Reporter Paul Tenorio and Curl-Burke swimmer Tucker Simmons come in to the wall after one of their 40 100s. (Photo by Jeff King/Curl-Burke)

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Monday means a new week, new workouts and a new weight. The longer this project has gone, the more I’ve had trouble remembering where my weight had been the previous week and how big of a drop it was.

That happened this morning when I weighed in at 175 pounds. For months I had been hoping to hit the 176 pound mark, which was my goal weight was when I first started this whole thing. The last time I remembered being in good shape was freshman year of college, and I remember weighing in at 176.

So this morning when I weighed in and saw 175 I kind of shrugged and went to eat breakfast. Only as I sat down to type did I remember that I had not yet hit that mark. The last time I weighed in I was at 177 pounds, just one off the mark. So, another two-pound loss and I’m inching closer and closer to 20 pounds lost since July 20. It’s always exciting when people ask how much weight I’ve lost and I can say 18 pounds. It’s a lot of weight. (Amazingly, BMI still considers me overweight. Forget you, BMI, and your outdated system!)

It also feels good when you knock out a full workout that months ago would have had you crying like a baby.

This morning after warm-up I wasn’t sure what to expect. I felt really sore during the warm-up for some reason and was trying to stretch it out before Coach Jeff King gave us our sets, but I was super tight.

So when Jeff came over and gave me and my lane mate, Tucker, our set — 40 100s on 1:30 (w/ fins and paddles), I sighed and started to mentally prepare myself for what was in store for the day.

The thing is, the workout actually went pretty well and I thought the pairing with Tucker was perfect. He would let me leave a couple seconds ahead of him and serve kind of as the rabbit that he was trying to catch throughout the whole workout, and I constantly had him right on my tail to keep pushing me to maintain the pace.

One part of the workout was the breathing. On the first and third laps I had to breathe to my right and on laps two and four of the 100s I had to breathe to my left. This forced me to get used to breathing to both sides — though I think I have been getting pretty good at the bi-lateral stuff (okay, maybe not when I’m tired…).

The only disappointment on the day was the Jeff gave me and Tucker the option to take our fins off for the last part of the set. Tucker took his off for the first four of the final 10 100s, and I kept mine on with the anticipation that I’d take them off for the last four. Then Tucker got out of the pool at 5:45 and I still had 15 minutes of workout.

Alone in my lane and kind of alone in the pool — everyone else that goes till six was a few lanes away doing their own thing — I opted to keep my fins on through the whole workout.

Was I tired? Yes. Could I have finished it without fins? Yes. No excuses. Got to push myself. Still, I did a set of 40 100s.

When I think about the workout itself, I think back to where the workouts first startedwhen I was talking with some lifeguards at Stratford Landing pool earlier this summer. They asked how long my workouts were, whether I did 5000 yard sets or what. I laughed. Nah, man, never that much.

Today’s yardage, including warm-up: 5200 yards.

So basically I think today shows just how far I’ve come during this whole journey in two of the major facets of what I wanted this whole thing to be about. Now, if we look at times I still have some work to do. And if you look back at the length of my first entry…well, let’s just leave that out of it.

July 20: Weight- 193, Waistline- 36, BMI- 27.6, Body Fat Percentage- 17.7
July 27: Weight- 189, Waistline- 36, BMI- 27.1, Body Fat Percentage- 16.6
Aug. 03: Weight- 185, Waistline- 36, BMI- 26.5, Body Fat Percentage- 15.6
Aug. 10: Weight- 184, Waistline- 36, BMI- 26.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Aug. 17: Weight- 186, Waistline- 35, BMI- 26.7, Body Fat Percentage- 14.5
Aug. 24: Weight- 185, Waistline- 35, BMI- 26.5, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Aug. 31: Weight- 184, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Sept. 8: Weight- 184, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Sept. 15: Weight- 181, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.0, Body Fat Percentage- 13.1
Sept. 21: Weight- 181, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.0, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Sept. 28: Weight- 180, Waistline- 34, BMI- 25.8, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Oct. 5: Weight- 179, Waistline- 33, BMI- 25.7, Body Fat Percentage- 14.0
Oct. 19: Weight- 179, Waistline- 33, BMI- 25.7, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Oct. 26: Weight- 177, Waistline- 33, BMI- 25.4, Body Fat Percentage- 11.6
Nov. 2: Weight- 177, Waistline- 33, BMI- 25.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Nov. 16: Weight- 175, Waistline- 33, BMI- 25.1, Body Fat Percentage- N/A

Washington Post reporter Paul Tenorio will train with a swim club over the next few months and chronicle his journey as he attempts to transform from regular guy/sports reporter to competitive swimmer — everything from his waistline to his best times.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Diving Back In. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.