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.