Fred Doucette's Half-Iron and Ironman Focused Group! -CLOSED! (Page 20)

Most of my workouts start at 4:45-5:00 a.m. Earlier as IM training progesses. I have a 20 minute commute to work. Since my swims are shorter right now I'm able to get them before work. The pool doesn't open until 5:45. Which really throws off my schedule. To make it to work I have to be out of the pool no later than 6:45. Showered and ready to go to work no later than 7-7:05. Breakfast is eaten on the way to work. I pack my bags (gear, food, clothes) for the next day in the evenings. Cold food goes in a cooler. I'm lucky enough (teacher) to get off of work most days at 3:45. Before leaving work, I dress for the next workout. My afternoon workout start as soon as I get home or back to the pool. If I take any detours then it is normally harder to get going on the 2nd workout. When there are 3 workouts then I'll add the 3rd one in as scheduled time permits with the other workouts. The earliest that I trained before work last year was a 3:45.
Getting up early does get easier.

Edited by Catwoman 2011-01-06 11:02 AM

Morning all! (still morning on the West coast). Workouts have been going well thus far, though I have a slightly odd, very dull ache in my left glute.  Probably ought to spend some time on the foam roller tonight.  As far as getting in my workouts, I have a somewhat flexible schedule because I'm a grad student right now, but I prefer to get up early and knock things out as early as possible--at least that first workout of the day. I do the really long stuff on weekends. Previously, when I was IM training, I had a long day of work and I was up early, sometimes, like Rene, at 0345/0400.  Lately I've decided I definitely need to get in bed 15-30 minutes earlier, and I need to buy a new mattress.

I know some of y'all expressed interest in Infinit, SO be sure you click the "Annual Member Survey" link up top and give Ron and Marmadaddy some good feedback on BT--at the end you'll get a discount code for $20 off Infinit! That's a great deal and it helps BT!

Crap, I just ordered a new bag Tuesday, hope its good for another month!  I don't have much to post in here usually, but loving all the power talk and discussions you all are having.  Very good stuff for me to apply later in the year.

This user's post has been ignored.

Interim report based on today's swim:   I'm a duathlete that can avoid drowning for various distances.

haha x3.  I had my first swim in almost 2 months yesterday.  I got in and felt amazing for about 500 yards...100's were at my old T-pace without too much strain...then the wheel totally fell off.  In at the end of the 2000 yards my 100's were at least 15 seconds slower than I began and I could just feel my form completely falling apart but i couldn't to anything about it.

Ugh - no swimming for two months, and I'd be lucky to complete one length.  I've found that if I'm not in the water consistently then whatever I had is lost really fast.

I think I oversold myself.  Looking back at my logs just now to get an honest assessment - I swam 4x in Aug, 1x in Sept, 1x in Oct, 0x in Nov, 0x in Dec.  1x so far in Jan.  I really wish duathlons were as cool as triathlons

Edited by jsiegs 2011-01-06 3:30 PM

LOVE It! Me too!

Kathy G, good luck with running... very frustrating, I know. sounds like your new pt is good.

Fred, thanks for asking about California and I just wanted to share a cool story about me and California: my life was actually saved there (at UCSF medical center where I was born, where my dad was a mere 23 year old medical student) because I was born about 9 weeks premature (things were not like they are now) ... they were experimenting with CPAP at the time and despite giving me a 10% chance it worked.  They told my parents I would probably be deaf or worse...well fast forward almost 40 years and look, will be, fingers crossed!!, an ironman. Have to stop sometimes and be so so grateful for my health... and modern medicine.   
Kate

This user's post has been ignored.

This user's post has been ignored.

I'm in same boat. In past three seasons I have taken a month+ up to 2.5 months off swimming after my IM or A race, then worked on technique then started doing more normal swim training. It was not successful plan for me. Getting back in the water was always tough to get back to swimming.

2010 I did things differently, I upped my swim workouts to 4x a week, and after my IM I didn't take time off other than recovery and now I'm working on my swimming through finding freestyle program which does is doing variety of different style and types of swimming trying to have my body figure out what is best way/most efficient/fastest way to swim but besides doing different drills I do lots of fast swimming trying to see what works best for me.

Like Neil and Kathy, I lose form in the water very quickly when I take time off.  I'm just starting to swim again after ~4 months off due to a shoulder injury.  Although today was rough in terms of pace and endurance, I actually enjoyed being back in the water swimming again.  A nice change from the running and biking I've been doing.

Agreed!  I don't know what it is about duathlons, but they aren't nearly as appealing as triathlons to me.  Maybe it goes back to the good memories I associate with swimming from when I was a kid.

As a swimmer primarily, I can attest that losing form quickly is common after time off.  The biggest mistake most people make is trying to regain strength and speed at the cost of form, which also tends to lead to injuries.  Similar to running, a good approach after a break from the pool is to build back time and distance gradually, to avoid stress injuries in the joints and tendons.  Integrate form drills consistently in your pool workouts, and don't worry too much about the clock for the 1st month; plenty of time for that later.  Muscle memory will get you back up to speed anyway, so emphasizing proper form in the water early is a good way to get more efficient for later.  Case in point, my swim last night (1650 swim ladder) felt really sloppy and inefficient, even though I wasn't pushing too hard (trying to avoid warming up my bursitis), but the clock was kind to me in the end. It reinforced I need to do more form work.
Also, putting the form drills early in the workout allows reinforcement for the rest of the workout.  Example, if you do a DPS drill, do random stroke counts during your subsequent intervals, speed drills, even the warm down.  A good example of this is "swim golf", where your score combines your time with a low stroke  count; its easy to get one or the other number low, the trick is to get faster with that low stroke count.

That is one big boat - as I find myself in it as well. If I take as little a week off from swimming, it seems it goes away so, so fast. An occasional week away from cycling or running often feels just the opposite. Since working with a coach, I have actually slowly reduced the number of swims per week, but increased volume. I am now swimming approximately 2 times per week, anywhere between 3500 yards on the low end and 4500 yards on the high end. I say approximately, because we are also experimenting with different workout sequences and patterns - I have enough flexibility in my schedule that I don't have to stick to a 7 day rotation - right now we are trying out a nine day pattern (yet one more thing that seems obvious, but I never considered). Like Fred stated - for the most part I actually look forward to my swims - in the past three months, I have not swam the same set twice - we have mixed it up a lot more than I would have ever on my own. Left to my own devices, I would always swim the same sets over and over again, and subsequently find myself simply playing the game of "beat the clock." It really makes the hour-and-a-half or so go really quickly.

My coach's personal area of expertise is swimming, and since I have never actually had a lesson in my life, I kept making excuses so as to avoid a one-on-one session in the pool with him. I ran out of excuses last week. We spent about one-and-a-half hours in the pool together, and I got depressingly bad news. It seems that my stroke, form, and position are actually pretty good and efficient, with only very minor asymmetry problems. Why is this bad news? Well, because I was HOPING that with a couple of simple mechanical fixes (hand entry, body position, breathing pattern) I could pick up at least 10~15 seconds per 100. Unfortunately, it seems my issue is with strength and endurance.

Rats - I was hoping for a silver bullet, but this is actually gonna take some work...

For me it is really simple:
I HATE HATE HATE biking off the run!

General question for the group:
I have been keeping workout logs for just about as long as have been doing this tri thing. I have 9 years of info in paper logs, and going on an additional 10 years in digital. For the past three months I have also begun using TrainingPeaks to communicate with my coach. When Fred started this group, he asked that if we kept logs here - we make them public to the group. I am VERY happy to do that.

1) Does the group find this useful or interesting?
2) Right now I am manually uploading swims to both my current logs - will do so here if there is an interest.
3) Upload to BT of run info from the Garmin 310xt seems pretty straight forward.
4) Uploads to BT of Garmin .fit files from either my 500 or 800 currently seem to be a no-go. Anybody else use these devices and have a good work-around?

If the answer to #1 is "yes," then anybody got a good answer to #4?

Swimming is my weakest discipline too, but i have actuallt started to like it. I am currently following the swim workouts from be iron fit. Right now it has me swimming 2 times pr. week, and I think it is a little on the low side.
Before I started the program I saw the biggest gain in swimming last year when I upped it to 3 times pr week.
Last night I had a straight 2500m swim, I made that in 46 min. Thats 1:50/100. My plan is to be able to do the IM swin in under 75 min.

Does anyone have an opinion on how pool times relate to openwater wetsuit swims?

1. Yes very interesting....plus if you stop using your current coach your Training Peaks account and data will go away. Using BT is free and you can always look back at it. I have data here since 2005 and much easier to do some analysis than paper or many other systems I tried.

2. More details you put in your BT log more helpful they will be over time. I find I wish I had more details not less when I look back at my older blogs. I have a range in speed I have in pool...looking back I can see what I my workouts were like (frequency and actual workouts) was doing when I was swimming faster.

4. I have a Garmin 500 and it doesn't up load..I just copy/type  important power data into my blog.

This user's post has been ignored.

Fred - wish I had your speed for my weakest discipline.  I recently spent 3 months taking semi-private lessons once a week, and swam on average an additional 2-3 times per week, making it my biggest swim block ever.  In the end it netted me no speed improvements, and I've admittedly come away a bit disillusioned about improving my swim times.  Like Rusty, my stroke seems to be pretty good, so that quick fix just isn't going to be there.  I only swam a couple of times in the past 3 weeks with Xmas holidays and lunches, tec. cutting into training time, and now find that I feel like I'm swimming through mud again.  I'm sure a more time in the pool will help, and I've been considering using the program Kathy is on at the moment.  (/Rant)

At least with this group I know I'm in good company - almost everyone feels the same way!  I've also considered duathlons in the past, but Tri's are just more appealing, and I'd feel like it's a bit of a cop out if I didn't keep at it.

 
lol!  That’s great wiky!
 
I have a friend that shares the same type of swimming skills yet he will smoke a tri.  
 

To All,

You have a great Mentor group going on!?

????I would be honored if you would allow me to ?s?h?a?r?e? ??(p?o?s?t?????) my bio.  I’m not much of forum poster but I can inspire and share.