Second 30 Day Challenge

[Mike Phillips]

Second 30 Day Challenge


Yesterday, Saturday July 31st, I finished the first 30 day challenge for swimming every morning. This was my first time back into the pool since Covid-19 hit America.

This morning, Sunday August 1st I started a second 30 day challenge. After working out for a month I'm back into pretty good shape. This morning I swam 3 miles - all of it except some kicking was done using hand paddles and doing mixed strokes.

For those that might not be 'swimmers' - doing stroke work with hand paddles is extremely intense and excellent cardio.

Took a little over 2 hours to complete.

 

[Jacob Harrod AutoClean]

Congratulations!!!!

 

[Mike Phillips]

Congratulations!!!!

I meet so guys YOUNGER than me that have bad knees, bad shoulders and bad backs.

I'm thankful to have my health.

 

[Jacob Harrod AutoClean]

I meet so guys YOUNGER than me that have bad knees, bad shoulders and bad backs.

I'm thankful to have my health.

For what I've put my body through it's held up pretty well. Some where I once heard, "The huma body can withstand anything, it's the mind you have to convince."

Keep up the hard work Mike!

 

[Mike Phillips]

Some where I once heard, "The human body can withstand anything, it's the mind you have to convince."

Keep up the hard work Mike!

That's a good quote... I did a search for the author and multiple times I found,

author unknown

I did a mile this morning, all stroke-work pulling with hand paddles. 1 mile is my norm for weekdays. Takes about an hour with a warm-up and warm down.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Day 3

Swam one mile all mixed stroke pulling. Recently found and purchased a vintage pull buoy off eBay. When I originally went looking for one of these for the most part, they are hard to find. Now days most swim workout suppliers offer these hard foam buoys in their place. I bought and tried one of these and hated it, so I left it at the pool for others.

Not sure how old this is but was advertised as "vintage".

One thing for sure, swim workouts are a great way to start your day.

 

[Jacob Harrod AutoClean]

Day 3

Swam one mile all mixed stroke pulling. Recently found and purchased a vintage pull buoy off eBay. When I originally went looking for one of these for the most part, they are hard to find. Now days most swim workout suppliers offer these hard foam buoys in their place. I bought and tried one of these and hated it, so I left it at the pool for others.

Not sure how old this is but was advertised as "vintage".

One thing for sure, swim workouts are a great way to start your day.

Dang Mike! You are straight up hustling! I love it!!!! We are headed to MMA Concepts today and Gi BJJ for my daily beating lol.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Day 4 of the 30 day challenge

Over 1 mile mixed stroke pulling.

Incorporated the new pull buoy for stroke work.

A little over a year ago I actually contemplated joining the local Masters Swim Team and training for the Paralympics. Then Covid-19 hit the world and I didn't want to deal with the health and travel issues.

Maybe next time.

 

[PaulMys]

Day 4 of the 30 day challenge

Over 1 mile mixed stroke pulling.

Incorporated the new pull buoy for stroke work.

A little over a year ago I actually contemplated joining the local Masters Swim Team and training for the Paralympics. Then Covid-19 hit the world and I didn't want to deal with the health and travel issues.

Maybe next time.

HEADLINE: Mike Phillips wins medal at Paralympics, then teaches each member of the team the difference between a Swirl and a Squirrel in the parking lot.

Now, the medals dull in comparison to their paint................

 

[Mike Phillips]

Day 5 - still dark out…

Will go around pool - make sure there’s no snakes at other creepy things

 

[Mike Phillips]

After taking the above picture, I then walked around the pool to inspect.

I kept seeing clusters of black something or rather on the edges of the pool. Closer inspection revealed clusters of

FLYING ANTS

I grabbed a broom and swept them off the pool sides as best as I could then jumped in and worked out.

After the sun came up as I was swimming I could see scads of them in the pool. Ugh... at least I didn't swallow any.

 

[JD Golden]

I can’t see the pictures for some reason.
Great pool work! Did you swim competitively in the past? I did. Funny you mention Masters, prior to Covid hitting I was also back in the pool and had a Masters swim meet date but they were all canceled. From meet results I found at the time it appeared I could still be competitive in my preferred event (butterfly).

 

[Mike Phillips]

I can’t see the pictures for some reason.

Apologies for that, I thought I set the permissions for the album to "public" but I was wrong. It was set to "private". I just fixed it so all the pictures in the album I've been uploading to should now all magically appear.

Great pool work! Did you swim competitively in the past? I did.

Yes. I've always been a swimmer. Long distance freestyle. I have a brochure from 1991 where I was raising money for my trip to Barcelona, Spain for the 1992 Paralympics that has all my "times" that qualified me for that event. I'll did it it up and post it and you can tell me how close we are in speed.

I did a mile this morning. I normally do 1000 yards freestyle warm-up each morning to stretch out, (that's a tick over a 1/2 mile), and then I do all stroke work, usually

• Breaststroke
• Heads-up or Chin-up freestyle - if you work this it's about as intense as you can make it
• Backstroke

And I kick a few laps in-between sets to enable my shoulders to recover. The last thing I want to do is tear-up any of the muscles, tendons or ligaments around my shoulders.

Funny you mention Masters, prior to Covid hitting I was also back in the pool and had a Masters swim meet date but they were all canceled. From meet results I found at the time it appeared I could still be competitive in my preferred event (butterfly).

I'm going to guess you're in better physical shape than me. The Butterfly stroke is without a doubt the most difficult. I'm good to race it for the 50 and 100 yard events, but no way on the 200 yard race. I don't mind doing the IM, but I suck at speed swimming backstroke.

Freestyle is definitely my strong point. When I first moved to Florida, I used to do swim in ocean, either at Jupiter Beach or Bathtub Beach, sometimes Jensen Beach. Swimming against the waves and the current is a hell of a good workout. Then my wife Stacy told me where I was working out, (all three places), is where she and her friends use to go shark fishing. No more. I had horrible thoughts of losing my left leg to a shark and that would really make life difficult.

Last Sunday I did 3 miles, all with hand paddles on. No problems. Felt good. I wouldn't mind joining the local Master's Team as it would bring structured workout sessions but this would only really be important if I wanted to go to the next Paralympics and compete. Have to wait and see where the world goes with this stupid virus "issue".

 

[JD Golden]

Nice pool! I'd guess that I am in no better shape than you. I have not swam laps since February 2020. I'd like to start again. The Masters meets that I had targeted to compete in all had 50 yard butterfly events which is what I would have competed in.

As for distance, the longest race we had in high school was 500 yards. I wasn't great but could get under 5:30 in it. Probably closer to 5:20 but I don't remember specifically. I stopped competing in that even regularly in 9th grade. I wasn't an elite swimmer, but pretty good and a contributor in dual meets for sure.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Nice pool!

It's our Condo Pool. It is one of the reasons we purchased here an not somewhere else. Lots of Florida Condos have pool, most are not this long. We did find a Condo in Plantation that actually had the black lane lines on the pool floor and the wall or flip turn crosses but we couldn't stand the thought of being packed in to a People Plantation just for the pool.

I always go early before anyone else is out of bed. Not only is the pool empty but the filters and the chlorine have been able to filter and sanitize the water all through the nite. I'm a tick of a germaphobic.

Always disgusted by all the people that use the pool and don't have the common courtesy to use the pool shower first. People that don't shower first before entering a pool make everyone else swim in their bath water. It's gross. So yeah, I only go to the pool in the mornings.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Day 6, Friday August 6th = 1 mile mixed stroke pulling.


Day 7, Friday, August 7th - no swim workout but did a full exterior detail to a 1964 Chevy Impala SS in under 5 hours. Not a bad replacement for a normal exercise workout.

Day 8, Sunday August 8th = 1.5 miles mixed stroke pulling.

These are my hand paddles. I do my entire workout including warm-up and the workout wearing these. If you're not careful or if your shoulders are in bad shape don't ever use them and they will tear you up.

Since starting in July I've only missed a few days, usually for muscle recovery and I've dropped 16 pounds easy.

 

[Jacob Harrod AutoClean]

Day 6, Friday August 6th = 1 mile mixed stroke pulling.


Day 7, Friday, August 7th - no swim workout but did a full exterior detail to a 1964 Chevy Impala SS in under 5 hours. Not a bad replacement for a normal exercise workout.

Day 8, Sunday August 8th = 1.5 miles mixed stroke pulling.

These are my hand paddles. I do my entire workout including warm-up and the workout wearing these. If you're not careful or if your shoulders are in bad shape don't ever use them and they will tear you up.

Since starting in July I've only missed a few days, usually for muscle recovery and I've dropped 16 pounds easy.

Excellent work! Are you going to do a write up on the Impala? I was wondering why you decided to d a traditional wash instead of a rinseless wash, as I am trying to develop my own sense of when it's best to use a traditional wash or rinseless wash. I figured with a classic car like that that you'd do a rinseless wash or waterless?

It must have been it good enough condition to do a traditional wash.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Excellent work! Are you going to do a write up on the Impala?

Down the road.

I was wondering why you decided to d a traditional wash instead of a rinseless wash, as I am trying to develop my own sense of when it's best to use a traditional wash or rinseless wash. I figured with a classic car like that that you'd do a rinseless wash or waterless?

It must have been it good enough condition to do a traditional wash.

I was doing product testing and also using the white paint to prove a point about how car paint becomes contaminated over time.

The BIG PICTURE point is that if the paint on a GARAGE-KEPT car is chemically contaminated - how much more so the paint on a daily driver.

All good stuff but all good stuff for the future.

 

[Jacob Harrod AutoClean]

I can't wait to see it! That reminds me of my friends truck. I regularly care for it, and have asked my buddy on a few different occasions of weather or not he would like an iron decontamination of his truck. He either forgot or didn't think it was important until I just went ahead and did it for him. That truck bled a lot of purple and I explained that the purple bleeding effect was iron contamination. Hopefully he will help me spread the word about having your paint decontaminated.

 

[GTO]

Day 5 - still dark out…

Will go around pool - make sure there’s no snakes at other creepy things

Tree frogs