Gray Guys/Girls Masters Focus Triathlete Forum (all levels welcome)--CLOSED (Page 19)

Scott, 

The "climb the ladder" is a great  trick to think about when staring down the little black line on the bottom of the pool.  
Had a decent swim today and I feel like improvements are being made overall but I have often thought that and really not had any significant improvement...

Hey everyone!  Last week was a bit of a crazy week - I've been trying to keep up with reading here but haven't had much time to post.  Anyway, I wanted to post some of the exercises that I was doing when I worked with a trainer for a while last spring.  They're all lower body exercises since we were working on my hips, glutes and thighs mostly.  Here's what I could remember:

planks - regular and with BOSU ball (first with forearms on rounded side, then with feet on rounded side)
squats - lots of different kinds, with and without weights (both dumbbells and barbell across shoulders), some on BOSU ball (one foot on and both feet on), sumo squats with kettlebell, wall squats with fitness ball behind my back
duck walk with resistance band on ankles (both forward and backward), side steps w/band, sled pulls with weight in squat position
cable kickbacks, forward kicks and side kicks
lunges - reg and walking with and without weights
hip thrusters - with barbell or sandbags across hips
step-ups - regular and with weights, speed set-ups (one foot on box, other foot up and down as fast as possible for 30"), step-up with jumps
skater jumps

That's what I can remember.  I need to start doing some again - my hip bothers me if I spend too much time running on the TM and lately most of my runs have been TM runs. 
Janet

I had to laugh when I read your post.  Back when I was swimming, we trained at a city college pool during Christmas break because our normal pool was closed for maintenance.  The city college pool worked well except for one little thing - they turned the heaters off because nobody was using it - except the club swim team!  I can remember mornings where we would literally crack the ice to get into the water for morning workout.

Anyway,  my suggestion to you is not to jump right back in at the yardage you finished up last season at.  You have a long time before your 'A' race, and probably a few months before any other race.  Recall that when I was swimming, we would always take a couple weeks off at the end of the season, then come back to a few weeks of low intensity stroke technique work.  This is the perfect time for you to do the same.  Do something like 1,000 yard 'workouts,' where the whole focus of the time in the pool is stroke technique.  Something like 4 x 50 easy warm-up then 12 x 50 @ 60 sec rest, then 4 x 50 easy cool-down.  Remember, pace and endurance is not the focus.  PERFECT STROKE TECHNIQUE is the focus.  Do that for two weeks, three times a week.  The third week, switch to 4 x 50 warm up, 6 x 100 @ 45 rest, 4 x 50 cool-down.  Pace should be uncomfortably comfortable. If technique breaks down due to fatigue, double your rest period until technique improves.  Technique is more important than pace at this point.

Doing this is going to reinforce your stroke technique so you have a good stroke foundation for the remainder of the season.  Then you test the technique with some more difficult reps to make sure technique is holding up under increased load and fatigue.

After that three weeks, go into extensive endurance training for 4-6 weeks.  The goal of extensive endurance training is to get to where your total workout distance is 1.5 - 2.00 times your planned race swim distance (if memory serves you are planning an Olympic Triathlon this summer so your swim workouts should get up to 2,475 - 3,300 yards 3-4 times/week - preferably 4 times) .  Start with less yards (maybe 1,200 - 1,400 yards) and build to the target yardage over a few weeks (add 100 yards/workout - in 4 weeks @ 3WO/week you would be up to 2,400-2,600 yards/WO.).  Switch up the workouts, 100's one day, 200's the next, maybe include some ladders 50-100-200-100-50.  Start out with 60 sec rest and progress to 45 sec rest over a few weeks.  Pace should be comfortable.  Not hard, not easy, just nice even comfortable pace.  After that period, give me a shout and we can look at where you are.  The next phase likely would be a mixture of extensive and intermediate endurance along with some intensive endurance work (not really endurance, this is the speed work - the so-called 'vomit reps').  If you are truly intending to plan your own workouts, private message me and we can work out details.  What I put above is a really rough guide.

Thank you James for the kind words.  I truly enjoy helping people to become stronger swimmers.

I missed reporting this week since I just got home yesterday. Should I do a cumulative for next week?

Originally posted by JREDFLY Not sure if Scott adheres to this rule but I heard hardcore swimmers wouldn't be caught dead with something on their wrist.  

Sorry, didn't see this earlier.

If I were about to board a plane heading for Sochi, I would not put anything on my wrist because that 0.001 second could be the difference between silver and gold.  BUT, I am no longer a swimmer per se, and the little teeny tiny bit of drag a watch on my wrist is going to introduce is not going to matter a bit in the overall scheme of things, so yes, I wear a watch that counts laps when I swim.

THANKS!

It is sad, but I was on vacation after all.

5 for no wt gain

7 for training

Next week should be way better. but nothing like the Queen!

Kris,

When I worked 12 hour shifts I did NOTHING that day (unless it was an 11 AM to 11 PM shift when I could do a morning swim or run).  I work from home so No one is around to care if I am in sweaty work out clothes.  I can run either on my lunch break or before/ after work just fine.  I swim early morning because that's what works for me, and right now most of my bike training is after dinner on the trainer.  I squeeze in other strength training/ yoga either on lunch or weekends.  

We have to do what works for our schedule and family needs--some times it means sacrificing an extra workout in order to be there for the family or job demands.  Sometimes we can do the workout after our work day.....Either way we can't beat ourselves up if we have to miss an occasional workout,

Stu, I would guess I am one of the least motivated people in this group. I started doing tris just to see if I could. I am still at that level. I am not going to be devoting the majority of my time to training. I work, I garden and landscape, I hike, I spend a good deal of time just entertaining with friends (with the inherent problems that brings to devote a lot of time to working out ). That being said, I do want to do better and get fitter. Finding the balance for me is the key. I try to devote an hour a day to training. This spring I would like to get to 1.5 hours a day. Rest days seem to just happen, one to two per week, because of travel, work, schedules etc. I had been using a great book :

One-Hour Workouts: 50 Swim, Bike, and Run Workouts for Busy Athletes  that helps a lot. Of course, we rearranged rooms and I can't find it now and it is killing me!

I used to think that 1 hour a day was all a working person with other interests and an active family life could do... then I met Judi!

I am adding strength training in addition to the SBR. Slowly at first, then I intend to add full sets to my rest days. When I consistently do strength training, I feel I am better in all three disciplines. It is just keeping up the momentum that has sidetracked me before.

Same for me.  For a week or so I'll stick to my ST schedule then start skipping days (like today - I was supposed to go at lunch and didn't).  I just haven't been consistent enough for it to become a habit yet although I know my running and biking are better when I do it.  It's something I'm trying to work on - and failing at the moment .

Good discussion topic Stu!  It is kind of a "loaded" question when you think about it and one that can easily lead down several tangents.  Obviously, the length of the target race is going to impact training volume.  Within each race distance however, there is the likelihood of significant training volume differences depending upon the athletes personal goal(s).  Is he/she hoping to just finish, or are they looking to stand on the podium?  While the target race may be the same, those divergent goals will likely produce dissimilar training methods.  Yeah, we could talk about this all day - but as you so eloquently pointed out, most of us don't have all day.

"Better to have a rest day (or two) or 7 days / week?" - My 'answer' to this really has little to do with optimal training.  Sunday is the only day that my wife and I share a day off.  My wife is incredibly supportive of my Ironman goals, so the least I can do is set aside one day that we spend together.  That said, I find I do better when I have one rest day per week.  However, I am a fan of active recovery as opposed to passive rest so on Sundays, we tend to go "DO" something.  For example, there is a VERY large swap meet held every weekend near Newport Beach, not far from our house.  We went there a couple weeks ago and logged over 4 miles walking through the swap meet.  Another time, we went for a bike ride around Long Beach.  Active recovery on my rest days lets me feel like I am "training" and more importantly allows me to spend time with my better half and keep peace in the house.  That is a win-win in my book.

"Is it good to double up on a couple of disciplines on one or two days?" - This really is dependent upon individual goals and life circumstances.  In my case, my training plan includes 3 swim days (goes to 4 starting in May), 3 cycling days (short, medium, long), 4 run days (2 short, medium, long), and 3 strength days (45 min each), plus stretching.  That's 13-14 different training sessions not including stretching.  I can either double up on various days or I can stretch my plan out across two weeks.  I choose to double things up.  M/W/F are run/swim/weight days.  T/Th are cycling days.  Saturday is a run and cycling day.  I arrived at that schedule after literally sitting down with my running, swimming, and fitness coaches over dinner and coming up with a 'best plan for me.'  As I build through the summer, there are going to be some 6 hour cycling days so it didn't make much sense to try and double up on cycling days.  However, we wanted a weekly brick opportunity - enter the short run, short bike Saturday.  Sometimes Saturday is a run early, bike late day, other times it's the reverse, and sometimes it's a true brick.  Seeing as how the pool and the weight room are both at the gym it made sense that swimming and weights would be on the same day and it just seemed to 'fit' that running is on the same day as it involves different muscles for the most part.  When I do resistance training, I lift light weights and high repetitions, working on strength and endurance so I am still able to get in the water and swim after a strength workout.  I do very little lower body weight work, given the volume of running and biking.  The upper body weight work I do is targeted at swimming muscle groups (lat pull downs, bicep curls, tricep extensions, etc.).  I probably do a disproportionate amount of core work (planks, side bridge, crunches, bicycles, etc).  I am very fortunate in that I am self employed so if I need time to train, I simply step into the restroom, look in the mirror, and have a chat with the boss.  Actually it isn't that easy as I have more 'bosses' now than I did when I worked for someone, however, my schedule is extremely flexible.  It would be impossible for me to pursue my goal of qualifying for Kona if I did not have the flexibility in my work schedule that I enjoy.

"Does it make sense to substitute weight training for S/B/R training?" - There are a couple schools of thought on this one.  I firmly believe that strength training should be an integral part of any training plan.  It really comes down to this, how can it NOT be beneficial to become stronger?  That said however, reality is that there are not an infinite number of minutes in the day and sometimes compromises have to be made.  If it comes down to 'something has to go,' then I think that S/B/R training is more important.  So directly answering the question - I don't think that an athlete should 'substitute' weight training for S/B/R training.  I think the athlete should find a way to ADD strength training to their training regimen.  It doesn't have to be a lot.  20 minutes a couple times a week will make a significant difference.

Now that I have written all that down, what does it mean for you?  Maybe nothing.  My goals may be different than yours.  A plan that works for me, may or may not work for you.  My life circumstances may or may not be similar to yours.  What can perhaps be helpful is seeing how someone else has approached training.  I know when I started training for a triathlon, I didn't have a clue.  I knew I had to run and swim and ride my bike.  Somewhere I learned about the 'other' disciplines - nutrition, hydration, pacing, and mental preparation.  Putting a training plan together that adequately prepares you for race day may be as great a challenge as the actual race itself.

Stu, I don't think I directly addressed your underlying premise of 7 training hours per week.  Sorry, best I could do.

Just my humble 2 cents.

Got some good news!  I just got an email that the race I wanted to do on Feb 22 (which I was on a waiting list for since it sold out so quick) has added an additional 150 spots.  It's a trail race at a state park and the number of entries was originally limited to 350.  Apparently the race organizers were able to work it out with the state parks department to let them have another 150 people do the race.  So I'm in!  I really didn't think I get a spot even with being on the waitlist.  Very excited about this.