Hokies 1st Timer's Group - FULL (Page 21)

Hey Amanda,

You are doing great in the water.  You have done some impressive long swims recently.  I didn't bring up the subject to kick you in the butt about getting in the water.  Sometimes life simply gets in the way and there is not much you can do about it.  I only brought it up as a reminder to you (and everybody) about working on parts of your "game" where you think you have the most room for improvement.  If you work on those areas you will make huge strides - I think you might even surprise yourself.

One other note of interest that has served me well.....  Don't do anything overly ambitious tonight that will adversely effect your training tomorrow..

I think I was on drugs when I wrote that earlier.

The bike was tough tonight. I was tired. I'm looking forward to the swim tomorrow!

~Amanda

OK - Phase I of the "virtual tri" is complete.  Cristi and Amanda completed theirs.  Melissa automatically qualified by substituting with a HM race.  So its on to Phase II.  Somebody already guessed what the next phase is (i.e... completing the distance of your upcoming race over the course of a day - a day being 24 hours).  If you are interested start thinking about upcoming dates to do it.

Weekend is here again.  Yes...  Get out there and enjoy the start of spring!!

Nice breakthough swim earlier today Amanda!!

Melissa - Has the fatigue from you recent HM left your legs yet? 

Cristi - How are things going?

I"m fine...thanks for asking. I'm doing another one tomorrow, but looking forward to scaling back training for a bit after that. 

I'm having greater pool issues right now. Our Y membership has finally been terminated, so no more pool access.  I'm checking out my options this weekend. 

Amanda....glad the puppy got home safe and sound!

Melissa,

Another HM?  Wow.

Pool access - I don't know what you options are in Sarasota other than the Y.  I know the Y off 41 near Central Sarasota Parkway has a great outdoor 50 meter pool, an indoor pool and has  pretty decent cardio/weight equipment.  I think I mentioned earlier that I swim at Bath & Racquet.  Not the greatest pool but it's not crowded like the Y (i.e.. I swam this morning around 10:00AM and nobody was in the pool.).  I think we pay around $60/month for a family membership.  That includes access to all the facilities other than tennis.  Not the latest in gym equipment but they have everything I need. They also offer a lot of classes (ie... spinning, etc.). 

BTW: It won't be too long before the temperature of the Gulf will be good for swimming without a wetsuit.

Good luck with the upcoming race and search for a workout facility.

 I want to grumble a bit.....I really don't want to ride today.  It's cold out, spring time squalls means it could rain every 20 mins.  Just don't want to do it.  I brought my cycling gear inside.  I'm going to change clothes.  We'll see what happens after that.  Thank you.  

Hey Christi,

No grumbling around here    Just gotta HTFU (ha.. ha..)!!

Seriously, don't do anything that is not safe.  The bike will wait for ya!!

There wasn't anything unsafe about riding today, just that the kid in me didn't want to.  Happily, the adult won this time.  I bargained with myself to get on the bike doing whatever would make it appealing.

 Earlier in the week I drove along a rural highway with a bike path next to it and the length was about 5 miles.  I decided I'd drive there, ride the nice flat ride with my iPod and be done with it.  The path is from one small town to another small town and is in a very scenic area of farm lands and rolling hills, although the path is practically flat.  Had a nice 5 mile ride north, flying at about 19 mph.  Decided I should just add an extra mile so that my round trip would be 12 miles, which is my race distance.  No problem.  I thought the return trip would be easier because I thought I had a head wind going out.  I was completely wrong.  It was brutal ride back with a 10-15 mph wind.  I think I averaged 11 mph on the way back.  I could not believe how much the wind slowed me.  I worked to find even the smallest of wind breaks from trees or higher ground on one side or the other.  Wow, really glad to be done.  Nice ride, might do it in the opposite direction next time.

Hammies are tight now.  

Way to go Christi.  Done, overwith, and I bettya you are glad you did it.  Way to HTFU.

It's amazing how wind effects the bike.  Sure is nice when you have a tailwind, really sucks when it's a headwind.  This time of year where I live the wind will really pick after after the morning until evening.  Since there are no hills here I call the wind Florida hills.

Even without wind the more aerodynamic you on the bike are the faster you go.  I have aerobars on my bike and they make a huge difference.

Amanda,

Now I understand why you like trail running some much: 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/born-to-be-a-trail-runner/?smid=tw-nytimeswell&seid=auto

Melissa & Amanda,

You 2 are putting a "hurting" on me in the run department.  One goes 21 miles today and the other does her 2nd HM in 2 weeks.  Well done ladies.

Gang,

Just read this blog from Chris McCormick (last years Kona Ironman World Champ): 

http://www.chrismccormack.com/2011/03/02/the-perfect-training-mix/

His 8 points listed at the end of the article are great.  Worth a read if you have the time.

That's ok, Jeff...you've easily got me on the bike and swim 

How was your run, Amanda? Trail running is next on my list of things to try. Jeff, there are some a bit north of here around Alafia and Hillsborough River State Park. One coming up pretty quick is CROOM.

Christi...nice job getting out there on the bike. I'm a real wimp when it comes to wind on the bike. It's so frustrating to be going along at a great speed then turning around and feeling like you hit a wall.

I'm done with half marathons for now...at least until Oct when season starts again. I really need to work on my weekly mileage...been spotty this season with injuries and illness. My goal is 50 halfs before I turn 50!

Mel, the run was awesome but very hilly. My body feels good today, but I am tired from not getting much sleep the last week. I need to go to bed early tonight.

~Amanda

Does anybody have tips or drills for improving swimming on their non-dominant side? This morning I tried to alternate breathing on the right (dominant) and left (nondominant) every third stroke. But I am not able to easily breath to the left, and I feel like my form is horrible when I try to roll to the left. I also tried doing a length of only breathing on the left, and that was even worse.

~Amanda

Girls rule.

Nice job on yet another half marathon, Mel.

~Amanda

You all are amazingly awesome!  The your workouts keep me moving to stay on the board.  I hope someday it will be as easy as you make it seem.  

After riding the bike for 54 mins this weekend it finally hit me what this whole triathlon thing is about....endurance, and this race isn't going to be over in under an hour.  

The distances for my sprint events just seemed so reasonable, individually, that I didn't put it together in my head what doing all three events in a row would mean to me the participant.  I should'a had a V8 sooner!

One of the ways I work on being a bilateral breather is to practice a few laps where I do the following drill   (it is a Total Immersion drill): One hand always stays long, out in front of me (lets say "right" for ease of understanding here).  To breathe I roll onto my "R" side , the same side as the long arm.  I concentrate on keeping the R ear onto my R shoulder and only moving my head enough to have my mouth out of the water and take a breathe.  Then I roll to the left, touching the R hand with the L before stroking with the R.  When I'm on L side, I breathe as I did on the first side.  Does that make sense?  I think it helps to develop the habit at this slow speed, so that when I swim at regular speed it feels "normal".  This drill is probably at half to quarter of regular pace.

This week will be a challenge....LOTS of scheduling issues.  We'll see how it goes. 

Christi

Melissa,

One day I would like to try one of those events.  I figure since a number of them are called "Fat A**'s" I might just be a natural at it!!

It sucks doesn't it Amanda!!

I struggle with it as well (even to this day).  Like you I prefer (and race) breathing on my right.  I personally don't know any drills that help with this (I'll look around and see what I can find).  The best advise I can give you is to "breathe from you hips".  By that I mean... make sure you roll your hips when you take a breath on your "off" side.  I tend to not roll my hips as well on my off side which makes me lift my head when I take a breath on my off side.  Of course when you lift you head your feet, and arse go down which is not very aerodynamic in the water.  Just keep practicing it and you will get better.

They sure do. 

Thanks goodness when this mentor group started I posted that I wanted a few more ladies to join us.  You three (Amanda, Christi & Melissa) have stuck with this thing for almost 3 months now.  Keep it rolling for another 3 months and then it will become a habit.

Couple thoughts for you Christi:

1) Your progress has been amazing as well.  Your improving and that is what is important.  I see it in your training logs (particularly in the water).  Be patient and know that we all started exactly where you started.  The only difference between you and me is that I have been at it a few more years than you.  My 1st mentor told me that I had to serve a "multi-year" apprenticeship before I would get decent at the sport.  He didn't say.. multi-day or multi-week or multi-month.  That is why it is so important that you enjoy what your are doing.  Otherwise, it's not likely to last.

2) It's not always EASY even for me.  Sometimes it hurts (and I don't like pain).  That's why you see me spending most of my time working out in my Steady zone.  Joe Friel has a good saying...  "Make your easy days easy, and your hard day hard".  The good news for you is that if you keep after it what is hard today for you will be easy in the future.  I promise.

BTW: If anyone finishes a sprint distance tri (400 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run) in under an hour they are pretty darn FAST.

Amanda,

I did some quick looking around on youtube to see if I could find some biliteral breathing drills and didn't really find anything.  I think earlier in this thread I mentioned the following website:

http://badig.com

This person posts often on BT and is great athlete and I really like checking out his stroke analysis on different people in this section of the website:

http://badig.com/category/swimming/

Here are a couple examples:

http://badig.com/2010/01/breaking-down-sheris-stroke/

http://badig.com/2010/01/breaking-down-anas-stroke/

What is great about this is he highlights flaws in different peoples strokes and then suggests ways to eliminate those flaws.  I find this really helpful.  I often think about and practice what he details in these clips while swimming.

Thank you for those links Jeff! I will take a look at them early next week. My boyfriend got to town last night, so I won't really be online. He is a runner so we will be logging some trail miles, but I will have 0s in the swim and bike columns until he leaves.

Anyway, just didn't want you guys to think I disappeared!

~Amanda