Next!!

I knew this would be a tough long week. Fate threw me a curve ball, and made it a lot rougher. It was going to be a very busy work week, plus it's the week of the Kansas City Corporate Challenge swim meet, which means 4 nights I drive 25 miles out of my way through the heart of Kansas City up to Gladstone, and spend several hours at a pool. Then monday night I started having an upset stomach, which I just thought was being nervous for my races. I was wrong.

First, 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 my intro blog.

The KCCC swim meet is an awesome event. This year, 131 companies participated, and 1,293 people competed! Our Burns & McDonnell team was shooting for our 8th consecutive Division B win, which was exciting.

The KCCC swim meet fell on the calendar roughly a week and a half before the meet I'm training for, the USMS Summer Nationals. So I was going to have 8 races over 4 nights, which is actually not a bad way for me to get ready prepare for my next meet. Then I looked at what I might be able to do in my new 40-44 age group, and realized all of the records appear to be attainable. I thought 2 of them would be easy for me, and the rest I could be really close if I have good swims, especially since I'm already 1-1/2 weeks into my taper, and I'm wearing the full body suits that are banned everywhere but KCCC. I thought that would be a really cool accomplishment to walk away with all the records after this meet. Then my stomach started acting up. I thought it was just nerves, its not uncommon for that to happen to me to some extent. But, I normally am able to recognize that, and calm myself down. I wasn't able to settle my stomach, but I didn't think much of it. I knew what I expected of myself this week was pretty huge, and it might get to me a bit.

I swam my first race, the 200 yard freestyle, and I thought it went really well. With the exception of running into the lane rope with about 10 yards to go, I can't think of any mistakes. I look at the clock for my time, 1:53.99. That's a great time for me, and it’s a gold medal! But, the record was 1:53.60. Bummer! So close! Stupid lane rope!!

Next morning I get ready for work, and start packing my stuff for the meet that night. That's when I knew I was in trouble. I noticed even under the ceiling fan, I was really hot, and sweating, and my stomach was still very upset. I forced half a bowl of cereal for breakfast, but that was all the food I got into me that day. I knew while even sick, that night I would be okay. It was the 50 breaststroke, and the 100 individual medley, my 2 best events for KCCC. Those records would still be easy for me, I just wouldn't be able to go as fast as I wanted. And that is just what happened. My 50 breast was 27.27, which took roughly 3 seconds off the record, and the 100 I.M. was 58.38, over half a second under the record. Now I just hope this is a 24 hour thing, and I can take a good shot at the next 3 records.

Wednesday morning, I got up feeling a little better. I managed to choke down a peanut butter and honey sandwich for breakfast. But as I drove to work I started feeling worse, and that continued as the day went on. Now I not only had an upset stomach, I’m starting to feel week because I haven’t been able to eat. I knew the records were out of reach. My first event was the medley relay*. I knew I would be fine with just 50 yards of breaststroke. I was wrong again. I swam just a hair slower than the night before (relay splits should be faster), and I felt I was about to pass out. When getting out of the pool, I was very happy to see an empty chair. I didn’t even watch my team mates swim, I couldn’t. I stumbled to the warm down pool, and was really worried by a dizzy spell I had when getting out of that pool. Fortunately from that point, until I left the pool, I started feeling better. I had already given up on records, and was just hoping to keep the gold medal streak going. Next I won the 50 backstroke, and actually came about ½ a second from the record. By the time the 50 butterfly came around, I experienced the fatigue from leaving the house at 6 am, and still racing at 10 pm. My time of 26.81 was more than a second slower than last year, and even farther from the record I wanted. And, I nearly lost my grip on the gold medal sweep, but pulled out the win by 0.06 seconds. The race felt tired and weak, and the time showed it. But I had the gold, and felt like I could maybe eat, but that changed before I got home.

Thursday was the last night, finally. 50 freestyle, and Free Relay*. I’m starting to feel better, and was actually able to eat some breakfast, and lunch. My stomach was feeling much better, maybe at 60%, but I still felt pretty weak. My 50 free was 23.51, good enough for my last individual gold, and was actually only about ¼ of a second off the record. So, not too bad. Then after some pleading with my team mates to help me finish the meet with 8 gold medals! They really came through. We came in just 1 second ahead of 2^nd & 3^rd place teams. And I was very happy to anchor the relay with a 23.41 split.

So, if there is a point to this blog, it’s that anything can happen. You just have to make the best of it. I trained really hard for months. I prepared my body, I was ready to go. A stomach bug crushed my plans, but I still have to be very happy with 8 gold medals. I have to be at least 4 individual swims that were the best I’ve ever done at the KCCC meet, including my best event, the 50 breast. So what does that mean when I race healthy next week? That’s the exciting part!

Sure I could have done better if healthy, and I would have had most, if not all the records. That would have been really cool, but what I did accomplish was pretty cool as well. And, Burns & McDonnell did get our 8th consecutive Division B win!
NEXT!!

I’m driving to Omaha tonight, and taking the family to watch the Olympic trials tomorrow.  I’ll be relaxing, and checking out the venue I’ll be competing in next week! I can’t wait!!

*Big thanks to my relay team mates! Medley Relay was Eric Sullins, me, Dana Weir, and Jamie Precht. Free Relay was Joji Calabro, Jenny Macy, Jamie Precht, and me. Without you guys, 8 golds would not have been possible.

Team USA!!

I know it's been a while since I've been here. After a whirl wind business trip last week, I'm back at it. Excitement meter is pretty high right now, with U.S. Olympic Trails for swimming already started this morning, Kansas City Corporate Challenge swim meet starting tonight, and my first race in the USMS Summer Nationals is just 11 days away.

First, 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 my intro blog.
I love the Olympic Trials, one of my favorite sporting events to watch. It is the most competitive meet in the world, even more so than the Olympics. The depth of the US swimmers is far more competitve than the Olympics, considering each country can only send 2 swimmers in any given event. Every event has a dozen or more swimmers with hopes and dreams of being one of those top 2 to be able to call themselves an Olympian. And dozens more are there, knowing they don't have a legitamite shot, but just going to try their best on the biggest stage. Anyway you look at it, its a magical event. What I love most about it is you never come away disappointed. Sure, maybe your favorite swimmer might disappoint you. Look at Brendan Hansen in the 2008 Trials in the 200 meter breaststroke. Just a few weeks earlier he was the world record holder. When it came time for Trials, he couldn't even make the team. It was disappointing that Brendan was not at his best, but what makes up for that is the fact that the Trials sort out who is ready, and who will make up the best possible team for USA! So, best of luck to everyone, you do your best so we know the US will have their best in London!

Work has been insanely busy, and is not letting up. Throw in the fact that I'm getting dozens of emails each day to make adjustments to our KCCC swim roster, it has been really hectic. It was tough being away from home a few days last week. Technology helped a lot with that. Being able to video chat with the family makes a huge difference. Just need to figure out why my picture was upside down on my wife's phone.

Quin's battle with Autism has been really challenging lately. I mentioned a few blogs ago that we were having some difficult and unusual behavior problems. We suspected something was off on the medication we started him on. Then it appeared things got better. And the last week or so, things have gotten pretty bad again. I'm starting to think the behaviors he had before the medications I prefer much more over what we are seeing now. The plan now is to hang in there, and give the medication a fair shot until his doctor's visit early next month.

Training; What can I say? It's taper time. I get in the water, warm up, do some fast stuff, practice some technique, and get out.  Pretty simple, pretty easy, pretty fun! Now I'm just trying to get through the part where you don't feel well at all during taper. It will come around soon enough. Tonight, my workout is swimming the 200 free in the KCCC swim meet. I'm looking forward to my new age group.

That's all for now. Follow along the trials at http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1450&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en  If that isn't enough excitement for you, check out the KCCC results at http://www.kccorporatechallenge.com/corporatechallenge.aspx?pgID=869

It’s Taper Time

It’s music to a swimmer’s ears. If you are not intimately familiar with any endurance sports, you might not know taper is when you reduce your training in order to rest for a particular competition. It’s part of training that has the obvious benefits of reduced workouts, but also comes with challenges.

First, 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 my intro blog.

 

Every athlete is different, and needs to approach their taper strategy differently. Many of my friends that are distance swimmers, triathletes and runners go through their entire taper process in a week. That doesn’t work for me. The benefit of taper is really just beginning for me after a week. I’ve done a two week taper in the past. That has done okay for me, but I think it has been cutting it too close. I’ve noticed that I’m still tapered even after a week or two break after my big meet. I would come back to workouts, and still be swimming crazy fast times. This time around, I’m going for a full 3 week taper.

Now I’ve decided how long my taper is, next I decide how to do it. First, what do I do with my gym workouts? Some continue their weights and running, or whatever they do in the gym, they just reduce weight, sets, reps, or all of the above. I’ve tried that before. I’ve found its best for me to drop my gym workouts all together. Second, what do I do with my pool workouts? My normal ‘in season’ workouts range from about 3,200 to 4,200 meters, and are filled with a wide variety of endurance work, drills, speed work, kicking, pulling, anything under the sun. One theory is to slowly reduce your workouts over a 3 week period, another is to drop down to a certain amount and hold it there until your competition comes. Since I’m going to have the Kansas City Corporate Challenge meet in the middle of my taper, I’m going to drop to around 1,700 meters per day up until KCCC, and drop down to 1,000 meters or less after it. My swimming workouts will consist of warm up, some drills, some sprints, and warm down.

So, how is it that can be challenging? There are a few reasons. Time to relax can be hard to find. It wasn’t a big deal before I had a family. Before family life, I could come home, sit on the couch and enjoy some TV. The only responsibility I had was feeding myself. That is not the case now. There is always work to do when I get home. Chores, picking up, cleaning, cooking, getting kids to bed, etc. Having a child with special needs makes it even tougher. Autism has a way of making things way more difficult than they need to be. And at taper time, all I want to do sit down. That’s not happening for this dad. The second thing that is challenging is it really tests your faith. No, I’m not saying it’s a strain on my religion. Taper gives the mind too much time and energy to wander, and to question. You begin to question your training, or if your taper will even work. And if you feel there is something you left out of your training, its too late to make it up. You have to trust you have trained as well as you could. You have to trust your taper will work. You have to have faith.

So, does taper really work? You might think that taking it easy for 3 weeks would have to reduce my fitness significantly. Believe me, where I talked about trusting my taper, I have those doubts too. History has proven time and time again, my fitness will still be there 3 weeks, and even 4 or 5 weeks later. And as fatigue leaves my body, my strength improves dramatically. How much can it really help? Many people will drop 2 seconds per 100 yards/meters when they taper. Some will drop more. I am in the more category. Way, way more! I usually drop between 4 and 6 seconds per 100 when I taper. And for some reason, for 50 meter course, it is usually in the 6 range. If that sounds like a dramatic difference, it is! In season can be really tough. It makes the big meets a lot of fun.

Training has been fun lately. I had my last full workout last Thursday. Since then, I just get in the water, and do what ever my body tells me I need. The minimum requirement is a good warm up, and getting something with some really good speed. I make sure I stop before fatigue sets in, get a nice warm down, and get out. Getting some speed every time is critical. It keeps everything sharp, and helps keep up confidence going into the big meet.

Thats it for now. My next challenge will be trying to keep some business travel from being too disruptive, in the pool and at home.

KCCC

The clock is ticking, and excitement is building. As a swimming fan, U.S. Olympic Trials is approaching fast. Directly after that will be the meet I've been training for Marriott USMS Summer Nationals. But, I have some business to take care of first. That's the swim meet in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge.

First, 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 my intro blog.

Okay, my last blog was a bit of a downer. When you live with Autism, you get constant reminders that it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it gets overwhelming. But this post is about something much more fun. The Kansas City Corporate Challenge is kind of a coporate olympics. A wide range of events that spans over two months every summer. The event is not unique to Kansas City, but it is the oldest, and by far the biggest in the nation. After more than 30 years, it has grown to over 160 companies are involved with well over 10,000 participants. The swim meet usually has roughly 1,100 swimmers, and fills every bit of 4 evenings . It's a pretty big deal. And KCCC was started to promote health & fitness, so it's a pretty cool deal, too.

I work for Burns & McDonnell, and engineering and construction firm headquartered here in Kansas City. We take the KCCC very seriously. We have won the overall trophy for Division B (divisions are based on company size) for 8 consecutive years, and we have won the swim meet for Division B for 7 consecutive years. And this year, we are the presenting sponsor. I am one of four swim coaches, with Joe Pacey, Jamie Precht, and Hilary Fellows. Four coaches may sound excessive, but there are a ton of duties shared amongst us, including running practices/tryouts, recruiting and coordinating a team for the meet. Of course we are expected to maintain our normal workload all the while. The swim meet is just 11 days away now. The last week or so, the other coaches and I have been working feverishly to recruit swimmers. We learned years ago the participation is the way to win this meet. We could try to maximize our points, and only use our best swimmers in every event. But, that would mean much fewer people get to experience the meet.

Every year we have several people that have not competed in a swim meet for many years, and some never have. They always have an amazing time. We hear it every year, "That was fun! I'm going to practice so I can do better next year!" Well, as you can imagine, most do not follow through on that promise. But, some do. And they accidentally become a more fit and healthy person in the process. And that is what is exciting about KCCC. Sure, the competition is fun, seeing and racing against old friends, maybe chasing after a record or two. When you see someone come back for their second year, and see them drop massive amounts of time from the previous year, that is real fun! We don't see it often, but we do see it, and it is really awesome when we do! Because we know the KCCC swim meet has improved their lives.

Thanks to the efforts of all of our swim coaches and the courage of many, right now our roster stands at 61 swimmers! Now that will be tough to hold. There is always last minute travel plans, illnesses or injuries that get in the way. But, it's looking line a pretty sure bet it will be the most swimmers any company has ever brought to the KCCC swim meet. That means we have the best chance of somebody coming back next year, having accidentally become a more healthy and fit person than they would have been without KCCC.

Now here is sometihng fun. Go to the KCCC website. You notice it has a slide show. Look for 4 people showing their muscles. Yep, that's my freestyle relay team, and that's me on the right! Now, wait for it to cycle through until you see that picture again, and look at the picture to the right of it. Yep, that's me running the mile! How cool is that?!

TRAINING:
Training has been going well, but time to improve before my meet is getting short.

Tuesday I did another workout from Jeff Commings' Blog. I did his workout from Tuesday June 5. I was a bit sluggish and tired, but managed to squeeze out a pretty quick 50 at the end.

Wednesday was my last gym workout, so I set out to make it a good one. I went to my Workout Trainer App, and picked 3 of the hardest workouts I could find. I did Muscle Memory, Fat Burner Deluxe, and 5 Min Arms & Abs. The goal was to test my toughness, I knew these workouts would do that.

This morning, I went to the GoSwim.tv website for a workout. I've mentioned here before, this is an awesome site for swimming info, no matter what level of swimmer you are. On the right, under Practices, click on Gold, and then Main Set Tuesday - Fast. I just added a warmup and short kick set before it, and a warm down at the end, and I had a full workout. I struggled this morning, and I knew I would after yesterdays workout. I expect more out of tomorrow, my first workout of my taper!!

Roller Coaster Ride

The Rezek house has been a roller coaster lately. In my last post, we were feeling as positive as could be. As far as Quin is concerned, there has been little positive lately. Although he is continuing to improve on the bicycle, and he is consistently taking his medication with little or no resistance. But, it seems day after day he is finding new ways to get into trouble.

First, 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 my intro blog.

I try to always be a positive person, and give uplifting reports on my blog. But, living with Autism is not always positive. To say it is a roller coaster ride would be much more accurate. I won't trouble you with too much of the detail, but I will say his getting into trouble has been persistent, yet unpredictable. Tonight was highlighted by leaving the dinner table early, sneaking a water cup away to spill on the couch, then stripping down before running upstairs to stand up on his bed and pee on his bed and the wall. To several families dealing with Autism, this is not surprising at all. But, we have grown comfortable to little to no bathroom issues for more than a couple of years now. So this behavior was quite a shock to us.

We're not sure what has caused such a change in Quin's behavior. He has been through several changes that could be clues. His regular school year has ended, and he is attending summer school, his Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapist has gone on maternity leave, and he began his medication. With so many variables, it's hard to figure out the problem. But, we will figure it out.

Our older son Evan has helped offer us some bright spots the last few days. Thursday night he had his first meet of the summer. Because he has had about 8 months of swimming since his last meet in a meters pool, it was fun to see how far he had come along in that time. Then Saturday we left the house about 6 am to head to Lawrence, KS so he could participate in the IronKids Triathlon. It was a hot sticky morning, a fairly tough course for kids, and he had to struggle with a much heavier and clunkier bike than his competitors. But, he did well and really enjoyed it. We'll find a better bike for him to ride next time, one with gears, and brakes that don't stick! Of course I think the highlight for him was the family of the friend he did the triathlon with took him straight from the triathlon to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. They brought him home just after 1 am, so Evan had been gone for roughly 19 hours. He wasn't worth much on Sunday.

Training:

I'm glad I take my weekends off. I get more time with my family. And I think my body really needs the recovery. Before the weekend, I was looking for a swim workout for Friday morning. I follow a swim coach on Twitter by the name of Dave Salo. He works with some of the greatest athletes in the world, and has several international swimmers. At any given time, but often during Olympic years, several of his swimmers travel abroad to fulfill their commitments to their home nations. One solution to keep these swimmers in training while gone, he has turned to posting workouts on Twitter. @SprintSalo For Friday, I intercepted one of these workouts. I did make one small adjustment, I added 5 seconds per 50 meters to the intervals. I felt it was workout I was certainly capable of, but I wanted to do the workout well, and not just make it. It turned out to be just what I needed. Lots of short fast swims!

	6/8/2012
	Qty	Meters	Interval	Total Mtrs
	1	400		400	Free	Swim
	1	300		300	Free	Pull
	1	200		200	Brst	Kick
				0
6	3	50	0:55	900	I.M.order	Swim	25;3rd Gear,25; 5th
	1	100	1:40	600	Free	Swim	Dcnd 1-3
	1	50	1:05	300	Free	Swim	Fast!!
	1	100	1:55	600	I.M.	Swim	Dcnd 1-3
				0
	1	200		200	Cool down
				0
				3500	Meters
				2.174799	Miles

This morning, I went back to my Workout Trainer App. I did Ring The Bell! and AA: fABulously ARMed. I wanted a good one, because I only have one more of these workouts left before taper, which starts Thursday. And I'm very excited about that!!

TAKE THAT AUTISM!!

We have a few major victories in the Rezek house lately. We have a friend in the Autism community named Jennifer Smith. She has two children on the spectrum. Occasionally we'll see on Facebook where she has a sees one of her kids make some progress, or perform some act that most normal kids do, but she has never seen her kids do because of their struggles with Autism. When this type of victory happens, she says "Take That Autism!!"

First, 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 my intro blog.
Victory #1:
A few weeks ago Stacy took Quin to the doctor because of some of his behaviors were getting quite worrisome. That resulted in Quin now being on medication to try to get those behaviors in check. Usually he has no trouble taking his medicine. But, apparently this stuff tastes awful. With the first attempt, the medicine spewed from his mouth as soon as it went in it. That's when we learned this medicine not only tastes awful, it is also one of the stickiest and hardest to clean substances known to mankind. The second attempt was a long, difficult struggle, which basically ended with us forcing it into his throat, and keeping it there until he had no choice but to swallow. I was not warm to the idea of medicating my son in the first place, and this wasn't helping. I knew we were in trouble when we tried mixing it in chocolate ice cream, and that didn't work either. This has to be terrible stuff to ruin chocolate ice cream. We gave up on mixing it, and just fought the fight. The only thing we added was offering him two Jolly Rancher Chews after his medicine. The fight became less and less each night, and last night, he took it willingly. WINNING!!

TAKE THAT AUTISM!!

Victory #2:
Since Quin was old enough to play, he has been fascinated with anything that spins. That basically means either fans, or wheels. Since his cousin got him a Razor scooter for Christmas (thanks Aunt Paula!!), it has been one of his favorite things to do. I follow him around on a bicycle, just to make sure he doesn't snoop around peoples cars or run inside neighbors garages, because he does that. Usually while he is out there, his brother Evan is zooming around on his bicycle. A few months ago, Quin just went and grabbed smallest bicycle that does NOT have training wheels and took it to the sidewalk. He needed a ton of assistance. I would give him a little push, and he would keep his feet on the pedals for about half a turn, and put his feet down. We did this for 2 solid months, with no progress. I didn't push it much though. He was having fun, he'll get it at his own pace. And it burned some calories for me, so it wasn't a waste. Then Monday night, he got on the bike, and as usual said "I need some help". I gave him a little shove, and he took off. He pedaled about 50' before he stopped. As I was trying to catch up, I started to tell him I'd be there to help him start again. I was too late. He got started, and took off on his own! Now he has that part figured out. If I can just get him to use the brakes....

TAKE THAT AUTISM!!

Training is going fairly well. I've been getting in my workouts, and pleased with my performance while doing them. But, the workouts with my team this week, were really not what I needed. We did sets like 9 x 200s, and 5 x 400s. I need to be going fast right now. Every workout I need to be doing some fast 100s and or 50s. I love training with my team mates. But they all understand I think I need to do my own thing from now until the meet next month.

I am thinking about what I have to do, and getting pretty nervous. I'm going to have a big load of racing. I have the Kansas City Corporate Challenge meet June 25th to 28th. I'll have 8 races in 4 days. That actually works out well, that's what I'll need in that part of my taper. Then at USMS Summer Nationals July 6th to 8th, I'll have 10 races in 3 days. That's a pretty big load. A total of 18 races, good thing only 5 of them are more than 50 meters!

Monday and Wednesday were gym workouts. I'm still using the Workout Trainer app by Skimble. Monday was Wicked Weights, 15 Min Core Booster Abs, and Power Challenge. Wednesday was Sexy Swinging Dumbbells, Heavy Lifter, and Military Legs & Ab Superset. I'm really getting used to these types of workouts, and learning how to get the most out of them I think I'll be pleased with the results.

Swimming workouts were Tuesday & Thursday:

	6/5/2012
	Qty	Meters	Interval	Total Mtrs
	1	700		700	100 Free, 50 Stroke….
3	1	100	2:00	300	Stroke	Kick
	6	50	1:00	900	Stroke,Odds Drill,Evens Swim
					1st set Fly, 2nd Back, 3rd Brst
	1	200		200	Easy
	9	200		1800	Start at 200 Free on #1
				0	Add 25 of brst on end ea 200
				0	End w/ 200 Brst on #9
	1	200		200	Cool Down
				0
				4100	Meters
				2.547622	Miles

6/7/2012
Qty	Meters	Interval	Total Mtrs
1	300		300	Free	Swim	Easy
1	200		200	I.M.	25K25S
1	300		300	Free	Swim	Mod
1	200		200	I.M.	25D25S
7	100	2:00	700	IM around	Odds; 25S25K25D25S
			0		Evens; Swim
1	200		200	Easy
			0
4	100	2:00	400	I.M.	Swim
1	400		400	Free	Pull	Brth, 3,5,7,3 by 50s
2	200	4:00	400	I.M.	Swim
1	400		400	Free	Pull	DPS
1	400		400	I.M.
1	200		200	Cool Down
			0
			4100	Meters
			2.547622	Miles

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. My next blog I hope to report how Evan did in his Iron Kids Triathlon on Saturday!