Got Your Mojo WORKIN'! group - CLOSED (Page 130)

JEFF -

A "nudge" over 14 -- like being a "little bit" pregnant?

Thansk for the clarification of some of the goals and your overall perspective. I have had a few bouts of overtrianing over the years, but I was able to mostly nip them in the bud so thaey didn't sabotage the entire depths of me soul. long training for long races is a great set-up for it, so just be aware of any symptoms and attend to them kind of like you planned yesterday -- a short jog with the dog and call it a day. Perfect!

DAVID -

I can hear your disappointment, but I see two things: a real positive in your run being at a way better pace on a more difficult course, and the overall positive perspective you have about the swim. Reading between the lines about that, there is more frustration than lack of confidence, or even abject fear, and of course that is very good. My quick answer for now is that all you need is one decent race swim (or maybe even just one very decent OWS training swim), and that should get you over the hump.

I will return within a day or two with other OWS thoughts -- nothing too profound, but hopefully helpful.

As for five weeks before your next sprint, that should be plenty of time. Your run work seems to be very much where you want it, and the bike speed/pace looks good. (Where exactly do you want that to be?) As for transition times, you don't sound happy with them but they look reasonable to me. (Mind you, that's coming from the perspective of my just-done race, where the distances between legs and t-zone were inordinately long!)

And then the swim. Well, we'll get you there! Stay tuned!

Steve-
Thanks for the analysis! Regarding the bike...I set a goal for this year to average 17.5mph...so I am pretty happy with what I am doing. But that competitive spirit in me wants to go faster but I know it takes time (and probably a new bike, which I am looking at in the next couple of months). I think with transition times, I am probably setting my expectations too high considering the last race there was some good distance between transition entrance and exit. I just need to fine tune some things and I think I will be there.

Regarding the swim...I look forward to some of your thoughts. This next race is my last OWS before my Oly in October so I would like it to be a nice confidence builder going into the training. There is a "Triathlon Swim Class" at our local Aquatics center that I may take in preparation for Pinehurst just to be able to work with a triathlon coach and hopefully gain some pointers on my stroke, etc. But your feedback is always wlecome!

David

Yes the swim training was pretty funny.   I was told I had a good stroke and also able to keep straight, but I was flat. Last night we worked on high elbows, rolling and also the proper way to have my hand enter the water, of and also when I would swim my fingers would be open and now Im working on keeping my fingers closed.  There is a lot to work on so this week I wil be working little by little.

ELLEN -

Glad to hear the foot is feeling better, and to help you maybe work with it I'll tell you that it sounds like a neuroma. One of the symptoms of a neuroma is the feeling that a sock is bunching (very disconcerting for me, seeing as how I run sockless!)

Other symptoms are a feeling of weakness in the affected toes or the affected area from the ball of the foot forward, and a noticeable burning sensation. The big wicked one for me was "electirc jolts" between the affected toes. Itw as prety much a deal-breaker (see below).

The most common neuroma is Morton's, and that affects the middle and ring toes. So, the pain there will be felt between them, and the shooting jolts will be on the outside of the middle toe and the inside of the ring toe. (I'm using hand terms here, as in thumb, index, middle , ring, pinky.) The somewhat different burning sensation can be felt either on the bottom or top of the foot, and will be back from the toes and along the long metstarsals -- but still close to where the toes end and the rest of the foot begins.

A less common neuroma is Heuter's (sp?), which is between the middle and index toes. This is the one that I have had.

When your explore these on line, you'll probably find illustrations that show a neuroma to be a mass of inflamed nerve tissue between the metatarsals. When this wad forms, it transmits agitation out to the toes -- that's the shooting electrical jolts I mentioned above. The bruning sensation above or below that post is just the agitation staying more localized; why it burns rather than jolts, I don't know.

One short-terms remedy for the burning is to stop and vigorously rub the affected area. I had this symptom only once, and that was about midway through the run of my second ironman. Fortunately, I knew enough to do this, and maybe miraculously I was fine for the remainder of the run.

I spent a lot of that season ('05) wearing a metatarsal pad in my right running shoes. You can see these at www.injurybegone.com. If not, let me know and I will steer you to them. They were not a 100% improvement, though, and in time I opted to have the neuroma surgically removed; that was in Jan. '06. (Do I ever have a story to tell you about that!) Some people get relief from cortisone injections, but of the three or four I received over time.....none of them worked. I think the chances are better if the neuroma is still young and small, but the problem there is that many people do not suffer from them until they have been around for a while and grown quite a bit. Kind of like termites -- you may not know you have them until the walls of your house collapse!

Y'know, i'm going to stop here. I've been assuming that what is bothering you is a neuroma, but if it's now then I'm telling you a pile of stuff you don't need to know!

So, check out what I've said and see how it jives with your symptoms, and then go on-line and see what you can find. If it's a neuroma, then please come back to me and we can go into it a bit deeper.

AND SEE NEXT POST!!!

ELLEN again -

A-ha! I see you are looking into Yoga! Welllllllll....I guess thta's incentive for me to finally answer your question from about 4-6 weeks ago, eh? I apologize for that, but the answer really is more complicated than you might imagine; maybe in time I will go into that as a PM.

You asked about whether I started it for flexibility or stretching....and also made a comment about "Flexible Warrior"....and added that you "probably want to do it the right way". So..........

I went into it non-commitally, mostly. I had done about 8 sessions of Bikram or Power in early '00, and managed to really wrench my back, thus ending my Yoga days. then we got a Groupon for an Ottawa Yoga studio, with the deal being two weeks unlimited. Lynn used hers right away, but I waited until the bitter end before registering myself. I have been intrigued by Yoga as a form of cross-training for a long time, but my fear of hurting myself prevented me from trying it. I really had gotten the more athletic forms into my head, and it wasn't until I rgistered that I started exploring some of the styles that the studio offered and which I wasn't aware of. The main one that caught my attention was Yin, but I also noticed Shanti; both of htese seemd to be compromises between the more athletic styles....and doing no Yoga at all. (I won't explain these here, but look at them on-line.)

To make (another) long story short, after a couple of these sessions I realized my body was CRAVING this type of treatment -- nothing even remotely aerobic. I din't mind working, but my body didn't need another tough workout, and moreover my naturally* inflexible self couldn't handle many of those types of classes.

The ofdd thing was that I would finish one of these mor gentle Yoga classes.......and wouldn't want to do a thing. I have spent years going from a swim to a run, or a run to a bike, or any other combination that you could imagine, but after Yoga I just wanted to.........bask, perhaps? That made me realize that this was also working on my head, and that was a very unique feeling.

So, in answer to your first question, i'd say my incentive was fitness that would complement my tri training, with a second focus being imporving flexibility. I guess that dovetails some with stretching, but seeing as how I do so little of that it wasn't really on my radar. I raalized, though, that the last thing my body wnated or needed was another hard-core session, so that changed the focus somewhat from being a direct training tool.....to something that is more supportive of my overall training regimen. Does that make sense?

I think it is hugely important to learn to do the poses the right way. I could go on and on about that, but I'll leave it here that good instruction is critical to doing Yoga safely. It also helps to go into it non-competitievly, maning to not try to do what the intsructor or maore experienced and/or flexible people is doing. I mean, you follow them as far as you can, but be ready to back off and stay at your own "edge".

I am now doing a five-week Intro to Ashtange course, and that is a real push for me. Ashtanga is one of the more vigorous styles, and I struggle with many of the poses. And even though it is beyond the scope of the gentle, more supportive styles I mentioned above and that my body seems to crave, I am doing it because I have grown to love Yoga just on its own....and want to explore it more deeply. Since March 13 I have done 81 (as in eighty-one) classes, each about 90 minutes in length; this has become the focus of my overall training, and a real joyous part of life -- especially in light of some of the injury woes that have undercut my tri-specific training. I even volunteer there many hours a week, mostly cleaning -- trying to nurture the place that has been nurturing me, I guess!

As for the * above, what I have learned is that I am indeed very inflexible in forward bends -- my hamstrings are way too tight, and I just flex forward poorly from the hips. HOWEVER! I am decent at twists, maybe bettter than normal at back bends, and quite skiilled at inversions. Maybe swimming has helped my neck a lot, but I am great at shoulder stands and headstands -- the supposed Queen and King, respectively, of the Yoga asanas (poses). Woo-hoo! So, while I struggle with many poses, those two landmark ones are right up my alley. Woo-hoo again!

Doe any of the above help? I really should PM you with other thoughts.....but I guess thye are still formulating. For now, though, certainly give it a try. Unless you are really loose and flexible, stay away from Ashtanga and Power and Bikram for a while. I would recommend Yin for the connective tissues, and something like Hatha for muscles. I got a lot of great mileage at first from the Gentle Hatha classes, which elsewhere might be marketed as Beginner. I literally spent my first two intensive months of Yoga not venturing forth from Hatha and Yin and Gentle Hatha and Shanti, except for one Power class and one Hot Flow. (I also "Flow" poorly, so those are good ones to avoid for a while until you get better at the poses in general, and flowing in particular. Some Flow classes will use the word Vinyasa, so be careful about those at first.

Finally, about Yin -- don't be scared off by talk of poses being held for 3-5 minutes. While that is true, (a) they are not aggressive poses, (b), they are moved into very slowly, (c) there is no pressure to go into any pose deeper than you can comfortably get, and (d) there is always the option to back out of a pose if necessary.

Hope this all helpds, let me know what else you want to know!

WHEW!!

JEFF and GEORGE -

Ain't that the truth about contradictory swim advice!

As for the specifics of open versus closed fingers, well, I have read both positions. I personally prefer my fingers to slightly spread for the reason Jeff says -- increased surface area. Not only have I seen data that support this view, but I gotta feel it helps me with my not-too-big hands. When I use paddles in the pool ---- I go much faster. There weems to be a clear connection there, so I try to remember to keep my fingers gently spread during my pull.

I guess my goal would be to condition myself so I enter the water with a pointed hand, and then open the fingers some as I progress through the catch so they are as wide as I want them for the pull. The they get arrow-like as my arm goes through the recovery phase, and it's in that position as it slices through the water upon entry. I think I am mostly there.....but not as good at opening them during the pull as I might prefer to be.

For high elbows, oh my, there is so much discussion about THAT! Almost everyobne syas elbows should be high during the pull, and I agree with that. But that's the tougher one to implement, especially in the case of someone (that would be me.... ) who has imprinted the muscle-memory for dropped elbows during the pull. I work on high elbows on the pull hugely....but still can backslide very easily. Alas and woe!

TI is high on high elbows during the recovery, but I question how useful that is. It helps to condition big body roll (I also have questions about that....), and it can be useful at times when the water is really rowdy and there is a need to get the elbows and hand above the waves or chop during the recovery phase. but for all the zillions of housrs I have spent in choppy water, I have seldom needed to execute really high elbows. (That said, though, I have long arms to begin with, so my experience may be biased some.)

I don't golf, but I have heard many times that swimming is like golf in that there can be a never-ending checklist of technique concerns that can be addressed each stroke. I know that is true for swimming, anyhow!

GEORGE -

You can check any number for any race that Zoom Photo services, and you'll find that they shoot lots and lots and lots. It is equelaly impressive that they get them up so quickly -- in most cases within 48 hours, and more often than not within 24 hours. Thuis, it exasperates me when photo companies take one or two photos of each person, and don't make them available until the Thursday evening after a Saturday race.

Zoom appreared aroung '06, and has always been prolific and fast. There a re no real bells and whistles to their photos, but they work! I shoukd also say that it the unidentified swimmer section for that race, i found 6 or 7 of me -- included three or four where it's just me, running through the water towards swim exit. So for that race, there are close to 20 of me. Not too shabby!

I really should order from them, just to support them. I have ordered race photos aat various time sin the past, but then do nothing much with them. (The photo I use here is a Zoom one, FWIW.)

JEFF -

Great race! What is that -- about top 22% overall??

And that's not much of a spread between the top 6 in your a.g. -- not even a minute-and-a-half. What, were you six elbowing each other during the final km or so?

Good luck

----------------------------------- BOSTON BRUINS WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -------------------------------------------