New PR for 2.4 mile swim

ok, I realize that this was only my third 2.4 mile swim and that I have only been swimming now for a little over 5 months and improvement comes rapidly when you start something new, but I'm still proud of my effort. I swam it today in 1:15:48, about 3:30 faster than my first 2.4 mile effort back on August 7, and all of my 100m splits were under 2:00.

My running is also very strong right now and I have been consistently doing my 7-10 mile runs in the Houston heat in just under a 7:30 pace. For those of you who are not sure about cross-training, I can tell you that the swimming has immensely helped my running, especially in my upper body strength. I actually have some upper chest muscles and arm muscles now that were not there just a few months back.

The DVD "From Start to Finish and Then Some" is officially ready for distribution!

After a lot of hard work and input from more walkers and runners of all ages and abilities than I can name, the DVD is ready for sale starting September 4 (pre-order it now and get free shipping in the USA)! I am very excited about this opportunity. Please take a moment to watch my presentation about it below.

What I refer to as "Stupid Hot"

Relatively speaking, we have had a rather mild summer in Houston, mainly because for about a 45 day stretch we had heavy rains and overcast skies for probably 40 of those days. However, the sun is now out in full force and we officially hit 100 degrees today. Now for those of you in other parts of the country who may say, "oh yeah, well we get that hot", let me add this little tidbit... Tomorrow morning BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP, our humidity will be 90-100% and our heat index will be above 90... again, that is BEFORE the sun comes up. Trying to run in the morning is like having someone place a 500 pound weight on your chest as you try to breathe. This afternoon before 5:00, my son and I went swimming. I walked out of the locker room, got straight into the pool, swam 2000m, and then went straight back into the locker room. The first thing I noticed was that I was sunburned... ON MY FACE AND CHEST, and I was swimming breaststroke and freestyle the entire way. The pool water felt like a hot bath and the reflection of the sun off of the bottom of the pool is what burned me. When I walked in the door the first thing my wife said was, "I thought you went to swim, what did you do, lay out?" Yes, it is Stupid Hot in Houston now.

First 2.4 mile swim

I started swimming 4 1/2 months ago while recovering from a left shin splint injury, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I remember getting into the pool that first time, swimming 800m (very slowly I might add) and thinking it would take me forever to build up to the full Ironman swim distance of 2.4 miles. So day before yesterday, I went to the pool after having completed 2.0 miles a number of times, and 1:19:21 later, I finished my first 2.4 miler without stopping and without doing flipturns to simulate as much as possible an open water swim. I'm still nowhere near strong enough to do the entire thing freestyle (I did this swim alternating breaststroke and freestyle laps), but from what I can tell from other men my age (late 40's) that have done Ironman competitions, I'm not too far off the mark of the average swimmer. My goal now will be to continue to improve on my form and mix up my swim workouts with more interval type work. I do not have a specific time that I'm trying to get down to, mainly because this is all still very new to me, but my guess is that I have a chance to get down into the 1:10:00-1:15:00 range at some point in the next year. Any input on this from the real swimmers is greatly appreciated.