Mission Accomplished

I hit one mile today in the pool.

One Wet Mile

That’s my goal.  I’m not going to clutter up this blog with daily posts of my swimming stats anymore, since I think that your time (and mine) could be better wasted reading something else on the intarwebs.  I will, however, let people know when I break a mile.  I’m already pretty close – I’ve gotten up to 1400 yds, which is only 250 short of a mile.

Once I hit the mile mark, my goal will be to maintain until I think I can hit 2 miles, then I’ll go for that.  We’ll just have to see what happens…

$P@MM3R!!1! Video Production Diary, Episode Two

Also, my swimming stats for today were 1000 yds in 30 min and 1100 yds total. I was mildly hungover today after a wild night of drinking with a lit major and a gang of video game programmers (shout out to Volition), and considering the fact that I’ve swam every day this week, I decided not to push myself

Repetition Is the Key Repetition Is the Key Repetition Is the Key Repetition Is…

Sorry about all of the swimming blogs It’s spring break, so I’ve been swimming every day, and not doing much else, to be perfectly honest, other than working on this one eternally frustrating seminar paper from last semester!

So my stats for yesterday were: 950 yds in 30 min and 1200 yds total (pool closed before I could finish). I’ll post an update a little later with today’s stats.

UPDATE: Friday’s stats – 1000 yds in 30 min and 1200 yds total.

“A New Record!”

Lol… OK, so I’ve been playing the new Smash Bros. game this week… fucking rad.  Anyway, the announcer’s voice in that game gets stuck in my head, so when I went swimming today and beat one of my old records, the first thing that came to mind was that voice shouting, “A new record!”

So the record to beat now is 1000 yds in 30 min.

Back on Track

Finally, I’m back on track with the swimming: 900 yds in 30 min and 1300 yds total in about 45 min.  I was actually starting to think I was coming down sick or something, because it was getting harder to keep up with my previous stats

Old and Busted: Butterfly. New Hotness: Beached Walrus

Anybody who’s a regular reader at Fark should already get my drift here.

I took care of my normal swimming routine today.  Made 900 yds in 30 min, but only got to 1100 yds total before the pool closed (40 min total).  Damn these spring break hours!

Anyway, there was this dude in the lane next to me who apparently is an excellent swimmer… in his imagination.  His freestyle was decent – a little awkward, but decent.  What really got me to notice him, though, was his interpretation of the backstroke and butterfly, mainly because every time he attempted these two strokes, he would come close to hitting me.

Allow me to give you some background here.  The lanes at Freer pool are about 6 or 7 ft across.  Usually, these lanes have 2 or more people in them at a time, so to deal with this, people either split the lanes down the middle or swim in a circular pattern (up one side, down the other).  This gives each swimmer about 3 to 4 feet to work with, which shouldn’t be a problem if you’re swimming straight and doing the strokes properly.

The butterfly is well-known for being one of the most difficult swimming strokes to master.  Personally, I don’t use it for exercise, because it works the same muscles as the freestyle and it’s extremely energy inefficient.   It also tends to be a fairly wide stroke, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be, if you’re doing it correctly – I’ve seen swimmers at Freer doing the butterfly and still easily splitting the lane.

Now the gentleman in the lane next to me was alternating his strokes: he’d swim a few laps of freestyle followed by a half lap of a strange double-handed version of the backstroke (i.e. both arms at the same time instead of alternating like normal backstroke) and another half lap of what I have dubbed the “beached walrus” stroke.  Technically it was the butterfly, but his arms didn’t come out of the water all the way (as they are supposed to), and every time he did the little dolphin kick, his body surged forward at this awkward sideways angle.  It reminded me of a walrus pulling himself out of the water – you know how they flail their fins and kick and flop themselves up on the ice?  Yeah.  Just like that.

Ordinarily I would have just ignored his wacky antics and continued my swim, but every time he did his fun, made up strokes, he would push the lane rope a foot or more into my lane, bringing him a little too close for comfort a few times.  After a few near misses I finally told him that he was coming close to hitting me, which seemed to utterly confuse him.

And the moral is?  Ah to hell with morals.  There is no moral.  Just remember that there are some things in life that require lots of training and practice, and even then there’s no guarantee you’ll get it right… That’s something I need to remember every now and then.

More Bad Ideas Lol…

So I didn’t eat until around 10pm today.  It was totally unintentional!  I got up and ended up working on film stuff for most of the day and just got so caught up in it that I kept forgetting to go eat.  Finally, around 7-ish, I decided I needed to hit the pool for some exercise, which was also when I realized that I hadn’t eaten!

Of course, I didn’t want to eat before swimming, which made the pool an exciting experience today   It wasn’t too bad, but I did end up falling back a little: only 850 yds in the first 30 min and 1100 yds total.  I know I can’t make progress every time I’m in the pool, but I  really need to bring my A game this weekend to make up for my slacking off.

In other news, today was my first day of spring “break.”  Of course, with a seminar paper from last semester to finish, film editing to work on, and two stacks of assignments to grade, I doubt it will be much of a break.  C’est la vie.

A Bad Idea

Instead of swimming earlier today (as I usually do), I decided to try to get some film editing done.  Around 5pm I went out to dinner with one of the prospective new students for next semester and a few other writing studies folks.  I had some pizza, drank some beer, and basically did everything I shouldn’t do before exercising

To make a long story short, swimming today was a bitch!  I was able to maintain my 900 yds in 30 min, but it was fucking hard.  I had to end at 1200 yds partially because the pool was about to close, and partially because I was just fucking exharsted!  Oh well, at least I didn’t drown

Ode to a Lost Band T-Shirt

I bought a t-shirt at the Evangelicals show last night. It was black and said “EVANGELICALS ARE STRANGE” in a red font reminiscent of a bad 70s horror flick. Somehow, on the way from the concert to my apartment last night, the shirt disappeared. I may have left it on the bus, and since it was a late bus, I doubt anyone else picked it up. I’m going to check at their lost and found tomorrow, but I shook my imaginary magic eight ball, and it said “outlook not good.” I guess this is what I get for coming home drunk.

As far as concerts go, last night was fucking rad, though! The Evangelicals played a great set, and the Headlights (the band they were touring with) were a pleasant surprise! I also got to chat with one of the guys from the Evangelicals for awhile about other concerts, parties, cornfields, getting drunk, and the virtues of cherry-flavored Pepto Bismol.

Before the concert, I also checked out “Studio Dance” at the Krannert Center, which was a series of thesis performances by four of the dance MFAs. Each performance was unique and very interesting. Honestly, I wish I could write about them, but the longer I think about the performances, the harder it becomes to find a way to accurately communicate the experience. They all evoked a wide range of thoughts, ideas, and emotions, and if you weren’t there to experience it yourself, I don’t know if anything I write would make sense. In any case, it was a fantastic show.

[Just a quick addendum: my swimming stats for today were 900 yds in 30 min, 1300 yds total in 50 min.]

UPDATE: I called the MTD and campus police today to check their respective “lost and found” boxes, and… nothing.  It would seem that my shirt is indeed lost forever.  I might put up a couple of posters around campus, but it’s probably wasted effort.