Work your Weakness aka "Hey, Mike, STFU!" Challenge (Page 14)

Hey guys, can I join?  I would have been here earlier but I was out looking for my motivation....

For me, Z3 is 7:30-8:00.  For race pace I hold more of a 7:10-7:15 pace during this training, and it sucks.

Actually I found a 10K instead of a 12K that I can race that's a couple of weeks earlier, so instead my schedule is more like this:

It was dark before I could get my workout in so I went to the University's lit track for my speedwork.  It was an amazing experience.  There were two other groups doing workouts so a lot of activity.  I LOVE RUNNING ON THE TRACK.  I spent a lot of time there years ago and didn't realize how much I missed it.  I had a great workout hitting all my paces and felt very strong and comfortable.

Sounds like a great experience.  I love the track, too.

Awesome...it's always great to get an incremental improvement in swimming.  It can be so elusive and then BAM!, an improvement.

As for that 50M mini time trial, is that your "barometer" of your swim fitness at this point?  Just curious...and was also wondering how everyone else measures this.

-edited to fix the formatting I wrecked with my fat fingers

Since we have a lot of swimmers here, I was going to share my experience with my new toy today.  I purchased a Garmin Swim, so that I can analyze my swims along with my running and cycling.  Here's a link to the data from my swim this morning:

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/397481149

It's pretty cool info.  Pretty funny that it thought two of my 25 yard sprints at the end was butterfly.  Maaaaybe lost some form there.

Hmmmm, I like my personal challenge of laser focus/pushing my limits while racing but I think I am going to need something else to work on in between.

And it's not that I don't have a world of issues to address, I am just not sure which one to tackle.

Chris!!  Jump in and pick a weakness!

I usually always find swimming to be restorative for my legs (sometimes not so much for my shoulders or low back).  Hope you find the same to be true and the legs still feel great tonight!

Yes, Caffer/Chris, welcome! Are you still plugging away at core or are you going to give us 9me) something new to harp, errrr, I mean encourage you on?

Matt—that looks like a tough schedule. I’m excited to see how this goes for you. Have you told us your goal time? Btw, I totally laughed at the Garmin/butterfly comment. Then I looked at your Garmin data and was not laughing. Daaaaaayum, you’re fast!

Steve—you’re inspiring me to give the track another go. It has been a long time since I’ve been there, but hearing you describe how much you love it makes me want to give it a go. Thanks for the inspiration.

Gretchen—sounds like the nutrition focus is going well. The Halloween candy can be my undoing. I had four pieces yesterday—stupid emotional eating—and they made me feel terrible. I have to remember that my body really does not like that crap. I like Stacey’s suggestion of buying a kind you don’t like—if there was a nuclear holocaust I would probably eat cockroaches before sweet tarts or Nerds. So, there’s that;)

Stacey—Look at you be all consistent—woot woot! Super strong work there. After I post this message I’m going to go do your swim set and I have a feeling on the 100s with 5 sec RI I will indeed be cursing you;)

Kim—Sounds like you’re on track and getting it done. Lots of people swear by Barry P. Nice job J

Mike—Congratulations to your daughter! As others have said, I have a feeling she’d be well in the FOP on the swim. Hope your running and yoga have been going well.

B2run—Have you considered a private session or two with a coach? Sometimes finances or schedules are prohibitive, but it could be just a bit of feedback that could help a ton. I did this a couple of times last year (right when I started swimming as a part of a single time group session and then a few months later with a private coach for a couple of sessions) and it really helped. More than anything doing a focus that gets me in the water 4-6x/week has been the most remarkable thing. Focusing on short intervals like you’re doing with the 50s is, from what all the fishies say, the way to go. Also, I know a lot of “real swimmers” are not keen on the pull buoy for triathletes, but I felt that some judicious use of that really helped me feel things with my catch/EVF.

Noelle—hope you’re finding ways to get yourself all stretched out. Ahem...

Salty—Maybe you should focus on Yanti’s suggestions for healing??? We don’t want a sick Salty J

Dale—Are you there? How’s it going busy guy?

Nicole—How’s the running?

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I had two pretty bleh days both with food, travel and lack of training impetus. I am going to do my best to get myself back on track today. The dark, dark mornings make it hard for me to get going…

Yeah, I don't believe the insole issue was from the terrain. It was just a weird thing. I'm hoping I don't have the same issue with the new pair. It's quite annoying when you are trying to focus on a race.

But yeah. Fast and strong. VERY true that you need to train for both in XC. 

I am definitely a strength-runner. Defined by my coach. And my teammates call me the goat. lol. It's crazy. I am not "fast" and do my workouts with a specific group based off of my VDOT or whatever but when we do combo workouts where we do hill repeats at the end , I am nearly keeping up with our elite men. I have NO idea why this is a strength of mine. 

I guess that suggests I should be working on my speed. I plan to do that on the track next summer. It was a shame training for Oly Nationals got in the way this year. Ah well.