ASPHALT JUNKIES Summer Bronzing Crew - CLOSED (Page 21)

Would you like me to share some of my favorite workouts as a stay at home parent? Let's see, there was the time I ran laps literally around the house while my daughter was napping because the treadmill always woke her up. I figured if I can manage on the treadmill and not die of boredom then I can handle a few miles of laps outside. Got some weird looks from the neighbor for that .  Seriously though, enjoy the rest and recovery!

Thanks for checking in. I didn't realize you were having so many complications! Permanently double vision?! That makes your race even more of an accomplishment. Can't wait to hear how your first tri goes.

I used to work on my kick every workout but I've quit doing it for the past year or so.  I think it is a good thing to work to help develop power from your legs.  Granted, you get little propulsion from your legs but you can get something and everything counts when racing.

I suggest working some fins into a training regimen to help conquer this.  I would kick 200-300 yards a workout and really try to keep the kick sets at a high effort level.  Remember to kick from the hips, don't kick from the knees.  You have more power when using your legs like a long whip rather than a short kick from the knees.  Also don't try to open your kick a lot.  The kick can be pretty powerful even when appearing like small, subtle movements.  Your feet also don't need to clear the water and make splashes.  My feet almost never break the waters' surface.

I'm glad to see you back in front of a computer for a few minutes and being able to take some time to post an update.

I can't imagine the double vision lasting long.  Is there nothing the doc thinks can be done to correct the problem?  I know there are risks with that type of surgery but hopefully there will be options.

The double vision will certainly provide more struggles for racing this weekend but I have confidence you'll do fine.  It sounds like you've been getting some good running in too.  Knocking 11 minutes of a 10k is killer!  I have only run a couple of standalone 10k races and really don't know what my time would even be if I were to race one soon.

Make sure we see something from the race this weekend too.  We need to see how things are going.

Congrats on 10 years!!  It's great to see you and Ryan have a strong commitment to each other and your children.

Have fun in Barbados but know that I, for one, am insanely jealous.  In the next couple of years I hope Lis and I can take a trip similar to that.  So many years of tuition to parochial school has kept us from venturing that far.

This is somewhat my point.  I wouldn't expect substantial speed gains at all.  However, stronger legs make for a better swim to bike and run transition because of better efficiency.  Working on a strong kick will develop better muscle response, balance and give stronger kick with the same effort used with a weak kick, thereby giving a slightly faster swim leg, albeit only a few seconds.  When I stopped working my kick I as in marathon training in 2011 (I had to think about when I quit) and my legs were fatigued much of the time, either from running or cycling.  I simply didn't want to keep drawing more fatigue into an already fatigued muscle.  I had begun to do some kicking a couple of months ago and just quit because I was making excuses for not doing them anymore.

I looked at the calendar view of each of these plans and they appear, on the surface, to be identical.  The differences being that you would choose to follow (and test) RPE or HR.  I personally would recommend the HR plan because I think it will be a little better focused.  However, RPE is really important, as Jeff outlined in a much earlier post.  HR is a great tool and can really help you figure out to a much closer level some really good training zones.  You can quickly see that you have been training to easily or to hard after completing the testing required to accurately determine HR zones. 

Now, I don't think you need to purchase the plan at $35 a month to complete it unless you don't want to spend the time doing some of your own research.  There are plenty of avenues to complete the research required.  You can post question in the main forum, here in the group and always google.  I believe you can get a lot of info on the Ironman website as well.  To be honest, I simply apply the things fro Oly distance races and increase the volume/intensity by a percentage.  (I also have been done to over train fro various distances by increasing my volume to allow for better periodization.)

My personal recommendation is HR.  How you get the information is entirely up to you.

One thing about the beginner plans is that I think they are run light, while the bike seems to be much closer to what I would like to see.  I am sure they are trying to set the run up a little better by having a slightly higher cycling volume but really, the volume for the 2 aren't far apart.

My suggestion would be to hold the higher volume that you have been doing currently, at the start of the plan and allow the plan to catch up to you.  In so doing you'll get a much better benefit of the higher volume/endurance training than by allowing a bit of a setback to shorter training times.

Interesting discussion about the swim kick! When I started out in swim for fitness class several years ago we would do kick sets. There was a young guy who swam about the same speed as I did and we would always race each other or try to one up each other but when it came to kick sets he could not keep up with me. When we did pull sets with the bouy I could not keep up with him. I always thought if we could take my kick and his pull we'd have a great stroke .

Now I don't do kick sets much anymore but mostly because it bothers my back. And they are really boring.......

Took my hybrid out for another ride last night and I actually had a lot of fun! I road a little bit of the trail on it at the state park and enjoyed feeling like I could just go wherever I wanted. I really need to get something done with the pedals though - these platforms really stink. And only one brake works and that one does not actually stop me, just slows me down . Should I put my speed play pedals from my road bike on the hybrid?

We got the call about the chihuahua and brought him home Tuesday! The kids are so happy. My son keeps walking around saying "I can't believe I'm walking a chihuahua. Is this a dream?" He is a good boy and seems like he was well taken care of. He hopped right onto the new couch and has been sleeping in our bed like he has lived here for 10 years! BUT, this morning I caught him peeing in my daughters room so we will have to watch that.

Jonathan -

Glad to see posting and hope the docs can get to hte bottom of what is going on. Congrats on shaving of 11 minutes, that's big number and for me it's like an entire mile!

HHmmmm a podium spot in Sprints.... not really. I thank both of you for your thoughts. I did notice  something when working on my kick.... I noticed when I followed these laps up with a 500 yard freestyle, I did feel a little faster, like kicking was a little easier. I know I need to work on getting my kick smaller, I've noticed some of the awesome swimmers in the pool have a small kick.

For the time being, I am going to try and tie in a little kick work in, since my races are still sprint, and my first Oly will be in August. My first HIM will be in April.