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Lynne Cox* Op-Ed in the NYT about Rio Water Quality
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/opinion/olympians-shouldnt-swim-through-sewage.html * For anyone that doesn't follow Lynne Cox, she's a marathon swimmer and the first person to swim a mile in Antarctica. (Sans wetsuit).
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Swam myself out of a jacket
I have been tapped to be a project manager for a thing at work, and figured maybe I oughta step up my clothing game. Went shopping for a wool blazer. No biggie, right? Well, if I find one that fits my shoulders, I'm swimming in it otherwise. This did not used to be a problem. Dammit. Darn swimming.
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2016 Swimming Goals
It's that time of year. Whether it's to shave .01 seconds off your 100, or simply to enjoy yourself when swimming, got an idea of what you want to accomplish swimming in 2016? Here's mine: * Swim six miles in Lake Memphremagog this June. * Swim from Alcatraz Island to Aquatic Park this August. * Complete at least 150 miles…
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Apparently I am a knucklehead
I was reading an article to my husband about open water swimming, and made a crack about if I hadn't finished the Lake Memphremagog swim last summer, it really would have been because I was I didn't know what I was getting into. "That was an important day. It was the day you became one of those insane knuckleheads," he…
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2105 Swim Goals
Does anyone have any swimming-specific goals this year? Mine are: * Bring my mile down to 40 minutes in the pool. * Complete Son of a Swim at Lake Memphremagog * Swim from King Neptune's statue to the 14th St Pier in VA Beach a couple of times over the family vacation * Swim the Boston Sharkfest * If I do REALLY well, swim…
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Dryland
For those of you who have swimming as a sport as much as a way to work out, do you do dryland work? What do you do??
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Fluff: Manicures and swimming
I love wearing nail polish. I hate what swimming does to a regular manicure and your fingernails. So, for the past year or so, I've just kept my nails clipped short and only used clear polish and left it at that. I got a very rare professional manicure recently because my husband and I were going to take a big trip. I got…
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This is why calorie counting works for me
I'm perfectly aware no one thing works for everyone. And to be frank, I mostly find calorie counting a tedious pain in the rear. But there are days like today... I don't know what it was late this afternoon, but I just totally HAD to have a muffin. And by muffin, I mean those 500 calorie cupcakes masquerading as muffins.…
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Wish me luck...
So tomorrow, I am doing my first swim event in about thirty-eight years (that being the last time I was at a swim meet). I'm swimming the Son of a Swim at Lake Memphremagog in Vermont. Water temps are ~65-~67 or so, and I'll be doing the baby swim of a 2 mile course. While I can totally swim two miles in a pool with no…
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How Cold is Too Cold?
I got in a river and did a VERY SMALL swim today -- mostly to test how I react to cold. I'll be doing an open water swim in a month, and while it will be cold, it's gonna be a lot warmer than the rivers are where I live right now (50F or 10C depending on where you live) I found out that 50F isn't nearly as scary or…
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I have a new swim blog
Slow as Christmas Are there others people like to read?
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Eating back exercise calories - Report
I do not want to start a debate about eating back exercise calories. What I'd like, if people are willing to report it, is the following: IF (and ONLY IF) you eat back your exercise calories 1. What is your desired rate of weight loss? 2. Does that rate of weight loss happen as averaged over a period of time longer than a…
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Sleep and athleticism
This is for the people with a sport and train for specific contests and events. 1. How many hours a week do you spend on training -- sport specific as well as any auxiliary strength or endurance training to improve performance. 2. How many hours a night do you sleep? 3. Do you get enough sleep that you feel energetic and…
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Lifting to Failure???
I am primarily a swimmer, but there's no such thing as a sport that doesn't benefit from strength training. And, being a swimmer, I feel like it is important to do some weight-bearing exercise as a guard against osteoporosis. And, okay, I find weights kinda fun. So, I have this swim coach who has really helped me out to…
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Totally want a night off the hook...
I wanna mindlessly eat like.... cinnamon rolls and toast and butter and pretzels and potato chips and M&Ms and.... Totally not GONNA. (None in the house, it's a snowstorm so even if I felt arsed to shop for it, which I don't, not risking my car for that stuff, and while I have the ingredients to make cinnamon rolls and am…
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Dumbbells and Time
I'm going to be adding in a dumbbell routine in the evenings. I have time either to swim or do weights in the morning, but not both. I choose to swim. But I want to throw in weight training as well, and just can't stomach hitting a gym twice a day. Hence the dumbbells, since that's what I have in the house. Anyone else…
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Do you think types of cravings matter?
I have been unbearably HUNGRY today. I tend to differentiate hunger and just... ya know, wanting to eat, by what will satisfy it. If chicken breast or an apple will satisfy the hunger, it's probably, well... hunger. If it's what is typically recreational food for you (chips, ice cream, chocolate, whatever) then it may not…
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A Really Good Swimming Blog
If you're looking for an interesting swimming blog, I encourage you to check out Loneswimmer. The author is an Irish marathon swimmer and has a thing for cold water.
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A Rant About Support
(We're watching Frodo and Sam climbing Mount Doom in Return of the King) My Husband: Somehow when I look at that, I see you a quarter of a mile off cape Gris Nez.* Me: Possibly, but no-one can carry me there... My Husband: No, but I will be in a boat beside you. My husband is obviously into my athletic goals. And yeah, it…
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Tape Measure and Body Fat Percentage
I don't have calipers or any other sort of sophisticated method for measuring body fat percentage, so I thought I'd try some of the tape measure methods. One of them had me at 28% body fat. While I genuinely do put on muscle mass fairly easily for a woman, at 5'2" and 244 lbs, I know 28% is a load of horse hockey. I was…
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I Got Coaching
I have gotten some coaching. Holy mackerel, have I been Doing It Wrong. I'm short and short-limbed. I'd been trying to use the high elbow catch technique. I've been advised that it might be great to reduce drag when you're tall with a huge wingspan. I'm short and round and need to extend my stroke both on entry and extend…
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Training for a specific event
For those of you who are going to do tris, 5Ks, or whatever it is you like to do, how many days a week do you train when you have an event in six months or so?
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Bento: An Option for Lunch
I know some people worry about what they are going to bring to work for lunches and I wanted to show mine for tomorrow. It's about 580 calories. It would be about 480, but I put some dressing to dip the veggies in, very non Japanese. Fruit would bring the calorie count down a lot, but I did not want to bother. It's been a…
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When your schedule is interrupted
My usual schedule on weekdays is to get my butt to the gym is to get up at five, be in the gym by five thirty, do my workout and have a shower, then get on my day. For the next few weeks there are going to be some interruptions to this based on some household scheduling. My solution is going to be to work out at night some…
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Sharkfest
I have lot all semblance of sanity. I signed up for the non-wetsuit category for Sharkfest 2105 in Boston in late September. Any advice on cold-water swimming?
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Just Bought a Food Scale
I was wondering if I was fooling myself about some measurements, and figured that there was no real downside to a bit more accuracy when it comes to measuring one's food. I won't say that measuring by volume is accurate to the gram. 'Cause it's totally not. I will say that after a few experiments, my volume measurements…
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One Month Evaluation
Okay, I've been dieting for a month. Here's my evaluation and actions I want to take. 1. Lost four pounds just in strict scale terms. Using a ten day moving average (which is what I base my actual evaluations on) it's actually five pounds, but more on that later. Pounds lost at approximately a pound a week. Right on…
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Analysis of BMI
The expression BMI gets thrown out a lot lately, but it seems to me that very few people — either health professionals talking about weight, or people who talk about the fact that skinny is a lousy metric of health understand very well. BMI means Body Mass Index. It’s a height/weight ratio where the weight in kilograms is…
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Noel's Apple Leek Pork Medallions
1 lb(s), Pork – Fresh, loin, tenderloin, cooked, broiled 1 Chopped 89gr, Leek Raw 1 tbsp(s), Garlic – Raw 2 tbsp(s), Oil – Olive 1 Apple Medium, Granny Smith Apple 0.25 cup(s), Wine – Table, red Cut pork into medallions and sauté in olive oil on high until flesh is just brown. Add leeks and garlic and sauté until garlic…
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Alcatraz swim
I swim because I'm into it and it's one of the few ways to get in a good, heart-pounding workout that doesn't hurt. (A perfect storm of weight and arthritis) I got back in the pool a couple of months ago to try to get in better physical shape when I got this hare brained idea that it would be fun to participate in one of…
