Wurkit_Gurl's Group - CLOSED (sssh...we're training) (Page 22)

Yikes that's a lot of wine! Saturday night I had a beer, Sunday night I had a large cup of sangria (like one of those 16 oz plastic cups) and 2 beers and last night I had 2 beers. That's A LOT of alcohol for me - basically my month's normal allotment! I'm not a big drinker anymore because it makes me feel so gross.

No need to apologize for getting away - I would LOVE to get away for a long weekend!

Morning all - everyone recovered from Memorial Day? I finally came out of my meat coma sometime last night at swim practice - I pushed, and pushed hard last night, swimming with 2 guys, one of whom was tall and could basically lap me within like 5 strokes, so I think that helped burn it off - I also attribute it to a PR of 1:29 for a 100 (yards) last night! Granted that was only one 100, but still. So perhaps meat-loading should be the new trend - screw carb-loading

But in all seriousness - I think swimming with people regularly and forcing myself to go into a slightly faster lane has really helped me a lot. Sure you can take advantage of drafting when you swim with people, which allows you to "cheat", but I can now hold those faster paces without drafting (and I wasn't drafting when I hit the 1:29 last night - the guy in front of me was half a lane ahead). Now it's to the point where I'm often one of the faster people in our lane, when I used to be one of the slowest. I only swim 2x a week, because I can't make our Sunday night practice since it conflicts with church. For most, I'd advise swimming 3x a week, and I really SHOULD be swimming 3x a week (I have in the past), but at the sprint level, I place high up anyway. Though in prep for my Oly in Sept, I should get in that 3rd swim. I can comfortably complete 1500 meters in a row, but I would like to work on getting my time down.

Like form-specific drills? I don't really do a ton of those, since I'm in one of the faster lanes. We don't use pull buoys or paddles unless the coaches tell us that we need to. Some of the fastest folks will occasionally swim with paddles, but the pool toys are more often relegated to the newest swimmers who need the most technique help. Though our coach is fond of making people swim with a kickboard between their legs to alleviate the "scissoring" that a lot of people do with their kick. Sometimes one of the coaches will remind me to do x,y,z but for the most part, our regular workouts just have sets of stuff with specific purposes, like descending sets, or swimming at certain rates of perceived exertion. Sometimes we do weak-side breathing, kick drills, other strokes besides free, swim golf (also known as DPS - distance per stroke, or counting your strokes) and tarzan swimming. Usually these drills are only for certain sets and only parts of certain sets - like 4 x 100, 25 free, 25 kick, 25 tarzan, 25 free (just making that up, but you get the idea).

Let the knee heal before you think about 10:00/miles

I know that people will tell you to "ride with people who are better than you". But I think there are some caveats to be had there. It really should be "ride/run/swim with people who will push you but aren't so beyond your ability that you get dropped/lapped in 5 minutes". That doesn't do anyone any good. You either run the risk of hurting yourself (or on the bike, hurting others if you're not experienced, esp. with pack riding), or getting really frustrated because you're just  not at that level yet. The lane I put myself in when I started swimming with the tri team was JUST a little bit beyond my ability, so I wasn't getting pummelled by them, but I had to work a little harder to stay on. I was a decent swimmer when I started, so training alone wasn't a bad thing. But with cycling, I didn't know anyone who was better than me but not insanely better, if that makes sense.

I know that people will tell you to "ride with people who are better than you". But I think there are some caveats to be had there. It really should be "ride/run/swim with people who will push you but aren't so beyond your ability that you get dropped/lapped in 5 minutes". That doesn't do anyone any good. You either run the risk of hurting yourself (or on the bike, hurting others if you're not experienced, esp. with pack riding), or getting really frustrated because you're just  not at that level yet. The lane I put myself in when I started swimming with the tri team was JUST a little bit beyond my ability, so I wasn't getting pummelled by them, but I had to work a little harder to stay on. I was a decent swimmer when I started, so training alone wasn't a bad thing. But with cycling, I didn't know anyone who was better than me but not insanely better, if that makes sense.

Eh, maybe, maybe not. Running is kind of funny like that. I got faster simply by running consistently and training for specific events. If you didn't start out as a runner, or took a long hiatus, then building strength by running more helps. But I think it also depends on the person. With running anyway, I have enough self-motivation to get out there and push myself. Having someone to coach me now helps too, though - we tweaked some form stuff which will help me vastly improve in the long run (no pun intended).

How long had you been running befor eyour injury? (I apologize if I asked this once before, but I can't remember).

Eh, some people are fast, some people get fast, some people are never fast. It all depends in timing and the genetic grab-bag God gave us. I figure if you're out there doing it, that's enough

Well, you are comfortable with breaststroke right? It wouldn't necessarily hurt you to breaststroke the whole thing, but you'll just be in there longer. You've got another week or two for the lake to warm up, right? I would honestly tell the average person to HTFU, stick your face in the water and get used to it. Except that for you, it causes you legit breathing problems. Or rather, you have legit breathing problems that could be made worse by the inital "breathlessness" that the cold water can cause. I say, keep practicing in the pool and when you get to the race site - if you get there the day before, try to get in and practice again. The morning of the race,  get your stuff situated early so you can get into the water well before your wave goes off, to try to acclimate, get your face in the water, etc. You can get out before your wave starts, if you're not the first wave. But try not to have too much lag time between your initial "warm up" and when you finally enter for your wave. Otherwise, just take it slow, try to RELAX and breathe easily, which I know is easier said than done. But really, that's all you can really do.

kmbhoya2000 - 2009-05-27 3:52 PM Thanks!!  I'm sorry, you probably feel like you are on repeat to me, but I guess I am getting first-timer jitters!!!  I had a dr's appt yesterday, and she basically said the same, just get in, warm up & see how it goes...

Okay, I have seen it several times and can get the jist, but what is HTFU (or i may have gotten letters wrong )??

Oh, it's okay - that's what I'm here for

HTFU means "Harden The F Up"   It comes from this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y 

So if you didn't have breathing issues, I'd tell you to HTFU and put your face in the dang water With something like that, you just have to do it and get it over with.

Nope, vein. You're right Not only do I expound on triathlon knowledge for you all, I am also a master speller

Morning, folks. I might be a bit MIA today with inspires and posting in here. Have a stupid project at work that of course they've known about forever, but haven't bothered to give me any of the parts yet, and of course want it done today. Morons. Unfortunately, the people in charge are women. Women are never respectful to other women in offices, esp. women who are in positions well below themselves. I'm just the office manager, so these women are nothing but condescending to me - since they're not super-high up, they have to get their power trip in somewhere.

Ugh.

kmbhoya2000 - 2009-05-29 7:58 AM Hello!!  Chrissy I hope you got through your project sorry about the sucky ladies' power trip  

FOr my swim yesterday, I did a 100 warm-up, then 2 sets of 400 (I am super slow, the first set was 13 min, 2nd 11)  The second was completely freestyle, the first had 2 laps of breastroke thrown in....   then a 100 cool-down.

We are headed to Roanoke this morning for a wedding tomorrow; we are staying with friends on a lake, so I will get an OWS in!  Back Sunday for the week before the race.  Next week is INSANE!!!  I am supposed to help out at my old high school for registration Mon night right after work, then Tues was supposed to go to a Tastefully Sipmle/Bunko party, then Thurs was supposed to go to Beatles tribute concert, then to the lake Fri to get settled before race on Sunday..  And don't forget that the Belmont is on Saturday!!!

So, I have a feeling I'm going to have to cut some of that out of the week, because otherwise, I am going to go crazy!!!  And, I have to get time in with the boys most importantly!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Morning all - gonna have to do another mass-inspire via this thread because our interwebz at work is INSANELY slow today for some reason, so trying to get to everyone's page will take all damn morning.

Kathleen, great job getting through those 400s with mostly freestyle! Hope you have better luck with OWS this weekend - maybe the water will be a little bit warmer Don't wear yourself out too much with running around and such before the race!

I have a lot of stuff to do before Sunday - and Sunday I have a friend who is coming into town who wants to hang out, so I have to run home after the race to shower and change, then hang out with her and then bail on her a little early so I can make it to worship team practice before church that night...arg. I don't see this girl very often so I'd feel bad saying "no" to hanging out. Ugh.

Hope everyone is doing well - have a great weekend!!! I'll try to get to people's logs later if the internet cooperates.

SteveyD - 2009-05-29 1:42 PM afternoon all
I just went for a run for possibly the first time (properly outdoors not on a dreadmill)
Managed a grand 0.91 miles (according to the routes thing) Got some strange looks by people but meh.
One thing though, as i was getting towards the end, i got a bit of a pain above my hip on the left side, at the back. Anyone got any ideas what causes this?

Could be your piriformis muscle - also possibly IT Band related, since the IT Band connects back there and sometimes the pain manifests in the hip, not the outside of the knee. Both can be stretched - look up IT Band and piriformis stretches online and any of the ones you find will be good. For piriformis, I like the pigeon pose from yoga, as well as the one where you lay on your back, cross the hurting leg in front of you and bring your other knee to the ankle of the crossed leg. Then you use your other leg to push the crossed leg towards you.

IT band stretches are harder, but you'll know if you're getting it, cuz you'll feel it.

Also, if you only went for a mile, try slowing down a bit. You could have just pushed too much.

Hi Mentees. I feel like a VERY bad mentor today because I DNS'd my race yesterday because of rain (see my blog). Hopefully everyone had good weekends. I will tally up the pink squares from May's challenge and post the results in a bit, so stay tuned for that as well as the new challenge for the month of June!