Nutrition

My oldest son Evan is 10 now. He is also swimming, and is starting to do the same thing I did at that age, which is eat everything in sight. At about that age, I became the family garbage disposal. Leftovers from dinner were rare. I could never seem to get full, and I was always as skinny as a rail. I always figured if I never was at risk of being over weight, I never needed to worry about nutrition. I figured wrong.

If you haven't been here before, I'm a father of a child with Autism and I'm competing in the 2012 US Masters Swimming Summer Nationals, and raising money for the Ozark Center For Autism. Go here for more intro blog.

Somewhere around getting married and having kids, I took a sabatical from swimming for about 6 years. In that time span, I gained over 20 lbs, and my blood pressure and cholesterol pushed beyond the limits of what is considered healthy. I got back to swimming, and even though the 20 lbs went away, my other numbers never improved.  I decided there was one more thing I needed to fix, my nutrition. It was certainly my biggest weakness, and I had a lot to learn, and needed to change a lot of habits.

This is one area I am no expert, and I'm in no postion to give advice to anyone. But I can point you to where I go for advice. Try http://www.athleticfoodie.com/.  The website is by Garret Weber-Gale, Olympic gold medalist that started to learn about healthy cooking when he was a collegiate swimmer and was diagnosed with high blood pressure. At this website, you'll find many great recipes, as well as videos and articles with great advice. Also, he's a pretty entertaining follow on Twitter at @G_WeberGale. Give him a try.

Training update:
I had a very solid week. I had very hard workouts Monday through Thursday, and this morning worked on a lot of the 'little things' in the pool at HealthRidge. A highlight was seeing a light show through the windows while a thunderstorm rolled through. Glad I had a kick set with board so I could enjoy it. Here are Thursday and Friday workouts. Have a great weekend.

5/3/2012
	Qty	Yards	Interval	Total Yrds
	1	600		600	Free	Mixer
	1	300	5:30	300	Brst	SKDS
	1	300	5:30	300	Back	SKDS
	1	300	5:30	300	Fly	SKDS
	1	200		200	Easy
2	7	50	1:00	700	IM around	Swim	1st set work evens
				0			2nd set work odds
	1	200		200	Easy
	6	200	3:30	1200	I.M.	Swim	Dcnd 1-3,4-6
	1	200		200	Cool Down
				0
				4000	Yards
				2.272727	Miles
	5/4/2012
	Qty	Meters	Interval	Total Mtrs
	1	300		300	Free	Swim	Easy
	1	300		300	Free	Pull	Moderate
	1	300		300	I.M.	KDS
	8	25	:15 Rest	200	Brst	Swim	Start from middle
	10	50	1:10	500	Brst	Kick/Drill
	8	25	0:15	200	Brst	Swim	Stroke Count; Start at Min # of strokes, add 1 stroke ea 25
	1	200		200	Cool Down
				0
				2000	Meters
				1.242742	Miles