Gray Guys/Girls Master's Focus Triathlon Mentor Group--CLOSED (Page 16)

I ran the numbers of your build.  You said you started in the low 100's 8 weeks ago so I looked at it from 120 hours/week.  Using that starting point, you are WAY over a 10%/week build and moderately over a 15%/week build.  I included a recovery week at week 4.  Your actual build rate is closer to 20%/week which probably explains the fatigue.  My suggestion would be to take a day off and then do a recovery week next week if you haven't already started a recovery week this week.  The last thing you want is to find yourself battling being over-trained this early in the year.  It will nag you all year so better to directly address it then have the lingering issue all season.

Yeah, I saw the 20-minute test.  I was just lazy and didn't feel like doing a 20 minute max effort.  As it turned out, the 8-minute test was probably just as painful, just spread out over a different period of time.  I'll re-test later this week or maybe this coming weekend and see if I can get it cleared up.

Deb,

Good job!  A 63-year old woman ran a 6:13?  That's fast for someone in their 20's.  It is BLAZING fast for someone in their 60's!

Weight lost 0.5 pounds

Workout 614.8 minutes

Originally posted by EchoLkScott

Originally posted by juneapple Scott (and Dave), I've been looking into the following 3 diet plans: 1) the "if you don't bring it home, you can't eat it" diet 2) the "learn to love the doggie bag" diet 3) the "food and couches shouldn't mix" diet plan There's also the, "just because you're playing Irish music in a bar and can drink for free, doesn't mean you should" diet plan, but that has less widespread appeal. Stu

I love it! In my case I think I need the "if you didn't bring it into the office, you can't eat it" diet. Our office kindly offers dozens of different, high calorie density, snacks for just $0.50 each. If I'm not careful, I find myself munching on a Snickers bar while my apple sits untouched. Perhaps I've discovered my problem! Scott I.

This sounds a lot like me.  There are too many times when I don't eat what I've brought and just get something from the cafeteria instead (and we're talking college cafeteria so not a lot of healthy choices).  I have been pretty good about staying away from the vending machines though when I get the afternoon munchies so that's a start at least.  

I think the cold I've been fighting against for the last week or so is finally winning.  Got home from work yesterday with a scratchy throat and so tired I just wanted to go to bed, so I skipped the scheduled run.  Probably going to take it easy again today - I've got my bike fit tonight so that will be my workout for the day.  I really hope I can fight this off - I've got a race this weekend that I don't want to miss.  

Speaking of races - Deb, congrats on your mile race!  Sounds like it was a great day.
Janet

Hey everyone!

Here are the updated weight loss/workout challenge points for last week.

Scott I. is clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with as he once again dominated the workout minutes and Dan continues to lead the weight loss.

Good job to everyone!

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Scott,

This x2!  The idea is to graze all day long so you are never hungry.  I know in my case, if I get to where "I'm starving" I have lost the battle as anything and everything in sight is going in my mouth.  It is as simple as when I am hungry I don't make good nutrition choices.  Plan out your nutrition for a day; calories, macro-nutrients, etc.  Then break that into several meals and spread it over the course of the day.

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing, I take my pulse, then visit the little boy's room, then eat something.  After that I think about coffee and starting my day.  Then I try to eat every 2-2.5 hours throughout the day.  My snacks are often as easy as an Atkins bar or half a sandwich.  My nutrition plan is centered on NEVER GETTING HUNGRY.

Hi Kathy!

My opinion is to swim freestyle and only freestyle in your workouts.  There are some that will disagree with that position.

Swimming any stroke besides freestyle is not going to improve your freestyle technique.  That is the argument I most often hear, that swimming "XYZ" stroke will improve your freestyle.  Doesn't happen.  Anyone that says it does is misinformed and likely didn't speak swimming as their first athletic language.   It is true that swimming one of the other strokes will help increase your overall strength and endurance, however it won't directly improve your freestyle.  If you are going to take the time to swim, it occurs to me you should get the biggest bang for your buck and that is going to come from swimming the stroke you are going to swim in the race - which will probably be freestyle.  If you want to get better at freestyle, you need to swim freestyle.

The other argument I hear in favor of training with other strokes is that swimming the other strokes breaks up the monotony of swimming.  I swam individual medley back when I was a swimmer so I had to train in all four strokes and I can tell you after literally hundreds of millions of meters in my swimming career that swimming in a workout is boring.  Doing the other strokes merely gives you a different way to suffer through the boredom.  That brings me back to saying get the biggest bang for your buck and swim freestyle.

That said, I do believe all triathletes should have a safety stroke other than freestyle.  I suggest backstroke.  You should swim that stroke enough to become proficient at it but don't need to worry about developing speed or great skill.  You just want something you can go to in an emergency.  I think your time spent working on your safety stroke should be added after a workout or during the beginning of a warm-up so it doesn't take away from your planned workout.

Just my two cents.

Hi Kris,

This is a topic that is often hotly debated.  Some argue that your swim turnover rate, or cadence, should be as low as possible because that, in theory, provides the most efficient stroke.  Others say that your turnover rate should be fast, as that will, again in theory, allow you to propel yourself through the water more quickly.  In my opinion, neither of those extreme positions is accurate.  Yes, you can lengthen your stroke and in turn slow your turnover rate and seemingly become a more efficient swimmer.  However, there comes a point as you slow your turnover rate that you simply aren't moving your arms fast enough to propel yourself quickly.  You may have a great catch and hold of the water, but in an attempt to maintain that great hold on the water you don't apply a great deal of pressure to the water and are slow.  At the other end of the spectrum is the person with the very high turnover rate.  There arms are almost flailing they are moving so fast.  The problem there becomes your arms are moving so quickly that you have no hold on the water.  Your hands/arms literally slip through the water and you don't move very fast.

In reality, there is a sweet spot where stroke efficiency and turnover rate combine to give you the best stroke for you and the race you are trying to compete in.  You can begin to find that sweet spot by using something called your SWOLF score.  SWOLF was derived by combining the terms swimming and golf.    Essentially you swim a lap counting your strokes (each hand entry counts as a stroke) and timing the lap.  You then combine your stroke count and the time in seconds.  For example, you said you counted 14 on one hand so your stroke count would be 28.  I don't know what your lap time would be so for the sake of discussion we will say it is 30 seconds.  Combining stroke count, 28 and time, 30 gives a SWOLF score of 58.  To attempt to find that sweet spot, or the most efficient stroke for you, you repeat the process trying different combinations of stroke rate, stroke length, and effort and then comparing results.  Which combination of stroke rate, stroke length and effort gives the lowest score?

It is REALLY important not to compare your strokes per lap to someone else, nor compare your SWOLF score to someone else.  For example, I am 6'4" and I have been a swimmer for over 45 years.  It is safe to say my stroke is longer than yours.  Not because I am a great swimmer but simply because I'm built different than you.  My SWOLF score is going to be lower than yours because I have swam millions of meters and you haven't.  Strokes per lap and SWOLF are great metrics when used to analyze your progress over time or to gauge efficiency.  They are useless to compare you to someone else.

As far as kicking, I am one of those that argues the kick provides very little forward momentum for the average age-group triathlete.  It isn't so much about saving the legs, although that is a consideration, as it is simply acknowledging reality.  Michael Phelps in his heyday got less than 10% of his forward propulsion from his kick and that was in events of only 100 or 200 yards/meters.  The average age-group triathlete gets less than 3-5% of their propulsion from their kick.  To put that into perspective, an average middle-of-the-pack triathlete will swim a sprint swim leg in 15:00.  Going from an average kick to an above average kick will lower that time to 14:53, a savings of 7 seconds.  To do that, you would elevate your heart rate and likely come out of the water well into zone 4, maybe zone 5 and you would likely be cooked and done for the day.  Sure, you may still finish, but any hope for a strong finish would have been left floating in the water.  My position is the kick is for balance.  A good kick will provide for that and not induce drag that would slow you down.

Hope that answers your question or at least gives you something to think about.

Here are the updated points for last week.

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No worries Tom.  Vacation trumps points reporting anytime!