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!

Busy Short Week

It felt like I tried to cram 5 days into 3. Of course the week started with a holiday, and I had to stay home with the boys on Friday. Turned out I didn't get 5 days crammed into 3, and ended up working from home much of the day Friday. Although is was a very busy work week, it was a pretty exciting week.

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.

On Tuesday, I received a Face Book message from an old team mate from Lincoln Northeast High School, Joe Woodschank. He had signed up for USMS Summer Nationals, and had registered with the MOVY Masters team, the same team I'm on, and he was eager to join us on some relays. It will be awesome to be rejoined with a team mate more than 22 years later. I'm really excited about that. Once a Rocket, always a Rocket.

The entry deadline for USMS Summer Nationals was Thursday, May 31. Thanks to many members of our MOVY Masters team having very close connections with USMS, we have early news on meet entries. MOVY Masters has registered 63 swimmers in the meet. That makes us the 2nd largest team, only behind the host team of Nebraska Masters. We have a very long list of talented swimmers, so we have a pretty good chance of winning this meet. Pretty exciting stuff! So I informed the guy putting together relays to put me in as many as he can. Anything to help the team!!

But, here is the most exciting part of my week. Some of you know I met my wife through masters swimming. We haven't had a chance to swim laps together for many years, maybe since before we had kids, which means 10+ years. Today we went to the pool at Healthridge Fitness and shared a lane together. It was wonderful to once again share what brought us together in the first place.

Training; I've managed to get through the busy week with out sacrificing my training. Wednesday and Friday I went to the gym and did workouts from Workout Trainer App by Skimble. Wednesday was Weights Circuit Program, Upper Body Pusher, and Core Abs & Stretches. That first one left me with sore legs for 3 days. Friday was Muscle Memory and Drill Sergeant Mom. Those were good workouts, and I struggled a bit, might have to try those again.

Thursday and Saturday were for swimming. Thursday was with the KC Blazers masters at Roeland Park Aquatic Center. This workout let me work on a lot of things, and I worked the 200 IMs pretty hard to get the blood flowing. The main set looks long and complicated, but is really simple once you get into it. You may have seen on Facebook I came up with a name for the set; long course mid distance IM progressive front loading mirrored tri-ladder set.

5/31/2012
Qty	Meters	Interval	Total Mtrs
1	300		300	Free	Swim	DPS
1	400		400	IM	SKDS
1	300		300	Free	Swim	Build
6	150	3:00	900	2 Fly, 2 Back, 2 Brst; 50Kick50Drill50Build
1	200		200	Easy
			0
1	50	1:00	50	Free	Swim
1	100	2:00	100	BrstFree	Swim
1	150	3:00	150	BackBrstFree	Swim
1	200	4:00	200	I.M.	Swim
1	200	4:00	200	I.M.	Swim
1	150	3:00	150	BackBrstFree	Swim
1	100	2:00	100	BrstFree	Swim
1	50	1:00	50	Free	Swim
1	50	1:00	50	Free	Swim
1	100	2:00	100	BrstFree	Swim
1	150	3:00	150	BackBrstFree	Swim
1	200	4:00	200	I.M.	Swim
			0
1	200		200	Cool Down
			0
			3800	Meters
			2.361211	Miles

 For the workout I did on Saturday, while sharing a lane with my wife, I borrowed a workout from Jeff Commings blog again. I did his workout from Sunday May 27. I did have to modify it a bit, since I didn't have bungee cords, and wasn't in a pool I could do starts in. I also had do reduce it to get it down to 60 minutes. It was good though, I inflicted some pain by building some lactic acid, and made sure I was still able to go fast at the end of it. Success!!