kenj's group - closed with a great bunch of triathletes in training!!! (Page 15)

The easiest advice I can give you is to relax!  Swimming, for those of us who don't come from a swimming background, is nerve racking and that is counter to smooth swimming.  The next this is to think long and lean.  Slow down your stroke and focus on making yourself long in the water.  Finally, before worrying about distance and endurance, lets get some work on your stroke.  The book Lewis mentioned or any TI book has some basic drills that you should work on when swimming.  Most of them work on body balance in the water, but some are also for stroke mechanics.  Get yourself a pull bouy to help with some of the stroke drills.  If you don't find the drills, I will try and find a link for them.

Challenge yourself for the next month to spend at least half of your time in the water doing drills.  Just swimming will get you to your goal of finishing the 1.2, but lets work on doing that and having a little left for the bike!  

Good post Iceman!

Whats everyone got planned this weekend?  Due to vacation travels, I am limited to the run for the weekend! 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Welcome to the group Brenda

Happy to be training!

Great explanation of LT and your bike workouts Iceman!  One of my main goals for 2010 is improving my results during the bike segment (which should improve my run performance!). Having you in our group has been an outstanding learning experience for me!

One thing I think Scott would agree, if you haven't been on the bike much, build up to these types of workouts carefully to avoid getting hurt (or discouraged). 

Key statement! It is all about fun!!!

I struggle with this same thing Lewis, I try and do the catch up drill as part of my regular routine and can do it quite well with the pull buoy.  My timing isn't quite as good with out the buoy, but I think the more I do the drill, the better I get.  It is the same stroke (breathing) that I tend to get the sinking feeling and compensate by stroking early.

Good luck and stick with it, you will figure it out!

bswcpa - 2010-03-02 1:48 PM Do a happy dance with me - I ran OUTSIDE this morning! It was only 33 but the sun was shining and I smelled Spring in the air. I'm sure I looked crazy 'cause I was grinning from ear to ear and singing out loud. No matter, it's been over 3 months since I felt the freedom of being outside so I enjoyed it greatly. Happy, happy. I definitely trained happy today. Not so much yesterday, though, in the pool. I'm still heeding your advice of going slow and just doing drill work. I'd worked on swimming taller like Lewis described but I just wasn't feeling it. I felt things click on Friday but lost it yesterday. Heading back to the pool tomorrow to see if the water and I can work together. Keeping it slow and relaxed is what I have to do. I spent time going through all 19 pages of your posts so I'd get more familiar on who's part of this group. There's a lot of abbreviations I'm not sure what they stand for, but I'll ask about them as they come up. Thanks for the explanation of "LT", Scott. I so appreciate the stuff I'm learning from everyone, so thanks! Hope you all have a good workout today even if you're still stuck inside. Hope you all have a good day regardless if you get to workout or not.

Great for you getting outside!  It is warming up here (in the mid to upper 30's during the day!)  Hopefully we can get some decent snow melt so it isn't unsafe to run outside fighting the cars for space!!!

Stick with the drills and I am sure you will have good days and bad days until you develop good habits!  I have been adding a lot more swimming than I usually do and I will go as far as to say that some laps are good and some are bad.  I have a timex ironman watch that I hit the lap button every 100 yards to help keep track of distance and time.  When I look at the lap times I can tell when I lose focus. 

I forgot to post my first of the month goal reminder!  How did we all do with our goals in February?  What goals are we adding or changing for March?

I missed my bike and run goals, mostly due to the last minute vacation but some because I over reached.  But the vacation bought me some great benefits with Mrs. kenj so when I need the training or racing time later on I have that going for me!   Took a huge jump forward in swim volume that I plan on continueing in March.  Although I am close to being able to swim the IM distance I feel since my A race is IM Florida and the swim is in the Gulf, I really need to be a stronger swimmer than I am for lake swims regardless of distance. 

That said, some of us are getting close to (or past) time to start training plans for specific races!  Do you have a plan?  Any questions on chosing a plan? 

Great job Scott! I know you are very diligent in following your coaches plans!  Good for you!!!

Running, now there is a subject we haven't discussed much!  Anyone have any running questions, thoughts, issues?