Fat Old Man Update

I did it.


If you are one of my five original readers, or you have looked back on old posts on this blog, you have been blessed with several things.  First, and most importantly, you have been blessed with my unique insight into the 2012 Summer Olympics.  While getting this unique insight you were also blessed with fun human interest stories, occasional commentary on the boys, excellent predictions and the "Fat Old Man Update".


I'll get to the Update in a second, but I have to say my predictions were great.  I think they were great because I have an excellent brain.  I'm very smart.  And insightful.  People like me.  All sorts of people like me.  If you look at other people's predictions during the 2012 Olympics, they were terrible.  Just horrible.  Mine were great.  Their's weren't.  You can look it up.


...Back to our regularly scheduled programming...


The Fat Old Man Update was a result of my motivation to exercise.  While watching the greatest athletes in the world, and particularly the greatest swimmers in the world, I was inspired by dreams of glory that will never come and delusions of grandeur concerning abilities I will never have to get in the pool and swim.  This wasn't the first, or the last, time I was inspired by such dreams and delusions.  It was, however, the only time I publicly discussed them.  During the 2012 Olympics, I swam a few times a week and posted to my readers a minimal amount of information on my workouts.  I called these the "Fat Old Man Updates" because I am fat (obese if you look at any old BMI calculator, but not really if you look at me), I am old (meaning I am not young) and I am male (whether I am a "man" is up for discussion.)


After the Olympics ended, I made several promises.  I am fairly certain I have kept none of those promises.  The only thing I can say is that I picked up for Sochi 2014, right where I left off after London 2012, except, perhaps, the Fat Old Man Update.  One of those broken promises was to keep the Fat Old Man Update, if for no other reason than to publicly acknowledge when I exercise and, more importantly, when I don't, and theoretically publicly shame myself into exercising more regularly.  For you grammar police out there, the number of adverbs in that last sentence must have made you cringe.


I didn't keep up the Fat Old Man Update.  Let the public shaming commence.  It is not that I gave up exercising, I just do it when I can.  It is safe to say I don't prioritize it.  Basically, I swim when my kids swim and nothing else is going on.  I am fairly certain I have written about this at least once.  Something about a driving desire for a bacon cheeseburger comes to mind.  Regardless, I have fairly consistently jumped in the pool to swim twice a week during the AGAD practice for the past 3 years.  That covers October through May.  Summer exercise has taken a hit because of Kill the Family Tour 2014 and Kill the Family Tour 2.0.


Recently, I added two new twists to the exercise routine.  First, I joined what a friend called "The Fun Challenge".  The Fun Challenge was a challenge to do 100 push ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats every day for 30 days.  I haven't done anything like this in decades.  It was not "fun".  Despite some real pain, and having to shovel during and after a historic snowstorm in the middle of the 30 days, I managed to do this.  Since the 30 days ended, I have missed a few days, but am continuing to do "the 100s" on a fairly consistent basis.


The second twist was joining a Masters Swim Team, Club Tribe Alumni.  The team is sporadic, geographically, so initially, all this meant was I registered with US Masters Swimming and spent about $50.00.  Ultimately, it meant I registered to swim in a meet, my first real swimming competition in 22 years.  I learned shortly thereafter that it also meant I could get workouts from a coach.  The coach is a teammate, who writes workouts for the swimmers on the team.  We briefly discussed catering the workouts to my needs, but haven't finalized that step.


So, I did it.  I swam in a Masters Swim Meet, the Inaugural Club Tribe Alumni Masters Classic.  Prior to swimming in the meet, I started the new swim workout routine from the team coach/team member mentioned above.  The workouts are a little different than I am used to, because they use high intensity/high rest sets, something I wasn't doing.  The first time I did one of these workouts it kicked my ass.  Several others have, as well.  I have settled in though, and am enjoying the new workouts, even though I sometimes feel a little weird resting for more than minute during a set of 25s.  Just hanging out, by myself, at the end of the pool.


The meet was fun.  I didn't know what to expect, but I am not surprised to have enjoyed myself.  Swimming people are good people.  William and Mary people are good people.  Put them together and you have really good people.  The meet was held at my old pool, the W&M Rec Center.  The meet was worked by the W&M Swim Team, coming off conference championship seasons for both the men and the women.  There was some very fast swimming.  Not by me, but very fast swimming by other people.


I enjoyed competing.  I enjoyed being part of a team.  I enjoyed seeing an old, dear friend I hadn't seen in over 20 years.  I enjoyed seeing a couple of other old, dear friends who I had seen, just a couple years ago.  I enjoyed meeting a few new people.  I look forward to meeting more, competing more and being part of a team again.  And I enjoyed watching some fabulous swimming by people ranging in age from 24 to 90.  Yes 90.


Mostly, though, I hurt.  Wow!  Have I forgotten how to race.  Regardless, though, I showed the boys that their old man does know how to swim.  I think I impressed Eldest, as well as a few other younger swimmers, who all seemed impressed that their parents and their parents' friends could still get it done.


If you read this blog almost 4 years ago, you know I thought about doing this.  I am not sure why I waited, but I am glad I did.  I did this at the right time.  Circumstances and opportunity collided in a perfect storm.  You also know that I publicly stated one goal if I ever did this.  I did that, too.