Thursday, April 26, 2012

26Apr12 - WHAT?

Good swim today.  Shoulders were a bit tired until around 1k.  Did some longer sets that descended in length with some 50's between sets for faster times.  The shorter the distance, the faster I had to go.  I was pretty worn out at the end and I can usually go sub 30 EASY for a 50 but my last 2 sprints for 50's I hit 32.  TIRED!!! 
Rounded out at 4500 today.  There is supposed to be a storm coming in but I'm hoping it doesn't have thunder/lightning because I want to swim in the GSL again after work.
Okay, Kim pointed something out to me that I've never seen before.  A woman in the lane next to us was swimming well enough and was even doing some drill work.  Nothing spectacular.  What caught her eye, which she stopped me to show me, was the woman was doing 1/2 strokes with her arms and had fins on WITH a buoy between her legs!  WHAT?  lol  We both got a good laugh out of this.  It just looked so weird.
2nd thing was when I was getting dressed.  2 guys nearby were talking about their "diet knowledge" and one was trying to convince the other on how good it is to cut out all carbs.  He kept saying that if you are training for endurance races, you should cut carbs down to zero and even all sugars including those found in a lot of vegetables.  Just plain veggies and protein is all you need according to him.  WHAT??
Yes, when you cut carbs you lose weight.....TEMPORARILY.  When you go back because after awhile, you body WILL start to shut down, you rebound back to normal PLUS another 20-30% more mass than before.  Who the hell thinks they should cut carbs when training for endurance races?  Seriously, who is that dumb?  Short term may be able to get by but long term you are going to do some serious damage.
I always liked the quote, "You don't get to the Superbowl by only going to the salad bar".  I kept my silence but couldn't stop wishing I could yell at this guy. 
The most prominent thing I wanted to tell him is that no carb people are dumber.  LITERALLY.  When the synapse of your brain fires off, the gap between where the electricity needs an element to speed up the process.  Thus you can think faster and more efficiently.  The first product preferred for this method is glucose.  The most significant source of glucose preferred comes from carbs.  NO CARBS = NO GLUCOSE  That means the transmission of information in your brain is decreased in speed AND CAPACITY.  This means you are DUMBER!!!  As evident by the "don't eat carbs" jackass I had to listen to today.
Ok, I'm done. I took a neuromuscular anatomy course in college and this is one of the things I found most fascinating.  We got to break down, on a molecular, level why "fad" diets such as no carbs are all BS!

OK, after work I went to the GSL.  The storm was late but the wind had arrived.  It was really windy, the current was strong, and there was at least a 3 foot swell.  The marina was nice and calm and Chad, Jim and I all headed out together.  Once outside the marina it turned very quickly against us.  Nothing to protect us from the current going north.  The first buoy is west so I kept getting rolled around.  I passed Jim and he said he was okay but he clearly did not seem to be having fun.  I got to the buoy with Chad and we were LOVING it.  It was fun for us.  We waited for Jim and he said to go ahead.  He told us he was just going to head in and he would be good but his face clearly stated, "screw this, I'll leave this type of violent swim to you 2 nut jobs"!
Chad and I headed north with the current.  The whole way there we kept looking at each other and laughing.  The current was so strong that I could actually feel it pushing me along as if there was a gigantic invisible hand pushing me from behind.  We got to our destination buoy REALLY fast then the fun began when we had to head back.  Going south was an adventure.  I kept getting tossed all over the place, punched in the face by the waves, and could only get air if I stuck my mouth into my armpit to block the water.  The roller coaster of up and down was good too.  I don't get seasick from swimming so I just enjoyed the fight.  The biggest struggle was the PFD/SSD I have with me.  It was dragging me back whenever a good enough wave would get hold of it. 
Chad and I were having way to much fun to stop after getting back to the starting point.  We did another lap then headed into the marina.  We got food and some drink then back in for more.  We met up with Gords and Michelle at the first buoy then decided to do one more swim north and get out at the north end of the marina.
It was EXTREMELY fun yesterday and even though I got the hell beaten out of me, swallowed a lot of water, and had to fight the entire swim, I loved every second of it.

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