Dominion's Sprint and Olympic Distance - OPEN !!! (Page 18)

Very nice, indeed! I can only marvel and wish I had more time to get in the pool. I'm not sure I could complete this set on 2:00. I think going nearly all out for just 100m I could probably finish in 1:40. But to do it 10 times in a row, I doubt I'd be finishing that 10th time in under 2:00. *sigh* Maybe some day when the kids are a little older I'll be able to get to the pool more than once a week.

Great job, Chris!

Hi all,

I've just come back from a week in Spain and whilst I didn't really train I did have my daughter take some videos of me swimming so that I could look at my stroke.

I thought I try and post them here and see if you have any thoughts, suggestions or comments on my technique (or lack thereof).

Thanks very much - Tony

PS after posting this I tried to attach the files but I'm having computer problems :-(

Edited by TonyAbbott 2016-09-03 4:50 AM

That's fantastic! Great ride, Chris!

nice ride Chris!

Swim 3h 30m 21s - 11974.89 Yd
BIKE7h 23m 53s - 124.08 Mi
RUN14h 01m 39s - 64.88 Mi

Not where I was hoping to be but decent considering heat, vacation, and car accident.

Nate

My month of August was a bit of a mixed bag. My swim volume was up a little bit over the previous month, my bike total took a hit and dropped nearly 20%, while my run volume was up almost 17.5%. In general, my total time training was nearly the same and only dropped by maybe 30 minutes. That's not too bad considering I had 2 races in the month (meaning I lost a 1-3 days of training on either side of the race) and the fact that I got busy with work at the end of the month and my time to train suffered. I've got races the next 3 weekends (5K, last tri of the year, and an obstacle course race). I'm also losing some of my bike time in order to focus on my run training as I also prepare for my first half marathon. Can't wait to see what my September totals look like! ;-)

Swim: 2h 41m 10s - 7593 M
Bike: 7h 02m 18s - 117.11 Mi
Run: 6h 50m 19s - 44.83 Mi

I haven't posted monthly totals the last 2 months because there hasn't been much there to post, but August found me trending back in the right direction.

S: 12,600 yards

B: 260 miles

R: 36 miles

Edited by Dominion 2016-09-06 6:38 AM

Hi Chris and everyone.

I wasn't able to upload the videos to this site, but I think I managed to load to you tube.
The link is below

https://www.youtube.com/user/tonyabbott62/videos?view=0&shelf_id=0&s...

I hope it works OK. The quality is not great - they were taken on holiday by my daughter, but I'd appreciate any and all feedback.

Thanks very much - Tony.

Tony, I sent you a private message to your BT.com account with a few thoughts.

check this link out www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyR7JYllk9U

also see the attached

Im still learning so I am not sure what to add and Im note exactly sure of what I look like while swimming. May consider posting to main forum, people do that all the time. anyways

I couldn't really see how your rotation and how yourr head position was during your breathing. My understanding is that you almost want to look straight down. It is also my understanding when breathing you want to rotate with you body more so that turning your head. It should in my understanding be like breathing into your armpit. I couldn't see this part of your stroke well so I am not sure if you are doing that. I have read two different thinks on the way your arms move thru the water initially I heard slight "S" but recently heard straight line with fingers slightly open. This year I have been working on correcting an over reach and shortening the last part of my pull.

I would be interested in knowing what everyone else thinks and struggles with.

Nate







Attachments
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WIN_20160908_22_12_13_Pro.jpg (1786KB - 17 downloads)

I'm baaaaaack! My August totals are way, way down because I had two races in the first half of the month, so lots of tapering, and then...Burning Man. I also put in very long hours at work, sometimes logging as many as 14 hours a day bringing the new network online before I left on vacation.

S: 6,902 yards
B: 49.5 miles
R: 16.0 miles

This does not include the mileage I put in at Burning Man because I didn't want to take a chance on ruining my Garmin with all the dust, but my shift partner had a FitBit or something that tracked us covering six miles during a half shift that we walked together. Lots of walking, running, and cycling as those are the primary means of transportation, and my camp is on the edge of the city by the airport, far from work and the commissary.

My last triathlon of the year is this Saturday. It's an indoor pool swim, and I haven't been in a pool since May, but I'm just doing this one for fun, so I'm not going to stress about it. I'm also going to take my road bike, instead of my tri bike. It's just a short 500-yard swim, 9.3 mile bike, and 5K run.

After this race, I'm going to take it easy for a couple of months and work on my house. I've been training hard for nine months; it'll be nice to not have to worry about training schedules and mounds and mounds of laundry for a while. I'll still swim, bike, and run, but not with the intensity I've been doing! And maybe some of it will be hitting the trails on my mountain bike.

I had a lot of fun volunteering at Ironman Cd'A last month. I was surprised to find out there were no pros at that race because they all chose to do a different race that was on the same day. I spent the afternoon as a Penalty Tent Marshall, and then the evening handing out water, bananas, and cola. I was really inspired by all the regular people like me completing the race. I also volunteered the day before the race in the information booth, which was lots of fun. I really learned a lot! I highly recommend volunteering at one of these events, if you get a chance.

Man, having someone to watch and video you is a BIG tool to have! The two main things I usually see are head position, which leads to sinking butt syndrome, the "catch" stage of the stroke, and timing, not getting enough glide in each pull. I call that the windmill, one arm is up while the other is down. 

There's lots of videos out there but here's one that does a great job of breaking it down. I think watching it and comparing yours you'll find some stuff to work on. There's a lot your doing right, imho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SONx52cyltI 

My August numbers, I forgot to post them:

Edited by HelmoAlkou 2016-09-09 8:45 AM

 

Tony,

A few things stand out to me. Firstly I'll say that some of the things I see may be somewhat symptomatic of the small size of the pool you are swimming in. I notice you aren't pushing off the wall very hard to get a starting momentum. This would be hard to do because with a strong initial glide you would be around halfway across the pool before you really got into your stroke. Also you don't seem to have a lot of propulsion coming from you pull. This is seen in video 2. You aren't getting much forward movement. Again this could be just because the pool is so small and you are swimming at a very light effort. Also your stroke turnover could be much faster. Again this may be just because of the small pool.

As someone mentioned earlier regarding body position, I also see your legs/lower torso too far below the water line. This is visible in video 1. Think of yourself as trying to swim within a tube. Anything outside of the tube is creating drag which slows you down and wears you out quicker. Sinking legs cause vertical drag the same as legs coming apart cause horizontal drag. Horizontal drag can be seen in video 2 (see:30 to :38). These 2 body position mistakes are very common, but easy to work on once you are aware of them.

I tried to attach a video but the file was too large.

 

 

Edited by Dominion 2016-09-09 6:42 PM

We went back to our "roots" for the Childs family 5K trophy this year. Besides vying for the family championship cup, I was also looking for redemption as the only family member to have run the race and never won a medal. Mission accomplished! A few years ago, they lengthened the 5K to 3.28 miles (and now call it "5K+") and pushed the start back to 8 a.m. After that, we looked for a different race to run. But last year, the race we had run for 2 years didn't hold the event and we went without a champion in 2015. So I floated the idea of going back to Manchester (VT) and it was game on!

I was pretty confident that it would take a major disaster for me to lose the family cup. My younger brother hadn't been doing any running and my older brother had fallen off his training, so I was mostly competing against myself and my age group for that elusive podium finish! I had run a time trail on the treadmill at the 3.3 distance and clocked in at 25:43, so I knew what I was capable of. I just had to put in the effort and race day.

I knew the course very well and there weren't going to be any significant hills. I didn't really hold back and was fast (for me) out of the gate. My first mile was 7:32. I knew I couldn't keep up that pace, but it gave me a cushion that I would need later. One guy and I traded positions a couple times in that first mile, but he pulled ahead just after the Mile 1 marker and I just settled in on his heels. The gap between us fluctuated by a few feet, but largely I stayed right behind him and finished mile 2 in 7:51. Slightly under my time trial pace, but acceptable with the time I gained in mile 1. About 2 1/4 miles in I finally started to feel the effects of the pace, but I did my best to keep pushing.

The guy whose heels I had been chasing slowly started to pull ahead of me. We entered some woods for a short while and I let him go and kept my pace up as best as possible. Coming out of the woods, I knew I was on the home stretch, right about the mile 3 mark. I took a look over my shoulder an could see one guy in a white t-shirt maybe 70-100 yards behind me. I didn't want him to even sniff a hint of confidence that he could catch me and put the hammer down a little. I finished mile 3 in 8:06 and cranked it up to run the last 0.28 at 7:14/mile pace! The end result was a 17th overall finish and FIRST in my age group! I was so thrilled! It wasn't until later that day that I realized I had only won my age group by a mere 4 seconds. Thank you, random guy in a white t-shirt. The sight of you behind me is probably the motivation I needed to to push my pace at the end. ;-)

Congrats Randy. Why to bring two pieces of hardware home

Nate

Palouse Sprint Triathlon
500 yards/9.3 miles/5K
1:36:10?

So, this was an interesting race. I thought it was at an indoor pool, but it turns out it was an outdoor pool at a small aquatic park. It was a pretty nice facility, with a 25-yard, six-lane pool on one end, and a kids’ wading pool with lots of toys and slides on the other end. Two different transitions: one in the parking lot outside the pool where we racked our bikes, and the other two blocks down the street at the junior high school, where we left our run gear. I’m not sure why they had two transitions since the aquatic center was closed for the season, so it’s not like anyone else needed to use the parking lot, but whatever! The aquatic park was enclosed by a tall chainlink fence, and the swim exit was through a gate about five or six feet wide, with the timing mat just behind it.

I was in the third heat, sharing a lane with two other women. I self-seeded myself second, which turned out to be the right choice because I actually was the second fastest (slowest?) swimmer in the group. The first swimmer took off, and I followed five seconds behind her, with the third woman five seconds behind me. I didn’t have any issues with the swim. Half way through, I took a quick look at the clock, and it showed 6:31, so I was swimming faster than I had expected (about 2:30/100 yards). After my ten laps, I got out of the pool and ran for the exit.

It was completely blocked! Two toddlers had pushed two strollers across it and stopped. Behind them were a half dozen other toddlers and kids of various sizes, and they all must have been orphans because there were no parents in sight. I screamed “Clear the exit! Clear the exit!” But the kids just stood there and stared at me with wide eyes and gaping mouths. The volunteer staffing the gate just sat there and did nothing.

“MOVE!” I screamed and motioned for them to move aside. They just stood there; not one of them moved. I didn’t know what to do, and my exit was completely blocked, clear out past the timing mat. There was no other way for me to get out, so I just plowed through them, pushing them to the side.

I appreciate kids and love seeing them at races, but no parent would take their children to a football game and allow them to play on the field during the game, would they? So why do they let them play on our “field” during our events? I was so angry! I couldn’t believe the race organizers allowed this to happen! I fully expected to be disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior, even though I used “polite” language and refrained from the more colorful words that more fully expressed my anger. However, I did try to be gentle as I moved through the knee-high crowd, and I didn't hear any crying or yelling as I ran past to transition. In fact, I was VERY AWARE at that moment that the announcer said NOTHING and didn't warn parents about keeping their children out of the way! That was unacceptable!

I grabbed my bike and headed out transition. There was no marked mount area, so I had to stop and ask a volunteer. Apparently, it was OK to mount as soon as we exited the bike corral, so I hopped on and headed for the street. I had no idea which way to go. Turn left? Or right? Again, I had to stop and ask a volunteer. I headed out in the direction he pointed, and as I passed a side street a block later, I saw a mileage marker sign on a sandwich board. Wait, what? I rode another couple of blocks, and then got concerned I was heading in the wrong direction, so I turned around and went back to ask whether I was supposed to go down the side street or continue on the street I was on. The other competitors I asked didn’t know for sure, either, but said they thought maybe we kept going straight, so we did. It turns out the sandwich board was for ANOTHER event taking place the following day. Good grief! How confusing!

So, I got straightened out on the route, and the rest of the ride was well marked with both volunteers to point the way and markings on the pavement. However, the ride was really disappointing. Fat people on mountain bikes cruised past me like I was relaxing on a sofa stuffing chips in my mouth. No matter how hard I pushed myself, I couldn’t pass a single person. The wind was pretty strong, too. There are no trees in that area of the country; just wheat fields and wind. And rolling hills. It was not fun.

The run was pretty uneventful, except I was painfully slow. This was the only part of the event for which I used my Garmin, and I could see I was way off my usual pace, which is slow to begin with, but this was cringe-worthy slow. And it hurt. I was wondering if I would be able to tell I hadn’t trained in a month during this race, and boy! could I see a difference! And again, the entire route was marked for TWO other events, but fortunately, they had plenty of volunteers to keep us going in the right direction.

I stuck it out and just pushed myself as hard as I could. About the last half mile or so, I caught up with another woman. I thought I recognized her. She was alternating walking/slow jogging, and we chatted for a bit. We didn’t have our ages on our calves for this race, so I wasn’t sure if she was in my age group, but I thought she was. When we got within about a hundred yards of the finish line, she picked up her pace and cruised past me as fresh as if she was just starting her run. I tried to challenge her, but I was done. I just didn’t have it in me, and she crossed the finish line eight seconds ahead of me. It turns out she WAS in my age group, and when they posted the official times, she was listed in second, and me in third. Well, that’s something at least, right? They didn’t give out finisher’s medals at this race, but they did give out awards medals. I wasn't happy that there were only eight seconds between me and second place, especially given the problems I'd had, but a medal is a medal.

I had been attending church camp at Lake Coeur d’Alene this weekend and just drove down for the race, planning to head right back to camp to spend time with my friends. However, since I had placed, I wanted to wait around to get my medal, even though it was a couple hours drive back. They wouldn’t give out medals until the award ceremony that afternoon, and if you didn’t attend, you wouldn’t get a medal. Fine. I had five hours to kill (seriously!), so I took a shower and headed downtown for lunch, only to find the entire town was closed off for some festival or something. Thousands and thousands of people and no parking and thousands and thousands of people milling around in a tiny, tiny town. It wasn’t worth it. I don’t like crowds and I didn’t want to wait for food and I was tired and sore and cranky, so I headed back to the event venue to wait for the award ceremony and snacked on (more!) granola bars. They had a kids triathlon going on, and it would be fun to watch, so that was something. And it was fun to watch! They had kids as young as five competing, and they all got finishers medals and everybody cheered them on.

Finally, the award ceremony started, and I waited patiently while they got to my age group. I stood up, ready to go up when my name was called, and instead, they called three names that didn’t include mine. The woman who had been listed as second got third, and two other women (who didn’t show up for the award ceremony) got first and second. Good grief! I waited five hours! And nothing! I don’t know what happened. I’m guessing a woman had perhaps registered in the wrong age group and it was corrected between the race finish and the ceremony. In any event, I ended up out of medal contention, and I’m pretty angry still about what happened. Having the swim exit blocked cost me time, and the beginning of the bike course not being marked cost me time. I figure I lost at least five minutes dealing with all this. However, in all honesty, I don’t know that I would have placed higher if those issues hadn’t happened because others may have experienced them, too. It could be the woman who ran past me had the same problems and just overcame them better than I.

The “official” official results aren’t out yet, but I believe my time was 1:36:10, which is pretty embarrassing for a 500 yard/9.3 mile/5K triathlon and about 20 minutes slower than I expected. I forgot to hit stop on my Garmin at the finish of the run, but I think my time for the 5K is around 40 minutes, which means it’s the slowest 5K I’ve run since 2014. Yes, not having trained in four weeks HAS made a difference! I came back from Burning Man fat, exhausted, and out of shape. I know now not to race too soon getting home!

Did the White lake fall race today. Its the same as the spring course, and marks the 3rd time I've raced it. It was hot and humid but could have been worse. Earlier this year I shaved 14 minutes from two years ago and today I took an additional 1:45 off. Mostly in transition and swim.

Had a better swim today, just over a minute faster than the spring. Didn't mess with a wetsuit (water to hot anyway). Lack of wet suit also resulted in the 1 minute reduction in T1. Bike went well. tweaked my hamstring less than an mile in but it started to feel better by mile 2. Pushed it at times surging to 25.6 to pass a group of riders on a couple occasions. Overall on a few seconds faster than the spring. Transition 2 10 sec faster than spring.

Headed out for the run and just felt heavy. Thought I would loosen up but just felt heavy the whole way. Only 26 sec slower than the spring.

Overall a decent performance for me. Still got housed in my AG.

Here is my BT report http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

Edited by nrpoulin 2016-09-11 9:46 PM

I'm really surprised to hear this kind of language from you. With someone with your background and someone who has criticized the announcers working the broadcast of the Ironman World Championship for their comments of some of the women competitors, I am surprised to hear you refer to other triathletes as "fat". I understand that you might be frustrated with the organization of the race or the fact that you missed out on a podium spot, but to hear someone that has been so hypersensitive to the words of others (and vocal about it on this group) in the past use such insensitive words is baffling. I'm trying to imagine your reaction if another competitor referred to you as "fat" and I can only envision a reaction that is far from favorable. Could you face that person and call them that to their face? I don't believe so and I hope upon reflection that you realize just how wrong you were to say those words.

Yes, you're right. I probably should have said "overweight" because I was thinking more in terms of BMI calculator, which uses the terms "normal weight," "overweight," "obese." (At least, the one I've used does.) Technically, I'm still overweight with a BMI that fluctuates between 25 and 26, so..."fat." People who are overweight generally know they are overweight, and even when I was a lot heavier, I never considered the term "fat" to be offensive because I knew I was fat. It was a statement of fact. And yes, it's really frustrating to have people who are really overweight pass me so easily. I know from my own experience how hard it is, and I don't know how they do it! I really admire them!