BigSkiesMentorGroup - COMPLETE! (Page 15)

Hey everyone - FINALLY met up with my coach today. He wanted to see me swim so we met at the pool. He videotaped my swim and gave me feedback:

Strengths: Great rotation, head/body position, high elbows, only slight crossover on entry

Needs Improvement: I kick too much and too fast, slight crossover on entry, pushing down at beginning of pull, drop my opposing arm when breathing (dropping left arm when breathing to right, right when breathing to left). 

Overall, he said that he's pleased with my swim given that I'm self-taught. Doesn't seem to think I have a lot of work to do - we will tweak it here and there. He also has me working on sighting while in pool. This is more difficult than expected....he wants me to barely lift my eyes out of the water looking forward before turning my head to take a breath. 

Also, doing a happy dance. Since last July I've lost 42.7 lbs. I'm very pleased and am looking forward to losing another 20!

I race in a 10K this weekend, then two weeks afterwards is my first Oly. I'm excited! 

Steve -

Sorry about your ouchies. Hope everything works out for you. I insisted on an MRI on my back because I didn't want to be running with a bulging disk and permanently hurt myself resulting in life-long pain even when not doing triathlon. Turns out everything looks good. Hope it does for you, too!

Veronica and Jeff -

Thanks for the input on my HR monitor. I thought maybe I was taching out or something....lol. I'm glad to know it's interference!

All,

Apologies for having fallen off the map.  Been in Sweden/Denmark for the past couple of weeks and had little to no access to the interwebs and little inclination to search it out.  It was not a trip conducive to training but it was fun!  Now to get back at it as race day is 18 days out and I'm grossly unprepared at this point.

Hope everyone is well!

-George

Is pain in the elbow indicative of a swimming technique problem?  I am developing some tendonitis in the back of my elbow and was just wondering if that is normal or if there might be something I need to correct in my stroke.  Anyone else have that problem?

Jessica

Whoa 42.7 lbs.  Good job. 

Good luck on your races.  My very 1st Oly is in 3 1/2 weeks so I'll be very interested in hearing how it goes for you.  Any tips from another Oly newbie would be greatly appreciated.

Denise

Good luck with the 10K this weekend and then on to bigger things!!!

KERRI and SARAH, as promised, here is an example of a 1500 swim workout. I just picked 1500 since Kerri said she was swimming between 1200 and 1500 and I think Sarah's logs showed her last swim as over that. You can modify it to a shorter distance if needed.

Warm up - 250

Kick set - 4 x 25 on 15" rest

Drill set - 6 x 25 on 10" rest

Main set - 4 x 200 on 45" rest (8-8.5 RPE; try to beat your time each 200)

Cool down - 200

For the kick set, swim using flutter kick on your side, back, of front with kickboard.  Fins are okay.

Sample drills include catch up, count stroke, fingertip drag, fist, bilateral breathing, pulls with buoy

Hope this helps.

LISA

Thanks Lisa!  I'll have to give it a try.

Sarah

I may be on to something.

I learned the front crawl 3 years ago from a community ed teacher who mostly taught little kids.  It got me started but I've always been sooooo slow.  I signed up for advanced swimming lessons at the Y a few weeks ago.  It hasn't been real productive so far, I think because there's 6 of us and she can't watch all of us and we do these elementary drills.  A couple of people just came from beginners' class and can only swim 1 length.

But, last night only 2 of us showed up, so we made her watch us swim, one at a time and make suggestions.  I have a major problem with my entry, anyway that's what she said.  I angle my arm in front of me at entry instead of reaching forward.  I tried her suggestions and I felt my body rotating more smoothly.  I was really excited to get to the pool today to practice some more and see if that might help my stroke count per length (which is really terrible) and also speed.  But something came up and I won't get there 'til Tuesday.  This is terrible but I kind of hope only 2 of us show up next week also.  Maybe I should take private lessons - they're not too expensive.

Denise

I

Good thing you checked on our group position, we dont want any bad Karma, too many of us racing this weekend.

Good Luck everyone!

Good luck everyone.  Report back.

Denise

Wednesday was the 1st nice day we've had in a long time.  I went for a long bike ride - WITHOUT SUNSCREEN.  The burn on my back was painful but nothing compared to the agony when the itch started last night.  I didn't sleep at all and just waited 'til the stores opened so I could get some aloe.  I am so stupid and I've paid the price.  I've stocked up on sunscreen but now the weather's bad again.

Denise

Oh! Sorry to hear about your race. I was really hoping the calf pain was one of those taper things. You are smart to take some time off, heal it up and finish up your summer with some good events.

I'm starting to get nervous about my event tomorrow, it is an all women sprint triathlon with over 1500 women. I have to take my gear to transition tonight. It's windy out and not sure what it will look like in the morning, neither the transition area or the weather. It is a pool swim so dont have to worry about choppy water or a beach run.