MrFreefall383

Small update. Swam again early this morning. Was hurting yesterday before my swim, and managed my 500 yd gear swim a few tenths of a second faster. I was hurting even more today, and I dropped total time by a full 11 seconds. Now down to 7 min 16 sec for my 500 yd gear swim. Not doing anything else today though. It seems that pain only makes me work that much harder toward my goal, but I'd rather not push my luck. Giving myself the rest of today to recover, then doing a more serious workout tomorrow. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

It's not even that easy in reverse, because it's hard enough to control the car normally in reverse, let alone abnormally. Ever seen Mythbusters? As for doing donuts in a front wheel drive car, it's damn near impossible, unless you put packing trays under the rear wheels, in which case you wouldn't leave treads, just plastic debris. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Jen, check in with us Monday night, or Tuesday morning, and let us know what you did to get off your lazy butt. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Saw that article in Popular Science I think it was, that looked freaking awesome! Once they know the jumper won't burn up in the upper atmosphere, and that he won't suffocate and his blood won't boil, I'd love to try it. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

After two straight days of running, lots of pushups, pullups, and ab work, I swam again this morning. Everything was hurting, but I worked through it as hard as I could, and beat my 500 yd gear swim time by a few tenths of a second. Then I did another 500 yds of lung conditioning laps. Followed that with another 500 of kick development. Somehow I'm still living, and I can still walk, so I guess I've still got some in reserve for tomorrow. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Thanks, will do. Almost forgot, I did 200 arm/leg lifts as well. I might do some other ab work tonight after dinner, but we'll see how much meatloaf I have. Don't wanna yak it out on the basement carpet. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Jumped back into it even harder yesterday and today. Actually, it's now 8 am here in NY, and I've already done 300 flutterkicks in 9 sets of varying reps, and 200 pushups in 4 sets of 50. The day's just beginning. Yesterday as I mentioned, I did the swimming thing real hard, then came home and ran a couple miles. Legs hurting only a little bit, so despite how bad it is to run two days in a row, I will. Rescue Swimmer training is not going to take it any easier on me, so I might as well get used to the pain, make it my best friend. Slightly wet on the ground, so I may not do directional drills, instead focusing on a nasty set of stairs leading to the lower fields after I complete a couple miles. Only easy day was yesterday. Edit: Went out at about 10:30 and ran 2 miles at about a 7:45 pace, then did a total of 280 yds of sprints. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Eh, we're all slackers. Always room to get back in the game. I was sick for a week, didn't work out at all because I could hardly breath without coughing up my guts. Was feeling better by Saturday, tried to go for an evening swim to get back into it, but there was a swim meet going on. So I got up on Sunday, did some running and some pullups. Monday got back into 5am wakeups with a swim, came back and did 300 situps, 1 minute of swimmers for lower back, 25 pullups, and 25 chinups. Today I focused completely on lowerbody. Did 1500m of swimming, first time I completed a consecutive 500 of freestyle with fins, mask, and snorkel. The rest was kick development. Then I came back, took a short rest, got showered and had breakfast, and then went to the high school and ran 2 miles in just a scratch over 15 minutes. Tomorrow's going to be another running day with tons of ab work, pushups, and anything else I can get in. Promised myself I wouldn't slack off, and now that I'm no longer sick, I'm hitting it twice as hard. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Yeah, not such a great deal with this vet, and my parents are both tired of the general expenses of pet care, let alone multi-thousand dollar surgery. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

You definitely did the right thing. As hard as it is to accept, my family has had to put down one cat already, and we'll probably have to put down one more in the coming months. The first was diagnosed after many years with feline leukemia, and we decided after several weeks of seeing her get progressively worse, that we really had no choice. My mom went alone, none of the kids including myself could handle being there. We all agreed beforehand to put her in a shoebox with a couple of her favorite toys, and bury her at the roots of her favorite tree. It was tough, and I personally cried for a while, because that was our first pet other than fish, hamsters, and hermit crabs. The second is still living, but really shouldn't be. She was suffering badly, couldn't even walk, had a couple seizures, so we brought her in to be checked out since it came out of nowhere. After a couple appointments with the vet, we found out she had a brain tumor. The good news was it could be controlled, and she could be back to her old self with some light medications. The bad news was that surgery to remove the tumor would be over $5,000. So now she's pretty much normal, other than she needs constant care, and still has seizures every other week. Eventually, she's going to become too much to manage, and despite her being in pretty good shape because of the medications, we're still going to have to put her down because we can't afford the surgery. I've come to realize that there's no reason to let a domesticated animal suffer with a disease that is either incurable or is only curable with very expensive surgery. You made the right choice. Anyway, I'm sorry to hear it had to be done, and my thoughts are with you. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

woule little be the operative word? Little is NEVER the operative word with an Irishman, you should know that. Oh you mean microscopic then That's just mean. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

woule little be the operative word? Little is NEVER the operative word with an Irishman, you should know that. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Everyone's got a little friggin' Irish in 'em. But yes, I'm a quarter Irish. Still burn in the sun like an Irishman though. And Freud was absolutely right. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Definitely a real nice piece of ass. And you're right, she does look better every season. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Yeah, that's how I felt Monday night. Didn't feel too horrible Monday morning after another 5:30am swim, but my condition just deteriorated steadily throughout the day, and here I am now on Tuesday still feeling like shit. But hopefully tomorrow should be my last full day of recovery, and then it's back to my workouts harder than before to make up for a few days lost. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Well, so much for keeping up my workouts. Must've picked up a cold from the other temp coughing and sneezing less than two feet away from me all day Friday. Normally that wouldn't happen to me, but it did this time. Still worked out yesterday even though I felt like shit, and feel even worse today. No more 5am wakeups until I'm recovered, which basically means a couple more days of doing... not much. Why the fuck did I have to get sick now of all the possible times? This sucks. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Good point, make sure it's a sustainable set of habits that will keep that weight off. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Damn, good work, keep it up! "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

OK, so good news. Completed the swim this morning, another few swim-pushup sets, then some fins and snorkel swimming, and the finish requirement for USCG Basic, which is swimming 100m without goggles, then treading water for 5 minutes. Got back, went to my ASVAB, and made the 92nd percentile. That's only initial AFQT percentile, so that may level out a couple points, but I still will have done better than 90% of candidates taking the test. I think the swim activated my brain muscles, because I was really expecting maybe 80-85 because I didn't study for a week before the test. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Starting pre-dawn workouts again. Started this morning with a major ab set, and tomorrow I'm doing another major swim before my ASVAB at 9:30, then doing some upperbody in the afternoon when I get back from the test. And according to a friend, I'm an animal with regards to workouts. Oh, and Sunday morning to try for that hurt I wasn't feeling after the swim Saturday night, I ran 2.5 miles, then did some suicides, directional drills, and came back home for some pullups and a 2 minute situp set, in which I did exactly 100, but could have done more if I didn't lose my energy at about 95. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Fuck. All I can say. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Yeah, being mentally tough is what it's all about. I did a fun little swimming workout tonight, and got to relive my favorite times as a lifeguard with a former co-worker still working as a guard at the local indoor pool. First was 5 freestyle sprint sets of 100m, then 10 pushups. So all in all, 50 pushups and 500m swimming with just standard goggles and no fins. Then I put on the fins, mask, and snorkel, and did another 20 laps in sets of 4, pushing myself as hard as I could. Then I did another 20 in goggles and fins, then sidestroked to the deep, treaded water for 4 minutes with arms and legs, and another 6 without arms, then took a small excursion to the bottom for some lung-building, pumped to the surface and sprinted freestyle back to the shallow. Feelin' good tonight. The same guy who hassled me the other night was there. And my former co-worker vouched for me, said I wasn't a slouch, that I could definitely make it. So Antonio came over to me as I was finishing up, let me know that I was vouched for, and I told him my routine when I was a guard. In other words, the requirement was 40 laps any stroke per week. I was doubling that every single day, going back home and running 3-4 miles, and doing pushups and situps until it hurt, then doing it again the next day. I was the only guard on staff who kept training even when I felt like I couldn't really do the job any better. Saving lives was just that important to me. All about your mindset. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

That's how I started my present job. Veteran of 10 years at the company left the position, was training his replacement for two weeks, and the replacement left the same day. So I was called up quickly and thrown into the fire without any training whatsoever. It sucks, but if you're smart enough to get creative and figure out what the last guy did, you can succeed. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

Been working out hard everyday this week other than Monday. Tuesday I ran as hard as I could, but had only eaten a salad all day, and drank a glass of OJ in the morning and a couple bottles of water during the day. So undernourished and exhausted, I ran my 2 miles in 16:30 and still managed my directional drill. Lots of ab work and pushups the following day, swimming again finally today, but some dick at the pool insisted on giving me advice on how to really become a swimmer, that what I was doing wasn't going to do a damn thing. Great, so I took some of his advice, put some strain on my legs with a no-arms backstroke, and I'm switching to very early mornings so I don't have to deal with that guy again. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

You're welcome! "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche