SWBKRUN -CLOSED DUE TO TRAINING (Page 101)

Watch out FATTY, I had a wee bit of breakthrough last night swimming.(oh wait nevermind, I forgot that I've already beat you out of the water EVERY SINGLE RACE we've done together!)

Had our coach out watching a few of us. I over-rotate my hips and under-rotate my shoulders, hence my crazy scissor kick.

For some reason I always thought that the whole 'rotate and point the belly-button to the side of the pool thing' was related to swinging the hips. But its really more about rotating the upperbody. Whoot.  Found my legs didn't sink as much, and my crazy kick felt a wee bit smoother.

I'm certainly the least proficient swimmer in the group, but I disagree with this statement after all the feedback I've had.  It's really about rotating from the core and snapping your hip.

I'll give you that..... I would over rotate the hips. So to me that was always 'lowerbody.'

So when I say 'upperbody' that is a bit misleading. What I should have said, was 'not rotate the hips as much. Rotate from the core more.' upperbody is too general.

So any thoughts on tight muscles?

I try to stretch once or twice a day, periodically go to a sports massage and still my muscles are super tight.

Sitting here at my desk I yawned and stretched out a bit and my hamstring tightened up and hurt so sharply I jumped forward and almost hit my head on the desk...

I'm curious as to what others say.  Mine are always tight - and I'm stretching 3 or 4 times a day, and use the roller and the stick.   I would to find a sports masseusse.....anybody got suggestions for how to go about this?

I'm going to dethrone you as the least proficient.

Having said that, I'm going to brag for a minute.  Last night I broke 2:00/100 metres twice.  I did it last week for the very first time, but now I'm on my way to doing it a bit more consistently.  Slow for some.  Bloody awesome for me.  

Foam rolling seems to keep it at bay for me.  Not make it perfect, but better.

I don't do it, but some people swear by yoga.

Nice job on the swims Deb and Trevor.  Do you do much pull buoy work Trevor?  Just curious if you notice much of a difference when you are forced not to use your legs.

Tight muscles - it sounds like you are experiencing muscle cramping Tony.  Go eat a sweet potato.  Personally I need to just do good old fashion stretching; touch your toes, hamstring stretches, pull the towel behind the head etc.  I do all the other rollers as well but that doesn't help flexibility and I've found flexibility goes a long way as an injury preventative.  The rollers help push the lactic acid out and keep the myofacia loose for when the muscle grows/expands. 

Speaking of injury prevention, I have a doctor's apt with a podiatrist in about an hour.  Been training/racing for 6 years and now have a random pain in my left foot.  Coach says there is a muscle imbalance but how come it wasn't there all through IM training and now suddenly it appears?  I'll go pay an MD a bunch of money so my coach can tell me "I told you so" but sometimes you need to hear it from 2 different sources.  Fingers crossed for weak hips and not splintered bones!

I've had a bike fitter/coach, Sports Massge guy and chiropractor all tell me my flexibility is horrible.  Touch toes, lol, I can make it a bit past the knees.  I do use the stick from time to time but that seems to really only do something if I am feeling sore.

I remember you saying this a year or so ago.  You still can't make it to your toes - shame on you!   Seriously though I highly recommend working to improve that.  It will really help your performance. 

Ok, three seperate sources have all told you the same and you occasionally use the stick?  Do you want to be some old fart that can barely move?  You really need to think of stretching/rolling/yoga as the fourth discipline and schedule it in. Yoga once a week has done wonders for my flexibility and core strength.   I always do some sort of drills after warming up, but before running AND then I always do some form of stretching when I am finished.  If necessary the ice/cold bath happens (like this last Saturday).   When hours creep up, the PT equipment comes out daily as does a monthly Graston appointment and massage.  Take it from me, the older you get the more you need to stay flexible.  The ensuing injury will take you completely out of the game if you don't wise up ....said nicely, of course.

I hope there was a little more explanation behind his statement because this is totally useless information.  Imbalance where? fix how?

There are a lot of reasons it may not have shown up, you told us earlier you were focusing on speed vs distance--tougher on the body so issue more likely to manifest itself or something could have changed since IM--new shoes, old shoes, stopped working out for a while and got soft ....the list is endless. 

Whenever I hear something related to the foot I cringe.....Keep us in the loop!

10-4!

Fixed that for you. 

Congrats.  Keep it up.

Well, Deb, since we are dethroning, I'm going to take the chance to dethrone you!  Congrats on the progress.  And since we are bragging, I hit sub 2:00/100 yds last week twice and I was ecstatic.../100m sounds a ton faster to me!  Good job!

Nope.  I think that I am the least proficient swimmer.  I still can't break 2 min for 100 meters in the pool.  I can do it in the open water with my wetsuit on, but not in the pool.

Congrats to both of you on getting under 2:00/100.   

One more comment on the flexibility: sitting is terrible for you.  You probably turn your shoulders in, hunch over, slouch back and tilt your pelvis up (just like I'm doing now as I type).  That puts strain on your lower back and tightens up your hammies.  Get up, stretch a little and move around at least once an hour.  

1:10/100M in his IM swim...GOOD GAWD!!  It always amazes me how fast the fish can swim!!

I actually do a lot of stretching, the reason I don't use the stick is it doesn't seem to do anything for me unless I am sore. 

One problem I have is having time right after a workout to stretch, like tonight, I finished my ride at kids school, walked home with my son, got his homework done and headed right to lacrosse practice.  I'll stretch tonight before bed but most of the time when I'm done with my workout I'm running to the next thing. 

I guess I'm trying to figure out what mix of stretches works best for me, I've tried a bunch and still super inflexible.  I might try yoga but again it's finding the time to fit it in thats the problem.

I do need to figure something out, my cycling seems to be coming along nicely, I'm noticing my average power/workout has gone up significantly since last year.  Still getting dropped by the good climbers on the team but I'm dropping the other non-climbers, just need to make that move up to the next level. I think having full range of motion in my legs might help a bit with that...

I'm actually surprisingly flexible.  Even when I was obese, I was.  I remember when my son was a baby and had just discovered his toes.  I commented about how babies are so flexible.  There's no way any adult could put their toe in their mouth.  I tried it to prove how difficult it would be, and low and behold, I could get my toe in my mouth...

This may sound bizarre, but I actually feel like I've become less flexible since becoming active.

We can all celebrate our swim times, whatever they are, and sit on our own thrones.  No dethroning necessary.  

Do we have any leprechauns chasing down the pot of gold this weekend?  If so, what are you after?

And to help Tony, David (really sorry!) and anyone else post workout, what do most of you do to stay limber immediately after a run or ride, especially if you're time crunched? do you stretch before or after swimming???

Congrats, and ouch.  I hope you're feeling better!

Not chasing any gold myself, but volunteering as a course captian at the Tobacco Road Marathon this weekend.  So excited to get out there and see some NC peeps.

Good luck to anyone/everyone racing this weekend.

I am also very bad about stretching.   I just plain need to make it a priority.