Destination MoP Group is FULL (of motivated life jugglers) (Page 21)

That's awesome!  Congrats on getting to the end of the match, and congrats on the win.  I'm constantly amazed by the amount that you do...

Hi Gang,

The run this morning went very well.  Really nice course through old neighborhoods in SW Florida... some majestic old oak trees, etc.  Broke 1:55 for the HM which is better than I expected (not a PB).  All my miles were under 9 min and came in 9th in my age group out of 39 - almost not MOP... lol!  Pretty sore tonight though.  Can feel my hamstring again.  But the HM is now starting to feel like something I can do spur of the moment, which is really cool.  It isn't the daunting distance anymore... still have to respect it, but my training now has me prepared for that distance.  First step on the way to the Mary.  Somehow by this Fall, I have to feel like 15 miles is a piece of cake.  Hmmmm.

I was thinking about another mind game for Anne when she runs her HM next month.  Get in your mind that mile marker 8 is the halfway mark.  It certainly is mentally :-)  Those last 4-5 miles were challenging.  But probably not as bad as the last hour of tennis, eh Joanne... where were you playing, Wimbledon?  5 sets?  16-14 in the 5th?  :-)  Way to tough it out animal!

Heidi - great to see you running consistently again.  That's got to feel good.  Nice and steady.  I liked your positive view statements.  I have a weird outlook.  I presume that things won't go as planned, and then I'm usually happy with the outcome, especially if they happen to.  Plans are nothing, planning is everything.  I think Eisenhower said that.  Meaning things rarely go according to plan, but a good planning process allows you to be prepared for various outcomes.

My other marathon today was 12 hours of talking with my Mom.  Swimming tips will have to wait for another day or two.

Tomorrow, back on the bike.  All these flat roads are calling me!

Stu

Hi all, after my last "optimistic" post I had to shut things down again because of continued ankle pain. I tried to run a gain this morning with a SLOW 2 mile "run". No pain. I'll see how it is in the morning. Reading about everyones training and races is making me jealous. Weight is headed in the right direction. I'm really ramping up my protein intake and trying to reduce carbs. Easier said than done for a vegetarian. My blender is working overtime preparing protein shakes.

Phil

Welcome back!

I just made some protein bars this weekend. They were delicious- and easy to make. It's a nice change from the protein shakes.

Hey- that's great news! congrats. How are you feeling now?

Ya'll should check out Cynthia's weekend workouts.  Nice mix of disciplines and I love it when people jog or bike to the pool. 

Phil - great to see your smiling face back on the boards.  We've missed you.  Hope the ankle was still feeling okay in the morning.  Great to hear the weight is going in the right direction again.  Frankly, I can't imagine going protein-based as a vegetarian.  I think I would just eat alot of fresh fruit and vegetables and try to lay off the pasta and breads (which I would be overly dependent on if I were a vegetarian).  I'd love to see your typical menu for a day!

I'm headed out on another bike ride this morning, maybe followed by a recovery run.  Biking with my Mom's neighbor who said he'd be up for a 15 mile ride today.  My legs and back are still pretty sore, but I want to take advantage of the good weather down here and the ideal biking environment before heading back home in a couple of days.  I should really find a way to get in an OWS in the Gulf, but I need to keep my focus on the bike and run (and my Mom).

What's on tap for everyone else?

Glad the ankle is feeling better. You're smart to let it heal completely.  I drink at least one protein shake a  week and I'm sick of them, so do you any  secret ingredients to make them interesting?

I'm in countdown to my first tri! It's on Saturday morning and I'm very excited. I feel pretty good, although I definately have some sore issues with a stubborn achilles tendon and now a weird high ankle pain on the other leg, so I'm taking it pretty easy this week. Tennis match last night (I won!), short swim today, a few hours of tennis tonight, TRX workout tomorrow and then nothing Thursday and Friday. Bummer news is a big storm is heading this way at the end of the week. If it's pouring rain and/or thunderstorms do event organizer postpone or delay? If not, should I just plan on biking in a rain coat/wind breaker?

Ankle good this morning. First time in 6 weeks it's felt "normal" after exercise. I'm going to hit the bike this afternoon and I hope to get back into a normal routine again.

Regards vegetarian life style and protein. For example, breakfast that was normally some oatmeal, fruit and an egg, I'm doing the protein shake. It ups my protein 40 grams and controls my helps apetite.

Tips on making shakes more tolerable? Protein powder, milk, and frozen strawberries is the best I can offer. : )

Well, here is to another pain free day. Knock on wood.

Phil

My favorite protein shake: Banilla yogurt, chocolate whey protein, peanut butter, a banana and some ice cubes.

My kids love it too. 

I'm glad to see everyone around here again.

Here's a silly milestone for you.  I did butterfly today.  I've mixed in some one armed fly here and there, but today I decided to to some 150's and decided to start 2 of them with fly, bk, br then finish off freestyle.  It was not fast or as smooth as it could have been, but it was nice to be able to do without that much effort.

Not silly at all!  Anyone who can do butterfly has my most sincere admiration!  (however, I wouldn't advocate using it in a triathlon!!!)

At long last, here are a few thoughts on how to improve your swimming.  Again, these represent a combination of articles I've read as well as my own experience.  Personally, I love swimming.  With the exception of drying out my skin, I feel much better after a tough swimming workout than after running or biking.  It's a great workout and there's no impact.  If I had to choose one of the sports to do for overall health, it would be swimming. As I did with the run and will do with biking, I've divided comments into technique, training and specific triathlon tips.  Note that the technique portion is dedicated to freestyle stroke, which is by far the most efficient / fastest stroke once learned, so that is good to work toward.  That being said, nothing wrong with working on other strokes for overall fitness and muscle strength (watch the whip kick in the breaststroke if you have weak knees though).

Technique

Maybe the first place to start with technique is to see visually what your stroke should look like.  To see a good animation, click here.  Notice a few things, such as the position of the head in the water, depth of the feet (just breaking the surface of the water), breathing every 3rd stroke (alternating sides), elbow height during the stroke recovery, the rotation of the body during extension, how the palms are perpendicular to the surface of the water (during the pull), and the length of the pull.  What you can't see visually, is also how important it is to stay relaxed when you swim.  The difference between being relaxed and tense is a huge amount of energy, and the difference between coming out of the water thoroughly exhausted vs. feeling ready to jump on the bike. 

I think you should spend some time during every swim workout focusing specifically on technique, preferably near the beginning of the workout and again near the end.  Personally, if I try to think about too many things at the same time, but I can handle one or two things.  So, one time I may really focus on getting full extension on the pull and rotating my body, another time, I'll make sure my feet are working right.  If I've had my coffee, I'll even try two of them at the same time :-)  Now don't forget technique during the rest of your workout, but do make sure to set aside some time just on technique.  During my technique work, my "performance" is based on efficiency (measured by how many strokes it takes to go across the pool) and feel (do I feel like I'm gliding well, am I relaxed?), not by what the clock says.

If you're new to swimming, it is *so* worthwhile to join a master's group or find a group with a coach.  As is the case with anything, learning the right way to swim at first allows you to practice good habits and techniques rather than bad ones.

Two last things on technique.  One is exhaling during your stroke.  Exhaling your breath throughout your stroke is clearing out your CO2 in the lungs (it is actually the CO2 in the lungs, not the lack of oxygen that causes you to tense up and feel the need to gasp for air).  Most people who start out swimming exhale and inhale during the breath, which means there's 2x as much going on during that breath than there needs to be.  So two good reasons to exhale during the stroke.

The second thought on technique is the idea of "connection", which is related to the core body rotation at the start of the pull ("the catch").  Here's a great article on that, right here in BT!

Training

One thing you may have noticed in swim workouts if you have a triathlon training plan is that there is alot more short / interval / sprint work.  That's because your body can handle hard sprinting workouts better than in running, with much less recovery time.  While you might do 10-20% of interval work for running, swimming is almost the opposite, where 75% or so of your training might be interval/sprint work.  So, if you're swimming 3x / week (wouldn't that be nice!), generally the majority of two of those workouts will be primarily short / speed work (25s, 50s, 100s or 200s).  The general rule of thumb or the workouts is to take as much rest between the sprint as you need to be able to maintain the same goal time.  For example, if you're doing a set o 6x50s, and your goal time is 45 seconds, you'll want to take the same amount of rest between each 50 that allows you to maintain the 45 second pace.  (It might be 50s on 1:00 for example, leaving 15 seconds of rest).  I personally try to do some 50s, 100s and 200s each week, but my focus is the 200s, mainly b/c my A race is a HIM.  If your A race is a Sprint, I'd probably focus on 50s.  A great way to think about the sprint workout is to break up your distance into the segments.  For instance, if you're doing a pool sprint do 6x50 = 300 yards.  If you're doing a 600 yard sprint, do 12x50 or 6x100.  If you're doing a 1600 yard OLY, try doing a set of 8 x 200s or 5 x 200 + 6 x 100.  That way, you're doing your goal distance in length, but with a faster pace than you'll actually do the race and this will, over time, improve your speed.  Anyway, I'd try to do one of those sets once / week.

The other workout I'd try to do once every two weeks or so is to swim your race distance straight as you plan to do it in a race.  That frankly is probably not the best workout for improving your speed, but I personally think it is important that your brain (and body) know what it feels like to swim the distance of your race. 

Using pull buoys, kick boards, fins, etc. is all good if you have access to them.  Honestly, I don't use them, but I think they are all helpful to isolate particular aspects of your workout.  I'd mix them in whenever you'd like!  (also helps to break things up a bit).

Triathlon Tips

Open water swimming (OWS), wave starts, drafting, sighting, and wetsuits are the big differences between "regular" indoor swimming and triathlons, all of which deserve a fair amount of attention and is one reason why I encourage everyone's first triathlon to be a pool swim triathlon (unless you're an experienced open water swimmer).  There's enough new things to worry about without adding those 5 additional dimensions into the equation, plus those skills/experiences are often harder to train.  That being said, I think the OWS is one of the coolest parts of a triathlon - literally as well as figuratively :-)

For a pool swim triathlon, there will be also be more spacing during the bike portion of the race b/c of the staggered start (it also may be that your start time is delayed by an hour or more as they typically space people 10-15 seconds apart in a pool start).  Again, if you're new to triathlons, this can make the biking part of the race a little less complicated as well.

Watch the start - there's a tendency to go out very fast and overdo it, leading to rapid fatigue or potentially, in an OWS, a little panic.  Stay nice and relaxed throughout.

Okay, hope that helps.  I'm waiting for my Mom to come out of a procedure right now, so I might think of a few edits later :-)  Y'all have a great day!

Stu

We're excited for you too!  Can't wait to hear about your experience.  Looks like the weather forecast has improved - yay!  I've been surprised at the conditions where races still are a go.  I've been in downpours and high winds (nothing worse on a bike).  I sure hope they call it or at least delay it in case of lightning.  Not sure what would happen if it started in the middle of a race... not like they can start waving the yellow flag :-)  Probably the race director's call, ultimately.  Hope the weather is great for you and that the little aches and pains will be gone by the start time - staying off your feet as much as possible the day before should help some!

Heidi and Phil, wasn't one the fellows from last year's mentor group in a race where the rescue boat capsized because of the high winds?  Unbelievable.

Stu

Good luck in your tri today, Joanne! Look forward to reading your race report!

Speaking of race reports, I'd encourage everyone to use the race log button at the top to write up a summary of their experience in triathlon races after the race.  They are great to reference the following year, and, if you make them public, other BTers can read them and learn from your experiences!  Plus, we can log on and make all kinds of oooh and ahhhh comments :-)

Have a great day everyone.  I've got two Irish Band gigs today ('tis that time of year) and am hoping to squeeze a run / swim in between.  Still feeling a little weak this morning from the crazy drive on Thurs, not enough sleep, and too much coffee and junkish food.  Glad to be home, but sure enjoyed getting in a bunch of biking in Florida.

Stu

Hi Stu and the gang,

Thanks for the encouragement this morning! There was a chill in the air when I was packing the car (34) but by the time I set up my bike etc. and made my way to the pool it was warming up nicely. I was a little anxious, especially walking to the pool in bare feet and "ouching" all the way and wondering how in the heck I was going to get from the pool, drenched, to the transition area, without hurting my feet. It was a timed start and I was #417 out of 740 so my start time was 10:01 and there were 15 secs between each person. I am used to nice calm water when I swim laps so it wasn't anything like that, but the 300 yds went by really fast and I did my best to stay calm and relaxed. It was a long .25 mi run from the pool to the TA and when I got to my bike I decided against socks. The bike ride was really nice, pretty well marked, and not much passing since we had the staggered start. I didn't push it too much because I wanted to be ready for the run, but after I downloaded my garmin it turned out it was avg 16 mph which is what I've been doing so I was right on track. The run was good, did it in a total of 27 mins to finish the race at 1:12, 7th place in my age group (out of 17) and no injuries or even tiredness so I'm thinking I could have pushed myself faster in both the pool and bike, but I had no idea what I was doing. My point was to have fun, which I did, and not get hurt, which I didn't, so it was a great morning. If I could afford to do another one this month I would sign up right now!

Cheers to you all.

Joanne

Gotta love Saturdays...had a good ride from my house out to a sodium filled lake and then to the base for my swim, 35 miler.  Swim was shorter than intended and I had planned on riding home but by 6:00 pm, when the pool closes, the winds had really started blowing; called one of the kids to pick me up.  My bad though, got a late start bc I had too much fun Friday night with said kid...went to see Saving Abel; remind me of my youth going to the Whiskey and the Roxy...it was a lot of fun and I needed that! 

@JoAnn, having fun and staying injury free is the greatest race goal!  Congrats!

Joanne - congrats on completing your first tri!  Sounds like you did some great times too.  Now that just gives you something to build on ;-)

Today I did my first brick session of the year.  Went out on the road bikes with some people from the tri club.  Did a very hilly 23 miles (not that there's much choice about the hills round here, but this particular group seem to aim for them!), and then got home, shoved the trainers on and went for a 2 mile run.  The first half mile my legs felt like jelly and I was having to concentrate really hard on keeping some stability in my running, but by the 2nd mile I felt much better and was starting to get back into my normal stride.  So I did the first mile in 10m1s and the second mile in 9m31s, which is pretty good pace for me.  Really pleased that I managed that.

Now I'm going to sit on the sofa and do as little as possible for the rest of the day ;-)