swimming with the Japanese Olympic swim team

Today my coach had scheduled a day of rest. No triathlon training. I don't like taking days off. My training is therapeutic for me. So rather than take the day off I decided to work on my weakest event, my swim. The Japanese Olympic swim team has been training here in Santa Fe for awhile. I figured I could learn allot from swimming at the same time as them. So I called the pool, found out when they'd be training today & just happened to be there at the same time. I didn't learn nearly as much as I thought I would. You see, they speak Japanese in Japan. So although I listened & watched intently, it was like they were speaking another language. Go figure. By watching them I did learn to rotate my shoulders out of the water more as each arm recovers. That made me glide farther on each stroke, thus using less energy & increasing my efficiency. I learned a few other thing also, but nothing else that would of helped my swim speed or technique. I learned that the Japanese swim coaches yell allot. They aren't kind & understanding teachers. Within 30 minutes their coaching staff had 2 swimmers weeping hysterically. I also leaned that they are all shredded, no body fat on any of them.

Another thing I noticed that was disconcerting to me was that all of them, even their largest swimmer had no butt. That's not a good sign for me. The way I see it is
1) naturally fast swimmers are built that way, or
2) they make themselves that way to be fast. Either way that pretty much makes me as unsuited for swimming as any human being can get. Anyone who's seen me knows I carry allot of junk in my trunk. My friends say I have a Ghetto Buttey. I would argue if I could. But I can't, because I store enough excess calories in my butt it could feed a small country.

Another thing I noticed was every swimmer had to weigh in as soon as they got out of the water. A few of them got quite the butt chewing. I could feel their pain. As most of you know I've been struggling with my weight. In the past 5 years my weight has been from 292 to 200 & everywhere in between. 3 weeks ago I was on a roll. I'd lost 56 lbs. in 4 months. I'm not sure what happened 3 weeks ago. Usually I only eat uncontrollably when I'm stressed or sad. I wasn't stressed or sad 3 weeks ago, but I started struggling to not gorge myself with food. I'd do well for a couple of days, then BAM, out of nowhere I'd be shoveling amazing amounts of food down my gullet. I've been writing down everything I eat. For some reason that seems to stop or slow allot of my overeating. But on Sat I stopped tracking my food intake when I hit 100 weight watcher points. For those of you who aren't knowledgeable about weight watcher points that means I ate well over 5000 calories. I know, I know. That's allot of food. At least I know what the trigger that day was. All the other days of cheating I have no clue. There is good news though. Although I've had a few "bad days" recently I've had enough good days to counter them. I'm at 201 lbs. 6 lbs. from my next goal. 11 lbs. from my ultimate goal. Wow, I can't believe it. I'm only 11 lbs. from 190. That just seems to good to be true. After seeing how much faster I was on the bike at this year's Stealth duathlon compared to last year, I realize that to lose another 11 lbs. would be HUGE. I only weighed 15 lbs. lighter at this years Stealth compared to last year, yet my average speed on the bike was 3 mph faster. I've set up a couple of goals with a time frame to help me attain those goals. Usually when I set a goal & write them down I'm good about focusing myself. Especially since they'll be written down on my blog where others can see how I fair. So here they are
1) To be 195 by the Atomic Man Olympic distance Duathlon (my favorite race of all time) on April 27th. That's 6 lbs. I need to lose in 4 weeks. Plenty of time. Very accomplishable. My PR at this race is 3 hrs 1 min. I accomplished that time weighing approximately 230. This is by far the hilliest course I've ever raced on so racing light will be very important with all the climbing. 195 would put me at 35 lbs. lighter than my best Atomic time.
2) To be 190 by the Buffman & Squeaky Olympic distance triathlon (my 2nd favorite race) on May 18th. That's an additional 5 lbs. in 3 weeks. Also very doable. My PR at the Buffman & Squeaky, or The Squeaky Buttman as I like to call it was 2 hr 52 minutes done at an approximate weight of 235. This is on the exact same course as the BSLT 70.3. Anyone who knows the BSLT 70.3 knows that its a very hilly & difficult course in a horribly hot climate. If I accomplish this goal I'll be racing at a whopping 45 lbs. lighter than my weight at my PR!!!
3) to maintain 190 until IMAZ IN Nov, & hopefully the rest of my life. 190 at IMAZ would put me at 66 lbs. lighter than my DNF attempt at Silverman. It's also very important I get & stay below 200 because I've already raced 2 races for the SW challenge series as an age grouper. No sense not racing as a Clydesdale if I'm not under 200. Well, those are my goals. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for tuning in.