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fishgutzy

fishgutzy

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As many of you know I am a distance swimmer for exercise. Not for competition though.
Arthritis in my feet keeps impact inducing activity off the list. I'm even supposed to limit walking.
Good thing I enjoy swimming.
No headphones. No fancy swim gadgets. Just a digital click counter and the necessary cap, goggles and drill gear.
Swimming in China isn't too bad. Nothing like at home at my Y. But at least there is a rope and most of the time the life guards don't let people screw around in the designated lap lane. I just wish the Chinese people would break the chains laid on them by Moa and just learn the darn front crawl. More of them are. But it really bites lane sharing with people doing attack mode frog kicks scratching my back with their finger nails doing the breast stroke. Much less of this during the current trip.
Swimming helps keep me sane without the use of pharmaceuticals. I'd probably be diagnosed with some sort of anxiety disorder or depression without it. :D

My 'diet' motto is simple too. Eat to lose weight. Exercise to eat more. :D
 
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Humans are mammals. All mammals can swim. Ergo, all humans can swim. It is absolutely 100% a confidence thing; once you stop being 'afraid' and become confident, nothing in the water can stop you.

I don't swim like I used to (time, opportunity, etc.), but it was great exercise and I really enjoyed it.
 
I swim like ten feet something in my leg cramps and I head to the sauna or sand depending pool or open water.
Wife likes swimming though, used to compete, coach, lifeguard, manage a pool, etc. Which is good, because while I think it's a very important skill, having had family and friends drown, I kinda doubt I'd get my kid to the pool enough to really gain the confidence and skill.
 
10km swim today.
250 laps in the 20m China pool.
At least all the lanes have ropes.
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Beef15 said:
I swim like ten feet something in my leg cramps and I head to the sauna or sand depending pool or open water.
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It does involve a whole 'nother set of muscles, but it sounds like you are using more leg than hip. Kick from the hip; get a kickboard and practice just your kicking and rotating your hips. Youtube has some great vids.
 
fishgutzy,

Congrats on the 10k/6.21 mile swim! I've only done that once back in 95' in the Gulf of Aqaba, on the Jordanian side. No ropes and 3000' to the bottom of the strait and 10km at night. Here's the Gulf, the cities of Aqaba, Jordan is at the far end along with Elat, Israel. About a 40' high dive here where we were training with the Jordanian Navy Divers. Wish we had a swimming pool here in Astan. I do miss swimming.
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CD
 
Combat Diver said:
fishgutzy,

Congrats on the 10k/6.21 mile swim! I've only done that once back in 95' in the Gulf of Aqaba, on the Jordanian side. No ropes and 3000' to the bottom of the strait and 10km at night. Here's the Gulf, the cities of Aqaba, Jordan is at the far end along with Elat, Israel. About a 40' high dive here where we were training with the Jordanian Navy Divers. Wish we had a swimming pool here in Astan. I do miss swimming.
Jordan_95-001a.jpg

Jordan_95-001c_High_Dives.jpg


CD
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When I was with a Marine Recon unit on a float (I was the corpsman), those guys would find the highest areas from which to jump. Some were 70 feet from the water. Uh uh, no way. I hate heights. I was a diver, too, did all the recon-y things like fast rope and helo casting, but anything higher than 10 feet off the deck or water I hated.
 
Swam in HS and in the Navy in AirCrew ad nauseam. Love swimming, but since my Navy days I rarely swim for exercise.

Used to do a mile pretty regularly. Few years back, at 44, thought I could do one after having been out of the pool for what I realized was over 20 years...


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sr30 said:
Swam in HS and in the Navy in AirCrew ad nauseam. Love swimming, but since my Navy days I rarely swim for exercise.

Used to do a mile pretty regularly. Few years back, at 44, thought I could do one after having been out of the pool for what I realized was over 20 years...


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Back in 2001, I got in the pool to do laps for the first time in decades. I Made it 6 laps. Ugh!
Eventually I got to 1 mile. Then in 2011, after getting a weight related sleep apnea diagnosis I started pushing myself. Got back to a mile every day. Then increased to 2 miles a day with a 5km once a month. Now I do 4 miles every day with occasional 5 miles and 10k's.
Arthritis in my feet prevent any impact aerobics.

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fishgutzy said:
Back in 2001, I got in the pool to do laps for the first time in decades. I Made it 6 laps. Ugh!
Eventually I got to 1 mile. Then in 2011, after getting a weight related sleep apnea diagnosis I started pushing myself. Got back to a mile every day. Then increased to 2 miles a day with a 5km once a month. Now I do 4 miles every day with occasional 5 miles and 10k's.
Arthritis in my feet prevent any impact aerobics.

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Click to expand...

Amazing!! I’d love to not keep making excuses as to why I can’t get back in the pool...


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sr30 said:
I’d love to not keep making excuses as to why I can’t get back in the pool...
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Man that makes two of us! My screen name has taken on more of a motivational essence as I seem to be simply donating money to the Y on a monthly basis rather than actually swimming. My wife says to cancel the membership but if I do that then I am admitting to quitting whereas if I keep the membership the Speedo and the pool still have a chance!
 
sr30 said:
Amazing!! I’d love to not keep making excuses as to why I can’t get back in the pool...


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Just do what I do and say not just no, but oh hell NO. I was born on the side of a mountain if god wanted me to swim he would tell me.
 
I swim like a stubborn turd... I'll float around for a little while, but eventually I'm gonna sink to the bottom. I don't float... Before anyone says, "Everyone floats..." I don't. I've been through this many MANY times, I just don't.
 
Scott Free said:
I swim like a stubborn turd... I'll float around for a little while, but eventually I'm gonna sink to the bottom. I don't float... Before anyone says, "Everyone floats..." I don't. I've been through this many MANY times, I just don't.
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Zip fins will help with that. My feet used to sink. Using zip fins (THE BURNERS now) help distribute effort while I built upper body endurance and made my form more planer. The first time I did 125 I started weaning off the fins. That time with the fins also built my core strength too. My legs and butt stayed up after that. My legs and butt are as high as thru would be with a pull buoy.

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Scott Free said:
I swim like a stubborn turd... I'll float around for a little while, but eventually I'm gonna sink to the bottom. I don't float... Before anyone says, "Everyone floats..." I don't. I've been through this many MANY times, I just don't.
Click to expand...

I was almost dead last in every evolution in dive school. I was threatened to be dropped all the time. My instructor said "Mandelin, you swim like a turtle: slow and mostly underwater."
 
Scott Free said:
I swim like a stubborn turd... I'll float around for a little while, but eventually I'm gonna sink to the bottom. I don't float... Before anyone says, "Everyone floats..." I don't. I've been through this many MANY times, I just don't.
Click to expand...

Same here man. I might float now that I'm fat but when I was younger I was so small I had less than 1% body fat.so I was a scared heavy rock.
 
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Apparently I'm almost famous in Shanghai. At Will's Fitness anyway.
One of the new life guards who speaks English better than most of the staff there, told me that the other guards told him about me and time I did a 10km swim that took almost 4 hours.
My swim last night was short one though. Got kicked and scratched by slow breast stroke swimmers in the fast lane.
There were a couple of doing front crawl but these slow pokes get in the lane and just refuse to yield.
Home Saturday morning. I'll get to my on Sunday. Maybe even Saturday afternoon if I'm not too exhausted.
 
It took about 3 hours for my electrolyte balance to normal after.
Heart rate fluctuated just while I was sitting :D
It probably didn't help that only had consumed a 130 calorie protein bar 3 hours before the swim.

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I'm thinking it might be time to stop calling myself a non- athlete for the purposes of proper endurance nutrition. :D

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I did 11km on Saturday. This time I had a squeeze bottle of honey next to my water bottles. To a pull of honey every 2200m when I drank water too.
That did the trick. My heart rate returned to normal in the same amount of time it does after just 6.6km swim.
Now I feel better about hitting 10 miles, 16km. Maybe I'll even hit that this trip.
I might even lose more than 10kg this trip. That would be very cool .
 
My heart skipped a beat last night. Catherine showed up in the lane unexpectedly. She's fast. Love chasing her down in the lane. :D

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Dude...you SWAM for nearly 5 hours straight?!

mazel tov
 
fishgutzy said:
Total rest time: 5 minutes 17 seconds
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That includes "pee breaks" right :rolleyes:?

Nicely done! Congrats. It is a true mental game for distance swimming. Especially in a pool. You can only go so long looking at that damn black line before the mind drifts to any and everything. I have never swam with any type of counter but after an hour/4,000 yards or so I start to question what lap I am on.

Keep it up! Great accomplishment.
 
No pee breaks. Didn't need it. But as soon as I am finished? Yup.
Love my Garmin. Can't cheat it. I can set the pool length: here it is 22m.
And it provides proof that I actually did it. :D

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