cuz' it was during the summer and after spending the day at the country club pool the last thing I wanted to do was jump back in the pool and swim some more.
How does everyone else feel? Feel free to post below...
I'm still at Lala & Cal's but I'm going home on Friday. Lala and I just watched The Matthew Shepard Story and consequently balled our eyes out. Nice day together at home which does absolutely nothing for my history essay which is due next week!My reply:Dear Dan,
It seems your cunning plan worked – I’ve let the cat out of the bag (as you probably hoped)!
I wanted to email you to let you know that I whole heartedly support your decision to openly be who you think and feel is you. To tell the truth I’ve pretty much always though you were gay and I’ve also suspected that your CFS may be related to your suppression or denial of what you probably always felt but may not have always acknowledged to yourself or openly to others. The mind is a very power thing and it can influence your body in many powerful ways. Who am I to tell you what may or may not be with you – but I can’t help myself, it’s one of the [family] traits as you’re well aware. Ok, I’m off my soap box now.
I’ll not pretend to know what you’ve gone through to get to this point. I can imagine all sorts of things and they all point to how courageous and brave you’ve become. Being a bright, my belief system sees no ‘sin’ or ‘abnormality’, but I know that not everyone sees things the same, so you can count on me as a supporter.
So, congratulations to you on this milestone in your life.
U2
Howdy U2,
Well you’ve figured me out. That was the plan, and it seems it worked like clockwork. But to be honest it’s not like a lot of thought or preparation went into it, it’s just that I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t give a fuck who knows or what anyone thinks anymore and this was the easiest way to get it out there with minimal effort on my part. So while I don’t give a fuck who knows, it’s so much easier when everyone just knows and I can get on with more important things. That, and the whole “sit down I have something to tell you” scenario never goes well and I just don’t have the strength to do it. Mind you, of all such experiences ultimately they all turned out well, with the possible exception of one, and I just couldn’t imagine doing a major expose on my life to the entire family when it’s really no one’s business and I suspect that it would be more of a deal to them than me anyway.
When I said “I don’t give a fuck” it’s just that I got to a point, like with anything, where the hype and the hubbub got way out of control and I realised that there was really nothing particularly to be scared of in people’s reactions (or lack of in some cases, which was actually a little trippier for me than the teary or angry ones) and I just stopped caring about the reactions and started focusing on actually living life rather than reacting to it or reacting to other people’s reactions to my life.
So yeh. Thanks for the email. I was never “worried” about you or A2 though, although “worried” isn’t the right word. But you know what I mean. I’m still kinda drug-fucked from the Tegretol so bear with me ok. I did the whole self realisation thing ages ago, so long I can’t even remember when exactly, a few years anyway. Way too late at any rate. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of why it took so long, if you want to know I’ll tell you another time. And while I don’t think suppression or denial of self caused CFS it certainly made it worse and contributed to the depression and the suicidal self-harm shit but I’m over it now.
And thanks for the congratulations, although the truth is I don’t feel very brave a lot of the time… I feel a little slow-witted sometimes (Tegretol not withstanding) for taking so long. In that it literally took a decade to get here. But I’m here. Confidentially, when I told Mum (many many months ago, or so it feels anyway, I forget the exact date, early this year at any rate) she was very upset that I had done all of this alone but the fact was I was over it by that stage, I’d done the crying and the banging my head against a wall and I’d got it out of my system. But it was all new for her, and that she was upset over issues I’d long since buried. And I had to get used to that.
Anyway just wanted to clear that up… “I don’t give a fuck” has such a harsh tone to it and while I do still mean it, I don’t mean it absolutely.
You’ll have to forgive me, I’m still very cloudy and totally clogged up from hayfever. Some people see glorious spring days, I see pollen counts.
So thanks for the support. Talk to you soon :-)
Dan
Back in August I did a post about Dara Torres the 40 year old who is on her way to being the oldest Olympic Swimmer (read the post HERE) Back in August Dara placed 1st in the 100 Freestyle at Nationals. All this after giving birth 15 months earlier. Well today Tony over at the SCAQ Blog put up a YouTube ABC News piece about her. Check it out over at Tony's Blog HERE. I only point this out because lots of time I use the excuse that I'm 37 so I don't need to be as fast as those 28 year old guys in my lane. She is truly an inspiration.
Was able to get out of work by 6:40 so I headed to the 7pm swim. Since I was able to hop in the water almost at 7 I did a 400 warmup.
Drill Time:
8x50's Drill. Alternating Fist Drill and Finger Tip Drag
Pulling:
3x200 Free Pull on 2:45
Kick:
4x75's Kick. Went to the rest room and missed a 50. I hate kick so that wasn't enough time in the restroom to miss more kicking.
Think we did one more thing at this point. Maybe 50's.
Main Set: All Non Stop. Pretty long set...
4x150's on 2:10 100 Free / 50 Stroke IM order
4x100's Free on 1:20
4x50's Stroke on 55. Did these backstroke
4x150's on 2:45 100 Stroke IM order / 50 Free
4x100 IM's on 1:45
4x50's Free on 40
Then a 50 easy
Last Set:
6x50's on 50 descending 1-3 and 4-6. Did 1-3 backstroke and 4-6 butterfly.
The main set was brutal. I did have lots of rest but the set just kicked the hell out of me. I was feeling the pain a the end of the set. Slowly during the set people just fled the pool one by one. The lanes went from being very crowded to almost 2 or less per lane at the end.
LaLast week one of our coaches who works for Splish Swim Wear handed out a few sample suits to those of us at the morning swim on the condition that we 
wear them. In case you havn't heard of Splish you need to check out Splish online at http://www.splish.com/ . I'm mentioning Splish today as before I was given the sample (pictured in this post) I had purchased one just a few days online after hearing from various team mates how much they liked Splish. Every so often I'd see a great colorful print and I'd ask them where they got it and every time they'd reply Splish. So finally I looked them up and ordered a pink plaid swim suit. Yes, I'm that gay. Anyways I've worn the sample suit (pictured here) twice and I can't get over how many times someone at swim has complimented the suit. In fact last night another coach of mine suggested that it be next years team suit. So go check Splish out online and pick up a suit or two. Mind you besides the free suit I already got I'm not getting paid for this post I just felt that I'd give them a shout out.
p.s. This is me at 5am as I'm just waking up!
After swimming last night it was time to swim again this morning. Even though I was tired and a bit sore from swimming last night I figured I could handle it. Lucky for me turnout was pretty low and I was the fastest swimmer by far at 6am so I didn't have to push myself too much.
Warm Up:
450 Mixed
Warm Up Set:
4x 75 Kick / 25 Drill / 50 Swim
2x25's Drill
400 Mixed Drill and Swim
400 Pull Distance Per Stroke
4x100's Free on 1:20
50 easy
1000 for time. I was aiming for a 1:11 pace but didn't hold it. My first 100 was 1:15 then speed up for two on 1:10 but since my lane mates were slower than me I was lapping them about every 8-10 laps so I'd slow up following them into the wall which threw off my pacing. I ended up doing the 1000 SCY on 12:01.
100 easy
6x50's on 55 Descend 1-3 and 4-6. Did 1-3 backstroke and 4-6 freestyle.
Yes, after taking my pix of the Splish Suit I took a picture of me in my new Arena Drag Suit. So here I am looking not so chipper around 5am.
By the 50s she enrolled at university. Maria attended her lectures and classes sporadically, at best—in fact she never attended any classes before midday so that she could sleep in. Here she met a young refugee, Ludwig, and the two began seeing each other. Although she was 18, her father ruled the home with an iron fist (he was, in Maria’s estimation, a “chauvinist pig”) and demanded her be home by 9pm, often meaning their dates consisted of dinner and the first half of a movie.
Woke up and hit the gym at 6am for an hour of my circuit weight training. After that came home and jumped on the scale. 151.6 pds with 17% body fat.
Thursday Night and another day of Freestyle.
Warm Up: 500 Swim / 100 Kick / 50 Swim
Drill Set: 2x
50 Drill "Mail Slot" Drill
50 Drill ? (don't remember)
50 Drill Catchup
50 Drill DPS (Distance Per Stroke)
Then we did some 75's. What was that set again? Oh well.
Main Set:
4x100 Free on 1:20 (kept a 1:10 pace)
200 Free on 2:50
3x100 Free on 1:20 (kept close to a 1:10 pace)
200 Free on 2:50
2x100 Free on 1:20 (did the 1:06/1:07)
200 Free on 2:50
100 Free on 1:20
200 Free on 2:50
200 Free. Finished this last 200 on 2:18
50 easy
3x50 kick on 55 / 15o pull on 2:05
The last day of Freestyle week! What a week it has been. The drills, the sprints the 1000 for time. Memories...
Warm Up
350
8x75's 50 Drill / 25 Swim (FIST, DPS, FINGER TIP DRAG, and something else i cannot remember or read my own writing)
Main Set
300 Easy
6x150's on 1:50/2:00/2:10
300 Fast. Did it around 3:30. My notebook says 3:30 with a question mark. I'm posting this on Monday morning and back dating the post as I lost and then found my swim notbook.
Kick Set:
200/150/100/4x50's
Free Set:
200 Free on 2:30
4x100's on 1:20 Keeping on a 1:10 Pace
200 Fast. I did this on 2:08
Warmed Down a 50. Yes I never really warm down. I know. Bad me!
Monday started like any other: I woke at around 11 and lumbered out to bed to a jubilant Roxie who greeted me with barks and licks. I was feeling okish so I decided to hop a bus to the beach for some study. I chucked everything into my backpack, tore the map out of the phonebook so I wouldn’t get lost, and walked to the street for the bus. Halfway through the one minute walk to the busstop I realised I hadn’t brought my mp3 player or a towel but I thought I should just brave it. I had a great day at the beach on my own, reading heaps of stuff for a history essay, getting sand in my clothes and watching the cute boys playing football nearby.
