Scott and Kelly's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 11)

That's good stuff. I will incorporate that into my plan.

The low hanging fruit right now is breathing to my left ( weak side ) when I get tired. I really noticed it today during a speed workout. As soon as I got winded, my roll wasn't as strong and my head didn't get up for very long. Everything broke down after that. When I focused on the roll to the left I could keep it consistent. Are their any drills for this? Or is it just, focus on it long enough and it becomes habit?

Hey PoolGod - regarding your OW projected time - what experience of OW do you have? I know I did the same thing calculating OW times from Pool times but even after reading all the warnings of problems that may occur I thought it wouldn't affect me as I was confident in the [pool] water.

Come my first OW race I swam 50, stopped, thought about quitting, tried to calm the anxiety, then repeated for the next 500 yds. needles to say my 5x1:36 projection was a little off :-)

on my next race I thought I'd be better due to the 'practice' - I managed 100 yds before the anxiety kicked in.

it wasn't until after several session of 40+ mins in a nearby lake was I confident enough to swim non-stop in race conditions.

Mark.

Mark,

I was a beach lifeguard for the better part of eight years and I slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night. The answer to your question is I have no open water swimming experience. The fact is I am completely comfortable in the water. I really have been a lifeguard or a lifeguard trainer/instructor for the last 25 years. I have no formal swim training, other than completing the yearly 400 yard swim required. When I was young, we had to swim the 1000 at the beach for open water life guarding. But I don't count that as experience.

I will be able to simulate some of the race conditions, prior to the race. I am 30 minutes from the beach here in NJ, so I can get at least one OWS in each week once the weather clears. I also have a couple of shorter races planned at the beach prior to the HIM. So I will have some OWS in before I get to the big one. I honestly can't think of any condition that would seriously bother me, other than getting kicked in the nose! That's is a concern of mine. I was a wrestler, my nose has been broken eight or nine times. One kick to the shnozzola and I won't be able to breath right the rest of the race.

And don't read too much into my beginner rants. My first priority is to finish. Once I know I can finish, the next step is to not finish last. And I will work my way through the pack as my engine gets stronger. It's going to be a long journey, but that's the part I enjoy. And if you don't take advantage of the big strides you make in the beginning of training, you can appreciate the smallest accomplishments towards the end of training. And they are all accomplishments paid for with blood, sweat and tears! I am always looking for ways to measure my self in training, that's all this was. I don't think I am going to be skittish in the water, but if I am you will hear it from me.

Another thing to consider is six kick switch. Roll onto one side with one arm extended and the other at your side, do six kicks, then switch to your other side.

Grrr... I'm still not in a morning routine again yet. I really need a day where I cannot convince myself I can get the workout in later to kickstart the habit again. I have a hard time getting up before 5am. I know, I know, just do it!

Is just doing it the trick? Cause I got up this morning at 5:30am and somehow convinced myself that... 1.) it was too dark and foggy to go running and 2.) I was absolutely exhausted. So I slept in til 7 am and went to work. Now I am trying to figure out how to get a run and a bike in today. And I am quite disappointed with myself, since I had to take yesterday off for a trip into NYC. Headed to the gym on my lunch break, to see if I can get something done!

If it is, let me know. I hear you on trying to figure out how to get things in now. Got a swim at 7pm tonight and trying to figure out a gym to try out to ride a bike between work and then.

The best way for me to just get up and go is to set my stuff out the night before. That way if you don't get up and do it you'll feel guilty if you sleep in and see it all later.

I was away on vacation. There has been a lot to read to catch up.

For goals for the year - I'm still working on it. I have Lake Stevens 70.3 in mind. We have quite a bit of vacation planned for the summer and I don't know how that is going to play into my training. I also work a lot - mostly on weekends and every Friday evening/night. So finding races that work with my schedule is daunting. Lake Stevens is the only race around here that actually fits. The sprints have conflicts. Considering I haven't actually finished a triathlon yet, that might be a bit of a stretch for me. (And the run concerns me.) But my trainer and coaches think I'm ready. I did do an Oly trial on my own last summer using the pool and the gym bike (did extra mileage on that) with an outdoor run. So I know I can do the Oly distance.

Completing is one thing. Being in the race is quite another as I found out at my tri. I guess I might be a tad bit competitive - at least too much for my own good - which was part of what got me into trouble during my last race. I don't get that way until I have the confidence that I could actually do well. Otherwise, I'm just kind of in it for the experience and the satisfaction of knowing I pushed myself - my ultimate goal in triathlon.

I will be getting set up for group rides soon. I have a couple of basics clinics to attend later this month at my local tri shop. It will be rainy here until at least May. Wet roads was the main contributing factor in my crash. One of the clinics is about riding in the rain, which is something that never phased me before, but now gives me anxiety. I'm hoping the group rides (in the rain) will help me to overcome this and so I can regain some or most of my fearlessness on the bike.

How far North of Seattle do you live? A bunch of people from my Tri group are training for that race, many of whom have never done a tri. It's a good group if you'd ever want to join!

Edited by MechEChick 2014-01-15 3:05 PM

Well your right, I just got home and saw my morning running outfit in a neat pile on the floor and felt guilty! Even after I got to the gym during lunch and split an hour and a half between the bike and treadmill.

Bike question....now that I have a trainer set up, and have lived through riding though a news broadcast (BOrING) i am looking at Sufferfest and they look pretty cool. But do I need some sort of heart rate monitor or power meter for the videos to be effective or can I just go for it?

Of course I would need to figure out how to attach me iPad to my bike :-/

This is a whole new word that I have shyed away from because it seems complicated!

I've never tried Sufferfest. But I am digging using trainerroad (I think they have some sufferfest workouts on there) and watching IronMan. So glad someone mentioned that. My last workout flew by and seemed oh so easy! Going to have to find some more full episodes for the trainer! The one I watched was Chrissy W's 3rd IM Kona win. Some very inspiring stories of people trying to finish for various reasons (stroke, disability, etc).

Also I got a Garmin Swim watch last week. I've used it twice. OMG I love it. I tend to get severe cases of Alzheimer's when I swim. I always forget what lap I am on, I always forget how far total I swam - obviously if I don't know what lap I am on how will I know the distance. If I only swam 50's I'd mostly be set, but throw in anything further and I am screwed. Discovered my average pace is 1:53/100M, but I cranked out some in the 1:20's during drills. I never knew any of this before. I have a SWOLF score. I don't how how this relates to anything, but find it to be cool to know that I have one - should someone ask. I'm also WAY slower at breaststroke (which I already knew, but the watch verified it).

Sorry - I don't know how to do the quote function, or how to edit or anything. The only thing that shows on my ipad screen is "reply" and forward/backward buttons.

I live pretty close to Lake Stevens (South Everett area). Seattle might be a bit of a trek for training partners, but I'm not ruling it out by any stretch. Fortunately, and since I'm so close to LS, there are a lot of triathletes in this area. It's just a matter of meeting the right people and getting schedules to coincide.

Who do you swim with in Seattle? I used to swim in Shoreline, which works with the Green Lake group. Those are the biggest/best organized swimming groups in the whole area.

Are you doing Seafair? That was what I had hoped to be my first tri last year, but it didn't work out.

I found out the I can push videos up to my tv from my iPad...actually I knew this but didn't know how ;-)
So that eliminates the need to attach my iPad to my bike.

So, I may just buy a beginner video and go for it. I would still really love to know how people track/ measure their trainer sessions.

Oh awesome, makes sense though, that's way too far away. I just started swimming with Blue Wave Aquatics since I commute out south from the city for work. But I've been doing some bike and run events with the Green Lake groups.

I would love to do Seafair, but since it's the day after Ragnar and three weeks after IM CDA, I think I'll be skipping it. Thankfully I'll still be doing Ragnar stuff on Saturday and will miss packet pick-up because I'd be tempted... I hear it is great. Will you do it this year? I'm also thinking Kirkland and Escape from the Rock.

I was just looking at Sufferfest! I think that might be neat too.

I HR train and then just put in an approximation for distance in my log depending how hard the ride/long was. Not really accurate I'm sure.

So I contracted a nasty bug that surfaced the night I got back from Disney and my HM. It has laid me out all week - but fortunately I had several rest days, which I needed to recover from my race. I think my soreness could have been related to the bug, which was obviously with me when I ran the race.. Back at it tomorrow for the official training of my tri season. Hopefully my nose will be less runny when I am in the pool.

Kirkland is where I crashed. They told me they won't be doing that corner on the bike route next year. (I wasn't the only one who crashed there and got a ride to the hospital, but I was the only one who ended up in surgery.) I *really* wanted to do the run on that course, which I missed completely. Honestly, I'm a bit gun-shy to do a race around here again in Sept since the weather turns and that was the main factor in my crash. OTOH, 1000's race in Sept and don't go to surgery...

I might do Seafair, or Whidbey. Whidbey should be more low key and probably my preference. I have to get vacation approved in order to do either one. I think it might be good for a training race. I have a couple friends who want me to do Whidbey with them. But I want to do Seafair so I can ride across the bridge. I might do that on a ride this summer, though.

Have you been to CDA? I haven't been there since the mid-90's, but it is so beautiful. If I ever get to a 140.6, CDA will definitely be on my list.

So you are at Federal Way??? I still have never made it to that pool to swim.

I signed up for my first swim meet since high school and it's this weekend. I'm on the super slow side compared to the other swimmers who signed up. Which is discouraging b/c I'm usually the fastest person in the pool - and one of the top 2-3 people who ever swim at the pools that I do. Nobody from Blue Wave is signed up for this meet.

I'll usually be at a different pool (Evergreen AC), but I did go to King County AC on Wednesday. HOLY COW! I had never swam in such an awesome pool before, even if they had it partitioned down. I just want to swim in it as a 50m pool. Been swimming over 20 years and had never swum in an olympic sized pool before.

Good luck this weekend!!!! I'm sure you'll do great. And I'll have to check out Whidbey. Could be just my type of race.

Isn't an olympic pool awesome? I get to swim in one at Masters - on Friday they usually have it set up as LCM (50m) but there's a meet there this weekend, so we had to swim SCY (25m). Apparently it was the pool used for the 2008 Olympic trials that they cut apart and moved to Virginia - or something like that.

I've done my Trainer Road workouts with just an HRM, but they're more fun with the virtual power (cadence/speed sensor)...I like to watch the pretty pictures while I ride of how hard I'm working.