MarkQuiet's group - FULL (Page 16)

TI is Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster and Easier, a book by Terry Laughlin.  I picked it up after reading about on this website.  The gist of it is that, as humans, we weren't really created to swim, so we struggle in the water.  The drills are to teach you to be more efficient (more "fish like" in the water, expend less energy, decrease the amount of strokes you take to cover the same distance, have fluid movement and be able to swim longer distances with less effort, thus saving more energy for the other two events.  The book tells you to stop swimming endless laps which they believe actually ingrain poor stroke mechanics into your brain.  The drills reteach you how to feel more bouyant, lessen drag, utilize core body strength for propulsion and have a more efficient stroke.  I also got the DVD freestyle: made easy.  Its great cuz it shows you (I'm a visual person) what the book just describes in words.  I've never had a swimming lesson in my life except for the "pollywog" class I took as a child to learn how not to drown.  This has been very instructional for me.  I think its worth checking out but others may have another opinion.  Hope that helps!  (Gosh, I should get a commission).

Tara

Hey Doug,

Hope you have a good time in your race tomorrow.  Isn't the OLY then?  Do your best and have fun!

Tara

Good luck with your swim.  Hope you'll be joining us on Sunday.

That would be cool, you two doing the same Oly.  How cold is the water?  I have my first sprint tri a week from Saturday.  I don't have a wetsuit and had originally assumed that the water temp would be ok but we had a real cold snap followed by unseasonably cool temps.  Finally today we'll get back to normal temps but I don't think there is enough time for water temps to really go up that much.  We'll see what happens.

Well training was going well last week.  Then Saturday I went riding on the ATV, that was definately a workout...8 hours of riding thoroughly exhausted me.  Now I'm swamped at work leading up to a Monday deadline.  I'll be happy to get a workout in every other day this week.  Bad timing for work to get in the way of training.

How's everyone one else doing?

Good luck Doug and Kirk this weekend!!  Have fun!!

Hey Kirk & Doug - Do well and have fun in your race this weekend.  Keep on plugging away Sluggo - It'll be worth the effort!

I'm taking a week off (sort of).  I haven't done that since I started training and I'm heading out of town Fri till Tues and am trying to get a bunch of stuff done before I head back to work.  Taking kind of a refresher break mentally and physically.  Don't worry - I'll be back soon (and I'll try to get in some nice workouts while I'm gone but that's not going to be my focus.)  I'll talk to ya when I get back!

Tara

Hey all,

Yeah I'll be doing the same tri as Doug and his wife. Doug and I will be in the last wave to hit the water that day (damn the whole turning 40 thing). It should be all nice an muddy and cloudy after several hundred people go trotting in and out of the mud hole. Funny thing is, Doug's wife will start 20 minutes ahead of us. Now we have to catch up to her through the whole race. Whoo Hooo. Something to shoot for!

Water here is a bit cool. I have been going to a nearby lake for the past three days to get used to my clunker of a wetsuit. I'll be able to use it for the tri, but my swim will be slow and ugly. Since the mud hole lake we will be swimming in is shallower then the lake I have been swimming in, perhaps the water will be a bit warmer. If so, I might decide to swim it sans wet suit.

I hope that everyone else is staying motivated working toward their first tri. Please don't let my lack of communication these past few weeks get you down. Doing triathlons are the only thing keeping me going through this hard time of mine.

Kirk: Looking forward to seeing you out there - at least at the start.  I'll be hard-pressed to catch you on the bike, 'cause I know you'll speed by me on the run.

I prefer to call it a corporate lake (or man-made drainage ditch).  At least we've had some rain recently so maybe it's flushed a bit.  I'm not looking forward to sucking down everyone else's churned up water, though.

While you've been training, I've encountered the mega taper.  I sucessfully fought off the urge to run last night, too.  I do have a soccer game tonight, so I'll be moving myself around a bit before the event.

Thanks to all of you for the encouraging words.  Others of us are participating in something this weekend too, I think.  Go have fun!

I just realized that, for me, at least, tri season is beginning.  I have this one, and another in 2 weeks.  Then it's my daughter's turn before taking a break.  I'll find something in the summer, though, despite the heat.  Then September and October's HIM.

Great to hear from you again Daisy. Stay with it, you will get there.

BTW - I did NOT do the Olympic with Dough today. At the last moment I backed out and did the Half Iron distance instead. Yes I am completely insane, but I did it. And I broked my unspoken goal of 6 hours.

I know that Doug and his wife were there when I ran out for the half mary run and I am sure I seen them on the turn around. As I have no family to go cheer me on it was really nice to have my BT family there to cheer me (and the other BTers) on. If you ever get a chance to go to a race where other BTers are racing. DO IT. It really does mean a lot.

It was at the pasta party - at a table with other BTers, that our fearless leader decided to "just do it" and switch.  He found the RD and w/in 5 minutes, had made the switch.  Insane?  maybe, but Kirk has the distances already.  He did great, too.

I second his comments about hooking up with other BTers.  He may not have known it, but there were 5-6 of us at the run start cheering him on.  I'm sure that gave him an energy boost for the 13.1.  It's nice to have random folks give you a boost, even better when it's faces you recognize.

Congratulations, Kirk, on a great event.  Sorry we couldn't stay for the finish.

db

Hey Daisy, great to hear you got your release and you can start training again. Just don't try to over do it and doo too much to soon. You will have to build back up to where you were, but it should not take as long as it did the last time.

Doug, thanks again to you and the wife for the encouragement.

Doug and Kirk, great job this past weekend.  Doug, nice race.  so, how was the OWS.  better or worse than you had expected?

Kirk, dead last, huh...I expected much better from you!!!  haha, just kidding...that's kind of comical that they listed your half IM time as though you were competing in the olympic...I guess mix ups like that are expected when you change at the last minute, which, by the way, is very impressive.  

so, yesterday I came to the realization that triathletes are freaks.  tried my first ows swim on Saturday.  I thought the water was cold enough that I may have been causing some sort of permanent damage to my body.  I was grateful to have a wetsuit but it certainly wasn't helping my feet nor my face.  Yesterday I read that everyone else swimming in the same lake thought that the water had warmed up nicely from the previous weeks and that it wasn't that bad.  YOU ARE ALL FREAKS...and I'm aspiring to be one of you.

I'm looking forward to tonight, I'm going to practice transitions.  First I'll do a couple in my living room and then I think I'll go outside and do a couple in the driveway so I can actually get on and off the bike.  my neighbors will think I'm a bit crazy but that's ok.

Okay - now I'm convinced that this is the place for me.  You guys are absolutely nuts and its great!  Congrats Doug and Kirk on your races - I can't believe you are that awesome that you can just change your mind about your race and do a HIM just like that.  Jeez!

Daisy - glad your back at it.

Sluggo - Keep givin' your neighbors something to talk about.  Mine still can't figure out what I'm doing in the family room riding a bike for an hour or so.

Its good to be back in town and to be able to get back on line and catch up with what's going on.  Sounds like tri season is getting into gear.  I have a little over a month of training to go before I "tri."  Ugh-can't wait but I'm really getting nervous.  I really want to give it my best but not torture myself so I'll never want to do another one.  My goal is to keep doing them as long as I'm able and keep improving for as long as I can...  Thanks for all your inspiring stories and for sharing your logs and expericence.  It sure does help.

Tara

I love the craziness!  Its a big part of what attracted me to triathlons.

Jay - Have a "FREAKY" good time out there tomorrow.  I hope all your transitions go smoothly and all your practice just pulls together for a totally great experience. 

I'm doing a practice run tomorrow at the place where my race will be in one month.  I'm going to do shorter distances and I'm interested to see what the OWS will be like.  I know there will probably only be me and my friend in the Gulf water at 8:am so I'm kinda nervous that we'll be good "shark bait."  I think I'll feel a lot less obvious in a group of people churning through the water.  I know I should practice "sighting" especially since there is a current out there.  Any other ideas for the OWS?

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Tara

So much fun!!!  Can't wait to do it again.  I won't go into all the detail, those are in my race report, but I wanted you all to know that I'm happy with my performance, I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to the next one in July.  I think I might be hooked.

Thanks to all of you, it really made a difference the past few months to have all of you here to keep me motivated and accountable.

Nice work - Sluggo!  I commented at the end of your race report, so be sure to check it again and scroll to the bottom.

You did a great job.

I'm looking forward to hearing from the rest of you as you get that first (or second, or third) notch on your race belt.

db

Hey all....

 Jay - great job on finishing your first tri. If you are looking forward to doing you next one - you are hooked.

Tara - keep at it. You will do great.

Daisy - where did you go?

Doug - you turned into a stranger - what's the deal?