New routine: adding dry land (body weight) training to my workout and slightly decrease the total distance. The purpose of this workout is to gain muscular endurance without putting excessive stress on my shoulders.

Warm up:

• 400 freestyle
• 2 x 150 (50 catch up and 100 1-arm swim)
• 300 flutter kicks
• 300 pull buoy

Dry land:

• 2 x (20 push-ups, 20 v-ups, and 20 body weight squat)

Drill:

• 3 x (100 finger drags and 100 swim)

Dry land:

• 2 x (15 push-ups, 15 bicycles, and15 front lunges)

Main sets:

• 1 x 100 freestyle
• 1 x 300 freestyle

Dry land:

• 2 x (15 push-ups, 30 leg lifts, and 15 body weight squat)

Main sets:

• 1 x 200 freetysle
• 1 x 400 freestyle

Dry land:

• 2 x ( 15 push-ups, 30 leg lefts,and 10 backward lunges)

Warm down:

• 1 x 150 (100 freestyle and 50 breaststroke)

Total distance (in meters):  3,050

NY Time columnist, Michael Pollan, wrote an insightful article on how a decentralized food system would help our next president achieve his agendas of improving health care, becoming energy independence, and preventing climate change, which would eventually lead to a robust economy.

Mr. Pollan proposes a “solar-food” economy; we buy food grown naturally and shorten our food chain by eating locally. By doing the above, we can cut down fossil fuel consumption dramatically, which could help us become energy independce and prevent global warming, which are two of the national priorities that Barack Obama and John McCain have campaigned in their presidentail race.

Also, local foods are more traceable and accountable; recent tainted baby formula and other food recalls have again raised our concern about food safety. Mr. Pollan suggests that the larger the global food network, the more vulnerable our food system is; we could easily have imported contaminated food and cause a series health issues for domestic animals and consumers.

To support “sun-based foods”, Mr. Pollan suggests that the government can provide grants to build indoor farmers markets, establish local slaughter house, and educate Americans that farming is an important sector of our economy.

Although we will not see the immediate effect of eating locally, our effort to promote better food quality and more energy saving will eventually lead us back to be a healthier nation. As the election day inches upon us, we need to exercise our right and choose a candidate who will bring the change. I, the Sweaty Guinea Pig, urge you to be active and cast your vote wisely on Novemeber 4th.

Please join me to exercise our precious right!

I apologize for the lack of update for Sweaty Guinea Pig. I have had some technical difficulties with my blogging software, wordpress. Once the problems are resolved, I will be back in full swing! At the mean time, please visit: http://sweatyguineapig.posterous.com/ for the most updated Guinea Pig news!

Warm up:

• 400 freestyle
• 300 pull buoy
• 4  x150; 50 for each 1-arm butterfly, freestyle, and flutter kicks

Main set:

•  2 x (100, 200, 300, and 400); going up from 100 to 400, then coming back down to 100
• 8 push-ups in between each main set

Total distance (in meters): 3,300

Warm up:

• 400 freestyle
• 2 x (100 pull buoy & 100 kicks)

Main sets:

• 5 x 200 swims w/ fins
• 3 x ( 50, 100, 200 consecutively) sprints

Warm down:

• 1 x 50 freestyle
• 1 x 50 breastroke

Total distance (in yards):  2,950

With my first meet in less than 3 days away, I am training with higher intensity but lower in total distance; training in race speed prepares me for the race mentally, and swimming shorter total distance helps me recover faster.

I finally made mayonnaise successfully several days ago. Making mayonnaise can be a great experience for learning how fat and liquid interact with each other. The main ingredients for making mayonnaise are egg yolk, oil (vegetable, corn, or safflower), sugar, salt, and vinegar. The general concept of making mayonnaise is to create emulsion by whisking egg yolk briskly before adding any oil. After emulsion is created, oil is added slowly to create a creamy texture. If oil is added too quickly, the creamy texture will never form. For further details on making mayonnaise, please consult Alton Brown’s YouTube Video.

I started the process by whisking the egg yolk briskly until an emulsion was formed

I added and whisked vegetable oil into the emulsion created from the egg yolk.

The whole mayo-making process shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. I was cautious on whisking the yolk and vegetable oil together; therefore, I spent double amount of time to make this batch.

Homemade mayonnaise tastes so rich and flavorful. I don’t think I will ever purchase another jar of mayonnaise from the store.

Stay tuned for the meals that I made with homemade mayonnaise.

A 15 minutes of Everyday Sweat this morning made me feel productive and put me in the work-mode.

Everday Sweat Day2:

• Drop steps: 2 x 10
• Side planks: 3 x 1 minute each side
• Backward dips: 3 x 20
• Body weight squat: 3 x 15
• Bicycle crunches: 1 x 20
• Leg lifts: 1 x 30
• Oblique crunches: 1 x 10

What do you do in the morning to get yourself ready for the day?

With a busy schedule this morning, I have not had time to have a full workout. However, I made myself sweat by doing Day-1 of Everyday Sweat, a new Guinea Pig website, to keep myself active this morning. A 15 minutes of simple body weight workout has energized me, and I am ready to have another productive day.

I made the workout more challenging by adding repetitions and 1 more exercise at the end.

Everyday Sweat Day 1:

• Hip rotations: 2 x 15
• Push-ups: 3 x 30
• Front lunges: 3 x 15
• Jumping jacks: 3 x 1 minute
• V-ups: 3 x 30

And the choice for breakfast… the “Rule-of-1 Pancakes”.

Have you been sweating lately?

Warm up:

• 500 freestyle
• 4 x (100 pull buoy & 100 flutter kicks)

Drill:

• 4 x 100 flip drill; swim in medium speed and accelerate in the last 5 to 7 meters before doing the flip

Main set:

• 4 x 50 sprints
• 4 x (100 followed by 200 in each set); accelerate progressively and swim the last 25 meters in full speed

Warm down:

• 1 x 300
• 1 x 100 flutter kicks

Total distance (in meters):  3,500

October and November will be the hardest two months in training before the final meet of the year in December. Guinea Pig is currently training with Bearcat Masters Swim, based in New York City. He is swimming competitively (besides competing in triathlons) for the first time.

Protocol: 3 x 10, super-superset
Goal: achieving high level of lactic acid tolerance

Warm up:

• Jumping jacks: 1 x 1 minute
• Hip rotations: 1 x 10
• Glute March: 1 x 10
• Push-ups:  1 x30
• Rotators cuff rotations: 1 x 25, w/ 5 lbs. dumbbells

Main sets:

•  Bench press: 135 lbs, dumbbell chest press: 30 lbs, push-ups: 3 x 10
• Squat: 135 lbs, calf raise: 10 repetitions, backward lunges: 3 x 10
• Push press: 95 lbs, 1-arm upright rows: 15 lbs. dumbbells, overhead front raise: 10 lbs. dumbells
• Jump squat: 65 lbs, front lunges: 65 lbs, body weight squat: 3 x 10
• Bend over rows: 95 lbs, giants: 20 lbs. dumbbells, lower back lifts: 3 x 10