big week

35000 m this week. A little over 24 miles. The pool at Crawfish got moved to long course (there is a bulkhead that slides up and done the pool and it goes from 2 25m pools to 1 50m pool. This was of great benefit to me as it really makes you work harder. As the week started out, I had a hard time keeping my intervals, but kept positive and had a great week culminating with today's set 100x100's. My friend Mandy swam it with me. She is awesome and it helps to have someone with you during these swims. We finished in about 2:35-2:40. It showed me a lot about my fitness. Cardiovascualry I was not challenged at all. This is great as this whole swim will hopefully be an aerobic event (i.e. slow and steady). Muscularly I became fatigued as would be expected. I think if I had to put it into a tangible perspective, I could probably swim half way today. This may sound discouraging to some, but I have only been training for two full months so I am extremely happy. I still have 3 months to go. I have upped the distance and have so far remained injury free. I still have two big hurdles with my training. One is to get my nutrition nailed down. I have yet to start really experimenting with different sports drinks in the pool as most of my swims are only about 2 hrs. I can drink gatorade for these short swims. I need to start using something more substantial. I also may start using some recovery drinks to help stay strong. The other need is to swim in open water more. I have tried to schedule two long outside swims, but the weather has been uncooperative. I will try again on new years day or the 2nd. I am going to have to see how much longer I can maintain doing dry lands with the team as I am running of of time daily. I will start doing some core work daily at home. I may look at doing a full body circuit as well. I thought that some people may like to see sample workouts for their own use or just to know what I am doing. Here is today's
100 x 100
10x100 on 1:40 warm up
20x100 on 1:35 swim
10x100 on 1:30 swim
20x100 on 1:30 pull (10 w/ paddles 10 without)
10x100 on 1:35 swim
10x100 on 1:30 pull with paddles
10x100 on 1:30 with fins
Had to run outside and finish as the pool was being filled with kids!
4x100 3 sec rest
300 3 sec rest
200 3 sec rest
200 3 sec rest
100 easy backstroke

As far as other matters are concerned, I am still waiting to hear back from multiple sponsors. It has been a difficult 2 weeks in that regard because I have extra time to work on things, but everyone else is on holiday time. The big push comes on the 2nd.
Here are a couple of more things that I will try and do every week.
1. Favorite meal of week: Burrito on WW tortilla w/ chicken, black beans, cheese, pico, cilantro, corn salsa, jalapenos and chipotle bbq sauce.
2. Music for the week: found some old Dinosaur Jr. I hadn't heard in years, that and a band called Splender.
3. Book I am reading; I read Lynne Cox's Swimming to Antarctica- Stories from a long distance swimmer. Incredible swimming feats. Leaves you knowing anything is possible.
I also got some photos from my shoot. One is above it is after swimming/boiling in a wetsuit for 7000m. Funny.
Have a Happy New Year
rocketboy

music, haiku and rocketchix

Many of you who read this already knew that I played in college rock bands for many years and this is the constant tie in to music. I seem to always have one song or another going through my head. Though the basis of this blog is to keep you informed about the swim and how things are going, I think that a break from the black line on the bottom of the pool would be welcome. I know that it is late for shopping for Christmas, but here is some of my favorites music wise.
Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites: The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites
The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers
Tonic: Lemon Parade-about 8-10 old but great.
I am not the type to go on about how this band is so forward thinking or any of that crap. I listen to music to fire me up every morning on the way to the pool. The trip is only 5-10 minutes so I am lucky if I get in 2 songs. The other key to me is to not get some crap song stuck in my head for 2 plus hours. I find it amazing that I can listen to 2 songs on the way to swim and catch 2 seconds of the third not so good song on the way out of the car and that is the monotony stuck in my brain. Yesterday is a prime example, I listened to the following:
1. Muse-Hysteria pretty intense wakes you up kind of song,
2. Pearl Jam- Dissident
3. Four seconds of some 90's Michael Jackson song
I don't even know the name of the song but I think it is You Are Not Alone some feel good save the world drivel from the king of pop/child molestation. What is another phenomena altogether is the "How the hell did that get on my iPod?" dilemma. You have all been there, you are riding down the street with a friend and then Air Supply, "All Out of Love," or some Clay Aiken crap comes on and your distressed, caught in the act voice shouts out "How did that get on here?" knowing full and well it was there lurking deep in the bowels of the iPod waiting to come on, only when you are trying to act cool. Really unfair, but really when you downloaded that Supertramp album to hear the Logical Song, you had to know you were going to get Take the Long Way Home by default as well as 4 other big loser songs Supertramp wrote. I downloaded my friend Ryan's Michael Jackson Hits CD two years ago and when I got an iPod it got put on there with everything else.
I had a great week in other endeavors as well. Fellow tiriahtlete and business partner Susan Moss Hayden and I landed our big sponsor for Rocketchix, our women's only multisport series. This was a high coup. So is this.
Fluid action,
pallas athene glides
camaraderie abounds
We are putting on 2 tri's and are planning a 10k for next fall. Woman's Hospital will be the presenting sponsor for all three races.
As far as training is concerned I had a big mileage week 27,500 in four workouts and did drylands twice. I also got my wetsuit from Emilio at DeSoto Sport. I will write a review for it in another post, but suffice it so say it is comfortable and fast.
I could actually hang with Shelly in the pool yesterday in it. But this is a false sense of security as when I take it off she blows my freaking doors off. I feel great in the pool, strength is building and I feel like I am on the right track. Did an interview with 225 magazines and had a photo shoot at the pool yesterday. Nothing makes you feel like a bigger loser than referring to your own "photo shoot". I might as well refer to myself in the third person. I'll be sure to post some of the more losery pics.
THE ROCKETBOY WISHES YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

turn and face the strain...i am not a huge bowie fan, but like this song. anything going through your head is cool when you are staring at the black line. this morning was 8000 meters. it actually wasn't too bad, and i held a good pace through the main set which was 5000 pretty much straight through. i am still feeling pretty strong as last week was a recovery week and i only swam a couple of times and (gasp) ran 3 times. one of my runs was hill repeats with my friend mike in cali. brutal. i will upload a picture of it in the manana as i don't have the cable right now, but sufice it to say that the elevation here is -8 feet below sea level and stays flat. the cali run was 16 x 200 or so hard with 200 easy down. i haven't run in two months and thought for sure I would be crippled the next day, but i guess some of the strength training i am doing is paying off as it wasn't too bad. to answer a few questions from an earlier post.
1. Erin-it is 59,000 yards in 32 miles. i am talking of individual workouts and the 4000-5000 range are short ones. i will build up to 15000 yard workouts. as with ironman yu never do the whole distance, you just keep building endurance.
2.Pato-good to see you this weekend. and yes i haven't posted due to work, travel for work, and being in the pool a lot. i also have been doing dryland circuits with 17 year old kids who are whopping my ass.
highlight of last weeks training was fridays workout which was only 4000, but it was straight through and in a wetsuit in the pool. i kept it aerobic and medium paced and finished in 53 minutes and change. i was fired up to be keeping 1:20 pace even if in the pool in a wetsuit. my goal for the event will be to hold 1:30 all day long. it's funny because this was the pace i "thought" i could hold when i first came up with this swim, but i quickly dismissed it as not possible. my coach is awesome and her workouts keep me challenged both in variety and in how fit they are getting me. this pace may actually be possible. this is huge as it takes me from my projsected 2 miles per hour to 2.5 or a time difference of 3 hours. even if i don't get thereit is a big jump.
on another note I am applying for my first "job" in, well besides restaurant jobs, ever. it has been challenging putting together my resume when i have 6-7 years of self-employment. it is for a job in a field i love so we shall see. i will continue to have the restaurant and do a few other things in the meantime.
changes indeed.
hope everyone reading this has a blessed christmas and happy new year.
rocketboy

feeling it

been a couple of weeks since i have posted. i have a catering business and tis the season. i am also going to L.A. tomorrow to help develop another restaurant which is an exiting opportunity.
now to the business at hand. we made some big steps forward in many ways ove the last two weeks. the biggest being in fitness level for me. i made a pretty big jump in yardage going from 18,000 meters two weeks ago to 21,000 this past week. i also started a new circuit with Dr. Ripple and Shelly and i have been feeling the strength build. in the past i have done dryland training and though i got stronger over time, i was never working out enough to feel tangible strength benefits. in the past two weeks i have been doing the dryland in the morning and swimming in the afternoon and have felt strong in my afternoon workouts. good feeling. i am getting faster as well. my goal for the event will to be able to maintain 1:30 pace which is about 4000 meters per hour. if i can do this it will take me a substantially shorter time to do the swim (between 12-13 hours instead of 16 if i just go 2 mph). this means i must be able to swim most of my workouts fasted than 1:30 pace. the big bonus for me will be when i put on the wetsuit and gain 5-10 seconds per 100. i am gaining confidence in my fitness which is great.
on the sponsorship front, DeSoto Sport has agreed to be my wetsuit sponsor. they are a premier triathlon company and have what many feel to ne the most swimming oriented wetsuits. they are a two piece suit that allows a lot of shoulder freedom as well as low neckline for less risk of chafing. i should receive one in the next wekk or so. in addition, Shelly and i have put a proposal before nike asking them to sponsor both the event and me. we'll see how it goes. preliminary letters have also been written to endless pools and timex. we'll what comes of it.
on the logistics front we got a big answer on permitting etc. for the swim. we don't need any unless we disrupt commercial shipping. HAHA! i will stop for all ships. my mom made a great contact with a lady who is the head of the Mississippi Physicians Association who wants to promote us and get us affiliated with the governor and Robin Roberts from GMA.
all in all a great couple of weeks. ill write again from the plane or in california.

keep it a going

swam with shelly monday. 5000. felt stonger. I dropped the drag suit i had been wearing for the last few months. i got instant speed. it only lasts for like 2 workouts though. she and i did new dryland circuit today and then 4000. felt pretty good.

i got my first sponsor this week. emilio from desoto sport said he would send me a wetsuit to wear. they make the only 2 piece wetsuit on the market and it has the most shoulder flexibility out of any suit around. i look forward to it.

anyhow, thats it for today. more later in the week.
rocketboy

thanksgiving

rough week in the water for me. on monday i swam with two olympic quality swimmers, one, my coach Shelly Ripple Johnston, and the other a friend Mandy Leach. both are amazing, and both gave me the poor mouth on how out of shape they were. i am swimming more than i have in 20 years and felt okay with hanging with them for awhile. the thought that i am 10 years older than them and was never even close to their level never entered my mind. until the 3rd 400 when they said lets go 1:20 pace and they went 1:12. smoked me. period, end of story. the worst part is this is when they are supposedly out of shape. it will never get any better as they are just gonna get faster and faster. i need to laugh lest i cry! haha.
i swam 4000 on monday, 5000 on tuesday and 4000 on wednesday. i was whipped. it was the equivalent of my whole last weeks distance, so it is to be expected, first real look at what i am up against.
i got my second look today as i am in mississippi visiting my family for thanksgiving. i took an hour and drove to henderson point in pass christian, ms. all homes are gone. the bridge to bay st. louisis gone and i can see my high school a mile or so away. i questioned what and why i was doing this. i don't know on some levels. it is about me, it is about a connection to the coast, it is about trying to help kids get fit, it is about all of this and none of this. i don't know why, but i feel a sense of almost guilt for turning away from the coast some 17 years ago and never looking or coming back. none of what i am trying to do would have probably happened had i moved back here, and i am not a really regretful person, but the feeling is there. for anyone who has left their hometown and then returned years later everything seems so much smaller. i had come back here twice a year at least for the last 17 but i always seemed to go to the same places, parents house, one trip to beach, drive through old stompin grounds, back to parents. i realized that when my dad said i lost my history with katrina, he was very right. i am trying to reinvent or re-establish some of it and it is hard. we spend most of our youth trying to get older and get past our high school/childhood only to forget much of it. shame really. it is not like i had a hard life and wanted to forget anything, i just deemed the coast insignificant for long enough and now realize i was wrong and now i can't relive any of the significance as it has been washed away.
tomorrow i will take a nice easy long swim in the lake behind my parents house.
in an odd turn i was searching the internet for a book called swimming to antarctica, and found an article on the woman who wrote it on cbs.com. i was kind of questioning today if i should do this thing. on the bottom of the page with the article on the woman (dated sept 17, 2003) was a link that said "It's hard to tell the story: CBS Correspondents speak of Misery and helplessness." I click on it and it is dated Sept 2nd 2005, it is a story about katrina and its impact on the coast. I AM NOT KIDDING YOU! here is the link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/12/60II/main540357.shtml

talk about fate or karma or whatever.
32 miles
1 day
1 swimmer
it is on
happy thanksgiving to anyone who is reading this.

me and my family

I realized when I looked over my entries that I did not tell you all about my family. I was trying to get the gist of my goal out to you and forgot the biggest part of my team. I have been married for 5 years to an awesome woman Jeanne. We have two great kids Paige (4) and Ian (2). They are apprehensively excited for me in this endeavor, and I can see why. Jeanne has seen me do a few races where at the end I did not look so good. I once did a half ironman (a 70 mile race) and when I finished practically broke down cying. I don't know why, I finished pretty well considering it was wicked hot and I had nutrition problems. I just filled with emotion when I was done. I can't remember if I was happy or sad. I think just pissed because I had an off day. Anyhow, Jeanne has no perspective on the distance that I am trying to conquer. She does not race and thought the explanations I give her make sense to her, she still thinks I am crazy and she worries. Understandable. She is still supportive though and I am going to need that. My kids know I am going to swim and my daughter stretches with me a couple of times a week. Last week after we stretched, I thanked my daughter for "working out" with me. She informed me that it wasn't working out, her back was just hurting her a bit. HAHAH! Touche! My son is too young to know what I am doing, he just climbs on my head.

the week that was

WORKOUTS 5 (4 swim 1 dryland)
YARDAGE 12,150
I started out this week with an update on my meeting with the BRAF folks and having them set up my foundation. I ended it with a pretty strong week of workouts, improvement in my back and I am starting to add a new dimension to my swim stroke.
Swimming is a form based sport. Terms like kick amplitude, stroke efficiency, hip roll, feeling the water, and 2 and 6 beat kicks. All kid of confusing to most, but think of swimming as a golf swing in the water. Every movement needs a purpose, and when you get tired, like in golf, your stroke breaks down. This is important for me as the longer I can swim strong and smooth, the faster I will go. In an event this long, my stroke will eventually begin to break down. I just want to delay that as long as possible.
I have been swimming for 30 years competitively. For those 30 years, my kick has always been an afterthought. On Friday I swam with a friend of ine Mandy who swam in the Olympics and at LSU. Her stroke is super smooth and her kick is going the whole time. I use a 2 beat kick, which is one kick per stroke. She uses a 6 beat kick, as do most elite swimmers. I decided to go ahead and try this as well. GOOD LORD! This was a rude awakening. I basically added 3 times the kicking to my stroke. Not only is it difficult from a timing aspect, but it also is exhausting. My coach Shelly informed me that I will slow down and be a bit more tired out for a little while, but that it should help me come March 31st. I will train with this kick and then revert back to my easy kick so as not to tire out. I will keep you updated.
I did not mention in any post so far, but I am the proud owner of two herniated discs in my lower back. Most of the time they do not bother me, but with my increase in swimming, they have begun to give me trouble. I have been going to my fried Gloria Wall, witch doctor/physical therapist supreme. I apparently have failed to develop many back muscles and am having to do this now. Should be no probelm.
The balance of work, training and family has so far been okay. We'll see how all this works during the holidays.

things are coming together

A lot of what I had concerns about is starting to come together. I had no idea how to start a non-profit or if I even needed to. As I am sure I will see over and over and over on this adventure, friends are our greatest asset. My restauran is in a public market started by a group tied to The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, a national recognized non profit organiztion. They are goin to set up a fund for me giving me immediate legitimacy. As the name of the blog represents, their is a working name for the event, and now there is a legitimate name for the charity Rocketkidz Foundation. I am excited and am now ready to start looking to the big dogs for help. I hope they will be fired up and get involvled. If you know anyone or would like to be involved you may email me directly @ pat@rocketburrito.com.
My wife Jeanne and I went out to eat tonight where she vocalized concern about if I could make it, and what could happen to me etc. I have never thought of not making it and it kind of startled me. It is a long way to swim. Is it a mental game or is it a physical game. Obviously both, but I have never swam more than about 3 miles without stopping. Only 10 x's that and I will finish.
I will finish. It may take me 24 hours, but I'll do it.

who is this rocketboy and what is this all about?

I guess it is time that I make official what many of you know limited details of. As you may or may not know I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast from the age of 7 until I came to college 11 years later. I spent the first two summers of college coaching a summer league team there. It was a cool place to grow up. One block from the beach, pretty laid back and beautiful brown water as far as the eye could see. Alright the water isn't so pretty but the beaches were.
When Katrina hit, the neighborhood I grew up in and hundreds more just like it were wiped from the face of the earth. I wanted to try and do a burrito rescue there, but with the influx of people into Baton Rouge, I was slammed busy and unable. In January I had to sneak by National Guard troops just to get in to see what was left of my old neighborhood. I sat on what was left of the house (simply concrete steps) and cried. I did not know I would have such a strong reaction to being there. Whenever I go home (my parents live north of the interstate in Gulfport) I always go down to the old hood and the reaction is nearly the same. In the year plus that has passed nearly no rebuilding has occured on the beach. Homeowners must wait for FEMA water tables, try and get insurance for their losses and good luck trying to get someone to rewrite new insurance.
Nice story, but what does it have to do with me? I have tried to figure out a way to benefit the coast, but the reality is I am not going to raise enough money to rebuild any houses and there are plenty of people trying to help in that regard. I am putting the finishing touches on a charity that will raise money to help promote kids fitness in the area. In order to raise awareness for this I am going to swim from Bay St. Louis to Ocean Springs, MS on March 31st, 2007. About 32 miles. My goal is to raise $1,000,000.00. With the help of Crawfish Aquatics I will be also trying to organize a swim a thon where we try and get 100 masters teams to each raise at least $1000.00 and swim the same distance on the same day. I would like this to turn into an ongoing event there and in other areas. We hope to educate kids and families about childhood obesity, rebuild fitness centers on the cosat, and help promote physical education in schools. I will be trying to bring national attention back to the coast and back on childhood obesity.