Sink or SWIM! with WittyCityGirl - CLOSED (Page 16)

Thanks Suzanne.  I have decided to take swimming lessons at a swim school near me.  I am not confident about my strokes so I want to re-learn them. 

50andgettingfit - 2011-04-20 12:20 AM Nice bike Lori! How fun is this year going to be??? I'll be thinking good weather thoughts so you can get on the road soon.

Thanks Johanne!  The weather here has been less than desirable but at least there is no snow.  Thank goodness for trainers !

Hey Mike, thanks for taking a look!  That's exactly what I loved about the bike when I test rode it.  It accelarated so quickly !

I hear ya about how you're feeling.  Sometimes we just need a day or two to recoup before we can go on.  That is where balance comes in.  Our bodies let us know what they need.  Hope it worked for you!

Thanks Sara.  It has been hard not to do anything but when I try, the pain rears its ugly head .  I tried to do some running yesterday but could only walk/run at a slow pace and only for 20 min.  I then tried my bike and it wasn't too bad so I did 20 min.  But today, there are times I feel pain shooting down my leg and it goes into my groin.  It is very frustrating.  If you or anyone  have any advice dealing with this sort of thing I would appreciate it.  Last time my back went I could barely walk for 2 weeks.  At least it is not that bad this time.

Enjoyed the lovely anti-spring weather after work with my normal 3.4 mile route.  Legs were fried / tired from all the time in the pool lately.  Need to either take a day off tomorrow or take it a bit easy.  Good news is that even tired, ran quite a solid time.

I need to take either (i) go through another 6 week cycle of the "Time Crunched Triathlete" program, (ii) put together some sort of plan I can follow for the next month or so, or (iii) just keep doing what "feels" right each day.

With my engineering background (earned the title 'Captain Data" at one job), I'm thinking (i) or (ii) HAVE to be the right answer.  BUT, the fact that I've felt so good about the progress over the last few weeks, makes me think that relaxing and training by feel may be right.

What do you think Sara?  How do you balance making a plan and over analyzing training?  Think that this question creeps in to all of our minds -- and drives data geeks like me absolutely crazy!!!

Good question Curt,

I do not have an engineering background but you could put OCD after my name. I am struggling to take all the information I'm collecting and putting it into practice/drills/races. Sometimes I feel overloaded with useless information. I know part of it is having someone help you decipher that information into improving limiters(Thank You Sara) but at this stage in my racing I would rather spend money on gear and races rather than a personal trainer or coach. I'm leaning a lot on my daughter's experience but she does not have the time to train me, I just get daughterly advice. She tells me I need to be patient and I know that, but I want it NOW! 

Lori- Bike looks great! Hope you get to feeling better so you can ride outside.

Mike- Glad to hear your foot is doing  better. Hopefully its on the mend now.

I probably will not be as active as its only 2 weeks to IM St George and 3 weeks to our Tri in Tempe, but I will continue to lurk and pop in here and there.

Looks like you've all been doing pretty well.

I got in a 33 minute walk today because I couldn't be bothered waiting for the bus and decided to walk to the bank - this includes hill work as you have to go over the overpass to get anywhere in the cbd of my town from where I live. I ended up with 1.18 miles. This included a few "runs" - more like shuffling - across roads towards the end. I also did 1 full run across half a road after my cool down and lunch. My other knee started playing up when I was walking around the shopping centre along with my ankle but I did some seated leg raises and it seems to have helped. I'm still going to take another rest day before attempting my LD walk on Saturday though.

I also put a yoga kit and biking essentials kit (head and tail lights along with a computer) on layby (I think you call it lay away) so I'll be throwing the yoga in to my routine in about 10 weeks.

If you can get a copy, I highly recommend Don Fink's "Be Iron Fit". He talks about multiple aspects of training, and addresses the whole 'by feel' methodology (hint: he's not a fan).

I'm glad I took yesterday off. Felt like a million bucks this AM, hopped out of bed at 4 am, and did an intense 50 min interval session on the bike, then went for another (pain free!!!) run (1.2 miles). I felt freakin' awesome after I was done. The bike workouts are quickly becoming my favorite thing, despite the fact that I feel like hurling during most of them. Very happy with the progress I'm making, and some day I'll actually ride on a real road (all trainer time right now).

Hey group!

I have to run out for work stuff, but wanted to post a link:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/Swimming/How_To_Pull_Underwater_2009.html

What do you think? Make sure to check out the videos!

Love the video. This is *exactly* what my swim instructor had me working on this past Sunday. My pull has been more of an "S" shape with my hand looking like a flipper (turned out slightly). It feels weird to do the pull like this, but even after just a short practice, and some drills, you can tell teh difference. I have mucho work to do on this...

I'm headed down to Los Angeles this morning to bring my youngest daughter her new used car. She was in a car accident in February and totaled her first new used car that she bought herself. Luckily she was fine! She had an insurance check to cover the loss and she's been shopping away. I told her if she researched for cars around San Jose, I would do the legwork for her since she's in college down south. We finally found a good car thank goodness. So I'll head down today so we can have some 'bonding' time tonight. My middle daughter flys in from Tempe tomorrow morning and we 3 will continue the bonding My husband and my son will drive down tomorrow night. We're all staying at the in laws and then we'll do Disney on Saturday for more family fun. Sunday will be church and lunch and then we'll head home after dropping the girls at the airport and back to college. It'll be a busy but fun weekend!

I think I've actually been able to plan all of my workouts in except for one long bike. I can't bring my bike down and I just can't fit in a 4.5 hour bike at a gym with all the family stuff. I think I'll survive without and just try to keep the Easter eating under semi control I do love those robin eggs though.

Thanks for the swim link Sara. I looked at it but I think I want to look again and see if I can try it on my next swim. I really want someone to video my swim so I can see what exactly I'm doing.

Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend,

Johanne

Curt-a wise man once told me to follow 100% of the plan 90% of the time... if you do your own thing on how you feel then you're not really following anything unless you have specific weekly goals to aim for.

My experience with HIM and IM training... I started each plan roughly 6 weeks early so that I could have time for sickness, injury, and then flex time to either keep ramping up or repeat part of the training plan... I always went back and repeated the training plan with the intent to get *slightly* faster (going fast hurts us, especially with running).  

That whole 10% rule to adding distance? See how you can take the plan you've been following and either try a few workouts at a faster pace or add 10% of the volume on... either way you're gaining speed and endurance and have some guidance.

What do you think?

Swam 1000 yards non-stop in 27:43 (2:43, 2:54, (3:14) - 2:55, 2:49, 2:48, 2:47, 2:47, 2:45, 2:40, 2:34).  On the third 100, had to wait for a kid swimming the wrong way so I can't say it was a "pure" 1000!  But, we'll call it a new PR as previous PR was 28:00 flat and I'm sure that I'll be smoking this time in the very near future.

Think I've hit a milestone with the swimming.  While my form is still terrible, it has progressed to the point where I seem to be past the point of tiring myself out.  At the end of the 1000, was fine to go on AND that was even with pushing the pace a bit in the second 500.

On the plan thing, believe you're right Sara.  I'm struggling right now with the weather / getting in the way of biking.  I'll work on putting something together over the weekend.  Wish I had a bit more discipline on getting up in the AM and was not so tired.  To do what I really want to, requires a few more hours than the evenings allow.

I am a bit nervous about adding pace to the plan as my legs seemed to really bother me when I pushed too hard.  However, the 10% distance thing is a good idea and I definitely need to apply it.

Our Ragnar team at the finish.  Had a good mt bike ride today and hope to swim tomorrow.  Have a good night.

I'm with you Dave-I've been putting $ into the gear.  It was easier for me to pick gear for the swimming and running because I was more comfortable with those sports, but not with cycling.  I have considered going to a cycling camp.

But, for kicks and giggles let's look at something...

For Ironman Lake Placid I placed 409 overall on the swim (1:04), 2293 on the bike (7:40, a 14.6 mph pace-I was called out for "sandbagging!"Ha, I wish!) and 1961 (5:29) on the run with a time of 14:26:33 (1998/2251).  HUGE difference in placing in each individual sport. 

Let's say I worked on my cycling and hit the pace that the 409th person overall on the bike hit... that's 5:48 (19 mph)...  that would be just under a TWO HOUR time difference!

Even if I worked on my cycling and knocked an hour off my time, that'd give me a 6:48 (16.5 mph) and I'd rank 1639 overall on the bike and would rank 1588 overall... I would have finished ahead of almost 1,000 more people.

The person who ranked 2293 on the swim swam it in 1:31, just 27 minutes behind me.  

So, if you're a competitive individual, it may be worth it to keep working on the cycling, then running, then swimming to improve in triathlon.  The best way to do that would to become more efficient through technique and training and have equipment that helps you get faster, too.

Suzanne-this is great to read! Keep on keeping on with your healthy habits!

Sara - You are so right about the bike.  It seems the longer the distance, the more it is about the bike.  Not only can you make up the most time on that leg but it is also about how much you can hold back for the run.  I had a decent swim and bike on my ironman but ran a 4:50 marathon.  My stand alone marathon is a 3:10 - 3:15 so I definitely should be able to run a 4 hour if the bike fitness is there.  But then again, you can't be wiped out out of the water either!  Efficiency is key.

My sad story-

I didn't get any swims in this week. I ususally like to  go tues. and thrus. I decided this week to go wed. morning to get some swim instruction, but we had storms and I woke up atleast 5 times during the night, then my son Seth woke me up because he woke up from the storms. I decided at 3am I wasn't going to get up a 4 to go swimming. Then for thrus. I told my husband I was going to go thrus. morning, but he was going running because Seth had a school thing thrus. night. So I decided I would go Friday and Sat., but come to find out the pool is closed for Easter weekend.

So yesterday Seth had a check up at the doctors so I decided I wanted to a bike shop afterwards, and from there chaos insued. My normally good kids wouldn't listen, and were running all over the store so I had to leave before they broke something.

Have a great weekend, Happy Earth Day! Happy Easter!

Tracie

Oh! I'm so forwarding this to my husband as proof that I'm not the only one who thinks I'm right about some things.