Shorter Swimming Week: 21,150 meters

If you look at this picture carefully, you will notice that many of the lilies are two or three feet about the surface of the water. How is this possible? Well, with the heavy rains this last week, the authorities released some of the water from the lake as a precaution against flooding.
With the pool closed tomorrow (Sunday) for the Dragon Boat Festival and Monday, too (as usual), I only had a five-day swimming week. Since my shoulder had been sore last week, I cut back on my distances, and today only swam 5,500 meters. About 2,000m of that was fairly fast paced (including several 100s and a couple of 200s), which had me huffing and puffing at times, and while I was aerobic most of the rest of the time, I did throw in a few hard 50s for good measure. Both 200s were 3m 18s each, about equal to my best so far here, but I had hoped to do slightly better. At the end of the workout, I did feel a little tired. I wonder if I am reaching a kind of plateau where I will forever remain at about this level (with a lot of practice of course). One thing I am trying to do, in the absence of a lot of people to push me, is to use weights a bit more at home. Hopefully, if I get a bit stronger, I will be able to power my way through the water more.
It is good reading the blogs and finding out about the great things that other people are accomplishing, like record-breaking Ironmans, swimming at the North Pole, three non-stop English Channel crossings, etc. , and it makes me wonder what I am really aiming at. At least it is good to think about it, for without aiming at anything, one doesn't achieve anything.
Certainly, I am less worried about my shoulders after the last week, even though I pushed fairly hard at times in the pool. However, I will still need to take care, and as it is frequently said 'listen to your body'.
I have also been trying to change the layout of my blog, and in some respects have been successful (like widening the columns and not wasting so much space), and others not, so while I am trying to figure it all out, my blog may look a little out of whack. Anyway, it is important to try to keep up with changes in technology. Sometimes I post things in Chinese, but typing the characters takes me quite a lot of time, so if I feel tired and it is late, I'll just write in English for now. However, I do want to persevere with the Chinese, since more people in the world speak Chinese than English (as their first language anyway).
Tomorrow I intend to bike across town to get some pics of the dragon boat race.

Hanging in there!

Not really a post, as it is late and I need some good sleep before my Saturday morning swim workout. This morning I swam a total of 4,000 meters, my stroke was smooth, but overall I was a little slower than usual. I guess I am a little tired, but my shoulder felt better than earlier this week, so hopefully I am on the mend.
Tonight Hsiu-Chin and I attended a performance in Kaohsiung presented by Chuck and Doni Antone, who run the Kona Coast Chaplaincy, which is a small church that meets on the lawn next to the ocean behind the Kona Inn in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. They were indeed a little surprised to see us. We had met them on several occasions while in Hawaii. So it made me miss Kona. Now I need to really focus on my training and keep at it, and hopefully next year it will be "Hawaii, here I come!" even if only for a short time.
One good piece of news today is that it did not rain today, so things are slowly drying out and normality (i.e., everyone being able to go about doing their business) is returning again. The Dragon Boat Festival will be on Sunday. I hope to get a few pictures of the boat races.

游泳與美容! Swimming and Cosmetics!

今天還在下大雨！已經連續四天了，我開始有一點受不了！今日總共游了三千九百公尺，游地不快，好像沒有精神一樣，可是我的肩膀感覺比較舒服。游完了以後，一個朋友把曾經當過台灣奧運游泳隊的教練介紹給我。能夠認識那一位先生使我覺得很榮幸。我又聽到台灣偶爾會舉辦一個三千公尺在海邊的游泳比賽，希望有一天可以參加！

因為今天一直下雨，使我跟兩個兒子覺得很無聊，所以我們都上了秀金在我們家所辦的玫琳凱美容課！

(English Translation: It continued to rain heavily for yet another day! That's already four days in a row, and it is starting to bug me! Today I swam a total of 3,900 meters, not fast, and it seemed I lacked vigor, but at least my shoulders felt a bit more comfortable. After finishing swimming, a friend introduced me to someone who had previously coached Taiwan's Olympic swimming team. It was indeed a great honor to be able to get to know this person. I also heard that Taiwan occasionally organizes a 3,000 meter ocean swim race. I hope that one day I can take part in it!

Because it rained all day today, which made our sons and me feel very bored, we all attended the Mary Kay beauty class that Hsiu-chin held in our house!

連續三天下大雨！ 3 Days of Heavy Rain!

傾盆大雨！ Raining cats and dogs!

今天跟昨天差不多，可是好像雨下地更大，真的是傾盆大雨！這並不是偶爾下雨，是一整天啦！倒了泳池以後，我先一個人游了一千公尺，然後換到另一個泳道，那裡已經有一個朋友在游，他的自由勢滿不錯又很快。因此我又游了一千公尺，一直量時間，這次游了十八分二十秒。之後，為了幫助我的肩膀不要感覺太累，有時候休息，但是不休息的時候游地比平常更快（譬如，十乘五十公尺，每次游完了五十米就休息三到五秒）。我今天又游了一點蝶式，那就讓我的肩膀感覺很舒服！最後跟兩個朋友有了一百米的比賽，得了亞軍（一分三十二秒）。今日總共游了四千公尺，真是很過癮。游完了以後，另外一個朋友說我很瘦！我在想，如果可以多吃一點兒，就可以游地更快！

(English translation: Today was much the same as yesterday, except that the rain seemed heavier. It was really raining cats and dogs! This was not an occasional shower here and there, but rain all day long! After I got to the pool, I first swam 1,000m by myself, and then switched to another lane, where a friend who has pretty good freestyle technique and swims fast was already swimming. Therefore, I swam another 1,000m, this time with my eyes on the clock, covering the distance in 18 mins 20 secs. After this, and to help my shoulders not feel too tired, I sometimes took rests, but when I did not take these rests, I swam faster than I normally do (for instance, 10 x 50m with 3 to 5 seconds of rest in between each one). Today I even swam a little butterfly, and that made my shoulder feel really comfortable! Finally, two of my friends and I raced over 100m and I got second place (1:32). Today I swam a total of 4,000 meters and really felt great afterwards. After I had finished swimming, yet another friend said I was very thin. This makes me think, if I can eat a little more, then I will be able to swim faster!)
多吃一點兒，就可以游地更快！Eat a little more, and then you can swim faster!

還在下大雨 More Heavy Rain

今天早上，因為天空有一點黑，所以稍微晚一些起床，六點半才下水游泳，而且，為了讓我的肩膀回復正常，決定游比較少，因此覺得游完了三千七百五十公尺就夠了。要怎麼進步，讓我游得更快，就是一個必須多思考的問題。我個人一個目標就是在三分之內把兩百公尺游完。還要加強！

(English translation: This morning, because the sky was a little dark, I got out of bed slightly later, and it was 6:30 am before I started swimming. Furthermore, to enable my shoulders to return to normal, I decided to swim somewhat less, and thus felt after 3,750 meters that I had swum enough. How I can improve and swim faster is a question to which I must give much thought. One of my personal goals is to swim 200 meters within 3 minutes. I still need to make a lot of efforts to achieve this!)

(貴讀者假使想留言，請按下 "comments" 在下面)

Rain and Forced Rest

View from the balcony behind my office on the 5th floor at home. The smokestacks are a constant reminder that this is still a big industrial city.

Today it rained the hardest I have ever known in Kaohsiung. At least the reservoirs should be filling as it is generally hot and dry most of the rest of the time. With the pool closed and it being too wet to go out without risking catching a cold, I just stayed at home and worked. As the day wore on and my focus on my work waned, I increasingly began to wonder about the meaning of life and what I was seeking to accomplish with my training and my life in general.

Anyway, I am thankful for these days when nothing seems to happen. In that way I do get some rest, and today was a particularly good day for my shoulders to get some needed recuperation from swimming. As I wrote before, it would probably be wise for me to cut back on my swimming distance, and maybe I should incorporate more variety into a workout, so that it is not as if I am just seeing how many meters I can do. Today my shoulder did not trouble me, but it is still a little sore in places.

One thing I will not be aiming to do this year is to attempt to complete an Ironman. Taiwan has one in October (not sanctioned for Kona slots) at the very bottom of the island. It would be a great challenge, and probably as difficult as Kona as it is both very hot and windy down there. However, I don't have a proper bike yet and the application deadline was the end of May - why can't they just be a bit more laid back about the application cutoff? In any case, challenge or no challenge, I have committed myself to focusing on swimming for now and getting my work done. If I try to train for an Ironman, I could more or less spend the whole day every day just training, eating and sleeping. Maybe some day in the future.

Swimming 31,050 Meters: Time to Back Off

Hsiu-chin by the lychee tree

This week I swam a total of 31,050 meters in 6 days. However, several of those days my shoulders were a little sore, whether because of the swimming or the warm-up exercises, I don't really know. Nevertheless, I feel I should back off a bit, and maybe start running occasionally.

After talking to Hsiu-chin about it, based on her experience of shoulders, etc., she felt I should continue to swim to maintain flexibility, but also to do various stretching exercises, not just the traditional pre-swim warm-up stretches, but ones where my sons (who are fairly strong) can pull on my arms when they are stretched upwards! I am also applying some ice packs (like as I sit here typing), and I will also use a Nefful woolen patch with negative ions (this is a Japanese treatment). Anyway, I don't want to let the thing get worse (and if it does I will resort to acupuncture rather than surgery), as I would hate to miss out on Hapuna next year.

Durian: An imported fruit (probably from Thailand)

This week was generally a good, but also fairly busy, week especially workwise, and the tiredness brought about by swimming made getting through what I needed to do each day quite challenging. While I felt great earlier on in the week after the swims, and even yesterday, today I did not feel so good, and realized I was perhaps a little overtired. The rain earlier in the week, and getting caught in it a little, may have slightly weakened my immune system and so I am kind of on the verge of a cold, though I am not sure whether it will materialize or not. I ate quite a lot of dragon fruit today (it is rich in vitamin C).

I think I was also affected by the events over in Kona with Bree's over-exertion and "illness" and eventual withdrawal from the Honu race. It made me realize that everyone is human, and maybe because she had always done so well in everything in the past, I thought she was infallible. I think one thing I learned from it was to consider more carefully how Macca is consistently churning out good races week in and week out, and how he is building up for the two back-to-back Ironmans in Germany in a month or so. He must face a lot of pressure, and must also be very skilled in knowing how much to prepare for each race. It is a fine line, indeed. Obviously, if he does not train enough, he might not be at his best when needed, but if he overdoes it, he might miss the whole race altogether. I realize that he doesn't always win, but he is always up there, much like Peter Reid was. For many others the outcome is a lot more unpredictable.

I was pleased to look up the Athlete tracker for Honu and see that many of my former friends did well enough to have a good chance of getting a slot, e.g., Harry, Daniel, Jackie H., Katherine, Dusty, Kawika, Bear, Michael, Greg, Laurie, Brooke, etc. I was also particularly impressed by a famous swimmer I shall just call "John" who was over 90 seconds ahead of the top pro group out of the swim. Well, that is what comes from training for years on end to try to qualify for the Olympics open-water swimming race. Another young guy that he trained a lot with and who is an exceptional swimmer also did very well for the race as a whole. I did not know he could bike and run, too. So in my opinion, you can focus mostly on swimming but still do pretty well at biking and running. We don't only have to be concerned about our overall time in a race (in which case I would mostly just run, as that is where I would see the biggest improvement timewise if I put in the effort) in order to have a great sense of satisfaction.

A spider (about 3 inches from top to bottom) in the room (not at home!) where we were having lunch today. I am generally kind to spiders as one kept my ancestor, King Robert the Bruce, sane while in prison. After my parents named me Bruce, my grandmother said that I was a descendant of Robert the Bruce, and later we were given the pedigree (genealogy) to prove it.

Tomorrow the pool will be closed so my shoulders can at least rest. However, I will probably be a little busy to have much time for anything else such as running or biking. I hope all those who just did a race over the weekend are pleased with their results and well rested and ready to start training for the next race.