Manatee Mentors 2014--CLOSED (begging & bribes MAY work) (Page 17)

Are you doing Mandurah? Stace Face (StaceyK here) and I are doing that too.

Running really requires a long-term view ... I would just keep doing what you've been doing (are you still following one of the sprint plans or are you on to an Oly one now?), and when it gets to the race, use a run:walk ratio (for example, run 3min walk 1min, or heck, run 1min walk 3min, whatever the amount of running you've built up to by then is) so that you're not loading a bunch of running on at once that you haven't done before. Very easy to get injured that way.

In my opinion, the plans here are very good, and they will definitely get you to build up to and complete the distance safely. If you really want to work on your running, though, in terms of wanting to be a lifelong runner and/or get faster (not just be able to go longer distances), it's going to take a different approach--a lot more patience, time, and commitment.

WELCOME ALL NEW AND POTENTIAL/CONSIDERING MANATEES!

Super spankin' fresh newbies most welcome, and all else too.

Yes, this is a very active group (you were warned!) but none of us keep up with all of it, all the time, so certainly don't feel like you have to. The main thing is to check in, be accountable, offer whatever support/experience you can, and silliness (whether in questions, actions, or comments) is required.

It's Monday and I am not motivated for the work week. Anyone have any encouraging words?

NO MONEY NO POP TARTS NO IRON PACE BOOTY AT FUN RACES.

ETA: Okay, okay. Maybe not everyone's as addicted to Pop Tarts (or pace booty) as I am. And I'm seriously procrastinating myself right now. But here's what I do: break it down. Whatever I have to do, it's just for the next 15 minutes. I set a timer. Usually if I can just get started that's enough momentum to keep going.

Break it down into as manageable bits as you need to. All you need to do is get in your car and go to work. If you feel really horrible there, you can come home. But all you're doing right now (theoretically, or whatever the next small step is) is getting into a car and driving.

Not at all, THANK YOU Stace Face for bringing it up--as you (and pretty much everybody else) knows I need serious reminders for even the most basic of stuff.

Focus on this phrase: Pull with your body.

I dislike the term "pull" because it makes it sound like you pull the water with your arm. IMO even though most triathletes just don't swim often, far, or hard enough for that to be cause of any shoulder problems, if there is arm or shoulder strain (particularly at the acromion process ... basically, the intersection of the end of your shoulder and the top of your arm) it comes from using the arm to pull, instead of using body rotation by way of lats (most notably felt where your back meets your armpit) and obliques (those side-wall abdominal muscles just above the hips).

You roll your hip to point to the bottom of the pool* in order to get your arm well stretched in front of you for the catch (where hand meets water after above-water recovery). It's like twisting your body to reach something on a high shelf. As you anchor the arm in the water vertically from the elbow, instead of pulling back with the arm, you want to use body rotation (make the other hip point to the bottom of the pool) to drive the arm back. Your arm doesn't actually have to move all that much; only the angles change a bit as goes through the pull phase.

The lats (latissimus dorsi) especially but also the obliques are huge trunk muscles that can generate and tolerate a lot of tension. It's a lot better to learn to "pull" by using these muscles to drive body rotation (and the arm back during the pull and outstretched forward for the catch) than it is by stressing the relatively weaker and less stable arm anatomy, muscles and joints.

* that's actually a lot more rotation than needed, but it's the visual that usually makes people get enough. YMMV.

This is the lunchroom at the workplace of a former student. And yes, the bikes are functional! (not much resistance but hey, still super cool)

Mondays, what a terrible way to spend 1/7th of the week.

Mondays, make Tuesdays look good.

Why are Fridays so far from Mondays and Mondays so close to Fridays?

Probably not the kind of inspiration you wanted, but it's all I've got

Love it!

Works is a four letter word -- but it does pay the bills and support out tri habit!

I have been trying to get in touch with Felicia.  It didn't seem like her to disappear on us and I was starting to get worried.  Anyway,  I heard back from her overnight and she said:

"My life is crazy, and I am still sick. We changed my blood pressure medicine and I am on antibiotics, so I am hopeful that I will feel normal again soon. I send my love to everyone."

Thanks Janyne!!!

Yay! you found her. Booo! that she's having a rough time. I was wondering where she'd gone off to this winter :/

Thanks for the smile, Chris.  Smiling at your trail run, your FL winter joke, and also the Kid Prez quote. 

Thanks, Janyne, I've been thinking about her as well.  Sorry to hear she's struggling with health woes.

OK, manatees, break out the whips, lashes, cat-o-nine tails, etc. and let me have it.  I was B-A-D and didn't get to the pool this am.  My lame excuse is I blame one of my dogs - when my alarm went off for the first time she migrated from my feet up to my upper body and curled/snuggled up tight against my chest/stomach area and laid her head on my arm which was very comforting and sweet.  I know, terrible excuse.  I will not let the siren song of snuggly dogs keep me from the return to the pool on Wed!

When when are you headed to the pool for your make up swim?  After work?

The ENABLER excuse does not fly here!  (BTW, is your dog named Tony? That seems to be a common enabler name!)

I call that phenomenon "evil cat whispers." It's the cats. No, it really is.

Your cats are named Tony?

No. "Tony" does not denote an edible item.

Well, to Tangerines perhaps