Dirk's Junkie group - CLOSED (Page 14)

I have seen a lot of comments about swim videos and I thought I would post a couple of links that have some valuable videos.

Go Swim is a site I have used many times to get some decent information.

Swim smooth isn't one I have used for a while but I think the opening animation is a good one for hand positioning and technique.

I hope to have a little more time to spend on here in a day or so.  Right now it's off to the swim meet.

David -  They've shortened our days here in California to 24 hours so maybe the clocks just work differently where you live but if you did work out for 40 hours on Thursday "you are an iron man!"

Jeff - You are a monster! I'm pretty sure that workout would have killed me, and then you went for the weights the same day!?!?!

Jonathan - Thanks for the video links. I watched a couple while eating lunch. Good tips that I'll try to put into practice for today's swim.

Dirk - Enjoy that swim meet, and best of luck to your daughter for a strong performance. I'll watch those links tonight once I get home.

Warren - Next time my wife and I are both swimming at the Y together I'll have her video a couple of my laps and have you all give me some suggestions.

Brenda - I mostly played a game called Freelancer (space sim/shooter). I was pretty involved in the role-play side of things. Too involved actually. After a couple years I realized that it was seriously taking over my life and I "retired". Now I just play shooters like the Halo games once in a while.

Wow, active group, lot's of stuff going on. 

Jeff - That was some serious stuff.  I am trying my best to hold back running since I'm starting to feel pretty good, but I made a pact with myself until my build is complete (40+ mpw) my only goal is to stay injury free.  Easy pace, easy pace.  Discipline comes in all colors.  And good job on the weight loss - too bad weigh in isn't until tomorrow!

Here's a swim video I just watched, I think it's from a swim smooth site Dirk mentioned.  Amazingly smooth form.

I really caution against mucking around with stride length too much.  If you do, try the lengthening behind as Jeff described.  I think as you run more and more, you just get smoother and more naturally fall into a faster cadence if that is what your body needs.  The best advice he gave me was quiet running - keep your footfalls quiet and soft, and mainly by relaxing EVERYTHING, including your legs, when they aren't touching the ground. 

Dina, I'm on the water brigade for sure.  I have lots of skin issues, and my dermatologist always asks if I've been hydrating like it's my job.  If not, he doesn't even want to talk to me.  Water is the miracle drug everyone is looking for.

Hey all,

Just checking in. My logs are up to date today. Been really busy with work, I have a wine and dinner event at the end of the week for VIP's and Highrollers, so busy busy.

I've been putting what I can on the bike. The weather has been COLD ! I go out in the morning and it's in the teens to low twenties. I had a great time at PT in the pool yesterday. Finally got to do some swimming!!! Just twenty minutes, but it felt sooo good. I see my other PT tomorrow and I will talk to her about starting on the running.

This week looks to be busy at work and the weather is going to be crappy. Looks like our first snow of the year. Time to move inside onto the drainer.

Great to see everyone working hard, asking questions, and sound advice given out.

Keep up the great work and be well!

OK, so my PT is going great and I have gotten the ok from my doc. to start my training. Like I said in a previous post I'm going to ease into everything slowly.

My biking is above average to good. Just need to log some longer distances in (hard due to weather sometimes). My swimming is ok. Looking at getting a swim coach around the end of Feb. My running, well, non-existant right now (except aqua-jogging).

I'm looking at the plans (free) and need some advice on what I should do. I looked at the 3x balanced Oly plan and the run focussed Oly plan. Not sure which would be better for me. I need to work on my swimming and running. More so on running I think. I plan on starting in March to be ready for my sprint race and just carry over the training to the next race, an Oly.

My other problem is I haven't decided on the last race of the season. Either an Aqua Bike Full or 70.3 depending on my running condition by then.

Any input would be helpful. Thanks.

Well I did it. 200 yards continuous swim at all out effort. I couldn't maintain freestyle the whole way though. I had to roll onto my back for several seconds to catch my breath while I continued to kick. I was very surprised to finish at 3:37 for the 200. I had to toggle through the lap counter twice just to verify.

I did an easy mile run afterwords. Working on getting my legs used to running on consecutive days. I'm planning on another easy 2 miles tomorrow and then 2 days off from running to rest up for the 4 mile race on Saturday morning.

You have to much knowledge to NOT say anything about your philosophy Jeff.  If you would like to add more, by all means do so.  You have been involved in this sport longer than I have and you have better communicating abilities than I.  Definitely speak your opinions.

It looks like most people are getting their 200TT in early.  Mine will come tonight with my first swim of the week.

Despite many of you thinking your times are slow, I would encourage you to consider that you are in a place where you can do a few things to make your swim faster, quicker than you think.  With a lower swim fitness you have the ability to adapt to the pool sooner and make quick gains.  Meaning that if you have a really strong fitness already you wouldn't see gains nearly as quickly.  As Jonathon, Jeff and Warren probably would agree, getting some stroke technique down FIRST and then working on more time in the water, you will see a major improvement over the times you are currently holding.  Toward the end of this mentor session we should all be headed toward a 500TT though, as most races have swim distances closer to this.

Edit:

I hope to have more time tonight and, mostly tomorrow, to look at all of your logs and respond to you.  My wife has a minor surgery tomorrow and I will be making sure she is okay for a few days, so I'll have more time on the site.

Stan, glad to hear your PT is going well.  I finally had a small breakthrough with my achilles issue this week and my ART guy is starting to make some progress with it.  I have another appointment tonight and another on Friday before travelling for work for two weeks.

Wednesday Weigh-in:  I'm right at 10 lbs.  5 lbs from where I want to be.

Nice job on that 200 yd swim.  That's a great starting point for the year!  Just takes some time in the pool and you'll be cruisin'.

Smart thinking on the run.  Adding up those easy miles is slowly making a difference for me.  The main difference being that I am not injured all the time.

Wednesday Weigh-in: 

Jonathan: 10 lbs.

Allison: 9 lbs. 

If you want to participate in the Valentine's Weight Loss Challenge, add your starting weight to this list.  Remember that your goal weight= 5 lbs so that we don't have to all share our actual weight. Add 5 to the number of pounds you want to lose in order to determine what your starting weight is.  Good luck to all! 

Morning guys. I'll do my weigh in this afternoon once I get home. I was up at the crack of dawn today to see whether I could swim before I went into the office. Turns out I can, although the changing into work clothes may have to be tweaked somewhat!

I think I'm working too hard in the pool, so I'm focusing on keeping my pace down. I tend to go sprinting off, then by the time I get to the end of the first length my arms and shoudlers are burning and I'm struggling for breath. Today, I started to feel more comfortable towards the end, but then I had to jump out to go to work...

No more training for me today, I gotta take a rest day before going hard again over the weekend. I hope it doesn't snow on us. That would annoy me a LOT and ruin my outdoor plans!!

Have a successful day everyone!

I completely agree with Dirk on getting the stroke technique straightened out a little before hammering away in the pool.  Bad muscle memory can take a while to unlearn.  When I first started swimming for real, I had a good friend and swim coach critique me.  With a few seemingly trivial changes over several sessions, I was able to swim SIGNIFICANTLY faster with far less effort.  He checks up on me occasionally to be sure I haven't drifted too far.  He thinks the cutoff where you can do a more fitness focus is a threshold pace of 2:00/100M.  Anything slower than that, and almost all your focus should be on technique and not yards swum.

I am a bit of an outlier, but I do almost no swim training (I know, I know - give me your worst) and though I'm not "fast" in the water, with good technique I'm able to be respectable in my swim split (136/1464 in my A race last year).  That's not to boast, and obviously I'd be much better if I worked on swimming and am not advocating following my lead, it's simply to demonstrate how far technique can go towards a decent swim time.  I only wish running had been where I got my natural ability.

For the weigh in - I was at 12 pounds this morning.

Great news on the PT.  How long do you have to wait to decide to sign up for the last race?  I'd say it's best to wait a little while and see how your body responds to running if possible.

It seems like a run focused plan would work well for you, but staying injury free is the #1, 2 and 3 priorities.  Any time totally away from running would make it tough to get through a HIM.  A 5k in a sprint you can fake, but 6.2 would be a lot tough with little run training.

As far as the last race, I'd plan on doing the 70.3.  If the running causes issues, obviously the choice is made.  I say this because it's easy to transition from 70.3 training to aqua bike - the other way not so much.

Jonathan: 10 lbs.

Allison: 9 lbs. 

Well, if you were healthy and able to run without hindrance then I would say that you will definitely come out ahead with the run-focused plan.

I don't know how your injury and rehab progress will affect your ability to ramp up your running.

Maybe you were thinking of "your father was a hampster and your mother smelled or elderberries!"

Wednesday Weigh-in: 

Jonathan: 10 lbs.

Allison: 9 lbs. 

Warren: 12 lbs.

Vero: 10 lbs.

I'm not sure I get the weigh-in formula here.

I started at 180 (Christmas) and want to be 170.  So I'm supposed to add 10+5?

That's correct. 5 lbs is the goal weight. So in your case 170 is equal to 5. Then add the amount you want to drop.

My current weight is 183 and I'd like to reach 178. I'd like to drop 5 so my weigh in number is 10.

Be easy on him, he's older you know. 

And just to be clear, this whole weight loss thing doesn't mean I'm dropping ice cream...