Not phat? Phatknot SLAYER - CLOSED (Page 14)

Nic - I think there is quite a lot of value in learnig the breast and backstrokes. I've arrived at a bouy with 30 other swimmers and it can get very congested as we all try to round it at once. Most of us get our heads out of the water and spend 10 to 20 meters breast stroking around the 'corner'. Backstroke is a useful tool if you are having some problem but are not ready to quit. A damaged google, coughing fit, or just too tired to crawl. One drill I made up and practice is my crawl to breat to crawl transition. I swim 5 meters freestyle and then swith to breaststroke for 10m and then back to free to the end of the pool. This simulates the occasional stops that happen during crowded races. The trick is to get your body back in correct freestly position and moving forward fast.

Had a 7 am meeting this morning so I ran early with a headlamp. Still having to dodge ice patches so my pace was a little off. Still planning to back off a little this week anyway. Wife left with her running shoes this morning. Probably headed to the track.



As far as other stokes go, I think they are fine in training but would not use them in a race. The breast stroke is considered dangerous by some RDs due to the whip kick. Occasionally you will see in the swim rules that you might be DQed in a race if you use the  breast stroke predominately. I can swim the majority of the popular strokes fine but I have swum the freestyle/crawl so much that when I'm tired, that is the stroke I default to. Even in a 2000+ mass start I would still prefer to freestyle around a buoy then whip kick.

Edited by pschriver 2011-01-18 7:30 AM

Thanks for the nice words about the article.

Gotta love running with a headlamp. And I think the breast stroke drill looks cool too. I just don't really do it with a whip kick. Its more like a doggy paddle how I do it around the buoys. But I may try that a bit. Damn I wish I could swim better. They never will write any article about Slayer in the water haha.

Good work everyone. Keep at it. Just think, its ok that we are all pulling for a wife beating this weekend! I smashed a dungeon brick this morning. Hit my logs to check it out. I need to eat more Chinese leftovers.


Edited by phatknot 2011-01-18 12:24 PM

Budwiser puplished a scientific paper proving Clysdales can't swim.

My swim coach had me doing doggy paddle drills. It really helped build my shoulder strength. 25m dog paddle followed by 25 m free. She also had do sighting drills where I would sight every 3 strokes, 5 strokes and 7 stroke. It really helped with my sighting 

Edited by pschriver 2011-01-18 12:42 PM

Bud L. Weiser is a very good friend of mine! Shame he feeds me too many carbs than I can afford at the moment.

How's y'all's weight loss going? Anything working or not working?

Where are you getting your best benefit in training lately?

ouch... that dog paddle drill sounds HARSH!
(but in a fun & productive way)
i'm borrowing that one too! 

i keep waiting for the weather here to turn...
it's pretty balmy out there right now! snow is melting a bit, it's drizzling...
but then the temps tonight are supposed to plummet
worried about possibly running on ice tonight
(that's something i really fear)

but hopefully i'll toughen up, get over it  & get it done!
7k planned (& a mini core workout too-- make up for the ice cream i had last night between spinning & swimming!)

The sun came out today!  Woo hoo!  Swam around 2000 yards with my masters team and then ran 3.5 miles.  I was supposed to do 6 but it just wasn't happening.  I'll add some distance to my brick tomorrow.

Here's my schedule for the rest of the week:
Wednesday: swim, brick: 45 min bike followed by 30 min run
Thursday: run 1 hour, bike 1 hour
Friday: swim, run 1 hour
Saturday: bike 2 hours
Sunday: run 1 hour

Any thoughts on deep tissue massage? I had a massage last night and she really worked over my legs.  It hurt like he11 and, though, I know it's supposed to help, it definitely killed my run today. 

damn ice cream. you guys are killing me here! one of my alltime favs! Good swim nerdjock. you were up at the crack of dawn.

i love massage. i havent had one in over a year but used to get them every month until my CMT graduated nursing school and quit the profession. My sister is a CMT in NYC and does Thai massage which seems to be right up our alley. More movement involved like PT.  My advice would be to not go so hard that it hurts you the next day or do it when you have a recovery day the next day if possible.

get the moldable ones if you can afford them!

(what's that??)

check into the BONTs too which are moldable and are being sold off inexpensively too. i love mine and I used to use the ones above.

you can always check classified forums like BT or slowtwitch.com and search for your size and the term tri-shoes. some other forums exist but i rarely hit them up. pschriver seems to do good trade on ebay.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=239169

lol!!
that's where i'm hoping to score pedals (ebay)

i keep wondering though.... IS there a big trade in counterfeit or fake bike parts like that??

i got 12 miles in this morning. i am behind on hitting my goal of 200 miles for january. i need to step it up to make it.

i SWEAR... i do work
this/triathlon is just WAY more fun to think about

Tuesday and I've managed to get in 2 swims, 1 run and 2 bikes, not bad in 2 days.

I'm actually finding the whole swim exeperience quite an interesting challenge, while it's hard work it keeps me concentrating as I've always got a bit bored with swimming before.

The weight loss isn't happening and I've no idea why I've been averaging an intake of about 1500 kcals, trained for a minimum of 60 minutes a day and nothing to show for it. I'm just hoping that over time it's going to finaly decrease.

I thought I had a whole week at home but have been called away so will be in a hotel again tomorrow grrr  I'm hoping to get a run in at least.

Wish me luck.

Kate- that sounds really frustrating!  I know how it feels to be really thoughtful about what you eat and work hard and feel like you aren't making progress.  How are you tracking your calorie intake?  How did you come up with the number 1500?  

Kate- I can feel your frustration. I'm in the same boat. I run, I bike, etc. I carefully track what I eat (and every morsel of it). I dropped the initial water weight, but nothing more..... very frustrated. Keeping kcals around the same as yours..

Stick with it Kate. I struggled in a similar way and only recently had success in losing weight (I'm down 6lbs in 4 weeks).   If I may ask, where are those 1500 Calories coming from?  I found that when I took too much of my calories from carbs (sugars in particular) I would burn though them in 30min. and then run out of energy. Basically my bodiy would lower my base metabolic rate and prevent me from losing weight. Now I focus on getting my calories from proteins and my carbs from veggies.  There is a good video-article here on BT about this:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1145




Edited by mgalanter 2011-01-18 8:01 PM

12 mile bike or 12 mile run?  200 miles of biking or running in January would be nice.  Keep up the good work!

Hey everyone - my work is keeping me way too busy for my liking = not nearly enough time on BT.

I'm gonna just back in with the swimming and my takes from some of your comments.

First - in my opinion doing a swim w/o that includes all the different strokes when no one has ever shown you had to do them is a complete waste of time.  What are you getting out of it?  I can see practicing breast stroke (or your own version of breath/side stroke) if you're not a strong enough swimmer to make it thru your race.  My very first race before I had even started swimming I did side stroke half the way.  Is that even a stroke?  Point is to do something to get to the end of the swim without drowning.

In the master's swim I go to the pool is broken up into two groups - one group is the triathletes and the other group is the "real" swimmers.  The triathletes so long as I have been going there never do any stroke but free style.  We do lots of drills and use lots of equipment and do lots of speed work, etc.  The real swimmers (which include lots of triathletes but they are strong swimmers that either have been swimming all their lives or are just gifted) do lots of different strokes.  Point here is that the coach is getting the triathletes ready to swim an Open Water race.  And the reason she focuses on drills is that you will wear yourself out if you don't have proper technique.  Speed comes from technique - not massive swim sets (IMHO).  Massive swim sets give you endurance - yes - but you'll need it cause you're gonna be out there longer than those that swim "right".

As I mentioned I have been swimming for 3 years.  I have lots of endurance.  I can swim 1000 yards no problem.  But I'm slow and it's HARD work for me.  Meaning when I am done with my OWS I am going to be tired getting on my bike because I used too much effort.  The person who swims with proper technique - not the case.  As my coach says all the time a successful OWS in a race is one where you get out of the water and your HR is not thru the roof and you're ready to go.  That is one way he measures improvement.  How do you transition from swim to bike?  How long till you recover from your swim and can rock out your bike?

All that being said I am on a mission to swim "right".  For all the reason's above and one more.  I have NEVER sucked at any sport - ever!  I am a natural athlete.  But for me there is nothing natural about swimming and I want to change that.  I am tired of going nowhere fast and being exhausted when I get there.

I had a swim lesson today.  The coach uses video taping to see what you do, she corrects you and she keeps video taping you to see if you're getting it.  Great tool cause I for one can't "feel" what I'm doing wrong.  My main things to correct (and I already knew this) I drop my elbows big time which gives me no pull at all till I'm almost done with my stroke.  And I need to work on my kicking (easier and more effective).  I was better by the end of the session but I have a long way to go to finish correcting and then make turn it into muscle memory.

So there you have it - I'll get off the swimming soap box for now.  Hopefully this gave the ones who needed it something to think about for themselves.

Workouts for the week:
Monday - masters swim
Tuesday - bike and as an added bonus an hour of swim lessons
Wednesday - masters swim and run
Thursday - bike
Friday - masters swim and run
Saturday - 2:10 min bike
Sunday - 1:15 run on an out and back course negative split the return

Lisa,

I shared your frustration. I had a swim video analysis done 2 years ago and the instructor said my form looked perfect but I just wasn't fast. I thought I could just keep doing what I was doing and would get faster. It didn't work. I was stuck at 2 min/100. After getting the private instruction last year my times really dropped.

As far as shoes go, I bought my first pair on e-bay for $6 new. They were road shoes. I also bought some cheap SPD pedals. I still use the shoes and pedals on my trainer. Since then I have bought 2 more pair of Tri-shoes. Lakes entry level brand which have served me well and LG carbon soled shoes for my IM which I had hoped would help me with hotfoot which I tend to get at about 80 miles. Didn't help, but I like the shoe. I am using Keo/Looks on them. I thought that my help also.

 As far as the weight loss issue, I wouldn't even look at the scale for the first 6 weeks of hard training. Most people will put on weight. The key to sustained weight loss is to bump up your metabolism. Even on a 1500 cal per day diet, many overweight people will not be able to loose weight because the body becomes so efficient at absorbing food it packs the energy away as fat, thinking it is going into starvation mode/ hibernation. There are ways to get around this with medications (stimulants, nicotine, HCG) or exercise. With exercise, you will decrease your visceral fat and build muscle. Your natural hormones will become more effective once your body fat profile improves. It is not a matter doing a few hard workouts and then running to the scale to check your progress. The process takes months to years. The bottom line is , IT WORKS. Don't get discouraged. Just make sure that a daily exercise program is worked into your lifestyle.

It looks like work has gotten in the way of my training today. I will try to swim at lunch but will probably be forced into a rest day.