Author: Kim Siever

I put in 650 metres today. I thought for this post I would report my swimming in sets rather than totals.

1. 4 x 25 m front crawl
2. 4 x 25 m breast stroke
3. 4 x 25 m front crawl
4. 4 x 25 m breast stroke
5. 4 x 25 m front crawl
6. 4 x 25 m breast stroke
7. 2 x 25 m front crawl

I was trying to hit 750 m today, but I ran out of time — fitness swim ends at 08:00. I was rushing to get in the last 6 laps. I probably could have put in 2 or 3 more laps if my goggles hadn’t leaked for the first set.

The left lens has a tendency to leak. I managed to get it situated properly for the remaining sets, but I had to stop after each rep of the first set to empty it out, clear off the fog and readjust.

It’s so frustrating because I was getting into a good rhythm and the beginning and this kind of gets me down. Swimming’s pretty boring. If I can get into a good rhythm and have a good attitude, it can be relaxing and can get my day off to a good start.

I think I am going to have to work on improving my speed soon. I don’t think I am going to be able to hit 1 km with the time constraints I have if I keep going at the same rate. Other than having to stop a few times at the beginning to adjust my goggles, my breaks were just long enough to realign myself, and take a couple of breaths (may 3 or 4 seconds), so the additional laps are going to have to come from improving my time.

Okay, I think I am done now. 🙂

Today was my second go at arms and shoulders. I had to catch a later bus, but I still managed to squeeze in all my exercises.

1. Hammer curl: 20 lb
2. Tricep pull down: 40 lb
3. Concentration curl: 25 lb
4. Tricep extension: 25 lb
5. Wrist curl: 25 lb
6. Military press: 65 lb
7. Reverse fly: 60 lb
8. Lateral raise: 12.5 lb
9. Shrug: 45 lb
10. Dumbell press: 20 lb
11. Front raise: 10lb

I increased the wrist curl weight from last time, but I think it needs to go even higher. I’m going to up weights for the hammer curl and the pull down. Everything else was a good weight, but I did struggle with the last couple of reps on the concentration curls, dumbell press and lateral raises. I had to cut the front raises short. It was my last exercise after all. I think it was a good workout.

I am going to try for 750 m in my swim tomorrow.

I hit my first goal. I swam 500 metres.

Now, Jeff might not think that’s much, but I think it’s significant for someone who learned to swim at nearly 15, has never taken a swimming class, and started working out again a week ago.

Here’s what I did:

1. Front crawl: 250 m
2. Breast stroke: 250 m

I even reduced my breaks. About half of my laps were free of breaks, and when I did break it was just a few seconds — long enough to take my pulse.

My next goal is to get to 1 km.

I worked out my legs and back today:

1. Leg curl: 100 lb
2. Leg press: 255 lb
3. Calf press: 220 lb
4. Leg extension: 90 lb
5. Hip adductors: 90 lb
6. Hip abductors: 90 lb
7. Hyperextension: 25 lb
8. Lat pull: 35 lb
9. Lying row: 25 lb
10. Upright row: 20 lb
11. Assisted chinup: 125 lb

I think I’ll increase the weight next Monday for the adductors, abductors, hyperextension, lying row, and upright row, and reduce it for the assisted chinup.

I worked my chest and abs today.

1. Oblique stretch: 30 lb
2. Crunches: 60 lb
3. Situps: 10
4. Incline press: 20 lb
5. Seated press: 60 lb
6. Fly press: 100 lb
7. Pullover: 30 lb
8. Dumbell press: 20 lb

I think I’ll increase the weight on the fly, pullover, seated press, incline press, crunches, and oblique stretches.

I added 100 metres to my time this morning:

1. Front crawl : 200 metres
2. Breast stroke: 200 metres

I am going to try for 500 metres next week.

My longer-term goal is to try for 1 kilometre. Once that’s done, I’ll try for 1 kilometre without resting. Once that’s completed, I will work on improving my time.

Today was my first day of weightlifting. I have only about half an hour, so can only do 1 set for each exercise. I guess rather than doing the same exercises once every three times to the gym, I could go to four, reduce the number of exercises I do each day, and increase the number of sets. With going to the gym every other day though, it would be about a week and a half between the times I do the same exercises.

Instead, I just increased my weights from the last time I worked out, and bumped up the reps to 15.

What I used to do was 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 reps, and decreasing weight with each one. given my time restrictions, I think this will work.

Anyhow, here are the exercises I did today. I worked my arms and shoulders.

1. Hammer curl: 20 lb
2. Tricep pull down: 40 lb
3. Concentration curl: 20 lb
4. Tricep extension: 20 lb
5. Wrist extension: 20 lb
6. Military press: 50 lb
7. Reverse fly: 45 lb
8. Lateral raise: 12.5 lb
9. Shrug: 40 lb
10. Dumbell press: 20 lb
11. Front raise: 10lb

I think next time I need to increase weights for the military press and reverse fly. Maybe the wrist extension as well. It was slightly too easy.

I was right about Tuesdays and Thursdays being shorter lanes. They were 25 metre lanes today,which was nice. It gave me more opportunity to rest between laps and to complete a lap before needing to rest. I am definitely switching swimming to Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Here are my results:

Front crawl: 150 m
Breast stroke: 150 m

I did less length on the front crawl, but more on the breast stroke, and I increased my total by 50 metres. I think my technique was a bit better today, but that may have been just because the lanes are shorter. I need to figure out how to kick properly.

I started going back to the gym today. I had been going until 2004 when I started biking to work. When my knees gave out a year later, our daughter was born and my wife switched her gym time to the mornings. At first, I stayed at home to take care of our daughter when she woke up. then I ended up enjoying the extra 1.5 hours of sleeping time.

In the last week or so, I’ve been thinking I should go back to the gym. So, after some thought, I figured if I got up with my wife and dressed, ate, and whatnot while she was gone, I could go as soon as she got home.

Today was the first day. It went fairly well. I started with swimming. I decided to do swimming Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because I thought they had shorter lanes those days. Unfortunately, those days are full-length lanes. I still swam though. Here’s what I did:

Front crawl: 200 m
Breast stroke: 50 m

I think I am going to switch to Tuesdays and Thursdays for swimming since they have shorter lanes, so I can rest more often until I can build up some endurance. I’ll reserve Monday, Wednesday and Friday for weight training.

I’ll try to post my progress here.