shmeeg's Winter Madness Mentor group - OPEN TO HIPPIES (Page 11)

We'll be visiting my son in college, so no training on tap until Sunday, then hopefully a road ride, weather permitting.  It sounds like most of you have found an indoor pool  to train in.  I'm envious because I have nothing close enough during my weekday schedule.   I need some help/direction here with my swimming.  Swimming, or lack of, is why I didn't triathlon last year, and if I don't figure this out, I'll repeat this year.  So, I'm contemplating several options and am definitely open to suggestions:

  1.  Buy a wetsuit and train in my own outdoor pool (35ft)
  2.  Train in town at the indoor pool on Saturdays
  3.  Focus on Run/Bike for now then shift focus to swim when warmer

How often do the rest of you swim train?  Feel free to jump in and splash some advice around.

The sooner, the better....  Unfortunately, unlike cycling and running, swimming is about form, not simply applying more exertion.  This takes time to discover, apply, and achieve.  I've heard it said that you need to swim 3x a week to maintain and 4x to progress.  I know, I know.  This really isn't realistic for most of us.  But, I do try to shoot for a 3x week.

With that said, I would definately not wait.  At least start with the Saturday swims, then be ready to ramp up the volume when you can tolerate the outside pool.

What distance are you looking to complete?  Sprint or Olympic?

Sprint first then maybe progress to Olympic.  I have a local sprint picked out in late September, but I really don't want to wait that long.  My bike and run will be ready this spring so IF if I can get swim ready (at least doable) then I want to sprint this spring.

I went from zero to 'race finishing' form in about 4 weeks when I did my first race.  It was only a 400-450m swim and I was woefully slow at something like 4:00/100 but I was scared sh1tless because it was in the ocean and nothing like just learning to swim in the safety of a pool w/ lap lanes.  If you're looking at a standard 1/4 mile sprint swim I'd say regular pool visits starting 8 weeks out will get you through the swim leg, but like Tim said if you can tolerate the cold water, the sooner the better.  I will echo the 3x/4x week advice and agree that it's necessary if you want to improve.  When I was swimming 3-4x/week I felt great in the water and actually saw improvement within just a few weeks in terms of both stamina and speed increases.

sooooo, went in for my 2nd of 2 bike fittings today.  Came out of it needing a longer seatpost, but picked up a pair of titanium speedplay zero pedals from my fitter for CHEAP.  Those suckers are almost 350 on the streets.  Long(ish) ride for me tomorrow to get used to the new position.  Hope everyone's having a great weekend.  Those of you watching the playoffs tomorrow, set up the trainer in front of the tv and spin for awhile if you get the chance!

Jay, how'd that 50 miler feel?  Your HR looked pretty good. 

I got 70 miles in yesterday.  Pacing felt better.  I'm finding that for the longer rides, I feel better if I keep my HR aroung 145.  I'm really not sure what speed that will translate to out in the desert as my last couple ride have some pretty big climbs.

Pacing has been a real issue for me.  I have a serious problem with getting caught up in the hype and starting off too fast.  In my last 50 mile off road race, I took off chasing the front and after 10 miles I noticed that my HR was averaging near 170.  Oops.  To say the least, the last 10 miles of that race were pretty painful.

Well, it was a shitshow of sorts.  Felt good until the last 45 mins, I think I needed to eat more before I went out.  I was really hungry. I will have to load up on snacks at the SAGs.  I had planned to ride down toward Encinitas/La Jolla area along the PCH, but about 10 miles into it I found out the Carlsbad Marathon had the roads closed, so I had to improvise cause I didn't know where to go at that point.  I decided to just go find a bunch of sickly long steep hills to ride on.  I got caught at a ton of stoplights so it was hard to get into a groove, my fueling sucked, and I was just out of sorts w/ the new fit position and not having ridden since last Sunday.  I was originally hoping to get an 80 miler in over this weekend, but wasn't about to push that far after being sick earlier in the week.  I'll probably try to do 70-80 next weekend then back it off after that until the TdPS.  Are you riding the TT bike or the Roubaix for it?  I'm riding my roadie, I don't think I can sit aero for that long, since I haven't been on the TT bike much since Thanksgiving.

Don't worry, I'll start off nice and slow so if you stay w/ me you won't have to worry about racing off after the leaders .  My HR seems to hover in the mid 140s mostly if I'm not climbing.  There's not too much straight flatland around here so I think that will be a good # for us to target given the altitude difference, that's about a 6 RPE level for me.  I'm not so much concerned w/ hitting a specific pace as I am just finishing the distance w/o the wheels falling off.

I'm definately riding my Roubaix. 

ok,
so I have a rookie question...what is time back? I have found the latest time that I need to beat to make it across the line. I get all the other time descriptions, but what is time back? The last person in my age group was 02:37:00.4 in a sprint.
On another note, it took me 25 mins to fast walk a mile. Now that I know what I'm up against time wise, I know what to work towards.
Les

Never heard of such a thing.  What was it in reference to?

next persons name going across it gives the times.
final time...time back...swim...T1...bike...T2...run.
I figured out the rest, but the time back has thrown me one.
If you don't know I'll try to message my friend who completed the race-just curious
heres where I am looking
http://www.milliseconds.com/participants/final_list/division/110732

Edited by LAH 2011-01-24 5:20 PM

Les, time back is just a statistic to show you how far you were behind the first place finisher.  Here's how it works: the first place finisher's time back will always be 00:00:00.  Let's say the winner of your age group finished in 2:30:00 and you finished in 2:35:00, your time back would be 00:05:00, five minutes.

Let me know if you need further clarification

Thanks for the swim advice guys, guess I'll have to hit it hard when things warm up around here.  I signed up for a duathlon in 2 weeks, 10K then 63 mile ride.  I think I'll finish the ride but not sure about time, supposed to be some hills, and, this will be the first time to ride after a 10K.  Might be interesting, supposed to reach 60 that day.

Sounds like that will be a fun du Bruce!  Thanks Tim for the clarification, haven't been in any races that posted that info.

Gonna commute to work tomorrow.  I was hoping to get to the Trek store or Performance tonight and grab a light for the front of my bike, but no dice.  I'll just have to hope there's no cars driving the wrong direction.   On the other end, I have a Mars 3.0 that is so freakin bright I don't know how people won't  see me if I'm in front of them.  Between commuting and lunch workout, I should be able to get in about 50 miles tomorrow.  Gonna do my first brick in a long time on Thursday.  THAT'S gonna be interesting!

Man, its pretty quiet around here!

Hey Jay, how about some challenges for February?  A little friendly competition can go a long way.  It has got me out training more than once when I just wanted to sit on the coach.  What say yee grand mentor?

Come on guys and gals, lets liven this up a little!

Ok, I have a challenge, let's see who can rack up the most outdoor cycling miles!   Seriously though, a challenge sounds good.  Since everyone seems to be doing a bunch of running, let's do a run challenge.  Nothing crazy like 30 runs in 30 days, how about a mileage challenge?  I know I need some motivation to hit the pavement, so let's say everyone shoot for a 56 mile running total for the month.  In the name of the half iron bike leg distance :D.  I will be checking up on you!  And I want weekly totals posted in here.  Let's start holding each other accountable folks!

Edited by shmeeg 2011-01-25 9:28 PM

Run and a swim for me tomorrow.  I might do some drill work w/ fins.  They make me feel so fast!

56 miles?! I'll aim for 56k instead lol. I am only targeting my first sprint tri after all!

Alright, 56 miles it is.  This is right in my ballpark for next month.  Let's have some fun with this....

56k would be an immense amount of swimming!  Let's see, 19 work days next month so that's...2950m/work day.  At my current slow 2:15/100 pace, that's about 1:05 a day in the pool.  I don't think I could smash 5x/week into my schedule :p

I just found out yesterday that I have to go to the field starting sometime around the 3rd week of Feb, so I won't be around for the tail end of Feb through about the middle of March.  Gonna make my 56 miles tough to get!

56k swim sounds good to me  Doubt I'll make that running but I'll try. Am having to run inside on a treadmill and that's just soooo boring that it's tough to do the time necessary to reach 15 miles/week. I really feel like I'm just pounding out the mileage and it sucks.  I am taking advantage of the great skiing (xc-skating). Can I count that?!!  

A question.  I registered for a sprint on June 12th. The swim is in a lake, so I signed up as a first-timer, having previously done only one tri with the swim in a pool.  Do you think it's okay that I categorized myself as a novice? I definitely feel like I am. 

Happy training!



  

Hmmm... Don't see why not, as long as you don't count the downhill mileage



Personally, I think that is fine.  Going from the pool to open water is going to be completely different for you in terms of environment and the amount of people.  Unitl you get a couple of races under your belt, it is hard to determine what class you should be racing in.





  

^^ agreed. If you blow everyone in the novice class out of the water there might be concern, but its not a big deal to register as such at this point.