GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 265)

stevebradley - 2011-01-23 12:47 PM ANNE again - If it's any consolation to you about spending more time on your strength than your weaknesses.... (1) Consider the bike to be an "evolving" strength. That is, it is becoming a strength for you because you are spending time on it, and keep in mind that you haven't realized your full potential yet. (2) At half-iron especially, a strong bike is heavily rewarded. Just using myself as an example, for oly I roughly swim 30, ride 75, run 45. For HIM I swim 40, ride 165, run 110. That's just a huge difference in the weighted improtance of the Bike (and run) over the swim. I doubt I'm telling you anything you don't already know, but it's worth stating that to keep it in the forefront of your mind. (3) You are still getting back your running legs, PLUS keeping previous injuries at bay. So, as much as you might want to develop more of a run focus, to do so now is kind of risky. Overall, I think you are exactly where you should be -- a Canadian winter indoors really honing those eveolving skills with th brilliantly-undertaken CT training, and also gradually ramping up the run mileage so that when your are stronger and more confident by the time spring comes, you'll be set to hit the roads and start getting more focused with the running. As for the swim, you know that you can do that distance -- you did it at Peterb, your did it (minus a couple hundred meters!) at HVJ. Sure, with more focused swimming you can probably do it better, but likely not with the time inroads that you're developing on the bike. At most, the swim improvements will be in the single-digits, and probably low single-digits at that. But the bike? I would just love to see you on that HVJ course under the same conditions this coming season! I would fully expect a time improvement of 10-15 minutes, maybe? Maybe even more? Hey! That's time well, well, well spent! As for the plan to switch run and swim times, I say for sure! Them the sawims can be recovery efforts almost, and maybe a good time to focus on some easy stroke improvements. I know I have been teasing you with stuff for over two months now, and I'm really not meaning to be a tease at all. I guess i just don't want to lead you down any garden paths that might be just dead ends for you, so I'm not saying anything until I feel really good about it all. I have been stunned by some of the concepts in a video from Vasa, and I think they send this for free to anyone who can convince them they are even remotely thinking about purchasing a Vasa. It is called "Better Technique + More Power = Faster Swimming", and hads tow segements to it. The first one, with Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen, is where the gold is, with several key points worthy of thought and focus. I should try to summarize those for the group here, but I'm not sure I can do them justice. You might want to check out the video at www.vasatrainer.com; it may even be viewable on-line. the back of the box has a price of $29, but I seem to remember it being free. I'll try ot find the invoice. I only got this a week or two ago, but already feel I should be guarding it with my life! Following my off-season injury-induced layoff, I mostly returned follwing 10% -- that is, past a certain starting-point I have tried to observe 10%. So, let's see. Starting on 11 Dec with my first ruin in four weeks... 11/12 -- 30' 18/12 -- 44' 22-12 -- 53' 29-12 -- 45' 31-12 -- 48' (90% race-effort, however, at Resolution Run) 3/1 --- 55' 7/1 --- 47' 9/1 --- 46' 12/1 -- 40' 14/1 -- 51' 16/1 -- 60' 19/1 -- 50' 21/1 -- 60' That's instructive for me (but what exactly do I learn?). There was the quick return to some distance, with three exploratory up-ticks that severely abused thte 10% rule.....but since then I've been a pretty good boy about it! (Real easy to do when the weather is frightfully cold! ) As for your knee and Yoga, how would Pilates be for you as an alternative to Yoga? I don't think thee is much in Pilates that requires any contortions that might affect the knees, but I don't know for sure. As an aside, Lynn just finished using her two-week Groupon pass at a Yoga studio in Ottawa, doing seven sessions and enjoying them all. She has played around with Yoga for a few years, but this was the biggest concentrated effort. It was a range of stuff -- Yin, Hot Flow, Power, Asghtanga Improv, Htaha, Gentle Hatha, and one more. I have my pass, but will likley wait until she goes to Australia. Conversely, the sooner I do it the sooner I can be recovered from any Yoga injuries I am likely to acquire , so.......... Were you on camera at City Line? What was the context? Let me know how the run went!

stevebradley - 2011-01-25 7:32 PM ANNE - 45-minute run this afternoon, and out of the blue and for seemingly no reason, my right Achilles is quite sore. i could feel it for much of the run, but was hoping it wouldn't evolve into anything. WRONG! I've had a few Achilles episodes since my kinda big one in winter '08/'09, and they've resolved themselves within a day or two. Hopefully that will be the case this time! Among the pool tricks I am trying, increased cadence is a biggie. I have tried to increase it by 2-3 for 25m, and 4-7 in the 50m pool. So today, after a warm-up of sorts, i did four timed-50s, varying cadence to see what was most effective: 1.) 45 strokes -- 55s 2.) 50 strokes -- 48s 3.) 47 strokes -- 53s 4.) 49 strokes -- 49s See a pattern there? I do! I will continue to play with this and see whare it gets me. I am still working at a deeper entry, and with fingers slightly down. I am also working on a wider enrty, especially for my right hand. And, there is also attention to eliminating bubbles on the entry, with the right hand again being more of a problem. I can get rid of bubbles by entering thumb first, but I know that is not the best thing for my shoulders. And then there are all the points brought up on that Vasa DVD I mentioned to you. i am still intending to summarize her info and get it out to you all here. My big-volume weeks continue, but to what end I'm not all that sure! Um, seems like a good idea at the time? I am mailed the Mussel thingies to you tomorrow!

stevebradley - 2011-01-11 5:20 PM



TRACEY -

You there?

Are you going to the Multisport Symposium again this year? I have to check out the details.

Have fun with Mega-Storm tonight...........but no 4 a.m. swims in Buzzards Bay, y'hear?

LadyNorth - 2011-01-30 4:50 PM Lisa,
 I forgot your last name but thought I remembered you're from Spring but couldn't find your results.  Hope it was fun.
Denise

LadyNorth - 2011-01-31 3:16 PM
Tracey - Hi.

Lisa - I skipped swimming for a couple of months and it seemed to come back fairly easily.  At least the endurance part - I've started working on speed again, playing with Tempo Trainer, and I need to do a Time Trial to see where I'm at.

Anne/SteveB, - After waffling around on the trng program for my half, I decided I just didn't like any of the BT programs.  So I'm going with Fitzgerald Level 5 - I think it will be the right amount of challenge, but doable.  Made some changes, of course - starts on a Fri instaed of Tues because then all the workouts fall on the days I want them to, and Sat is OFF day instead of Monday because we take a lot of weekend trips.  I actually put the whole program in my BT planned log - it took hours and hours.  It starts
Feb 25.  I still have to tweak it - add a little more to the long runs and figure out taper or no taper for my other races.  But I'm happy I finally made a decision and I think it's the right one.  So Anne, we'll be on a very similar schedule.

Denise

stevebradley - 2011-01-28 10:19 PM ANNE again - Without having that DVD in front of me, one of the things she stresses is focusing on the pressure of the pull coming from the heel of the hand. She has some good reasons for this, but none that I dare try to paraphrase right now. But if you can make it work, it DOES feel different. I guess that's just a "teaser" for you, kind of lobbed your way with nothing much behind it. Keep reminding me!!!!! Good swim overall; dare I say great swim?!? My plan now is Monday and Friday in the 25m pool and Tues and Thurs in the 50m. No swim Wednesday or the weekend. But if I miss Tuesday, then I'll do Wednesday in the 25m. Or something like that. Busy six days on the bike - 1:00 Sunday, 1:45 Monday, 1:50 Wednesday, 1:47 today. Why, you ask? I have no idea! It would make some sense if I had a half-iron scheduled in march or April maybe, but seeing as how I don't I guess it's just mindless Base. I can fully imagine that the hammies might protest a bit if the bike seat was suddenly raised some. Hopefully, this too shall pass, and sooner rather than later! My achilles is seeming more of a tibila tendon problem. I haven't run since Tuesday, and likely won't tomorrow. Sunday.....maybe? I'm still procrastinating about starting my two weeks at Santosha. I'm thinking that when Lynn leaves for Austaralia I will do it then to while away half of the month she will be gone, but there's also the argument to be made for srating it asap -- if I hurt myslef at Yoga, that would just give me a bigger window of recovery .... . MUSSEL UP!