Thursday

I only partly rebounded from the physical malaise I suffered Wednesday. Because Thursday is a two-workout day and I was off work, I went to the pool early, in the morning. I still didn't feel it although I was not quite as weak as I was Wednesday. Glancing at my watch underwater told me that my feelings were accurate. I was a little quicker than yesterday when I bombed out and tapped early, but not a lot. I have a new theory on why I have suffered this decline the last two days.

I think it has to do with me weight. I am an expert on losing weight having shed some 600 pounds over the past few year. Really, I have: fifteen pounds forty times. I have noticed that when I am on the way down, I usually hit a plateau. What happens is you just keep doing the right things and eventually your body starts dumping the pounds, sometimes suddenly and stunningly. That happened Wednesday morning when I woke up four pounds lighter than the day before. I thought it a matter of mild dehydration so I paid extra attention to drinking all day and into the night. I was urinating through the night and it was clear. When I awoke an additional .4 pounds lighter Thursday morning, I realized what was going on. For about two months I have been stagnated not able to get under 170. I'm under now. Just like in the past, this sudden drop of weight has been accompanied by some bad workouts. It is, however, a price I am willing to pay.

At the pool, I stopped after 700 because the infant swim teacher left, and I thought she would come back. If I was to do some quality swimming, I needed to do it while she was gone. The quality I did was 6 X 100 @ 1:53. The last time I did that set, it was 5 X 100 @ 1:54. I aimed for 1:30 or better on each rep and I made it in

1:30
1:30
1:30
1:30
1:29
1:29

I followed that with 300 easy with small paddles. Then I did some 25s, eight of them @ :45. That is a pretty long interval, but not as long as what it will be the next time I do 25s. The way I see it, there is only one reason to do 25s and that is to work on speed. The faster you do a rep, the more rest you need and should take. The goal of the set of 100s was to work heart rate and lactic acid buffering, the ability to hammer it and not die. So the rest interval in relation to the intensity of the swimming was short. The goal of the 25s is to increase speed. The goal of those long warm ups I do is low-end endurance, aerobic fitness, the kind of thing I need when I do the Chicot Challenge. So there you have my swim training philosophy in a nutshell.

I went home, ate a light lunch and watched In the Heat of the Night while easing in and out of sleep with little CC on my lap. About 4:00 pm. I got up and hit the gym, slowly and deliberately. There is no way I could have done a crossfit type workout. The residual fatigue was too high. I like crossfit and am slowly incorporating more and more of it into my training. But I wonder about the sustainability of that kind of workout. Will those guys still be hitting it like that when they get my age? I doubt it. 

The traditional type of weightlifting I am doing can be done when you feel like you'd rather take a nap. One can warm up slowly and slow the heart rate between sets with some mild walking rather than jumping into another set and pushing oneself to exhaustion. Maybe I'm lazy, but I am still in the game and able to swim all day at the age of 62. On the bench, I pressed

20 X 45
10 X 65
10 X 95
12 X 100
10 X 105
10 X 105 incline one
10 X 110 incline one
8 X 105 incline two
10 X 100 incline two
8 X 100 incline two
4 X 95 incline three

I also did some calf raises, standing and seated. It has been awhile since I did any of those. Of course I did rotator cuff work as well as some upper back work since I will be off for a couple of days.

For the day, I totaled 2,100 in the pool, and did lots of volume on the bench press. Thank you, Lord, for all of your blessings.