Lumber Dad's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 17)

Not sure if I am ready for the ski race, but I am just going to go out that and take my time and try to enjoy it.
 

Curious about people's thoughts on swim pacing at the IM distance... is the idea to get the leg done at a reasonable pace or go out really hard?  I have a pretty good idea what going to hard on the bike will do to your marathon, but am trying to get some sense the impact of swimming too hard.  I don't think of myself as a strong swimmer (target of 1:30ish for the swim leg), and don't have the race experience to relate to either.  

Put another way, what are others swim strategy/frame of mind?  Thanks in advance! 

When I did IMW my goal for the swim was around 1:30, not a strong swimmer either. I just went into the swim and tried to relax, it was going to be a long day and didn't want to push the swim. My goal was just to finish the IM.

In training, my average 100 meter pace was 2 min.
 

Your being paranoid.  There we ( I ) said it.  You will do fine.  Trust your training.

Base building right now for IMWI.  Will start formal training in a few weeks.

Lenny my goal is also to swim the distance in 1:30.  Don't want to leave it all in the water that day.  Right now I also pace my distance swims at 2:00.

Have been MIA for the last few weeks.  Business trip to New Orleans.  Had good intentions, BUT, Bourdon street, great food and early morning meetings just didn't work well in getting in some exercise.  I think I'm a few pounds heavier.  Back in the groove this week.  Nice 20 mile ride outside yesterday and an 11 mile run today.  Feeling good.  Getting close to starting the IM training program.  Won't be able to have any excuses after that.

Looks like a lot of you are starting to get into your training programs.

For me it is race week, 5 days left before the Birkie. So I will be watching the weather for Saturday and try to figure what type of wax I will need.

Thanks all.  I was targeting roughly the 2:00 / 100 as well, and am starting to approach it.  I have not been in the pool as much I would have liked this month, so I lost some momentum in my swim work.  I plan on getting a little instruction as well, just to fixing any big issues, but I would be happy with a 1:30, and really happy with something less so long as it doesn't compromise the rest of the race.

What was your average/largest swim workouts leading up to your IMs?  Do you all try have any recommendations about how many sessions per week?  My plan calls for two relatively long sessions, one of which is followed/preceded by a longer run.  Thanks again for your thoughts.

Lenny, is there some sort of wax ceremony?  A ceremonial cleansing of the skis? 

Lumber,
Good luck with your race! I'm jealous as I would love to do it someday. Is there still a lot of snow up there, cause its all gone down here.

As far as swimming. A 2:00/100m pace (I am assuming we are talking meters) puts you in at around 1:20 (which is exactly MOP for IMWI) Also, are you taking into consideration wetsuit advantage, orientating, crowds and no turning in the pool. I know that trying to convert a pool pace to an OWS pace is difficult, but in my (very limited) personal experience, the wet suit and lack of turns more than offsets the orientation and crowd issue (and I swim way outside and give up more time than I need). So a 2:00/100 pool pace would seem like it should be much closer to 1:20 than 1:30

As far as number of swims per week. Personally, I think to improve you need at min. 3x week and at min 2x week to maintain conditioning. One of the biggest problems is that almost every training plan I have looked has the swim training in distance, but figures the total hours/week at a much faster pace than I am (2:00m/100 +) For example, they have 3200m swim that they expect done in an hour, but is realistically closer to 1 1/2 (including all the rests and recovery, etc) There is a big difference in being in the pool for this long and I don't think the plans adequately take this into consideration.

I tried to swim 3 x per week, usually about 60 min per workout. My longest swim was 2 miles, which I only did a couple times. My IM swim was a 1:20.

Maybe I should have a waxing ceremony, I could pray for good ski conditions.

I was thinking I may need to add a third, shorter technique based workout.  I completely agree with your observation on total time in pool; as a parent with two small kids, every second counts!  I really am trying not to obsess about the swim too much, and I have a half iron in June to get a sense of where I am overall.  I will say that laps in the pool are getting a bit boring!

To our mentor...good luck this weekend.  Ski well.

A moment of celebration...it was slow (34:45) but I did a full 5k on the treadmill tonight for the first time!  We'll see how it goes when I get outside but that was a big step!

Congrats on the 5k!  Time is irrelevant as long as you are striding to your goal.  Great job!

Good luck Lenny at the Birkie! 

Lumber, have fun and good luck!

Thanks all.

Heading up after the kids get out of school today. They are calling for a high of 16 on Saturday, hope with the colder temp the trail should hold us longer. Being a BOP skier I will need that.

Nice run! Keep it up.

Well I survived Birkie! The hills never ended until 47K, then the last 3K were across a lake to the finish in downtown Hayward. It was an experience, now it is time to do some triathlon training again.

My next big goal is to do a 50K run.

So how is everyone else doing on training? Looks like it was quite over the weekend.

Congrats on the Birkie experience!  Sounds awesome.

Finding a groove here as I ready for first sprint in 107 days.  Running Sunday & Wednesday.  Cycling Tuesday and Thursday.  Swimming on Saturday.  Mondays the kids have a ton of activities and Fridays are family night.  Slowly building up time on the bike and run and improving swim endurance.    Can't wait to do more of it outdoors.  This Green Bay winter seems to last forever.

Thank goodness for the person who said, "Create a plan, stick to the plan."  So far so good!

So much going on...trying to get into training groove...cycling in TX winds sucks!!!  !@#$%^

Congrats on the Birkie!  Many years ago, I did the Fat Tire Festival up there, and remember the terrain well.  Beautiful, but rolling!  Well done!

After the race I told my wife that I wasn't interested in doing the Birkie again. A few days later I am thinking that I will have to do another one. Not next year, but in a few years when I can ski better.

So how is everyone doing on training? Everyone must be out training, been quite here. Anyone have any early races coming up?