Gray Guy/Girls Tri--Masters Sprint/Olympic Mentor Group CLOSED (Page 26)

Hey James,

I finally hired a running coach.  The first thing he did was put an end to Run Less Run Faster.  Between him and a sports med clinic we figured out the weird thing my right foot was doing was mainly a flexibility issue.  I have had a couple blood clots in my right leg, and who knew, that destroyed the flexibility in my right leg and hip - the result, the weird running gate.  Been doing a bunch of specific strength exercises and stretching.  I am almost running with a normal gait now, at least until I get tired - then all bets are off.

Coach has me doing a couple long easy runs, 2-3 miles if you can call that long, per week to develop a solid base.  Each succeeding run he wants me to go just a little bit further.  I am uploading all the GPS data to 'the other' training log and if I don't go "just a little bit further" I get an email asking why not!  Once a week he has me doing tempo runs at 8:00/mile, more like intervals actually because I can't go much over a quarter mile at that pace (been doing something like 10 x [400 run, 200 walk]).  Once a week he has me running up a hill near the house - it is about 2 miles up to the top with +/- 750 feet of elevation gain - something like 7.5% grade.  i thought I knew about dark places in training.  I thought I knew about pain, but I am here to tell you - at about 500 feet up, the lights go off, the heart rate is crazy high, the legs are burning, and all I can hear is him yelling to dig deep and go harder!  And then a couple days each week I have a whole series of drills I am working on to develop better form.  I will say that all in all I am feeling much better about my run.  He gave me a bunch of stuff to work on before I started traveling and I was doing that on the road.  We are planning an 'un-official' 5K in the next couple weeks.  He wants a better base line for pacing and he doesn't think my HR zones are correct.  I think he really just wants to torture me but we will see.  He is saying 3-4 more weeks of the base build at which point I should be up to 20-25 miles/week, then we will start run training.  Through it all he has been insisting on perfect form.  While I was on the road I was sending video back once or twice a week and he would comment.  I am really happy because he lives just a couple miles from me so now that I am done traveling for a bit we will be able to work one on one several times a week.  I am still not a runner by any stretch of the imagination but I think I am finally headed in the right direction!

I am looking forward to that 'holy crap, I can do this' moment like you had swimming!

Nice to know that sportsmanship is not completely gone.  Glad to hear you are going to be ok.

Those pesky roots!  They do it every time.

Hi Charlotte,

This deserves a more detailed response than I can give you in the couple of minutes I have, so later this afternoon I will sit and hopefully offer a couple little pointers.  In the meantime, you might go to the 'Swim Technique' page of my website, http://goscottgo.info/index.php/swimming-technique.  That covers some of the basics.

Be back soon.

I did my first run in my new stability shoes.  After talking to a number of people including a podiatrist, a sports med doc, and my coach I went with the Brooks Beast.  My understanding is that it offers the most stability of any shoe available.

At any rate, after about a mile, I had aches and pains that I had never had before.  I am thinking this is likely because my feet are now in the proper alignment and stressing the muscles in new and exciting ways.

My question:  Would it be wise to wear the shoes for the next several days during the day (not necessarily running) and just do short runs for the next week or so and let my leg muscles adapt to the new position?

Thanks - gotta go to work now.  Work is SO getting in the way of training!

Hi Charlotte.

I have a couple thoughts that I would like to share.  Obviously I have not seen you swim.  So my comments are generalities based on my own swimming career and experience over the years working with hundreds of different people.

I will start kind of 'at the end' and then work backwards.

I am not a fan of the total immersion method.  That said, there are some who swear by the program.  My problem with it is that, EVERY SINGLE person I have worked with that had gone through total immersion had a boatload of bad habits that had to be broken before any substantive progress could be made.  A couple of examples, WAY too much glide in the water, entry was way too close to the top of the head, and recovery began before complete extension.  I have seen all of those three examples in literally dozens of different individuals.  So, judge for yourself, but my personal opinion, for what it is worth, is that total immersion creates as many problems as it solves.

Now to your main question.  You said, "I am considerably slower this year than last year. i have swam alot less due to multiple issues."  Sadly there is no magic bullet.  To retain your speed you have to continue to put in the yards.  However, significant gains can be had by improving your stroke mechanics and having a more efficient stroke.  Beginning swimmers and the VAST majority of triathletes, especially the triathletes that did not begin life as a swimmer 'beat the water into submission.'  I am not trying to be snarky so please don't take it that way.  What I mean is, their stroke is too short and their turnover is too fast.  The majority of people are under the mistaken impression that 'faster is faster.'  It is not!

A longer, smoother stroke with proper body roll will be faster.  In my opinion, body roll is the single most important aspect of the freestyle stroke.  With proper body roll, you can achieve full extension prior to the catch.  Proper body roll will also help to achieve full extension at the end of the stroke by placing a physical ‘marker’ that is impossible to miss – specifically brushing your thumb against your hip as you begin your recovery.  Or to think of it another way, dragging your hip out of the way with your thumb.  The other thing that body roll does is that it facilitates proper leg position.  It is nearly impossible to drop your legs and have proper body roll.

When you are swimming there are two main things that you must be cognizant of - 1) you are applying force to the water to move water backward and propel yourself forward.  2)  any drag will work against your forward momentum and require additional force to be applied to the water.

All the subtleties of stroke mechanics are directly addressing those two thoughts.  Body roll allows you to roll into the stroke and generates a longer stroke – that time that you are applying force to the water.  Body roll also helps keep your legs up, reducing drag.

Again, I will say, if you go to the ‘Swim Technique’ section on my website at http://goscottgo.info/index.php/swimming-technique I describe both body roll and the freestyle stroke in detail.

Without having seen you swim, I can all but guarantee that if you work on your body roll and lengthening your stroke you will improve your efficiency, increase your speed, and reduce fatigue as you swim.  Unfortunately, you’re still going to have to put in the yards though.  Sorry!

Hope that helps a bit.