Mike's group closed (Page 2)

Think I've caught a cold/throat virus.  My kids have had it for 1.5 weeks, and I had hoped to avoid it, but no luck.

My first instinct was to stop training until I'm better.  But I read this article recently posted in another BT thread: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/health/nutrition/25best.html?ref=health

Now I'm thinking that I'll just keep training until I feel better.  Is this a bad idea?

I went swimming last night and noticed that I couldn't swim as long without a rest, but I could still swim my usual pace for about 100 yards.  So I just swam a bunch of 50's and a few 100's with lots of rest in between.

Glad to be part of the group!  I see that I have some catching up to do!!  I'm on vacation enjoying the holidays (that was Mike's first piece of advice right? ).  I have been mixing in some workouts here and there so I will try and update my training logs today.  Full scale workouts and training begins Thursday, January 1st.

My Short Term goal is to be able to lose a few pounds and really get my base levels down - be able to easily swim a mile, easily run 5 miles.  Not too worried about the bike as I ride 20-30 miles a few times a week in the fall/spring/summer as my main source of exercise. 

Intermediate goal - complete the spring NJ Triathlon in July.  Complete in at least one other sprint triathlon by summer's end.  Complete the ITPManTriathlon in CT in Sept in a faster/better time

Long Term Goal - Become competitive in both a sprint and Olympic triathlons by spring/summer of 2010.

Thanks for the video and articles on swimming.  It will be perfect to get my old form back as it's been a long time since my lifeguard days.

Looking forward to the journey with all of you.

Pete

To train when sick or not to train when sick....that is the question.  I have seen it posted on here a whole lot and I have read many articles too.  The bottom line is that you should really go with what your body is telling you.  If you have a feaver and feel tired and worn out, stay home and get well.  If it is a runny nose and cough, I say go ahead and do a shorter and less intense workout.    Your immune system is weak when sick and heavy workouts also break down your immune system too.  There is no gauge or way to measure how sick is too sick and how intense is too intense.  It is the off season and missing 2 or three workouts won't set you back.

Hey Pete.  Your goals look good. 

I think I am enjoying the holidays too much.  I tend to go overboard with nearly everything.  I am on vacation from work until next week, so I have been slacking.  Work actually keeps me on a better schedule.  This is the part of the year that is like the moment before a race.  I am getting my head on straight and preparing myself mentally to focus on my workouts and the schedule ahead.  I try not to let it creep into my down time too much because it can burn me out quickly.  I know come April, when official training starts to kick in, and the workouts get really intense and start to take over my life, I need to have some mental toughness to get me through 20 weeks of training. 

There are a lot of aspects to triathlons like nutrition, training, gear, and technique but I believe the mental part is in the top three of things to work on most.  You can really flip yourself out during  a long workout or even at the swim start of your first tri if you let it get to you.  Try to keep things even keeled and enjoy every moment you can.  There will be ups and downs and good workouts and bad workouts. But try to look at the big picture.  You will be in great shape, maybe the best you have ever been in.  You have all decided to do something most people will never attempt to do in their life.  I don't know where all this came from, but anyway I look forward to coming here in the days ahead and watching you all progress and reach your goals.

I've been wondering what happens at the beginning of a race when a whole bunch of people are ready to take off for the race.  The videos I've seen on line looks like a bunch of guppies splashing all over each other and I've heard that people will slap and kick you. 

 How should you handle this?  Let the crowd go and then find yourself a spot?  Swim on the periphery?  With this delay you'd have to work extra hard to catch up on the cycling or running. 

I've also heard that the highest fatalities in a triathlon will occur during swimming.  What's up with that?

Ditto!

Mass swim starts are like that but not all races are mass swim starts.  You would have to check each race individualy to find this out.  Either way, you will be swimming with others in your age group at the minimum.  There is a lot of contact in the bigger swim starts, but mostly unintentional.  This is a funny video that gives you an idea of what it can be like in the real big swim starts.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3S0wu4Zbfk

As far as how to handle it goes.  Start in the pack where you feel comfortable.  Some starts are running into the water, some are waist high water and some are a treading water start situation.  Again You would have to check each race individualy to find this out.  But either way, for your first tri ever, if contact in the swim makes you nervous, I would suggest starting either in the back or off to the side if you want to be closer to the front.  You may not necessarily need to make up time.  You may be a fast swimmer or quicker in the transition areas (a good place to make up time).  The key to remember is that races are seldom won in the swim, but they can be lost.  Smooth and consitent through all 3 areas and the transitions will get you closer to the front every time.  My 1st race ever, I came out of the water 5th and out of the 1st transition area in 2nd and placed second at the finish.  It usually ends up who has the most gas left in the tank in the last portion of the run.

Swim deaths in races do happen but if you look at the numbers, it is pretty rare and in most cases it would have happened to that person racing or not.  Let me back up (man do I talk or what)?  Think of how many hundreds of thousands of people race each year.  The average ironman race has 2000 competitors alone.  There was well over 100 ironman races last year, plus the half ironman, olympic, sprint and super sprint distances too.  I think there were 13 deaths total this year.  So that alone seems to have fairly good odds.  However it is death.  Don't quoate me on this but out of those deaths, many were late in age, unfit to swim the distance or had a health issue to begin with.  I think only 2 or three were not determined.  I am always surprised at how many people under estimate what they are about to embark upon.  I have seen people in race that look like it is the first time they have ever tried to swim.  Nearly drowning within the first 100 yards.  That is just ignorance in my opinion.

So how do we deal?  You train.  Ask questions.  Train.  Do your homework. Train. And then train some more.  If you can join a local tri club and get in to some group swims.  As soon as you can, get into the open water and train.  It is completely and totally different then the pool. Did I mention the training part.  If you know you can do the distance or even more than the distance then it is a matter of not freaking yourself out.  Many times while swimming I will do a couple of 100's and just focus totally on feeling relaxed.  My breathing, position, body, everything.  And I remember that in case things get hairy in the water, I go into that zone.  I also play a real cheesy game in the swim start.  Every time I get tapped/hit by someone else, I laugh in my head and think I just won $1.00.  It sounds silly but it keeps me from getting angry and keeps me focused on something else so it doesn't get in my head.

So I hope I don't ramble too much, but there you go.

Since we're on the swim, here's another question I've had for awhile...

Is it important to practice swimming in a straight line?  When I'm in the pool, I swim straight by following the black line.  Obviously not an option for an OWS.

When I used to do OWS Tri's loonng ago, I lifted my head every several strokes to try to maintain a line.  But this gets tiring for a long swim.  I'm wondering if I should be practicing this (lifting my head) in the pool?  Or should I practice swimming with my eyes closed to learn to maintain a straight line without sighting?

In an OWS (open water swim), you will need to sight where you're going to make the turns, pass others, and to make sure your not swimming to Brazil.  It does wear you out if you don't sight smoothly.  I breath bilaterally and it seems much smoother that way.  I think about it right before so I can time it right.  As I am pulling my hand back lift my head up just enough to see and back down so that when I take my next stroke I go right into breathing.  Here is a video to better describe.  This guy is so smooth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n_QgU5G--8

If your breath on one side, it makes it a little less fluid, but still the same concept.  Look then turn for your breath.

Should you practice it?  Yes, but don't kill yourself doing it.  Just once and a while.  When you get in the open water, definately.  I take a peek about after every 9-10 breaths pending the situation.  I don't do the closed eye, thing though.  To me it's not the same. 

I love the first video.  That is hillarious!!!  Bet his friends had a blast hitting him like that.  lol 

On the second video... I look like that except only at half of the speed and without the muscles.  lol  Concentrating on my form has really helped me relax and feel one with water.  I think about and pay attention to every move I'm making while swimming, trying to recite everything I've learmed or been told -- keep your elbows high, don't over extend your arm on each stroke, take long full strokes and push through, touch your thigh at the end of the stroke, twist from your core to maximize strenght, keep an even tempo (blow, breath, stroke, stroke, blow, stroke, breath, stroke, stroke, blow, breat...).  I also watch how my hands enter the water, watch the angle to make sure that I'm not just splashing in and creating drag. 

That's why my swim is sooooo slow.  I'm hoping that getting my form down and increasing my endurance at a longer distance than a sprint will allow me to do shorter distances stronger and hopefully faster.

For sprints I just need to swim .9 miles which someone told me that was 60 laps.  So, that's what I've been targetting.  Did 55 yesterday (45 laps plus 2 drills at 5 laps).  It turns out that he was counting a lap as 25 yard (once across the pool) while I've been counting a lap as 50 yard (once and back).  Duh!

Now I'm swimming a mile and a half!  Guess I'll still target my 60 laps and continue to work on form and endurance.  So confusing!!!

My next series of questions will be about running.  Can't seem to get that going... 

Hope you all have a great and safe New Year's and I'll see you next year!    Thanks Mike for volunteering to mentor us and be willing to share your knowledge with us.  You're the greatest!!!

Sandra

Happy New Year!

Keep the questions coming.

Wow Sandra, nice swimming - 1.5 miles is a long swim.  I'm jealous!

Happy 2009.

here is a handy tip for the day.

When you go to the home page of BT, you'll notice in the top left hand corner it says Home-Control Panel-Help.  If you click on Control Panel it will open up a new window allowing you to Edit your profile.  You can enter personal information about yourself (or not) such as videos, pictures, e-mail, etc...  If your enter your e-mail under the Location section and then under the Settings section check yes where it says Receive e-mail notifications by default?  you will get an e-mail every time our thread gets new post.  If you start a new thread or post a comment in any thread, you'll get an email whenever that thread is updated too. 

Thanks for the tip Mike.  I'd wondered about this before - saw the "toggle email notification" link at the bottom of each thread, but wasn't sure how to set it up.  Think I got it now.

-Rob

I don't have a triathlon picture to post yet but I have some other pic I wanted to upload so you guys would know what I look like.  However, I keep getting the message that the pic is too big.  Any suggestions on how to address this?

Hope everyone had a great New Year's!!! 

Thank you Rob!  But don't be all that impressed, I do this with a 2 to 3 second stop between laps.    Gotta start somewhere... 

Hope you had a great New Year's!

And here's my first cycling question.  Today I cycled 15 miles (did that yesterday too) and my lower back really hurt!  Is this something we just have to get used to or do you think that I might have issues with my cycling form?  I've been riding my hybrid bike in a bike trail on concrete but it's very even, no hills.  What do you think?

Sandra

The profile pictures need to be under 50K.  If you are creating a picture for your album (which is another topic) they need to be under 200K.  I use Photoshop to resize my pictures.  If you don't have a program that will resize images, I have heard of people using tinypic.com.  Here is a link describing it http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=134252&posts=6&start=1

Heath and Rob, how did you guys do your pictures?

Albums are fun to create too.  After clicking on Forums you'll see at the top, in small print the word Albums. Click on that and it will open a new window with users ablbums for you to look and and search.  There is a small window towards the top right that says Create and Edit your video and photo albums.  Click on that and follow the directions.

As far as the lower back question goes.  The most common reason would be the bike fit.  Road bike and tri bikes are fitted to your body size and comfort to avoid injuries, soreness, and to be efficient and comfortable.  The other reasons could be a sudden jump up in riding times, pulled muscles, or just plain old soreness.  My guess would be that it's the bike.  What kind of "hybrid" bike do you have?  Brand and model would be more help.

Sweet! Fuji is a good bike.  Figure out the picture thing and when you get the bike you can post pictures for us so we can all drool.

For now, take it easy on the bike. Do nice easy warm ups and cool downs and stretch after too.  No need to risk injury.  When you get fitted for you new bike, it may take several weeks for your body to adjust.  See if you can schedule another "re-fit" after about a month or month and a half.  Once you get used to it, you'll most likely find some small things that you might want tweaked.  If you back still bothers you at that point, get a doctor to check you out just to make sure your not broken.

I'm sure it's old age.  Sucks to get old!  lol

Question about cycling shoes: What's the difference between triathlon cycling shoes and non-tri?  I purchased the Shimano A520 SPD pedals (think it's ultegra) and was looking at the SIDI shoes. 

Aside from carbon soles which I don't need, what's the difference between a $100 dollar pair of shoes and $200? 

 Pedals: http://www.lickbike.com/productpage.aspx?PART_NUM_SUB='0767-05'

Shoes: http://planocycling.com/itemlist.cfm?category=46

I had the same image size problem when I tried to upload my profile pic.  So, I created a copy and resized the picture using MSPAINT in WinXP.  I just scaled it until the resulting jpeg was small enough.  I've also heard of the tinypic.com approach, but never tried it.

I guess everything is relative. To me 2-3 seconds rest sounds really good!

I've been learning to swim the last 1.5 months or so and couldn't kick because of a sfx in my hip.  So I just worked on my stroke using a pull buoy.  Now my hip is a little better, and the last few days I got rid of the buoy and started kicking.  I was schocked at how much harder it was for me to swim - I feel like I'm sinking and I need a 20+ second rest every 100 yards!  I think I will improve pretty quickly though with more time in the pool.  I'll let you know when I get to 1.5 miles.

Swimming is the shortest of the three events in a triathlon.  But it is the biggest in so many other ways.

The pull buoy has given you some bad body position.  It keeps your legs up for you which I understand why you had to use it.  But now without it, your legs sink hence the sinking feeling and it tiring you out.  To correct this stop using the buoy if your hip can take it.  You don't need to kick much or even hard.  Just a gentle flutter.  It is more about your head position and upper torso position.  Make sure your looking down or close to it.  Feel your upper torso "pressing down" to the bottom of the pool.  As your arm enters the water, go a little deeper then usual.  You should almost feel like your swimming downhill.

Some drills to help:  When your hip feels up to it put on some fins and do some side swimming.  Lay on your side, bottom arm extended & top arm laying on your body. Like superman taking off only on your side.  And in the water.  And without the red cape.  Just kick enough to move and concentrate on your balance. Keep your face in the water and turn only your head to breath.  Then practice the other side.  This also help with breathing on either side.  You can also do this and half way down the lane, add a stroke in and now your on the other side.  Then add two strokes......  I don't have a video for this one.