Belated blog due to first competition of the year.

We took the iPad with us which proved very useful and stopped Mrs T getting bored between watching the Royal Navy boys warm up and the occasional swim by Tewson. I on the other hand had no time to complete my weekly blog. I am always amazed how little spare time we have when away swimming. In addition this weekend, my son and his girlfriend came up to Crawley from Dover on Saturday and we all went for a low calorie meal at TGI's in the evening.

This brings me on to my diet and calorie control. I left with great intentions of sticking to my plans for the weekend. Failure big time. I think I averaged 3200 cals a day Fri-Sun.
Oh well back at it today. Last week I managed another 2 lbs for a total of 13lbs lost. I really need to keep at it as I realised how I look from the videos Mrs T took of two of my swims on Sunday. (blobby Tewson)

I was a little disappointed with my swims especially the 200 free. Not as fit as I thought but I guess I have only had 4 weeks of proper training since the shoulder surgery and I trained right up to the weekend. I also treated the weekend as a fun break so ate and drank far to much. At least the swims told me where I am and the 400 free and 100 breast were on par with last year. Generally a happy Tewson.

Training totals are looking good 44,000 metres so far with 2 sessions to go. The best news is that I had no shoulder pain during my swims, even for the sprint 50 fly. I just need to try backstroke out some time soon.

Good week all round.

My blog is becoming a weekly affair each Saturday. Saturday is also my swimming rest day and weigh day. Looks like my 4-5 lbs a week weight loss has come to an end and now the grind of 2-3 a week starts. Just a 2lb loss giving me a total of 11lbs in three weeks. Pretty happy really but like any diet they never work quickly enough for most fatties like me. I need to make sure I keep at it for the next three months.
Training has also gone quite well. Over 13k for the week and over 33k for the month so far. I gave the stroke development session on Tues a miss as last week it gave my shoulder some jip for a couple of days. The shoulder still takes a fair bit of time to loosen up but have been stretching before and after swimming which seems to help. Also been avoiding backstroke so the other 3 strokes are working quite well. How well and how fit I am will be revealed next weekend at Crawley. Not looking forward to the 400 but I am for the meet in general.
The other plus for the week has been lots of kick work at Gloucester and during lane swimming. Legs are definately working better for longer. Hope this translates to better racing.
Two days at a hotel next weekend.that will test my resolve at Breakfast and Dinner. Weighing in will be early next Friday.

All good news but shoulder concerns remain!

A good week again for me but somehow I'm not over happy. Lots of positives, I managed to swim 6 days running up to yestrday but this is countered by low metres per session as I am still protecting the shoulder. Was very sore after Tues club session , I think due to medley sets and drills which I am not really ready for. Back to the positives, over 20k in the first two weeks of the year and soreness now OK after some steady sessions Wed and Thurs with a hard working 2.2k yesterday to finish the week.
Weight wise a good 2nd week. I had concerns that I was not eating enough carbs to allow me to train well so increased carbs from Wed onwards. Also found a great website myfitnesspal which helps with calorie counting and setting allowances for exercise . The result this week was a loss of another 4lbs giving me a 9lbs loss over the first two weeks. Back down to 17.02 which has removed all my recent gains of the last 3 months. The aim now is to average 2-3lbs a week for the next month or so.
Not sure how I am with improved fitness, I guess it is difficult to judge week by week? My shoulder seems to take a long time to warm up before pain disappears. I am planning to increase my stretch and warm up before swimming to see if it helps. I am told I need to introduce a warm down set of stretches to aid recovery. Need some advice on these. Time to ask the forums me thinks.
Hoping the shoulder continues to improve but am always concerned it won't, only time will tell.

New year New Plans

Well it's only the first week of the year but all going to plan. I ended 2011 with a total of just over 353K so looking to inrease this by 50 K or so. Having said that I will be happy if I do the same sort of total but increase the quality of some sessions. The club sessions are fine but I still skive when doing extra sessions during public lanes. Lots of garbage metres or Tesco Sessions (as described elsewhere).
Completed two club sessions this week and two public lane sessions completing a total of 8850. This time last year I was not training at all so am ahead of game and should get some decent fitness metres in.
I also at last sorted my head re weight loss. Had managed to creep up to 17.11 during the Christmas and New Year period. Based on my target last year of losing at least a stone I managed to put one on. Total bloody failure. Onwards and upwards this year, I have a new plan and this week it went well (the first weeks of diets always do). Down to 17.06 so need to keep the losses going for the next 8 weeks. I had considered not posting the details of weight loss but felt that by publishing the details I could not hide the failures or successes.
First competition 28th Jan at Crawley. interesting range of events for me.
400 free, 200 free, 100 Breast, and 50 fly. Really have no idea where I am,speed or fitness wise but all competition is more experience evenly I am not quite on the button.
No training today (Sat) but back to Gloucester tomorrow. Should be doing the round trip 3 times this week with 2 public lane sessions.

Targets are still to get Fitter, Faster and quicker. If the shoulder keeps improving I might succeed in more than one of these this year.