Pshorty's Group-GO NATHAN!!!

Paul I would like to be a part of the group. I am just doing a quick intro but will be able to post more after I get the kids feed, dressed, kids to school, and I get to work.

My name is Dan, I am 39 married with 3 kids. Last year I ran a lot and did one Duathlon and one sprint Tri. I have some big plans for this year and 2009.

I have lost over 100 pounds since 10/2005 (most coming off in the first 10 months of trying. I still need to loss about 30 pounds and will try to do that this year.

But I will get back on later and give more detail.

Thank you

Dan

Hi Paul! I would like to join your group because it looks like swimming is your strongest sport and I am currently training for a loooong OWS race. Most people on here say swimming is their weakest sport, so I'm looking for someone who is good at it to help me out.
My name is Grace, I am a senior, graduating in May from University of Maryland College Park. I have done two sprint triathlons- well the same one twice, once in 2006 and once this past September. I didn't train much for either one of them (in fact this year I learned how to ride the bike I was racing on in the parking lot before the start...my dad explained how to shift gears walking to the swim start ) but I am hoping to step it up this season.
Goals for 2008 season are:
Chesapeake Bay Swim (4.4 miles)
NJ State Triathlon (Olympic)
Cherry Blossom 10 mile run (I am a terrible runner)
I may add more on but I have no idea what situation I will be in this summer as far as getting a (gulp) real job. Need to find something to do for a year between undergraduate and law school.
I am really focusing on my swimming and running this winter. Swimming is going well for now (only training at less than half the distance I want to be at by May), but running is not.
That's me in a triathlon nutshell.
Thanks for mentoring!
Grace

Hey Guys,

Thanks for choosing my group. I am flattered. I am sure that we can help each other out.

First off, Dan, 100 pounds?!?!?! That's impressive. I checked out your blog and that's impressive as well. Because of your diligence and dedication I would change the MOP in the title to FOP.

Grace, here is my first bit of mentoring...do as little as possible in the year between undergrad and law school. You'll have plenty of time to "work" later. In terms of triathlon, it's no secret that the secret to swimming is "time in". I looked at your logs a bit and it looks like you're swimming consistently which is key. What kind of swim workouts are you doing?

Thanks again for choosing this group. We'll have a good time.

Paul

Hi Grace and Paul,

Paul the weight is a constant struggle for me. Having been overweight my whole adult life. I had got down to 217 but am back to 230 (still 100 pounds down from my 330 days). I know I will never be where the "charts" say I should be but would like to compete at about 195-205 pounds. I know how to get there but it is not always easy. But enough about my weight.

I really look forward to having a group and a mentor to exchange ideas and keep me on track. I have not finalized my 2008 plan but I do want to finish a HIM this year (with no time goal other than to finish before cut off). I do not have a plan that I am following now other than running about 25 miles a week. I have not swam in a while and when I did swim this past year it was not that much. I have a new bike trainer and will be using it during the winter, and I do have a gym with a good pool so I will be starting that up come the new year as well.

Hi everyone,
I'd love to hop on board this group. My name is Chris -- I recently married, moved from Brooklyn NY to Albany, NY, started a new job . . . and signed up for the Timberman HIM taking place in August 2008.

Part of my interest in this group relates to Grace's priority: though I grew up around the ocean, I was never a very strong swimmer, and have only just begun taking lessons. Looking forward to that daunting 1.2 mi swim coming up in August, I think I need all the advice on technique I can get. I too am looking for some advice related to form. In particular, I've got major freestyle issues: right now I could breaststroke forever, but I can only do a max of 200 yards of front crawl before I panic and lose my breath. Last night I had a dream that I was swimming underneath ice caps while they perpetually extend just ahead and above me, preventing me from coming up for breath.

Issues.

And Paul, I'm also training for April's Boston Marathon, with a goal time of three hours. So this coming season, I've got these events on my map:

April: Boston Marathon
August: Timberman HIM
(And hopefully a couple of sprint triathlons, 10K's, and half-marathons peppered in between)

Part of what really inspired me to continue racing this year was the guy who led our pace group for the New Jersey marathon last spring. Ray had run under 2:50 at the Boston marathon the year before (2006) -- and only two years earlier he picked up running when he felt desperate to begin exercise because his weight had nearly broken 300 lbs. Over the course of a couple of years he dropped over 100 lbs, qualified for Boston, and ran a PR there. Truly inspiring.

So, I hope there's still room. I'm excited to be here!

Welcome, Nyquil. Sounds like you'll be a great addition. We'll get rid of those "swimming under the ice" dreams. Those do not sound pleasant. I just made my reservations for Boston (a bit late). That's not a bad drive for you, is it?

Dan, what kind of trainer did you get? I am on my second. The first developed a bad vibration that made it sound like I was being followed by a kid on a moped. This new one is quiet(er). The trainer can get pretty boring but you can do some fun workouts to make it less painful. Biking is my weakest link and I am trying to get in some mileage this winter but with a week (so far) of freezing rain (North Indiana), I don't have many other options.

This crew is shaping up nicely.

Paul

Nyquil,

Is this your first time running the Boston Marathon?

Paul

Paul,
This is my first time running Boston -- I qualified with my time at last year's pancake-flat New Jersey marathon. I've run NYC and Burlington, Vermont, too.

How about you? 1st Boston?

Are you following a specific training plan for Boston? When does it begin? And how do youplan to manage the marathon training versus the tri training?

Hello
everyone,

I`m at work right now so I have to keep this short, I`II jump on tomorrow with more of a bio.
I have completed 4 1/2 marathons in 2007, This year coming up 2008 I have planned 3 1/2 marathons, 4 sprints and my main goal is an international tri in july. Im also humming about moving one of the halfs up to a full. Talk more tomorrow.
Just so you all know I`m from Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Have a good night
Nathan

Hi, I'd like to join your group too if you're still open. I am also going to have to keep it brief for now and hop back on with the full details. But I'd love to join the group and take advantage of your swimming knowledge too :-) I did my first sprint tri this past summer and Loved it! and have been a runner since high school x-c but just did my first 1/2 marathon last weekend. Loved that too! and my 08 goals are to do a couple sprints and and olympic tri or a full marathon next fall? Still working out the goals for 08--with 20 days left in 07 I'd better get on that :-)

More when I get home!

*Kerry

Hi Kerry and Nathan!! Come on in.

Chris, I'll get back with about my running plan tomorrow when I have more time (at work )

Hi again,
Here's the full story for me:

Status: not married, but live with my #1 fan, my longtime boyfriend, no kids.

Story: I ran cross country in high school and have run sporadically since then, racing occasionally. I have always commuted by bike a couple days a week, and flirted with road biking for a while in college. And swimming, yeah, none of that other than lakes and at the beach on a hot day. I swam my first lap last June and still strugggggle through 15 minutes of laps. So I started "training" last June for my first tri in August and then continued with my 2nd training plan for my first 1/2 marathon which was 2 weeks ago now. And I'm hooked on all of it!! I am in the market for a new bike, since I borrowed a friend's tri bike for my tri last summer. I think I also love the tri thing because of the variety. I'm considering a full marathon in 08 but think I might get bored with that much running (since even the long runs for the 1/2 had me looking for ways to entertain myself- endless podcasts, going to new places to run etc.)

08 races: Still very up in the air but will work on that in the next week or so:
Chinatown Firecracker 10K 2/9/07 or the IE Half Marathon that day
a couple of sprint tris in the spring/early summer- tbd
And then an olympic tri early next fall or a marathon?

Current training: for the rest of the year I'm taking it easy, runs and bike rides with my boyfriend (who is usually too busy with grad school to do structured workouts with me), and then travel/holidays and then a whole new training plan for a whole new year!

What will make me a good mentee: I'm interested in having other people to learn from, since I'll be training for my 2nd tri. And could use some serious swimming pointers. And any buying a bike tips you all have to offer too I suppose! Looking forward to participating!

Hey Guys,

Kerry-what kind of bike are you thinking of getting? Road, Tri?

Nathan-You're being from Canada makes our group officially international. Very exciting.

Chris--For the detroit marathon I used a hybrid of several plans. My weeks would usually contain one speed or hill workout, one medium long run, one long run, a couple of medium runs and several shorter, pretty slow, recovery runs. I focused a lot on tempo runs. Both the medium long run and the long almost always had a tempo element. For example, for any long run I would try to do the last 1/4 at marathon pace. For medium long runs I would sometimes do 1/3 easy, 1/3 medium, 1/3 fast. Things like that.

In terms of combining marathon and triathlon training, well, I'll let you know how it all pans out. My plan was to do a bike focused couple of months before running heavy again in January. It's proven a bit difficult to get a lot of bike miles in Northern Indiana during the winter. Almost all of my bike miles right are on the trainer. I've tried to keep between 35-40 miles per week running (except for the first couple of post-marathon weeks) and I am starting to ramp that up this week. I hope to be between 70-80 by mid January. That'll give me about 10 weeks of 80mile weeks before an April taper. I will try and bike as much as possible during this time as well. I won't start swimming in earnest until April. Then after april I will try and do another bike focused couple of months while building up swimming (they tell me it should be warmer). Then the three months prior to IM Wisconsin will be pretty heavy on everything. It's not the ideal plan but I am not training for the Olympics. I could spread it out but I could also get hit by a bus. I would rather have the experience than beat my PR by 2-3 minutes

Enough of that. Let's talk swimming. How are your lessons going? One thing to remember is that swimming is all about efficiency. All the other sports are too, really, but it seems that in the the other sports you can make up for bad technique in ways that you can't in swimming. If you can swim breaststroke all day long, then you are pretty efficient. Probably not very fast because it's breaststroke but that's fine. Your goal is to be able to make your freestyle stroke the same. You are obviously aerobically fit having just run a BQ time so you shouldn't be gassing after 200 yards. The best thing that you can do right now is R-E-L-A-X. Everything. Your head, your body. Don't race to the other end of the pool but see how you can get down there in the minimum amount of strokes with the least amount of energy spent. Easier said than done but here is good drill: push off the wall and every time you drive your right hand forward stretch it out in front of you as far as you can as your left hand pulls back. Count to three before you pull your right hand back and drive your left hand forward stretching as far as you can. Again count to three as you stretch and repeat. Basically, it's just like you are swimming normally but you are pausing and stretching between strokes. When you do this drill, you may have a tendency to over kick to overcome the feeling that you are not going anywhere fast. Try not to do this. It will just waste energy, perhaps sink your hips, and slow you down. At this point, I would not concentrate on using your kick for propulsion. Rather, use a very minimalist kick that just serves to balance you in the water. You can work on the kick later. Hope this helps. Anybody else have advice?

Incidentally, does anyone else use these swim workouts?

http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=9617

They are the workouts for a masters team in San Francisco, I think. The intervals are based on your 100 free interval time, i.e., what you do 10X100 free repeats on. (GRACE-have you seen these?). I used them for most of last summer.

Hey Paul, sorry to just get back to you.

I got the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. It is one of the Fluid ones so the little that I have been on it, it has been real quiet.

Come January 1 I plan to start hitting it hard. Just running until Jan, trying to complete a goal of 1000 miles for 2007. I am only about 65 miles off so (knock on wood) as long as no injuries I should not have a problem with that.

Good day Paul and everyone
Heres alittle more info. about me.
Status: married with 2 boys, age 13,12
Barrie is located 1 hr north of Toronto
I started running 5 years ago on and off, off during the winter, I completed 8 km race with a friend of mine, I really enjoyed the race day atmosphere. I was only running maybe 2/3 times a week.
When I moved here to Barrie (I had stopped running that summer too busy I said). 3 !/2 years ago the (first winter) I pulled out my back shoveling snow,( we tend to get alot more snow and this year is no different lol). I could barely move for about 1 month. After talking with my chiropractor I needed to keep my legs streched loose to help keep my back muscles loose, so I took up running to help warm up the muscles before streching. That was the spring of 06.
I decided to enter the Toronto waterfront half marathon in September to help keep me motived. I finished in my goal set time and again I enjoyed the race day atmosphere. We happened to get a treadmill that winter from my wifes parents and I put it to good use.
In 2007 I decided to try other half marathons so in the spring I ran the Mississagua half with a friend then 2 weeks later drove to Ottawa and ran there, I really enjoyed that one even though it was in the rain ( the course lay out was great for family members to watch. The last ten km had peploe watching and cheering on both sides of the road and the last 2 km was just packed with people ). My 12 yr old also ran a 5 km race with me the day before that was fun.
In the summer I ran Whitby half, it was their first ever ( just east of Toronto ) So far that`s were I posted my PR at 1:44:33 ( I love running in the heat and it was a hot day )
In the fall I again ran the Toronto Waterfront half, but didn`t do as well as I hoped for a number of reason that I have figered out since.
During the summer of 07 I meet with a gentleman that had just completed his first IM and this sounded interesting to me. It wasn`t till October that I decieded to try some next year so I went to the library and my computer and have read as much as I can about the Tri.
At the end of October I figured I`d beter start to learn how to swim (lol as I have never really done any(I rented a movie on triathlons and watched the swiming section a few times). I had my best swim the other day at 1.25 km with my longest streach of none stop swimming at 400 m. I use flippers to help, is this recomended? I take them off for the first 2 sets the 5th 10th and 15th, I figured I`d wein myself off them slowly.
The other issue I have is that I work Shift work, days, midnights, afternoons and we switch ever week.
That is one reason I have chosen not to run a full marathon yet as I`m afraid that if I have a bad sleeping week during the middle or end of my training it will affect my race.
I`II hook you up with my training log as I just started a few weeks ago with this site and still try things out, please let me know what you think. I`II put a D,A,M in the notes on Suday to let you know which shift I`m on that week.
I plan this year to compete in:
end of Mar - Hamilton 30km ???
end of May - Ottawa half ( maybe full ) A
mid June - my first sprint tri in Huntsville ( Canada not Texas ) C
Beginging July - sprint in Welland (near Niagara falls) B
mid July - international dist tri ( Gravenhurst, just 1 more north of here) my AA race of the year.
end July - Whitby half again C
Mid Aug - Barrie sprint B
week later - Orillia sprint ( 20min north of here) C
end of Sept - Toronto waterfront half A
I`m still trying to figure out a training plan to fit it all in.
I still have room at the end of Aug to do another half somewhere. C
LOL I`ve had lots to say hope you don`t mind reading
Talk to you all later
Nathan

Still got room, Paul?

I got into tris just last year as well. I was coming off knee surgery and the general laziness that followed it. Going back a bit farther, I had gotten to 205lbs in college before I decided it was time to get back in the pool (grew up a swimmer). A year and a half later I was at 165 (It's winter so I'm 175 now), but didn't have much to do besides basketball in the gym, which is where I hurt myself. The Doc told me a bike would be great for the knee. It was, and I've become a minor bike nut, even going as far as building one for my mom. After that, I pretty much figured, there's only one other thing to do and I'll be doing triathlons. Unfortunately that thing was running.

So, there's one of the reasons I'm hoping to be in your group. You sound like runner. I have run one marathon and one half marathon, but those were pretty much just to prove that I could go that distance. I hated the training, and the races took FOREVER. I still have the itch for tris and I can't scratch it without running, though. So, I'm really hoping to jump in this group for some much needed inspiration and help at my first half ironman, which I want to do at the end of the '08 summer.

I've wasted enough time at work now, gotta get back. If you've still got room for me, I'll pop back and spill my guts (or just give a more general introduction).

Thanks,

Bill Shearer

Come on in Bill, we've got room. We'll get you running.

Nate, I think swimming with flippers is good. Not all the time of course but to use them for drills. It gives you a really good idea of what it feels like to balance your stroke with your kick. And, of course, it's fun to go really fast.

Excellent, glad there was still room.

Personal life stuff:
26 years old and I'm not married (looking at those rings with the diamonds on them though). Got a house to myself in Brandon, MS (suburb of Jackson). I work on the risk management side of a bank. Not that exciting, but I enjoy it, and it leaves plenty of time to train. I moved here and started work right after finishing up at Mississippi State University (econ undergrad and masters in finance).

How'd I end up doing tris?
I ran cross country (slowly) in high school to stay in shape for baseball. I took pretty naturally to swimming, but never did the full year round stuff. I started riding a bike two years ago after surgery to replace a torn PCL and have a patellar graft to fix a tear in my MCL. It took a while to get the motivation up, but I eventually got up the drive to start doing some longer bike rides and even ran the Mardis Gras Marathon in February. That marathon was purely to see if I could actually do something athletic that took that much time. Over the summer I figured I'd put the swim and bike together, suffer through some runs, and did three triathlons, including my first ever ocean swim (and yeah, the jellyfish were out in force).

08 races:
Mississippi Blues 1/2 marathon
Pensacola (or New Orleans) 1/2 marathon
Music City full marathon
(at least it looks like I may be serious about getting this run thing down)
Finally: some sprints and olys leading up to a 1/2 ironman

Basically, I love swimming, I love biking, and I despise running. However, no matter how bad the run is, I love how it feels to finish a tri. So, I'm sticking with it and looking for any help I can find on pushing the distance envelope a little farther. This group looks like it should great. All kinds of different goals, different strengths, and weaknesses. I'm ready to get started, if only winter would move on out. (Ofcourse, as I say that, it's in the mid 70s here)

Edited by sesh 2007-12-12 3:53 PM

What an awesome link- thanks!
I'm in finals week mode until Wednesday and then I will be more active on this thread, I promise!!

Paul, thanks for the responses regarding training for Boston. My weekly mileage has never gone far north of 65 per week, and I tend to train best when I run one very long slow and a few medium tempo runs -- with a bit of track speedwork sprinkled in. Right now I'm focusing on increasing strength and endurance across the board in all the events, just to establish a baseline for training in 2008. I'm doing this by steadily increasing distance swimming, biking, and running, while maintaining a pace where my heart rate / perceived exertion stays below what I believe to be my lactate threshhold.

Basically, I'm running, biking, and swimming at the maximum rate I know I can sustain for a long and steadily increasing period of time ("long" being relative to my minor experience with the swim and bike . . .)

I've been enjoying hearing you all speak about your experience. And I love talking running, as I feel like its the only one of the sports I feel I could do, and enjoy, all day. (See earlier post with a bit about what appears to be my water phobia). I've had to find lots of ways to keep going (mentally and physically) for long runs, and would love to discuss strategies for that.

For everyone else in the group, what are your plans over the holidays? What do you do when you're out of reach of swimmable winter waters?

I took a look at that web site, lol its above my level of swimming , I think I read on there something about using one arm, lol here are a few short forms I didn`t understand,
freestyle shotgun, fly, ez -easy , fr - front, nf, RI, dolphin kick, IM, MDPS ?
I find I can go only one speed (without flippers), I am trying to slow down as I think I am swimming too fast and tiring myself out.
What stroke do you recomend breathing on, every 2,3 or 5, right now i use all three depeneding on how tired I`m getting, should I stick with one or is all three ok?
This swimming thing is very new to me but I am enjoying it.
Nathan

Hi Paul,

Do you have room for another? If so, I will post my bio too.

Thanks,
Candace/wyndswept

If I'm not concentrating, I find myself only breathing to my right every four strokes. Guess that's my comfort level. I try to concentrate breathe every three strokes, which seems to help me focus on a longer stroke using more of my lat muscles as opposed to just quickly flailing with my shoulders. When I tire out a bit, I'll take a breath every two strokes, compose myself a bit, then get back to breathing every three.

Ha.. probably didn't help much, and Paul is the ex-swim coach, so if that's bad advice, hopefully he'll jump in and tell you to not pay attention to anything I just wrote. Anyway, some of the best advice I got from an experienced triathlete was, "do what makes you comfortable." "Getting out of the water efficiently is much better than getting out of the water quickly." I regularly beat some of the best triathletes in my area out of the water, but they aren't concerned with expending energy to pick up a minute in the water. They get out fresh and hammer past everybody on the bike.

I think I want a tri bike. I want to find a good entry level bike that fits me. I've been checking out used bikes online but haven't found too many in smaller sizes in the LA area (I definitely want to try it out before buying). I have been to a couple bike stores but have quickly gotten overwhelmed by the salespeople...

Thanks for the swimming link too- I bookmarked it for later!

~Kerry