Meulen's 'Let's tri this Thing!' beginner mentor group-CLOSED (Page 17)

Those guys at Probikes are disgusting pigs!!!! At least two of them anyway. I remember going in that store just browsing about two summers ago and they are TOTALLY GROSS! Sorry to sound mean, but my experience in that store was not good either.

Great!!! so Biketek it is. They don't have a working website. If one of you guys go in there put together a list of brands they carry so we can look at some options.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Mooooooooooorning!!!!!!!!

I just want to say, I'm really glad to see you guys/gals all upping your game with the swimming. It's the first part of the tri, and you definitely won't win the race here. However, you need to be prepared for open water swimming and you need to safely make it through.

Enlight of this I'd like to do another QOTD here.

QOTD: In your classes I'm sure you've seen how well the designed swimworkouts build speed and really help with the swimming, so what are some of your recent swim workouts?

Mine:
W/U
50 free
100 kick
100 pull
100 free

drills
100 fingertip
100 popov
100 catch up

main set
6x200 30sec rest
6x100 30sec rest
6x50 on the minute

Here's one I did when I was just starting out

150 kickboard
150 pull
150 free
4x300 freestyle 45 sec rest
150 cool down

When I got to where I was comfortable doing the 300's I did this:


150 kickboard
150 pull
150 free
4x400 freestyle 45 sec rest
150 cool down

comfortable with that I did this:

150 kickboard
150 pull
150 free
4x400 freestyle 30 sec rest
150 cool down

I still do the above workout sometimes as well as change it up with something like:

150 kickboard
150 pull
150 free
1x1000 45sec rest
2x500freestyle 30 sec rest
150 cool down

I used this progression over a couple months to build my distance for an Olympic tri.

Hopefully, some of you can use these




Edited by Meulen 2011-02-08 9:44 AM

I will agree on the first place.  They laughed at me about a year ago when I was looking for a bike part for a brand that was not up to their specs.  My favorite is Performance Bike.  That's where I bought my bike.  They may not have a certified bike fitter, but they were extremely helpful, not pushy at all, and they have a great selection with a lot of clearance deals (that's how I got my bike). Even after the sale, they have been a great resource.  That's my new place...

You can still get fit at Biketek and bring the measurements to Performance so they can swap out stem/bars/cranks/whatever else to fit you properly. Or take your current bike there to be retrofit. It's just waaaaay cheaper to do the former.

Edited by Meulen 2011-02-08 12:00 PM

that's your new place. my new place is in my car with it's new brakes, rotors, pads, and four spanking shiny new tires that i can't stop drolling over. God, i LOVE paying an unexpected $900 for car parts. yes!

(bye, bye, road bike)

sorry to hijack the question of the day.

now, back to swimming.

look at it this way.....

This will give you a lot more time to plan and research your purchase.

I don't have any swim workouts (but I soon will).  I know it's not the best training, but I have just been working at increasing my speed/endurance for swimming 3000m.  I would like to add some new components, but, overall, I have been very happy with the results I have seen so far.  I just can't wait to see what I can do after really training over these next 6 months.

You've already got the endurance built to do any tri up to HIM!!! Next step is to break up your workout to intervals for building speed and getting some open water experience

oh geez...this sounds like a foreign language to me!

I usually just get in the pool and swim as many laps as I can

Can someone tell me more about "Masters" swimming. That word really intimidates me! I'm still pretty slow and right now I can only go 350 yards without stopping and haven't done more than 1000 yards total. How do you find a group to join? And would I be ok at my level or should I keep practicing on my own before going?

Thanks!

Masters swim is for anybody. Here's the website to find a group near you.

http://www.usms.org/

do you have a ymca in your area with a pool? i know mine offers one, but it's like 6am in the morning. good luck! you'll be awesome!

The Masters swim class I stumbled on is really kick and you would love it! The instructor says things like "I'll let *you* decide what constitutes 'fast'." and that makes me really happy. I was swimming 600 when I started and now I'm up to 1800 and I've only been swimming with them for a month. But anyway, I digress. Masters swim class just means you're an adult who already knows how to swim, basically. As opposed to someone who is just learning and needs a lot of instruction. How much instruction you get will mostly depend on the coach and how many people are in the class. If they are all like the one I go to, you just show up or don't show up - there's no attendance or anything like that. My coach tries to pair us in lanes based on ability so that people are working at about the same speed as the other folks in that lane. There are usually 8-10 who show up to the 6:30am class on Tuesday/Thursday. He does a Wed pm class too and when I walked past one day it looked like that one was a lot busier. There are benefits to getting up at the -crack of dawn!

Hi all,

All this talk of swimming is making me feel guilty!!  I planned to get back at it at the beginning of the month, but my pool was closed all last week, so I planned to head back on Monday, but my dog had other ideas that morning!  So, tomorrow morning will hopefully be my glorious return to the pool.  I don't really have a plan for my swim, it has been so long I just want to get back in the pool.

My husband and I are going to see The Ride on Friday.  It is the documentary of Phil Keoghan's ride across the US last year to raise money for MS.  http://www.noopportunitywasted.com/   My FIL has MS and we try to do a BikeMS ride each year.  I think it looks interesting!

Karen

Free is freestyle or normal front crawl swim

Kick is using the kickboard

Pull is using the pull bouy

Fingertip is swimming freestyle but dragging. Your finger tips across the top of the water to promote high elbows

Catch up is swimming freestyle leaving the lead arm out front until the other arm goes through the pull and "catches up" to the lead arm holding out front before you take a stroke with the other arm

Popov is taking 3 strokes and gliding on alternate lead arms.

Whe I get back near a pc I'll look for some you tubes that better explains these.

Pull bouys allow you to isolate the arms and concentrate on form up front. It also re-enforces how it should feel balanced in the water without having to kick.

So I guess my Swim workout QOTD was a bust! LOL

anyone got any other favorite workouts?

someone give me some integrated tricep workouts into running, swimming, and biking please. my biceps are taking over my arms. ahh.... i do not want man arms!!!  i guess this just calls for some old-fashion strength training with weights and machines, huh? so.boring.

swimming should be blasting those triceps

not as much as my biceps and deltoids. i know in my yoga classes, i stick with mainly biceps because i do so many chatarungas. my biceps have always been pretty good, but they are really getting bulking maybe with so much swimming. i'm not saying that i have bad triceps, but they are definitely not balanced out. does anyone use wrist weights while swimming?

Almost nothing we are doing should be "bulking" you up. You could be losing body fat and muscle tone is increasing, but the only bulking up you may see is in your legs from cycling. If you're getting faster why are you worried about it?

um...really? why am i worried about my arms looking bulky? you're asking the wrong girl!

LOL.....I should have known better! Seriously though, sometimes I gain some lbs (both muscle and fat) over winter when I focus on strength and shorter workouts. As you start lengthening the time of your workouts you'll lose some of that. I just don't want to see you worried about little things like that. I'll be willing to bet it's not all that bad, maybe Michael will confirm. I've honestly never seen a women get to be what I consider "too bulky" without being on steroids.