swbkrun Mentor Group- CLOSED FOR BUSINESS!!! (Page 155)

I think I have officially become a Disney nut.  I used to make fun of those people when I was younger but I have now crossed the line w/ no return.

Disney did a press release stating that marathon finishers will receive free admission to a park on Monday.  All you need is the Mickey medal.  :-)  Our trip is only 7 months away and I'm ready to start planning.  Woo Hoo

Oh and I think our coach thinks we are crazy too.  Tony was taking to him about racing shoes / tri running shoes yesterday and asked if it is possible to run a marathon in them and a half and a 5k and walk around an amusement park the next day in them.  He just laughed and said we were crazy!

And finally - anyone free to babysit tonight.  I am still searching for someone to watch our kids so we can both do the 5k.  Parents need to stop buying their kids everything and anything.  There are no hungry wage earners in our neighborhood!

*****Serious Question Allert******

To all you fast swimmers out there,  I've been thinking a lot about why my pool times aren't making an appearance in open water and, aside from learning how to draft, here is my theory.  I know that my comfortable stroke is very long and drawn out which means a nice glide but slow turn over rate. When I want to go faster in the pool I increase the turn over rate and I speed up (imagine that.)  I know if I've slowed down b/c my stroke count goes down and my time goes up per lap and I can adjust accordingly.  However, in long distance open water swims I think I might be falling back into my "casual" stroke rate and therefore slowing down.  How do I maintain a faster turn over rate without laps or time to reference?  Does this make sense?  HELP!!!

That is an interesting theory - I have always chalked up slower times in OWS to having less of a glide and a higher stroke count...  I find that I cannot get that extra second off the glide for each stroke, causing me to turn my arms over faster, causing faster fatigue and then a slowing down of turnover back to my normal rate with a shorter glide... 

Hey Sugar. Very interesting. I found that my OWS were almost always faster than my pool times. This may be because I don't keep track of lap times in the pool.. I only clock out at the end and then figure out my lap time. In that way I get into a specific stroke rate which I carry through to the OWS. Using the same stroke rate and focusing on the technique along with not having to turn at the end of the pool and being able to draft in open water allows me to actually swim faster OWS.  For yourself I would say you should focus more on your stroke cadence in OWS for a little while. Push yourself outside so that you feel a bit uncomfortable. I think you can correct this wtihout too much effort.

I finished my VT swim last night. Not my best time but at least reasonable and better than last Satruday. Followed up with a short run.  I changed back to my Adidas for this run and the calves felt a little better last night and much better today. Maybe it's only psychological but if it works who cares.

I went to the doctor last night and sure enough she thinks I have some tendinitis in my shoulder. Physio and an ultra sound on the agenda for the next little while.  She also suggested I take some motrin or advil regularly for about a week or so. Sure hope that clears this up before my Oly in two weeks.

After my race on Satruday I kept thinking all weekend that I am not ready for my OLympic in a couple of weeks. Monday morning I told myself to HTFU and go finish my trainnig and do the race (in under 3 hours). Whew I almost talked myself into changing the race to a sprint. I'm really glad now I didn't.

On Wednesday we are going to run a super sprint for the tri clininc I have been worrking with. This should be a lot of fun. I will be able to do the race and get a workout at the same time. I'll be going back and forth between the racers so should  get a good workout.

Congrats to all the other racers this last week.

 don't you choke when singing in the pool

Sighting is an art unto itself. I just barely lift my eyes out of the water while crossing from my left side to my right and right before I breath on my right side. Barely even breaking any rythym. I sight every 6 strokes. If I  am having a good straight swim sometimes I will go 12 strokes before breathing. I have learned that with good technique you tend to swim straighter as you are not pulling harder with one arm than the other.