Fast Twitch Tri-FULL (Page 22)

GANG -

Back after a full day of being away, and then I have to wake at 4:30 to leave for Syracuse for the day, and maybe evening/night as well.  So I'll just be brief with two responses for now, and see you all no later than Monday morning.  Have good tomorrows, all!

SHANA -

My 2 cents is that the Tempo Trainer is a good investment.  If nothing else, it will force you to speed up your arm turnover (or, slow it down), and best of all is that it's all under your control.  The ticking of it under your swim cap may be weird initially, but before long it's just almost "white noise" -- but white noise that you need to follow!

It can be very good for people like you, who have one easy-going speed, and can't seem to break out of that patterned stroke-rate.   Idf you get one, the simplest use of it is to establish the number on the T.T. that corresponds to your regualr stroke, and then that's the baseline off which you can incrementally increase (in your case) the tempo.

One caution is to not get discouraged by feeling that you can't "keep up" with the increased tempo.  The best approach is to take it 25m at a time at the new rate, with a decent rest interval before you go down another 25m.  After a few of these, or possibly a few days at the new pace, then extend it to 50m, or whatever distance you can hold the new pace at.

It's also okay to hjust play with it the first time out.  Get your baseline --- and then mayeb even increase it quite a abit and feel how wild that isn't.  Just goof around with it, getting a sense of what opportunities it can maybe provide you.

Finally, what your bf told you is both good and bad.  I too have been told lots that I swim "beautifullly", or "effortlessly", which I think equates with the "warming up" comment your received.  but for both of us it's the same result -- pretty stroke, but slower than we want.  It shows that some aspects of our form and execution are admirable.......but in terms of performance, it's not what we're after.  Hopefully, though, if you get a tempo trainer it will help you develop a different swim cadence that will improve your performance in races!!

I love this advice, and it makes me want to get a TT. Forcing those of us who have a steady stroke out of our comfort zones sounds like a great idea. I hate how I feel and feel how I "look" when trying to swim with an increased stroke length...which means I probably need to address it and try it more...much like cadence on the bike. Thanks for the advice Steve. Good stuff. Q

I saw his comment too, and saw myself in his frustration. Reaching over and polishing off the last fish crackers or bit of a hot dog is embarrassing and undisciplined and it is my life. I actually try to get my kids to eat good food but the little buggers wear you down after a while.

AFA the 5k, I was sort of thinking about not running much b/c I was worried I had done too much running in the last few months, but the articles that I dug up made me rethink that strategy. The training plan i picked from Runner's World seems so crazy easy after IM, but I know it is good for me to keep training and racing. The possibility of a PR especially in the cold and maybe snow is unlikely, but just being on a plan again and doing something different has been a big positive. And, you know, I have some yak trax so, who cares about the snow and ice. I'm doing it!

DENNIS -

Very pleased you've returned!!

Your comments about running at 90 being very tiring, and nothing you could sustain for long is part of the package of increasing your cadence.  For me it was initially the same -- with maybe a mile at 90 being the limits initially.  But if you keep on working at it, you will get to the point where you can sustain it indefinitely.  The last half-marathon I did, two years ago, ahd me at 90-92 everytime I counted during the race, whcih was maybe 12-15 times.   That was very pleasing for me, as I knew I could easily hold that cadence for a 10km run, but wasn't sure about 21.1km. 

I wish I could remember how long that process took for me, and I'm guessing it was over a year to get to the 10km point.  At any rate, keep the faith and keep working hard, and it will be there for you.  You know that it feels both "good and fast", so that's something worth striving for.  And like any of these cadence/turnover "optimals", they really are personal.  90 is a magic number for running, but not everyone will find their sweet spot at 90; 87, say, may be best for them.  So maybe shoot for 90, and if you can get there and it produces for you, think about nudging higher.  If you can't make it there, then be content at wahtever number you settle best at.  For me, anything from 89-93 feels good and works well, but above that is too "uncontrollable", not to mention a bit taxing when done for too long.  Really, 89-91 is the best for me, I guess.

As for your swim, it sounds as if you are already at your optimal spot, or at least close to it.  I should refigure my range of decent performance with more exactitude, but about 23spl/25m gets chaotic, and below 18 gets too glidey and slow.  Narrowing that range to what works best, I guess, puts me at 19-22 (so 18 and 23 work, but not consistently?).

Welcome back!!

I haven't swum at Walden, but I see a lot of people swimming there when I ride by (and know that a few local folks swim as long as the ice is out).  I have to get over there and give it a go, but the parking is a pain now - they won't let you park on the side of the road and the park doesn't open until like 0800 or 0900 - too late….  A lot of people actually park at the high school and walk the mile or so to the park.  Might be a good run/swim/run strategy!  

There are a bunch of group rides from Hanscom, but as I'm new to the whole shebang, I've not made it out on one as yet.  Start of next season I will, though, as riding with roadies has made me much better on the bike, and there are some very good riders 'round these parts now (it's a CRAZY "cycling" culture in the last few years).

If you're ever in town…  

Sorry Ive been away but something about having a 3000 square foot house with the entire roof structure torn off and with a family living  in the basement here in the PNW (lots of tarps) during November that makes me work 7 day a week occupies my time. With that said Ive been getting my runs in for the Dec HM and started swimming yesterday for 1.hrs with PDX Tri Club. My cadence for running was 85 and that was taken 3 times between miles 3 and 6 of my long run. Spl on my swim yesterday was between 25 and 28 taken several times but the coach on deck wanted me to slow my stroke rate and extend my reach. My swimming is a mess!!! For bike cadence does anyone use the garmin cadence sensor and how well does it work.

 OK know to take a few minutes and try to catch up on all the topics.

I think it takes me like 24 strokes to get across 25m.  I think this can largely be attributed to the fact that I really don't have a strong pull at all.  I'm hoping to improve this through doing weights this winter!

So I'm still trying to figure out a general running plan but I think I've got a general idea of what I'll be doing.  I've been looking at the various Hal Higdon plans, and I think I'll be adapting from a few of his plans (using some workouts from 10K, 15K, half, etc.)  Since I've got over 12 weeks (which is the length of the HM plan) I'm looking at what to do with the time until the 12 weeks to go begins.

Well, I did a totally untrained 5k Sat pushing 35 pounds of toddler in a stroller - and I made it through.  Then today I took the waterproof ipod I got for my birthday on it's maiden journey- it was pretty cool!

I have a question- has anyone tried the barefoot/ minimalist running thing?  I grabbed Born to Run before a flight the other day and am curious.  We're headed to the beach for 10 days and I was thinking those 5 fingers might be the bomb for running on the beach and not worrying about shells etc.

I'm not a super big believer in "limiting your strokes will make you a lot faster" but will still add that I'll bet you could reduce your strokes by a couple by just slowing down and taking time to glide with each pull and concentrating on getting the most you can out of each pull.

Steve,

I finally remembered to get a count on my run cadence. I only remembered at the end of my run and on a slight incline, but think it is pretty close. I got a count of 81.5. Looking around at the posts of others it looks like it fits the trend.

Hoosierman

Hey gang -

Layin' low today, following a 6 a.m. collision with two deer as I was heading down to Syracuse.  I was only about 25 miles from home, so that helped.  The car has suffered major damage, possibly a write-off, but I emerged unscathed.  So, I'm just going through the paces today and contemplating my inevitability, and can't quite bring myself to enter the conversations.  By tomorrow, though, i should be back in fine fettle.  (Or, if not, I will fake it!)

See you tomorrow!

KATE -

Can't resist this one!

I grew up in Bedford, and spent lots of time at hanscom once the base kids started coming to Bedford H.S.   They appeared there along about '63, maybe, having previoulsy attended Concord-Carlisle, I think it was. 

The base was great, what with $.25 movies if you had a base kid with you, and beyond that little perq, the kids were just very open and friendly.

One of my base friends was a big artsy type, and she would drag me over to DeCordova Museum every so often.  (That IS in Linclon, yes?)  Her dad was a full colonel, so they lived up on the little loopy street at the top of the third level (lieutenant colonels and?).  At least back then, housing was "stacked", based on rank.  Was it like that when you were there?  And when was that?

At a race in Maine in Sept, I talked to a guy racked across from me.  He was surprised to hear i ahd come down from ontario to race, and I told him that I was born* just outside Boston, so any race in New England was a homecoming for me.  He asked where I grew up, I said Bedford, he immediately said "Go Buccaneers!!".......and it turns out he was a Hanscom kid.  The cool thing for him was that his father was stationed there for four years, and those were the four years he was in high school --- as opposed to his older sister, who had to attend three high schools.  But that (quick transfers) was pretty common, at least back then, and he realizes how very lucky he was.

* Emerson Hospital, in Concord!

What a crazy world!  I was born at Emerson Hospital too! 

I actually didn't know anyone who lived on base.  We just swam there in the summer since it was the only Long Course pool in the area.  We had 5-7 AM pool time and it was always freezing.  In high school I got a job there too- researching lighting- it was actually really interesting.  I spent a lot of time at the base library reading journal articles and the people were super nice who I met. I think the housing was probably the same as my boss lived at the top of a hill and he was pretty high ranking.  We swam there in the early 90s.

DeCordova is in Lincoln.  As a kid I took a ton of pottery classes there - which were awesome.  I'd love to go back and do a tri when the fall leaves are out.  I love Colorado, but miss the fall colors of back east. 

Maybe we should do a fall meet up race in New England!  I've been itching to make use of my husband's bike box.

Hmmm....  I'll have to either find a great Fall race (Dover/Sherborn was fun - and a gorgeous course) or organize one, and get the East Coast Fast Twitchers* together! 

I've been threatening to try to get one organized that had a Walden swim and a ride up and around Strawberry Hill, but it's a daunting proposition (considering I barely have time to train poorly for events someone else organizes!), but it would be terribly cool.

Either way, we'll have a BT party at our place! 

STEVE, sorry to hear about the deer.  They can be hugely hazardous - and two at once!  Glad there were no injuries (assuming that doesn't count the deer).  I'm always watching for deer and turkey while I'm riding, as they've both become "pest" species in these parts of late.  Good luck with getting everything together after the accident - always a huge pain.

* Attendance by all encouraged, of course!

Not barefoot, or really even truly minimalist, here. But  my quiver of running shoes is all low- to no-drop, some are toward the minimalist end:

* New Balance Minimus Road (4mm drop, cushioned but firm)
* Altra Instinct (zero drop, cushioned)
* Merrell Trail Glove (zero drop, pretty much no cushion)
* Skechers Go Run (4mm drop, but with a good rocker to it, mildly cushioned)
* Skechers Go Bionic (zero drop, soft cushioning but not thick)
* A scattering of Skechers test shoes that vary in the 4mm to zero drop range

The Insincts are about at the end of their life, but at about a year and a half, and well over 500 miles on them, I can't complain. I recently tried on the Altra Superior, and really liked them (though I didn't buy them... lots of shoes in the rotation already).

But... make the transition slowly, do LOTS of calf massage (get a Stick, use it, then use it some more).

What I could recommend more than the VFFs is either the Merrell Trail Glove or one of the others in the Barefoot line, the Altra Samson or Adam, or one of the Vivo Barefoot line. Gets you the benefits of the no-drop, low cushion, without the detriments of the toe pockets.

MATT and DENNIS -

Thanks and thanks!

I have nothing residual wrong with me, which really is remarkable.  The car is almost certainly a write-off, but still waiting for the final results.  That's a hit we weren't expecting (neither was the deer), but so it goes.

My car is/was a Ford Focus wagon, and the hood is quite slopey, so I was incredibly lucky that the deer didn't come back through the windshield --- which, as my car guy explained, becomes a fight between who can get out of the car first -- deer or human.  The one I obviously killed landed in the other lane, but much more damage was done to the right front than to the left front -- which makes me think that the second of the two I saw just before contact might've ended up in the ditch.

After the crash, I kept moving to get off the kind of narrow country road --- having to first smunch down the airbag!  I then called my wife and told her what had ahppened, and that the car was still running, and I'd drive it as far as I could back home.  So with a crumpled hood, a slightly steamy radiator, and a reconfigured airbag stuffed into the openings of the wheel -- and with badly compromised steering -- I limped back home.  Turns out I should've called the police right then, seeing as how it was obviously much more than $1000 damage......but I wasn't thinking with crystal clarity, and really just wanted to get back home.  Doh?

In the final strectches of ITPman Tri, where the bike is and out-and-back from Darien up (as in climbing) to NewCanaan, the return was fast downhillish and through never-ended tony neighborhoods.  Another rider was about 20 yeards in front of me, and at one point a deer loped across the road; had he been a few seconds faster, he would've broadsided it,  Had I been a few more seconds faster, it could've been me, and I'm not sure how one survives a t-bone with a deer while going 25+ on a bike.  They're miserable animals, for true!

Back to contemplating my inevitability!

Yikes!  Glad you're okay.  One of my friends who is an ER doc said the most gruesome thing they had ever seen was a lady who hit a deer and it went through the windshield and mauled her while she was stuck in her seat belt and couldn't get out.

I was sleeping in the back of my car years ago when my friend hit a deer at like Midnight in the middle of nowhere.  The damage wasn't that bad but we did use a large part of a roll of duct tape to put the bumper etc back so we could drive the 5 hours we had left to get home.  We stopped at a gas station and the clerk was very excited when we said we didn't want the deer and she called her husband so he could go get it.

Someone in Boulder hit a Bear on their bike- okay I just googled for a link and found it happened at least twice:

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-1833579.html

Ooh- thank you for all of the information!  I will look into those alternatives.  I was thinking for sand the free toes might be good- but the others seem like they would be better all around (and not look as geeky.)

Okay so actually I think it takes me more like 28 strokes to go 25m.  Not sure where I got the original number from, but that was what I had in my head.  Today I counted a couple of times, swimming in different ways, moderate/comfortably hard effort.  The first time was how I usually would swim, and that was when I got around 28 strokes.  Then, I gave a more concerted effort of focusing on the pull, in addition to the glide, and my count was around 24... which is the number I said originally, but this is not the way I usually swim.  Also, in focusing on the pull, I have felt like this before but I really feel like I'm using my biceps.... are those the primary muscles that I should be feeling??

(My time was pretty much the same with both ways of swimming.)

Ive been eyeing this thing for over a year and finally today I bought my tempo trainer!!! I can't wait to get it. Really hoping it will help speed up my stroke.

Still no ITB soreness/pain after taking up Turbo Fire again, even after hard runs, its amazing. I could have saved myself a ton of money in PT visits if I had just broke out these dvds again.