Gray Guy/Girls Tri--Masters Sprint/Olympic Mentor Group CLOSED (Page 27)

Injury setbacks SUCK!  Pardon my language.  Having suffered two setbacks in the past year, I feel your pain.  Kudos for doing the right thing so the down time is limited.  Hope your better quick!

Sorry, I have to tell this to somebody that might understand, so please don't take it as bragging!  It is just that I was pleasantly surprised and have to tell someone.

Did a 1,000 yard TT in the pool this morning.  I told my wife my time and she just said, "That's nice."  I suppose I should have not expected any more since she knows less about swimming then I do about running.

Anyway, my time for 1,000 yards was 9:57.7 which averaged out to just under 59.8/100.  I did not swim the TT as if it were the first leg of a triathlon, rather I approached it like I would have approached a long race back in the day.  It was an absolute max effort.  I could not have held the pace for another lap, let alone another 100.  I am pretty happy with where my swim is at and today was faster than I dared hope in my wildest dreams.  I can hold a 1:10/100 pace until the cows come home, which would work out to something like a 49 minute IM swim.  NOW, if I can just get my running up to something that actually approximates actually running, I might have something.

So, all of you other gray guys/gals - it can be done.  Just because you are gray on top does not mean you can't swim decent times.  It just takes the time in the water and working on perfecting your stroke!  See you in the pool!

I celebrated Labor Day by REALLY falling off the training wagon this weekend.  It started Saturday with perhaps the worst thunderstorm I have ever seen in California.  There were several moments where I thought I was back in Indiana in the midst of a good ole fashion mid-west severe thunderstorm!  I wasn't about to go bike, run, or swim in the midst of a thunderstorm so day one without a workout.  The power went out so the only real option for dinner was go out (and hopefully find a place that had power) or the BBQ.  We opted for BBQ and I enjoyed the moment WAY to much.  Then Sunday, the kids and grand-kids were coming over so I had to cleanup after the storm, which left me wiped so another workout went by the wayside (unless cleaning the pool, cleaning the yards and finishing off a tree the storm started to bring down counts for a workout).  Of course, you can't have the little ones over without sugary treats right?  Isn't that a law?  Anyway, day two with no workout and way too much junk food.  Then today, I had the best intentions, REALLY!!!  I was going to do today's workout plus make-up at least one of the missed ones . . . until my lovely wife told me her sister and her sister's kids and grand-kids were coming over to swim and a BBQ.  OK then, another workout missed, another wholesome day eating WAY to much BBQ.

There was a day when that would have set me off and ruined my psyche for a week.  I would have beat myself up for days over the missed workouts and the food over indulgence.  I guess I have finally matured a bit.  Yeah, I am a bit disappointed that my weekend did not go according to plan, but I got to spend time with family.  And really, what is better than that?

I figure if I don't eat again until Friday I will be good on the calories!  (OK, all you nutrition police, just joking).

Didn't really put me off track training wise as I am just coming to the end of my 'train-to-train' phase.  Ironman Louisville was last weekend and that is my 'A' race next year so I have a year.  While I hope to not have too many training lapses over the next year, my plan does allow for a couple.

How did everyone else spend the holiday weekend?  Did anyone else send the summer out with a bang?

That is such a bummer.  Wouldn't be cool if we could mount grenade launchers on our bikes for occasions like aggressive drivers?  What do you think?  I bet a grenade launcher trumps aggressive driving!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, grenade launchers are illegal.  But it is still a nice thought isn't it?

Way to go!  Podium finish!

Having just gotten done with my little traveling binge, I empathize with you.  The traveling messes up everything, even though it may be necessary.

Awww man, I wanna go do that ride!

I believe my running coach is a sadist.  He seems to draw intense pleasure from reducing me to a quivering pile of flesh at the end of a workout.  That said, I think we are making very good progress.  We are planning to do an 'official, unofficial' 5K in the near future.  I thought we were doing it at the beginning of this month but he wants to hold off a couple more weeks.  He seems to think we can get my time down to sub 30 minutes.  I am not so sure, that is over 20 minutes faster than my run in July, but, he is the coach so we will see what we will see.  I do know that I am running faster, further, and with more confidence than I ever have so that is something to be happy about.

Thanks for asking.

Don't know how I missed this.  Throughout my swimming career, I had the good fortune to train with the Lakewood Aquatic Club under Jim Montrella, arguably the finest swimming coach in the history of the sport.  During the 70's and 80's, LAC was recognized world wide as THE place to train if you had aspirations of National, International, or Olympic success.  Back in the mid 70's, I want to say something like '75 or '76, there was this wild woman that showed up one day and wanted to train with Jim, because he was the best of the best.  Seemed she had this crazy idea that she was going to swim the Florida Straits.  I remember swimming with her, but sadly, never really got to know her.  Even then she was an inspiration.  My recollection is that she was ALWAYS first in the water and LAST out of the water, and she was a machine while she was in the water - she just wouldn't stop.  She only trained with LAC for a couple months and I never knew what happened to her after that, other than she popped up on the news now and again still trying to complete her crazy dream of a swim.

Glad she finally succeeded.  Given the athletic hopes and dreams that many of us have, how appropriate that a gray hair lady finally achieved her dream after literally decades of trying and showed us all - NEVER give up!

I don't know what that 'follow the leader' drill is so I can't comment on that.  I do know that back in the day, we didn't do drills.  We swam.  We rarely used kickboards or pull paddles.  We swam.  We swam lap after excruciatingly boring lap.  At the height of my swimming career I was putting in 12-15,000 meters/day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  On Christmas we got a break and only had to be in the water one time as opposed to two or three a days.  My point is, there are two things, and two things only that are going to improve your swimming.  One is the yards you put in.  While it may seem like a long time, you really have not been swimming all that long, and you have really not put in that many yards yet.

The second thing that will lead to improvement is perfecting your stroke technique (am I sounding like a broken record?).  A swim coach, even the best ones, simply do not have the time to give the individual attention necessary for a beginning swimmer to rapidly improve - there are too many swimmers in the water at any given workout.  The by-product of that lack of one-on-one time is the development of all these drills that are in use today.  We will save my opinion on all the drills for another day.  In my opinion, if you can get one-on-one time with the RIGHT instructor/coach, you will make far more progress in a very short period of time than you could in a years worth of masters team workouts.  That is not to say you should not be training with a team.  Training in a team environment provides a certain amount of accountability to get the workout done, thereby putting in the necessary yards.  However, putting in the yards if your stroke technique is not perfect (OK, maybe not perfect, but above average) is counter productive as you will be training the wrong muscle groups and creating the wrong 'muscle memory.'  The 'RIGHT' coach is one that has YEARS of experience - preferably as a successful swimmer, is able to convey his/her knowledge to you so that you understand it, and is patient while you master his/her direction.  Working one-on-one with that person once a week for a few weeks and then following up once a month over the next six months will do more for your stroke and speed than ANYTHING else you can do at this point.

Just my two cents.