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!!