Lumber Dad's Group - Closed (Page 23)

Humorous indoor track etiquette question. A walker on the track has the back of his t-shirt tucked into his underwear. It's clearly visible (to me and the 15 others on the track) as the underwear waistband is peaking out over his sweatpants waistline. I'm gonna be lapping this guy 20+ times in the next half hour. Do I let the guy know?

Bored Agent-As for swimming, I think I'll try swimming the way I do and throw in some freestyle.  I've taken lessons - twice.  What I really need is one-on-one or a coach.  I've looked at the total immersion stuff and it seems to me that it assumes you already know how to swim freestyle - which I can't.  My biggest problem is the breathing and the kick.  I can't even swim 25 yards freestyle but I did a quarter mile this morning with my crazy frog style.

The TI book has several basic drills that work on body position-being streamlined in the water.  Not really swimming but working on position.  Many people have improved their swimming by building on the drills.  Drill down and swim back is a good option.  There are alot of good sites with drills and videos.  Or, just do a you tube search for total immersion or freestyle swimming and there will be many good examples.  We all have so many things to "fix" in the beginning.  Dont get overwhelmed-focus on one thing each session and work on it.   Its too hard to make several changes all at the same time. Its a process so give it time.

I started "swimming" about a year ago and I could not make it 25 yards without gasping for air.  Toughest thing for me was breathing.  Find a breathing rhythm you are comfortable with and build from there.  Until last Fall I would breathe to the right every stroke.  Over the winter I worked on bilateral breathing and am now comfortable breathing to either side-it took some time but eventually I got there.  I still breathe every stroke but can do it to either side without concern. Hard to make progress if you are not consistent in the pool-I have made my best progress over the last 5 weeks as I have been averaging 4-5 swims a week.  I dont always look forward to it but its fun to improve at something that once seemed impossible.  Stick with it.  Kind of scary for me to be giving swimming advice so take it for what it is worth

Randy

It can be hard to vary your pace/speed.  I really worked on running slower during my longer runs by keeping my heart rate below a certain level-keeping the workouts in an aerobic zone rather than pushing each workout hard.  At first I really had to slow down to keep my HR at or below 150bpm. It was hard to do as I really had to focus on just slowing down. Eventually my speed picked up but my heart rate stayed in same range.  Everything I read talks about keeping your easy workouts easy and your hard workouts hard. Each run should have a purpose-recovery, tempo......  There are many good books out there that give various paces for different types of runs depending on your current race times.  Jack Daniels (author-not the whiskey) book is very good on this.    

Now on the other hand maybe you are just getting faster-not a bad thing.

Randy

Lisa-you are experienced enough to know when you can train and when you should rest.  Don't disregard how you feel because you are training for such a big race.  You have built up your fitness and a few rest days here and there may help you heal and feel better as the race approaches.  Most everyone that trains consistently for awile can distinguish soreness from "injury pain".  How you deal with each is what is crucial.   

As for me, I have not done any running since 1/11/10 because of a continuing piriformis issue in my right leg.  I worry that trying to run too soon will cause a flare up-but I am itching to get out.  I just cant quite get over that last little hump to return to running.  In other words, I can give the advice of "moderation and rest" but not sure that I always accept it myself.

Randy