Interesting Stats at Complete Nutrition

A couple of my athletes have been stopping by a place called Complete Nutrition lately, which seems to be a place that focuses on supplements and meal replacement products for the bodybuilding crowd.  Both of these athletes are beyond high school age and it is nice to see them taking an interest in nutrition.  They have been asking me a lot of questions and bringing up things they are learning as they read up on it.

I got curious about visiting the store because one of those swimmers has been checking in there to get detailed stats on his body composition.  He was actually able to tell me how much his body fat percentage had improved and exactly what his lean mass is.

So I stopped by the store and had mine evaluated.  Now, I can't make an argument for accuracy here, but the last time I had this done was during a school health fair where they bring in doctors and collect stats and hand out flyers for different programs they offer, but it was far enough into my LCHF diet that I had already lost the weight with running and weighed about 171 with around 10 or 11% body fat.  That would put my lean mass at approximately 154 pounds.

Since then (probably over a year) I feel like I look more fit but I had to go to Complete Nutrition to satisfy my curiosity.  The machine they have just requires you to take your shoes off, stand on some foot pads and hold onto a bar with sensors to press with your thumbs.  Apparently it determines your body composition based on electric currents somehow.  Sorry I don't know much about it.

I came away with a sheet that says I weigh 174.7, with 7.3% body fat and 161.8 pounds of lean mass.  This is very interesting to me as apparently I have gained 7 pounds of muscle while only gaining three pounds over-all.  And this is without lifting weights.  At age 40.

...and I keep getting faster too.  This morning after I completed a round of 100 breast targets USRPT style and scored 15+12+6, (a pretty good score considering I just moved my target time down about half a second not too long ago,) I took a 100 easy and then pushed my fastest 100 breast with-out a dive ever.  1:03.0.  Even better, I was out in 29.  For me, that's a big deal. I am feeling pretty good about the spring sectional meet coming up.  I have already seen significant improvements since the pro-am in December and I am pretty sure it will translate to better racing as long as I am healthy when I get there.

THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 2: Energy Systems and Swim Training 101

THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.

Part 2:  Energy Systems and Swim Training 101

Butter up that bacon and listen good… Viking is here to teach ya a little about fuel.

This post covers the three energy systems that contribute to the different intensities of athletic movement and how those relate to swim training.  I feel that while most coaches probably have a pretty good grasp on this topic, not all readers are coaches, and it never hurts to have a refresher.  Hopefully this helps us all to follow some of the ideas I am trying to get across throughout this multi-part series. Please understand that this is a simplified rundown on the complex science behind energy systems and training zones.  If you want more detail on the info I am summarizing here, there is more in-depth information available at the links throughout the article below. Much of the info here is cut, pasted and paraphrased from the links throughout the article.

All three energy systems basically boil down to different methods of making ATP available for muscle contraction, and it is a game of percentages, with each system contributing something all the time.  We never exclusively use one system as it is much more like a sliding scale based on intensity and substrate availability.  

• First is the phosphagen system which gives you about 10 seconds of explosive power from the ATP and CP (creatine phosphate) stored within the muscles. We can’t store much, so even Vlad Morozov with a really good relay exchange couldn’t blast through a 50 free solely on the explosive energy this provides.  
• Next in line is glycolysis.  It can contribute about 30 seconds to 2 minutes of all-out power based on available blood glucose and/or stored muscle glycogen.  This is the second fastest way to generate ATP, but for every glucose molecule broken down to pyruvate, only two molecules of useable ATP are produced.  The trade off is that when not enough oxygen is available, some of the pyruvate converts to lactate for energy. This is a fantastic source of power, but causes acidity which starts a cascade of events that interfere with muscle contraction.  It is anaerobic glycolysis that builds lactic acid.  When we reach the point that we are no longer able to clear lactic acid as quickly as we are producing it, we have passed our “anaerobic threshold” and will start seeing a diminished performance.
• The aerobic system is more complex as it can use glucose, glycogen, and fats for oxidation.  The aerobic system can produce 36 molecules of ATP from glucose which is 18 times the contribution from glycolysis, but the hang up is that it is a much more slowly moving system.  The aerobic system can also produce a significantly higher amount from oxidation of fatty acids, with some fats shown to create up to 129 molecules of ATP per molecule of some specific types of fat.  This is why the aerobic system can keep you going through those long practices and events.  That is a lot of energy.  It’s too bad we can’t make fat metabolism work faster.  That could be a game changer, right?

Standard swimming training aims at increasing a few specific parameters, so most of our sets traditionally focus on these variables, in order from least intense to most intense: technique to develop hydrodynamic efficiency and propulsion, increasing anaerobic threshold, increasing VO2 max, increasing “lactate tolerance” and developing explosive power.  

...and ‘beefcakiness’.  Admit it.  This is why you swim.

Here is the standard chart most USA Swimming coaches tend to follow that guides set design based on these levels.  Please note that there is some cross-over between these levels and their intended adaptations. Sprinting and race-pace training are typically considered “lactate sets” in swimming, and these are the sets normally designed to improve lactate tolerance, which includes mainly SP 1-2 but depending on the design of the set this can also be part of the equation in the higher EN 2 and 3 categories as well. The higher intensity work like speed play, ultra-short sprints, dynamic start/turn work and using the power-rack would be included in the SP3 category, designed to train the creatine-phosphate contribution to racing.

Long, low intensity endurance training has been the meat and potatoes of swim training for decades due to it’s effect on improving oxygen delivery and uptake to muscles.  This is primarily based on adaptive increases in blood flow capacity and mitochondrial density, thus increasing oxygen delivery to muscle and oxygen metabolism within the muscle, thus enhancing our ability race well, while relying less on anaerobic glycoysis. This defines aerobic training in swimming and is directly tied to improving anaerobic threshold and VO2 max in some way at all of the REC, EN1 and EN2-3 intensity levels.  VO2 max measurement has been accepted as defining the limits of the cardiorespiratory system, and obviously increasing your ability to generate power from oxygen would boost swimming performance.  

There is of course a lot more detail behind these processes but we aren’t really pursuing a chemistry or biology degree here.  I just hope that if you find any of the points I plan to make in following points confuse you, that you will come back here to have a reference to help make sense of it when it starts getting detailed.  My next post is about potential modern advances in aerobic training.  I hope you stay tuned and that I can make this easy enough to follow along.

THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 1: The New Science of Healthy Eating

THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.

Part 1:  The New Science of Healthy Eating

Nutrition can often be like politics and religion. People tend to dig their heels in and stand up for their long held beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Sometimes they don’t even know how they first formed those beliefs. Unfortunately in America, when it comes to nutrition, much of our base knowledge stems from advertising.  

Feel free to add nutrition to the list of things you shouldn't talk about when you're drunk. I am not drunk right now but you might think I am when you hear me out. I came here to tell you that the standard nutrition advice you have heard all your life might just be completely wrong. The 60-70% carbohydrate, low-fat ideal is something that I have hardly heard anyone question in my thirty years of swimming, so I am taking it on with a few posts at SwimSwam along with more at the blog I share with Chris DeSantis, The Swim Brief.  A lot of what I will have to say here will be speculation based on things I have read, but all I can ask is that you follow along and form your own opinion as we go. I understand that I am not a world-class swimmer and I would qualify as merely a mediocre high school and club coach at best so it is hard to consider me any kind of an expert.  I also understand that I am not a nutritionist, and I am aware that many of the links I will direct you to are blogs and such, but if you follow them you will find all the science you need.  I can also direct you to more if you have questions.  This has become a passion of mine, as it was the launching pad for an unexpected and surprisingly successful comeback to swimming in my forties that would not have happened if I had never changed my relationship with food. I hope you can keep an open mind and follow me as I present the other side of the story regarding advances in the science of training and nutrition.

I have always felt there was some sort of disconnect between the advice I was given in my exercise physiology and nutrition courses while pursuing my degree and what would be truly optimal for me as a swimmer. I remember being frustrated that most of the studies referred to in the textbooks were done on marathon runners or power-lifters, with us 1-2 minute racers in the middle being ignored.  I was genuinely interested in the science and wanted someone smarter than me to just tell me what to do.  I was the kid who liked reading the textbook even when it wasn’t assigned. I remember being a little uneasy when we were told to keep our blood sugar high to enhance performance, and to eat small snacks often or have sugary sports drinks to avoid dips in energy, partly because most of that advice came from studies done at the Gatorade institute which seemed to be a conflict of interest, and also because that advice seemed to work horribly for me.  Carb loading and sipping Gatorade made me feel awful. The “carb-carb-carb-gotta-keep-blood-sugar-up” plan backfired on me more often than not. The first meet where my school provided Powerade on deck was the worst shave meet I had in four years of college-- but who was I to question science, right? I was a twenty year old kid with a mohawk.  I looked pretty stupid trying to argue with a professor who used to run marathons.  I still remember going to a doctor about my unreasonable fatigue and being told I need to “choose better carbs” and eat them more often, as though they just assumed I was eating skittles for most of my calories.  

Come to think of it, carb loading at the Mo State swimmer house did get a little out of hand...

So imagine my surprise when at age 38 I stumbled upon the concept of ketones as a legitimate energy source. Suddenly I felt as though I had been lied to about food all my life, and the more I researched, the more that feeling reached conspiracy-theory levels. Ketones were hardly mentioned in my degree program.  They were presented as an inefficient fuel created by breaking down fatty acids during starvation to help us get by. So then why are there so many runners, cyclists, triathletes, and power lifters out there on the web claiming that ketones are a super fuel that keeps them from bonking on ultra-endurance races, promotes better recovery from workouts, and are starting to become the basis of treatments for several chronic diseases?  Huh?

Here's how it works. A normal, healthy metabolism will typically produce a small amount of ketones overnight or any time you fast. Some people, if they knew this, might freak out thinking this could be dangerous considering the problems that can be associated with low blood sugar and the fact that one of the worst complications from diabetes is called ketoacidosis, which is often confused with nutritional ketosis. Ketones are a natural energy source from burning fat. If you lose a few pounds of body fat your ketones have been elevated-- no question. The problem is that we gradually lose the ability to do this efficiently as we become insulin resistant.  Insulin can block our access to fats for fuel and stands in the way of ketogenesis, so essentially, when our blood sugar is up, our fat burning ability is turned down. This is a safety mechanism:  we have to burn glucose in the bloodstream first since high levels can be toxic, therefore fat tends to be stored when glucose is freely available in high amounts.  If we become insulin resistant, our blood sugar and insulin levels are chronically high which leads to many complications over time. Insulin resistance is strongly correlated with metabolic syndrome. The weight you gain as you age, even though you might feel you are eating healthy, is not necessarily normal. It is often tied to the level of insulin resistance you have developed over the years, and when that becomes strong enough, you are on the edge of diabetes.  There is a clinic at Duke that treats obesity and diabetessimply by replacing medication with a ketogenic diet, which flies in the face of our medical industry's standard treatment but has had tremendous success.  And oh yeah, did I mention that the ketogenic diet has also been known as a treatment for epilepsy for over a hundred years and is now being seriously studied as a potential treatment option in a wide range of ailments from Alzheimer’s to cancer?  There are numerous health benefits that come with removing carbohydrate from our diets and increasing our fat intake, and ketones are now being researched as an anti-aging mechanism.  My stomach issues (among other things,) cleared up immediately after dropping carbohydrate from my diet, and I now wake up at 5am ready to rock every day rather than suffering my way out of bed--, but hey, maybe it's the 35 pounds I lost that are just making me think I feel better, right?

But what about your heart, Viking?  Won't it explode if we get rid of whole grains and add fat?  You might as well attach a rocket to your cholesterol numbers, right?! Well, in the next few years you are going to see more articles like this one, and this one, almost apologizing for getting it completely wrong over the last few decades. If you follow the most recent science you will see saturated fats and cholesterol being vindicated, with sugars and other carbohydrates now being blamed for heart disease. The tide is turning and it is fascinating to watch. Old science, food politics and our food and medical industries are being taken to task by a more informed public. The cascade of problems above, many of them accelerated by our obsession with sugary drinks and other sources of high or hidden fructose, is also the reason we now have children with Type 2 Diabetes even though it was once called “Adult Onset Diabetes” and is also why we now have children turning up with Fatty Liver Disease like an alcoholic.  Fructose is primarily processed in the liver, which is why it tends to have a higher correlation with diabetes and with the creation of visceral fat.  Fructose is a much greater contributing factor to heart disease than saturated fats and cholesterol, but don’t try telling the American Heart Association that.

Check out this great exchange between a columnist and a spokesman for the AHA.  Situations like this are the reason Max Planck once said “Science progresses one funeral at a time.”  Add money to that mix and you can imagine why it might take a few more funerals to get our political, education, food, pharmaceutical and medical industries on board with a new approach to healthy eating.

Eating fat doesn’t make you fat-- apparently it makes you fast.

I get approximately 75 percent of my calories from fat, mostly saturated, and eat no grains whatsoever.  My cholesterol did go up, but I am not worried about heart disease and neither is my doctor.  Studies have shown that most people who switch to low carb move to more favorable lipid profiles, and for people like me whose cholesterol goes up, it is usually a short-term side effect.  Cholesterol is considered one risk factor for heart disease, and it is not necessarily a risk factor in and of itself. As a matter of fact, it was recently shown that in the elderly, higher LDL scores are correlated with lower all-cause mortality. Oxidized LDL is proving to be the problem, and if we avoid the most easily oxidized fats and reduce inflammation we reduce risk.  Here is a great blog from a heart doctor who switched to a paleo diet and happened upon something that urges new studies to be done.  He has excellent N=1 evidence that even with a high LDL particle count, which is considered a dangerous indicator, scans show that his levels of arterial thickness might have reversed.  The significance here is that the medical establishment doesn't really believe this can happen.  It is accepted that build up in the arteries is cumulative and does not reverse itself.  This doctor seems to think that this diet that pulls fat from cells so efficiently might also pull it from the walls of arteries in the same way.  If that is true, we might be on to something that could change our entire medical system.

We have sciency stuff that needs to be done.  Anybody got this guy’s number?

If you want to read more about this stuff, I can recommend all sorts of great links.  Watch for more to come at SwimSwam and feel free to save http://www.swimbrief.net in your favorites to check in there once in a while as well. The rabbit hole is deep on this topic.  My swimming comeback has really been a fantastic journey of self-experimentation and thorough investigation and I want to share a whole new world of nutrition knowledge with all of you, my friends in swimming.

My next post will be a brief review of some of the science that we coaches learn early on in our careers to help lay a foundation for future posts, where I will sum up why I believe the low-carb high-fat diet is not just a healthy option for the average Joe.  I believe LCHF is the way we Homo Sapiens were designed to eat, and I think I can make a great argument about why it is also optimal for swimmers.  Even more, I will argue that because of the specific metabolic adaptations related to LCHF, there is also an optimal way to train and prepare for races. Please stay tuned and I of course, encourage comments.

**Yes, this was written for SwimSwam but I am actually posting on both sites with their permission.  :)

Sneaking in a Workout, Ended Up with a Flashback

Yesterday I took my high school girls to a meet and had a chance to sneak in a workout during the diving warm-up.  It was simple and short, of course, but no different than my normal.

My 200 breast USRPT target doesn't quite match my best time right now.  Notice, when I started this training I was at 2:12.3 for my best come-back race time, which translates to a 33.0 target.  I decided to leave my target there even after I improved since I had not mastered it yet by completing 20 repeats with no fails.

-8x75 warm up, mixing in speedplay.
-50's on 50 at 200 breast USRPT target (33.08) out to third fail.  My score was 8+2+2.  (My previous best is 11-4-2.)
-150 easy...

Since I didn't do my best score I decided to try to redeem it by doing a fast 200 breast from a push.  My best in a practice so far was 2:21, which I had done once.  Before that I had done a couple of 2:24's after target sets and I was hoping to take a shot at that 2:21 again.

Well, when I got to the 75, who did I see?  My old college coach from Missouri State, Jack Steck, standing at the end of the lane watching. He had showed up to officiate the high school meet.  He had his shoulders shrugged and a hand on his chin as though he was about to get on my case for something... so of course I dug deep.  I ended up hitting a 2:17.

It hurt like hell, but it was a great feeling having Jack watching me as though he was calculating how many points I was about to score.  It certainly added something to the workout.

Not sure I could handle that every day though. USRPT is mentally tough enough without Jack breathing down my neck. I felt like I was gonna die when I hit that wall!

Dammit, Klosterman!  You're swimming like you just got your ass bit by a Saluki!

VO2MAXimizer Pre-Kickstarter Campaign!

A few weeks ago I posted about a device I have started using, and I am excited to announce that it is going to make it's first big marketing push.  If you like VO2MAXimizer on facebook and check in at their website you will be able to follow along and see the actually using the device and showing off their results! I use this device and swear by it.  Remember, if you decide to purchase one, choose the Viking in the drop down menu at checkout to let them know I sent you.

PRESS RELEASE

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LIKE AND SHARE!

Pre Kickstarter Sale Coming 2/23/15. Only 15 Units available at $200.00 off retail (even less than our early bird kick-starter pledge requirement).

The VO2MAXimizer is a new to the world product that produces guaranteed results that no other product can deliver!!! This product will change competitive sports!!!

Our beta users have all reported results including
1.) New personal best performances in each beta user's respective sport
2.) Measurable physiological changes including significant improvements in VO2 Max, Lactate Threshold, Pulse Rate, Blood Pressure, as well as 20% increase in Oxygen Carrying Red Blood Cells.

!!!BE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PAGE TO WITNESS THE VO2MAXIMIZER IN ACTION!!!!

Over the next 5 weeks we'll be doing REAL TIME tests of the VO2MAXimizer and posting the progress videos and photos directly to Facebook Every Monday starting tomorrow. If you have doubts or are curious as to what you might be able to expect, stay tuned!!

www.VO2MAXimizer.com

A Pretty Awesome Morning Workout

I guess this will officially be my first training log post.  This morning was a pretty standard workout for me, but certainly outlines the way I have been making progress in my training.  Here's what I did with my team:

-10x75 on 1:30 easy free and breast drills, but mixing in speed-play to wake up the sprint.
-30x25 on 30 breaststroke in USRPT format.
-3 min. rest
-100 fast breaststroke from push.

My team went ahead and did another set after that, which was USRPT format for the 200 fly, but I don't plan to ever race that so I was done with my entire practice in about 30 minutes.

Today was significant because it was only the third time I have ever completed 30x25 at 100 breast pace without any fails.  Until last week, I had never made it past fourteen before my first fail and had never made it to thirty intervals before failing out with three.  Often my first fail would be right after the freebies were done, which on a set of 25's at 100 pace would be #7.  I am not sure why I have suddenly made this improvement.  As I said in yesterday's post, I took a couple of weeks off after the pro-am and expected to have to spend some time getting back into the groove.  I feel as though there was absolutely no de-training effect at all, which is strange since it is accepted science that it takes approximately four weeks to make up for one week of lost training.

Another thing that made today significant:  I pushed a 1:03 mid on that 100 breast for the first time.  When I started adding this randomly to my routine it was for curiosity's sake, and I started with a 1:07.  I have gradually worked my way down, and usually my best times on it were done if I got to swim during an afternoon.  I rocked this morning.

For any readers out there who want to follow along with my training in more detail, it is easy to do.  I have logged every workout (running and swimming) for over a year in Runkeeper, and all of my meals in MyFitnessPal.  The two apps sync together to make calorie counting easier.  It is very handy.

If you become my friend on those apps you can see more about my habits than I am usually willing to share.  I started using those apps to regulate the diet as I made the transition to LCHF, and now I do it to make sure I eat enough and to keep me within the rules of my comeback.  I want to be able to show that I really did improve my swimming with my LCHF meal plan and comparatively minimal training.

This afternoon I will have one of those rare opportunities to get in the water again.  Two workouts in a day is rare, but when I have a chance I take advantage of it.  Usually it is to re-do a USRPT set that I wasn't happy with in the morning since I tend to get really pissed about it when I under-perform because I don't like wasting my time, but today I am not sure what I am going to do just yet-- and if something comes up that keeps me out of the water, it is no big deal.

The "Viking Method" Experiment

Viking has been wanting to write quite a bit lately but have struggled to find the time.  I have been working pretty hard on a write up for SwimSwam about nutrition and training to be posted soon, since I opened my big fat mouth and tried to act like I am smarter than the nutritionist who posted some nutrition tips there. I decided that a great way to tie into that would be to supplement it with a series of smaller posts here. The first thing that will help with that is to describe my swimming comeback so that readers have some kind of reference to understand some of the the points I am making in case they want more info.  I hope that starting a little bit of a training log will add some depth to it without getting annoying. Once in a while I might just post a link or a video that anyone following along might want to see.  Sometimes it might just be a random thought, since finding time to write with the hours I work is nearly impossible. I would not post any of it if I did not think it was interesting and relevant.  I think that anyone who is curious about making themselves a better swimmer and has a mind open to new ideas might like following along with my little experimental adventure.


First, I have to say that in the same way that "we don't choose swimming, swimming chooses us,"  I must explain that I did not change my diet to make a swimming comeback.  I got back in the water to see how I could do after I changed my diet, lost a bunch of weight, and cut my best 5k down by about four minutes with the same running routine I had been doing every spring for years.  This has become an experiment to see if there is a better way for swimmers to do this fast racing thing.  I am trying to make the case that what I have started here is optimal for swimmers, and I may be the first person to actually try it this way that I know of.

I am determined to swim faster in my forties than I did in my early twenties.  I am certain that I can, even while facing pretty severe limitations in comparison to those in my life twenty years ago in my prime.  I currently work anywhere from 10-17 hours per day, with many weeks of that being a complete seven day work week with teaching classes all day plus meets for club and high school teams.  Yes, it's insane and if I didn't find a way to squeeze in some exercise I wouldn't be able to manage my anger issues, my body would fall apart before retirement, and I would go crazy from being three feet away from a pool for so many hours without ever being able to get in it myself.

My rules in this experiment are simple.  I do almost the exact opposite of everything I was ever told to do in my first swimming career.  I will:

• give up absolutely no family time to pursue my own swimming.  I swim if I am at a practice or meet where I am already obligated to be there as a coach.  Most of my practices are a short warm up and one set with the kids I coach.  It is a good week when I can fit in three of those, since any time I coach younger or less experienced athletes I need to be on deck rather than in the water.   My team has been tremendously supportive of this so far.
• adapt to the minimal training philosophy.  I tried to make a comeback in my mid-twenties and it sucked.  I felt miserable all the time.  I never swam really fast even though I was less busy back then and put in more yardage. I was constantly discouraged when I could not fit in the workouts I felt I needed to excel. Now I am training smarter.  You will read more about that later.  Let's just say I am not wasting any time.  All of my swimming has a purpose, and that purpose is racing.  
• stick with the low-carb, high-fat diet.  This was how I got sucked into this experiment in the first place.  When I stumbled upon this diet my health improved considerably.  My running and swimming did as well, even though it goes against every bit of advice I have ever received on nutrition for health and for athletics.  I want to take this as far as I can to see if adapting to this will be better than the standard nutritional recommendations for athletes.
• stay low stress and keep it fun.  I am not allowed to throw a pity party when I am not able to train consistently.  That is just a part of being a 40 year old guy working two full time jobs and trying to swim in the cracks in-between.  Hey, if I swim fast enough to land a sponsorship that can free up my schedule by making up the income for some of my extra-duty stipends I am all over it, but the odds of that are pretty slim.  I am just gonna go with the flow and carry the same philosophy at 40 that I did at age 10... it's fun to go fast and I intend to have more fun than anyone else in my heat.

So far, I started last December hitting a 58.92 100 breast and 2:12.33 200 breast at the 2013 KMSC Pro-Am, after never having broken a minute, even in an illegal suit, since my last college meet in 1996.  Those swims were after being on the new diet since April of 2013 and running, with just a little swimming to prepare.  I was shaved and in a blueseventy Nero XII.  After that, I swam about less than 3000 yards a week in the long course pool last summer, and sprinkled in some running and short course swimming when I could fit it in.  I dropped from 1:12.2 to 1:09.0 in the 100 and 2:39.0 to 2:31 in the 200 LCM from May to Sectionals in July.  This fall, I did a 59.9 and a 2:10.7 in unshaved meets with a TYR AP12.  At the Pro-Am in December 2014 I shaved and swam 58.1 and 2:07.2.  I am pretty proud of those swims but I know I will keep getting faster.  Just last weekend I did my fastest unshaved 200 with a 2:09.7.

Wish me luck. I took those couple of weeks off of training after the KMSC Pro-Am in December thinking it would take a while to get back to where I was, but surprisingly, when I jumped back in the water I had not taken a step backward at all.  It's funny... I found that in my running too.  I don't seem to get "out of shape" the same way I used to.  I truly believe the diet has something to do with that.  In the last two weeks I have turned in best scores on sets for both the 100 and 200 breast, and both were significant improvements.  I really think I will be ready to rock at Sectionals in March.

Please stay tuned and let me know what you think.  I am hoping that all of this craziness generates some great discussion here and at Swim Swam.