Jamie's HIM/IM Training Group-CLOSED (Page 15)

Usually 85 to 95 cuz thats what I was told initially and have grown accustomed too. 

Thanks. You can nominate the next person in the group and we'll go on like that...

jamie

Great idea Jamie

AOTD: I have no clue. Again, I just go on RPE. I've thought about buying a cadence sensor to use with my Garmin on the bike but never pulled the trigger. My guess is 70-80?

I got the cadence sensor for my road bike to go with the Garmin.  Its pretty good for riding on the trainer, but the output of the watch is small and tough to read riding outside.  I could do a better job setting up the display to get a bigger number, but its still awkward being on my wrist.  I thought about getting one of the bike mounts for the watch to make it easier to read, but I decided against it based on the "I hit a bump and my watch detached" reviews.

AOTD:  70-80.  I trained most of last summer trying to raise my cadence, worked all last winter and through the beginning of the year.  When I switched into more of a "power" training cycle on the bike for Savageman with lower rpms, I felt like I was getting better results, so thats what Ive stuck with since then.

I can't take credit for it. QOTD was your idea!

Jamie

Well it was borrowed from one of my previous mentors so I can't even take credit - but I love the idea of each person "tagging" someone else with the job each day. FYI - we didn't do it EVERY day, maybe we only do it on week days?

Sounds good to me. Sam picks the lucky person that gets to ask the QOTD for Monday 31 JAN. Thank goodness that will be the last day of January!!!

Jamie

AQOTD: I have no clue.  I just ride. 

I got the bike mount and it fastens pretty securely with cable ties to the bike handlebars.  As long as you attach your watch to it, there is no real danger of losing it.  Here's the one I have....

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=garmin+305+bike+mount&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&safe=on&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=15341659599447104315&ei=9uNBTfOmD8_TgQflu-XXAQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEgQ8wIwBA#

Mid 80's - I tried the low 90's for a while but I know that I will burn out on that.  This winter I have been on a bike where I can track it so it will be interesting once I get outside to see if it will be the same/higher/lower - never had on on my roadie but will get one soon!

Had a great workout yesterday, some real intervals. On the treadmill, but felt great. Today I've got a nice, slow 48 minute run later.

AOTD: I don't have a cadence sensor on my bike so I don't know. I do know that on a spin bike at the gym I just naturally seem to go around 80.

I avg out on my rides in the 80-85 range...definitely where I find myself most comfortable.  Lower indicates I'm pushing too big a gear or I'm riding a really hilly course...

well, I almost missed another day...wife's birthday (which she hates) so we ended up going out with some friends for pizza...I managed to squeeze in a quick 5K between work and cramming pizza down my piehole....early morning bike tomorrow.

TGIF!!!
Ok group: today's QOD:
Swim drills- do you do them? What drills have given you the best results?

AQOD: yes, I do them. I once was a bop swimmer, now I am a front of the bop... I'm getting better thanks to my diligence with drills. In fact, I'm on the verge of cracking a 2:00 100. (My best so far is a 2:01)  My favorites are 1-arm drills, catch-up drills, and glide drills.. I even break out the snorkel occasionally.

I actually hate drills, but as long as someone else is demanding them of me, I do them.  In the end, I know I benefit from it.  Right now, my biggest weakness is that I try to pull myself through the water mostly with upperbody.  So any drill that forces me to engage legs more is what I prefer to be doing. 

got the bike in this morning.  60min...4x10min 180-190w with 5 min easy inbetween...ready to go to work now!

AOTD:  I do drills on occasion, certainly not enough.  I need to learn how to do a flip turn...

Bike for me yesterday and today. 1hr each with/30' @ FTP and 30' @ HIM pace.



AOTD: Swim drills. Nope. If I swam total slowmersion style in a triathlon I would be dead. I don't kick so the drills do little for me.

Yesterday after work I had to snowblow for about half an hour and then I forced myself to do a 4.5m run in messy/snowy conditions.  Was debating between outside and treadmill and outside ended up winning by a small margin.  Temp was pretty decent with little wind, but the downside was I couldn't run very fast or efficient in that stuff!

As far as drills....I seem to subscribe to the notion that many of them (fins, pull buoys, snorkels, paddles) are cheating one part of the stroke to apparently get you better at another part of the stroke.  So if I do any type of drills it is usually a very small part of my workout.  Similar to running, I believe there is no better way to improve at freestyle swimming than practicing it....and more is better!

I skipped my run last night because I'm trying to rest up the achy foot.  This morning did my 1100y at the pool and nothing else planned for today.

Drills: I do some of them every time I hit the pool.  Lately I've been focusing on one in particular.  Can't remember what it's called but I drag my thumb on my side on the recovery so I know I'm getting the most out of my stroke every time.  I also do kick drills.  I'll do a couple sets with the Zoomers, then without.  I move alot with the zoomers, but barely without them so I'm not sure what the hell is going on..lol.

I forgot to designate the next person for QOD: How about Ray (RVachon)?? I would propose doing QOD during the weekdays.. weekends might be a little harder??
Interesting thoughts on the drills... I also have found that when I went from swimming 2 days/week to 3 days/week, I got better too. Practice certainly does help!

OK, I'll hit one up on Monday.


Because I suck at swimming, I'm trying to hit the pool 4 times/week (5 the odd time) so I guess in 4-5 months I'll be able to give Michael Phelps a run for his money.

AOTD: Swim Drills - I have totally lucked out lately because my local Gold's Gym started a "Triathlon Swimming Class", which is really just an all-freestyle class.  When it started about four months ago, I could not understand for the life of me why the coach was having us do some of the drills we were doing.  I absolutely hated it, but I stuck with it because I had been told that she was a very experienced swim coach who had helped a lot of accomplished swimmers.  To make a long story short, she has helped me drop my swim times significantly.

This coach always says she's trying to make us more "slippery" in the water.  I wasn't sure what that meant, but I've come to realize that I was (and still am to some degree) creating little points of drag when I swim.  The more those can be eliminated by being more fluid and less rigid, the faster you swim.  And, she claims drills are key to becoming slippery.

Anyway, to actually answer the QOTD...the drill that has helped me the most is one that I don't even know the name of, so I'll describe it.  You use the pull buoy and lay face down with the body perfectly aligned horizontally, head pointing down the lane (kinda like the dead-man float except legs together of course so the pull buoy stays in).  Then you put your elbows straight out to each side, with your thumbs touching your arm pits (if you want you can cluck like a chicken at this point, but I have not found that to add any speed ).  So, from the top view, you'd be forming a T.  Then without moving anything else, you drop your hands toward the bottom of the pool, so your elbow forms a 90* angle (elbows still pointed to the sides).  Then without moving anything else, you move your hands back and forth as though you were going to touch your thumbs to your arm pits and back down toward the bottom of the pool, all the while keeping your elbows in the same position.

I know the descriptions makes it sound complicated, but it's not.  The idea is that you learn to be comfortable with a high elbow for the pull and you learn to better feel the water with the hands.  For me, this drill alone took 8 seconds off my 100.

AQOD:  I do not do any swim drills but do focus on form work.  When ever I get tired I tri to reinforce the fingertip drag along the rib cage to make sure I am not getting sloppy in the water.  I also try to stay as long as possible to limit the drag. 

I have doubled my yardage per swim this winter and I will say it is part mental that I CAN swim 3500-4000y and part I am spending alot more time in the water!  For me the faster I try to swim the slower I get!

AOTD:  Ive started working on more drills recently during my warmup in my attempt to become more efficient in the water.  I feel like I plateaued in the speed that I can go in the water for the energy that I am willing to exert with my lousy form.  And the only way to really improve my form was through some drill work.

The two things that Ive been working on are finishing my stroke (a couple hundred with paddles so I can feel when Im stopping early, some by focusing more on hitting my thigh at the end of my stroke) and keeping my body straight (latest drill I got was to swim like you would with a pull buoy without the buoy, so keeping the body straight and parallel to the bottom of the pool).  All of the non-equipment drills, i do 75m normal swim, 25m drill for 300-500 so that I get a feel for the drill, then try to get the same feeling during a normal, non drill swim.