Got Your Mojo WORKIN'! group - CLOSED (Page 112)

Steve,

I'm kind of looking forward to a recovery week this week. The only thing that will change is my run times. Good guess on my other two runs short one was 3.59 and Friday was 4.8.

Swimming is coming along. On the last two Tuesdays I only had time for 700 and 600 yards. I'm doing those at 2min/100 pace. The last two Saturdays were 1800 yards with this past Saturday done in 42 min. My shoulders fell pretty good pain free but tired all the way from my triceps, delts, lats and across my upper back, good work out.

I haven't been on my bike for a while and I need to get back on it. The weather hasn't been very cooperative here on the weekends and I'm thinking about riding to work just to get some time in the saddle but its only 5-6 miles each way.

eta: yes the PCT is an olympic distance. They also have a 1/2 iron distance race they call long course but I'm not ready to tackle that yet. here's the website if you want to take a look. they have all kinds of races that weekend. Pacific Crest 

Edited by ckallpoints 2011-05-09 11:01 AM

Alex I hope its nothing major rest and heal quickly, good luck.

Sigh.....

It never pays to disappear for a couple of days, as things build up quickly here! We went up to Lynn's brother's cottage for a day-and-a-half, got back late last night, and then this morning was car brake-work and a doc app't for me, And now I'm here. For a while. trying to get caught up!!

Onward!

JOHANNE -

My computer will not display your race report page! At least, I'm assuming it's my computer --- which I also suspect is behind many of the world's problems!

I will keep trying, though. Is there any other portal for it?

And that reminds me -- I still have to do mine.

JEFF -

Many thanks for your two cycling pearls -- "overlap", and "higher is harder". I would not have known how to answer Sarah's question, as that is not a situation I have ever faced, and as for George's question....for neither love nor money can I keep that terminolgy straight. I certainly know how to apply all those principles while riding, but remembering how to talk about it properly.......

JEFF again -

The race sounds pretty good to me, but I hear your concerns with the swim, and the worries about K.C. I'm going to say to you to repress those thoughts for now, and not view what happened on Sunday as any indication of whta might happen at K.C. After this post to you I will respond to some swim questions Lori asked a couple of weeks ago, and maybe some of that will help you, too.

For now, though, I'll say that anything can happen in a swim, even a 400m one ("I mean 400 meters right?"). My experience tells me that for average swimmers all it takes is a small glitch -- too long between breaths, going a bit too fast, getting subtly agitated by the crowds going around a buoy, and others. My quick thought for you and K.C. is to start at your own pace, and stick with it until things are clear and you can fully settle into your rhythm. Too often people get caught up in the swim start chaos, and they never get into their rhythm -- or, they exert a lot of energy getting to the point where they can actually settle their system down.

More on your race report later. Now, on to swimming thoughts!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CYC_GIRO_CYCLIST_DIES?SITE=CARIE&TEMPLATE=SPORTSHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME

May your thoughts and prayers be with the family of Wouter Weylandt of the Leopard-Trek team.  Rest in peace and watch over your fellow riders.

If you really want to "geek out" on bicycle gearing start with this:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gain.html

If you end up making a little gear chart to tape to your handlebars, well, I warned you....

 

Edited by Av8rTx 2011-05-09 1:31 PM

------------------------------------------ Open Water Swim Thoughts --------------------------------------------------


This will address four questions (and then some?) asked by LORI a couple of weeks ago. These questions were:
(1) For a warm-up swim, how early before the race do you get in the water, and for how long?
(2) How to handle open-water freak-out?
(3) What to do if you hyperventilate?
(4) How to handle big chop or waves?

So, here goes:

Q#1 -
I aim for 10-15 minutes before my wave's start, and I do about 4-6 minutes of very easy stroking. I am looking to loosen up some, but also trying to trouble-shoot my goggles for fogging and leakage. I keep it as close as possible to the start because once I get the seal perfectly tight....those goggles don't come off again until the swim leg is finished. Easy stroking, for me, is mostly catch-up, and gradually working it until I can feel maximum reach without any strain on shoulders or deltoids. I will kick some, just to see how it feels --- even though I will kick hardly at all during the swim itself. Finally, I'm looking to establish a breathing pattern, so my breaths during this warm-up will be focused on full exhalation -- just in case this detail gets bypassed as I'm struggling with getting it all together at the swim's start.

Q#2 -
I should've asked Lori what exactly she was getting at -- the bigness of open water, or the potential chaos of the start and first couple hundred yards.
If it's the former, my best advice is to realize that (a) many other people are around you, and (b) these people include folks in kayaks. So, it is quite easy to hail someone in the event of a panic attack, or even something more physical -- swallowing a big mouthful, losing your goggles, etc. I can't say much more about this personally, because even though I will never be the swimmer I want to be, i am at least fortunate enough to have no fears of any type of water conditions.
If it's the latter, meaning the swim start itself, I firmly believe that we are pretty much in control of our own fate at the start of the swim. That is, if we want to go out hard and aren't leery of getting bonked around some, then we can just insert oursleves in the middle or even front of our wave. However, if we want to keep it all stress-free and as un-physical as possible, here is what will help:
-- Start at the back, maybe 15-20 feet behind the start line. For most of us, we can swim 15 feet in just a few seconds, and that isn't much of a time loss at all -- especially if it provides peace of mind!
-- Start off to the side, with the outside being by far the calmest spot. Again, starting 10-15 feet from the edge of the main cluster of swimmers will give you space while not adding too much time to working your way back into the straightest path between buoys. Swim starts do clear out quickly, especially if you help the process some by starting away from the mob.
-- There is much talk about "getting swum over", and I can tell you that in 88 race swims that has happened to me just once. I can also tell you that most swimmers -- even the fast and aggressive ones -- do not want to swim over another swimmer because they have no way of telling what will happen. Will they get kicked? Elbowed? Will they lose their goggles? Their teeth? Will the person they swim over grab them in panic? In anger? These are all real concerns for every swimmer, and NO ONE wants to be in that position -- so, no one is going to swim over you deliberately.
-- As for contact, people work hard to avoid that, too. Almost always, as soon as once person brushes against another, they move away; in fact, both do! I dare say that the internal conversations are full of "Excuse me!" and "So sorry!" and "I hate to bother you!" and "Forgive me?". So, when contact happens, just veer away slightly; nobody is looking to get aggressive with you, because not only are most people nice, but also most people don't know if you're a swim whacko yourself!
-- I have mentioned "CHASING BUBBLES" as a very good pool strategy, and this will help hugely on race day when you learn that all those bubbles you are swimming through are from a swimmer who may be about 6-8 feet in front of you. So, there is no need to panic about swimming into someone and getting kicked in the chops; well, not immediately, anyhow. When I get into a thicker bubble cluster I will bring my entering hands a bit moe to the middle -- just to provide a shield of sorts for my face so i don't kicked in the nose.
-- Chasing bubbles in a race is a good thing because it is a legal form of drafting and , when done correctly, can save a fair amount of your energy. It is NOT worth letting your stroke mechanics go in the tank as you work to "stay on someone's feet", but if you can make it work it will help alot.

Q#3 -
My very first tri was a deep-water swim -- kind of like at Alcatraz, where a boat takes the swimmers out to the middle of whereever and they jump off and tread water for a while and wait for the horn to blow and the swim the start. I was very excited about this, had no fear of the deep water, and in fact because I had done a few months of OWS in the St. Lawrence River, same river as the race was in, I felt almost at home. But maybe becasue of the excitement, I started the swim and almost immediately started to hyperventilate. Was I forgetting to breathe, mabe? A didn't even know. So, I swam a few strokes...stopped....breathed while treading....started again....it happened again....I went to breaststroke for about 10 seconds.....began swimming....and this time I just kept going. WHEW!!! So, fo me it was just getting my breath under control, and I have since learned to do that two ways: (a) when there is a "one minute!" or "30 seconds!" announcement, i will start breathing long and deep -- and easy!; and (b) I will begin the swim breathing as fully as possible. As I said above, that will be full exhalation and an inhalation that, at the start, features a bit more body roll and head-turn so I make sure I'm not short-changing what I'm bringing into my lungs.

Q#4 -
I mentioned to Daniel quite some time again about how to handle this; let's see if I say the same thing this time!
I have had a few rowdy-water races, with one that really was difficult -- Mussleman half-iron in '08. Buoy sightings were not frequent due to being in troughs often, so then it became a matter of making a sighting and lengthening the stroke -- almost as if you were reaching to touch that last buoy you saw. I found it useful to use that imagery, but moreover to slow down my stroke and work at swimming as straight as possible. In a way, it was liberating to NOT sight often, seeing as how doing so just required more energy and didn't really produce results!
Having the ability to "sight high" is very useful. Mostly I train to "sight low", meaning I keep my head a slow as poosible asn try to always sight out oif the top indide of my right eye. But I alos work atvsoighting high, which means I coordiante my stroke every so often so I raise up my upper body, lift my head abnd chin, and sight straight ahead with both eyes. In a way it's like a butterfly body position for a split second, but always with freestyle mecahanics; that is, my head and shoulders are out of the water toigether. Itvtakes some degree of core strength to do this, but is well worth it when face with rough water.
In fact, just slowing down period is beneficial in rough water, as the less energy you expend the less oxygen you will require. And seeing as how you can run into problems turning your head to breathe only to find that your face is still submersed, you don't want to be in an oxygen-debt situation. Two thoughts on this:
-- If you normally breathe every fourth stroke, itvis good to learn to do it every second stroke. That way if you miss air on the fourth stroke, you're not going hypoxic until you an try again on the sixth stroke. So, if you are comfortable with breathing every second stroke, that just provides that amny more options to breathe when rough water is workoing to make it more difficult.
-- Bilateral breathing is often touted as a great skill to have when water is rough and rowdy, and that's true --- but ONLY if it is just about equally natural breathing to both sides. I can do bilateral, but near near as well to my left as to my normal right side. So, when I tried it at Musselman '08, I prety much failed -- didn't get enough air on that third stroke,a nd then had to wait three more until i was back to doing it on he right again. Yikes! (Someone remind me to mention a drill for breathing every stroke -- or, rather, 2 out of every 3 strokes. It is a real trip!)

Alrighty, then! I hope some of this helps, and before too long I will break it down into a smaller format just dealing with garden-variety tri race swim starts.




Edited by stevebradley 2011-05-09 2:15 PM

LORI -

Was that kinda sorta what you were looking for?