August 30

Well, today is suppose to be our final day. Neither Chris nor I are to our goals, so we have decided to keep our daily routine (swimming in the morning, running as much as we can, eating well, until we have each met our goal).



From a swimming standpoint, Chris does look a lot better in the water. This Saturday, was the first time he actually did a set of 50 freestyles without any fins. I think in the coming practices, we are going to start swimming without fins.


Todays weigh in:

Chris: 221.2
Chris Goal: 211


Tim: 176.6.
Tim Goal: 170

August 15

Well, this might take a little longer than I originally thought. Chris weighed in at 224 pounds, and I weighed in at 180 pounds (3 pounds more than the last weigh in). I am not qute sure whats going on..... but, I know both Chris and I are getting healthier by the day. Chris has been doing a good job challenging himself at practice, and I am still running 3 times a week.

If anyone is interested in me running, you can find me at about 6:50 - 7:40, somewhere in the River Oaks Area. My route is Inwood to Kirby, Kirby to Chevy Chase, Chevy Chase to Larchmont, Larchmont up to Inwood, and Inwood to River Oaks Blvd. Thats one loop, I usually to that loop and some small combination of smaller "loops" along the route.

Chris is up to doing 12 x 75's free with fins on 1:20. Today, we worked on doing freestyle flip turns and breastroke open turns so next week, we can start swimming without fins and he can do turns and be faster.

Apparently, people do read this Blog

At the request of someone who emailed me, here are some videos of Chris. I made two videos because after Chris's recorded 100 freestyle for time, he puked, and I shut the camera off because I didn't know if he could handle the embarrassement on camera. So I am blogging about it right now. Anyways, please enjoy.

Exactly 30 Miles

Beginning Weight: 234.6
Current Weight: 223.3

I was actually a little dissappointed that Chris only lost a little over a pound... but I guess that is better than nothing.

Chris has started lifting weights..... and since muscle weighs more than fat, its possible that lifting weights is offsetting his swimming exercise, making it harder for him to lose his 10 percent of weight loss.

Personally, I think its ok. He is staying active, and he is becoming healthier.

This morning, our main set was:

4 x 75's free with fins on 1:30
6 x 75's free with fins on 1:25
8 x 75's free with fins on 1:20

Which is 1200 yards total, and Chris was able to make all the send offs. So he was swimming for almost 1200 yards/ 30 min straight.

Anyways, back to Me and Chris Bet of losing our Goal weight. I weighed myself on Saturday, and I was only down to 177.5. I am up to running 50 minutes straight, and on Sunday, I was able to run Memorial Park without stopping..... I am only down 1.5 pounds.... this might be a little harder than I thought.

Anyways, I have 7.5 pounds to lose, and Chris has 12.1 pounds to lose. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, please read my post on July 15. We have a little bet going, winner gets a nice dinner.

I also have had a few requests to get some videos on here..... so I am working on it right now!

Monday July 20, 2009

Today was the first time I have seen Chris in Two Weeks!!! He actually looked pretty good in the water.

In the swimming world, they have this thing called a Taper. Basically, you work really really hard for a period of time, and then before your big swim meet you start cutting back on yardage, resting more, working on stroke technique, perfecting starts and turns; During this taper time, you give your body a chance to rest and heal so you are in tip top shape for your big swim meet. The taper theory is a well know theory, but the amount of time to taper has/and always will be the biggest question in swimming.

Typically, the more and harder you train, the more you rest. But then the coach has to factor in the individuals past taper and how well he/she did and tweak the schedule accordingly. Then, of course males and females train differently, therfor their taper will be slightly different. Then there is the age factor, and how much these kids actually train..... theres a lot of things to think about.....

Anyways, having taken two weeks off from swimming, I am guessing Chris's body has healed, and his swimming muscles have gotten a chance to rest and recover, so by the time he got in this morning, he felt pretty good in the water, and his body knew what to do and they were in tip top shape.

Enough Chattering, this is what we did this morning;

300 Warm Up

10 x 50's Drill with 10 sec rest. Odds Free Drill, Evens Stroke Drill


4 x 75's Kick w fins on 1:20
4 x 75's swim w fins on 1:15

1 Min Break

6 x 75's Kick w fins on 1:20
6 x 75's swim w fins on 1:15

Total 2300 Yards.

Where is Chris? 5.7%..... BRING IT ON!!! July 15

I am sorry I have not updated this blog in a bit, but for those of you who are wondering why.... this is my answer.


Besides Monday morning, I haven't seen Chris in over a week and a half. So there is nothing to blog about! This might upset some people, but last week Chris was on vacation. He came back for Monday July 13th practice, missed Wednesday (I am not quite sure why....), and will be off to Florida for the weekend to pick up his family. So I probably won't see him until July 20th. We will weigh him on Saturday July 25, and he better not weigh more than he was on June 27... his last weigh in.



Anyways, as of June 27, Chris has lost approximatly 4.3 % of his body weight. He was at 224 pounds. He needs to lose 13 more pounds (Aprox 5.7%) of his original weight to reach his goal. I think in the last two weeks he has been slacking off on his "business and Family" trips.

This is what I am proposing. I think I can lose 5.7% of my body weight by Sept 1, maybe even quicker than Chris can. In fact, if Chris loses his 5.7% before I do, I will take him AND his family out to my favorite Mexican restuarant in town. If I lose my 5.7% before he does, he needs to take me and Lauren (my GF) out to the same Mexican restuarant. What is my fav Mexican restuarant? El Tiempo Cantina on Richmond. There is a lot riding on this bet.... because El Tiempo can be pretty pricey depending on how many margaritas you order.

My starting weight: 179 (which is really disappointing to me because I have been running like no other in the last week and a half.... and I have lost no weight)

June 27, 2009. Second Weigh In

Starting weight: 234.6
Current weight: 224.4

Starting Belly size: 46 in
Current Belly size 42 in

Starting Neck: 20 in
Current Neck 17 in

Starting Bicep: 15
Current 14.25








I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Obviously the weight is the number one factor I am concerned with. In just 1 month, 15 workouts, and a little dedication to becoming healthier, we are approximately 50 percent towards our goal of losing 10 percent of his weight by the end of the summer.

This is what we did on on Monday morning, June 29.

300 Warm up

6 x 75's drill freestyle

6 x 50's freestyle, no fins on 1:20
6 x 50's freestyle, no fins on 1:15
8 x 50's freestyle, no fins on 1:10

50 warm down.

I have to say, this is the first time Chris has done a freestyle set without fins. It was pretty tough, but we are still working on his endurance. This was probably the best set we have done this year because he didn't need to use fins, and from now on, we have a base point to do freestyle sets with out fins.

June 24, Wednesday Morning

After practice today, I showed Chris how to do freestyle flip turns. He picked it up pretty easily, now he just needs to do them during practice. Like I say to the kids, "The only way to get better at flip turns is to do them all the time in practice."

Here is what we did this morning.

10 x 50's Free Odds Drill, Evens Swim

6 x 50's Free on :55
6 x 75's Free on 1:30
6 x 100's Free on 1:55
6 x 125's Free on 2:20

Chris, to my amazment, actually did pretty well. Everytime he is done completing a 50 or 75, he is breathing like he is going to die.... and I always think I am being too hard on him. But as the send off comes, he is ready to go and he completes the next interval all the time.

We will see in the next few weeks how he incorporates his flip turns.

Stay tuned, we will be taking weight measurements on Saturday.

June 19, Friday Morning

The pictures is a timeline of Chris. The picture to the right is the first picture we took, the picture to the left is the picture we took on Saturday. You can physically see Chris' improvment.

Anyways, this is what we did this morning. It was pretty intensive, but it was something we had to do to get Chris' endurance up.









For warm up: 50 free, 50 choice for a 400

6 x 100's on 2:00
5 x 100's on 2:00
4 x 100's on 1:55
3 x 100's on 1:45
2 x 100's on 1:45

After each set, we did a 50 easy and regrouped to catch our breath.

Chris did all these with a buoy and fins, to help work on his body position in the water. He looked pretty well until we dropped the send offs to 1:45. He did the last two pretty well, his time on the last 100 was 1:40.

On Saturday, we will do some breaststroke (Chris' best stroke) mixed with freestyle. We will continue to work on his stroke, and kicking with a board. The day off on Sunday should help Chris recover and he should have a little better endurance next week.

June 15, 2009 (I'm still jumping up and down!!)

Last Saturday was a great day. I haven't been jumping with this much joy in a long time; I guess it was the suspense and physically seeing results. All it took was one number as proof that my summer project is on the right path.

Before I get into specific numbers, I have to say, Chris is doing very well. His strokes are coming around quite nicely, he is working hard. I think he has even figured out to NOT put his fins by the side of the pool. The other morning, we were doing a pretty hard breaststroke/freestyle set, and I saw him just take his fins and throw them out of his sight.

The part you have all been waiting for, and for the purpose of this blog:

In Just TWO weeks of swimming, and 7 morning swim practices...

Beginning weight: 234

Current weight: 228

Beginning belly: 46 inches

Current belly: 44 inches

Beginning neck: 20 inches

Current neck: 18 inches

Beginning bicep: 15 inches

Current bicep: 13.5

So if you see Chris Behan, and you don't recognize him, there is a good reason. Just look out for the man walking around decked out in Florida Gator's apparel.

June 11, 2009

Before I start talking about what we have been practicing the past few days; We will take an official weigh in and measurements on Saturday morning. So please check on the blog, I am interested to see if any of this hard work has paid off.

Chris went on a business trip and a wedding last week, so he missed June 3, 5, and 6 (three days of swim practice). When we got back in on Monday, June 8th, he said he felt extremely horrible and out of shape. This is what happens when you do not swim for just a few days. You think it is just a few days of swimming, and it can't hurt to take a little time off.... but you are wrong.

With the Club Gators swim team (the age group team I coach at River Oaks), I stress attendance is important, but I guess what is more important is constant attendance. It doesn't do any good if swimmers come constantly for 5 weeks, but then take 3 weeks off (for whatever reason..... homework, stress), and expect to be in the same shape and/or form they were in prior to their mini break.

Each week, each practice, we build on what we learn the prior practice/week (Think school structure and the different grades for each year). Once kids start missing practice, or a week of practice, they fall further behind on the learning scale; at which I need to make a hard decision:

a. Teach the kids what we learned in the last week of their missed practices at the expense of the kids who have been coming to practice.

b. Continue to teach new things to the kids who have been consistently coming to practice and hope the other kids pickup and learn the new techniques (which never happens).

Anyways, on Wednesday, we looked at whats wrong with Chris's stroke. His breast stroke is pretty good. This is because he can keep a good straight line with his body, and his body is always 'floating' on top of the water (which means less drag).

His freestyle is another story. Chris's says he has shoulder problems, which is why his freestyle is so terrible. I think otherwise.

When Chris swims freestyle, his body is at a 45 degree angle. Chris kicks with his knees bent, which makes his body position terrible in the water. A bad body position increases drag, which makes him work harder, which makes him more tired.

We started to fix this by putting longs fins and a pull buoy between his legs. There was tremendous body position improvement (it actually looked like he was floating in the water). The buoy helps with two main things. 1. To help float the body on top of the water, and 2. Helps you kick with straight legs. Once you start kicking with a bent knee.... that buoy falls out between your legs.

For the next few practices, we will continue to swim with fins and a buoy. This should help Chris' body position in the water, and help him be more efficient in the water.

Please check back with this blog in the next few days. I will be posting measurements after Saturdays weigh in.

Saturday, May 30

Beginning weight: 234.6 pounds

Belly size: 44 inches

Neck: 20.25 inches

Biceps: 15 inches

This morning, my main focus for Chris was to continue working on his strokes, his streamlines and continue to familiarize him with sendoffs and repitition of swimming sets.

We started with a warmup of 5 x 100s. 100 free swim, 100 free drill (leg touch), 100 free swim, 100 free drill (stretch drill), and 100 breast with 15-20 seconds rest after each 100. THE FOCUS: To continue stretching out our stroke, loosening out our muscles.

Next we did 10 x 50's freestlye drill with fins. The drill is the most important freestyle drill in swimming: 3 pull, 6 kicks. THE FOCUS: this drill focus' on rotating the shoulds in the water, while maximizing each pull. Think distance per stroke. The more strokes you take, the more tired you will be. So the whole goal is to stretch your arms forward and take the LEAST amount of strokes possible.

Next was the main set. THE FOCUS: Get Chris ready to swim, familiarize him with the clock and send offs, and to make sure he keeps going, even when he gets tired and wants to stop.

5 X 50 Free with fins on 1:15

10 X 50 Free with fins on 1:10

5 X 50 Free with fins on 1:05

1 Min Break

5 x 50's Free with fins on 1:00

Chris did pretty well on these, I can tell he was getting tired by the end of the 1:05 50's. During the 1 min break, I told him, "The most improvements you make to your stroke happens when you are tired. So make good decisions about clean streamlines, long strokes, high elbows and continue to be strong in the water no matter how much pain you are in." 5 mins of good making good decisions when you are tired is equal to 1 hour of swimming when you are full of energy.

Our cool down was 5 x 50's with fins. 25 backstroke steamline kick, 25 free (3 pulls, 6 kick)

May 28: Our Agreement

With our River Oaks Masters swim teams group attendance a little short due to births (Coert)/expecting babies (Laura)/marathon training (Gray)/opening a pilates studio (Hank)/back surgery (Sarah), and with the summer swim team soon coming to an end (End of June), and our Club Gators swim team doesn't start back up until the end of August..... I needed a summer project.

Unfortunately, I can only golf so much before the green's fee's and beverages from the beverage cart start eating away at my bank account. So golfing more often is out of the question. I needed to focuse on something else....

Well, since our River Oaks Master Swim Team has been dwindling in numbers, and our recruitment as pretty much failed (since no one wants to wake up to swim at 5:45 AM), I decided we needed a new pitch to make our Masters swim team more attractive.

We all know that Chris Behan (Thomas' Dad) has been trying to lose some weight. We often see him trying to keep up with Mrs. Pickens while Thomas and Lexi are swimming at Club Gators swim team practice. I have been trying to get Chris to join our master group.... but the 5:45 AM has been quite a deterrant. So, Yesterday, I made my pitch (with the OK from Brad).

My Pitch: "Chris, join our Master Swim Team in the morning, and I will GUARANTEE a 10 percent weight loss by the end of the summer (3 months), or your money BACK!!!". At that moment, his eyes just opened wide, and I knew I had him.

For the next 10 minutes, we discussed the terms of the agreement (Practice attendance is a must unless he is out of town for business). We also talked about nutrition; and I am going to leave this up to his wife. Mrs. (Jennifer) Behan is a nutritionist, so I am assumming he eats pretty healthy. So I am going to let him continue his regular diet.

From here on out, I will be "bloging" about Chris's development. I will update this blog once a week about his current weight, his waist size, neck size, bicep size, I will also comment on his stroke technique, and any wierd thoughts I have or conversations. I will also post a sample workout (not all, or else you guys would just read this and get the workouts and not sign up for our Master's group) each week that Chris has accomplished.

The Goal of this blog is to track Chris's development over the next three months. Its not about the amount weight he will lose, but more about being transparent about his goals to become healthier (since we can all be a little more healthier.... by exercising and eating healthier).

We all know that exercising alone is a difficult task. Everyone is guilty of sneaking a extra piece of cookie, or slice of pie, or a slice of pizza, or bag of chips in our mouths when no one else is looking. Imagine yourselves sneaking a snack when someone else is watching...... would you still eat that extra slice of home made pie?

The point of this blog is for everyone in the River Oaks Community to track Chris's development and provide our moral support so he can achieve his goal. Weather he loses all 5, 10, 15, 25 percent of his weight is a secondary objective. The main objective is making a life style change to become healthier with the support of his friends and family and the River Oaks Community.

Please stay updated, and check this blog every few days. I will be updating this as much as I can with pictures and specific numbers.

Thank you, Tim