McFuzz's Mentor Group 2011 - CLOSED (Page 28)

Good luck with the Zumba.  I will be doing it on the Kinect so nobody will see me make a fool of myself.  Must have been Goodwill weekend as I started putting together stuff I can get rid of.  How does one collect so many tshirts?

Have a blast in Scotland?  Is it non-stop out of Seattle?

Since I ran yesterday, I will opt for the trainer today. Tomorrow I will use my new shoes for a 3miler on the treadmill instead of the 6  and see how the shoes feel. (it is supposed to be really really cold today and tomorrow and I refuse to run 6 miles on a treadmill or outside in sub 0 temps). Hopefully that 6 miler will happen on Wed or Thursday.

BTW I got my new shoes for 50% off at road runner sports.  It seems they are clearancing the 2010 models out. I should have bought 2 pairs

Nice job on getting your shoes half off... I just picked up my fav's-brooks adrenaline's for $25 reg $105 @ Dick's clearance sale!!! With new shoes I've gone right off the back with a 6-8 miler and had no problems

Lynn- so jealous that you're going to Scotland! That's so awesome!!

That's snow all right! That is where I do my weekly swim--Blue Lake in the middle of the northern Nevada desert! It's about 30 miles southeast of my town & the only place I can swim. The good news is that it's a natural fed spring so right now the temp is around 68-70 even though the air temp has been hovering around 13 degrees! Getting out is not fun I can tell you that! That's where I'll be every Sunday for the next 21 weeks...into the spring I'm going to try to get out there twice a week. It's great fun but everyone thinks I'm nuts! My spotter is one of my favorites on my cross country team-he has agreed to come w/me every Sunday. Another thing that's cool is that the steam gets so thick I can't see across the lake so I swim the perimeter & my spotter walks alongside me on the bank. We have quite a system!

All I can say is WOW!!!  And I get annoyed when the heated indoor pool at the club is a little colder than usual. (hangs head in shame)

I don't think your nuts, that sounds awesome!!  I wish our lake was 68-70 degrees right now.  Until the warmth of spring/summer comes I'll have to continue to swim with all the kids at the Y. 

Signed up for swim lessons today.  They start next week Tuesdays and Thursday for 3 weeks with the local park district.  If my extremely hydrophobic son can overcome his fear of water and ask for more lessons so he can advance in scouts, then I should be able to overcome my "dislike" of swimming enough to take lessons and learn how to swim for real.  Who knows I may end up liking it.  6 months ago I thought runners were crazy. 

So now very very nervous and have something new to obsess and worry about until next week.

Does anyone else here do water aerobics? I love it! Kick my arse everytime...

Maybe I'll see him at RP. I'll be doing the Biggest Loser program there starting next week.

BTW, you amaze me!

We will both be there, lessons are back to back.  Good luck on your program!!!!!!

Lessons will def help! I started last year at this time and couldn't do 2 laps w/out stopping. Started taking master's swim classes once a week for about 3 mos and prob by april-may could swim a mile straight!

I figured out how to avoid night-time snacking - it's called Angry Birds!  I've never been one to play computer games (or XBox etc), but I downloaded this game from the new mac apps store the other day and I can't quit playing  - it is addictive.  Didn't snack at all last night b/c I was playing it so much. 

I guess my next post will be asking for suggestions to kick my Angry Bird habit

Happy Tuesday,

Ann-Marie

Swim lessons are really terrific.  Starting my 3rd year with the Masters.  I was a high school 100 yard freestyler.  The race plan was to dive in, go all out and stop after 100 yards.  Bad plan for open water triathlon.  It took a little while to get endurance but I was swimming a mile within 6 weeks.  The whole deal after that was to improve form so I can go faster with less effort.  Being hurt and unable to run and bike much for two months in early winter REALLY helped the swimming.  I added an extra session and focused on swimming tall, reaching out, following through, and using my whole forearm like a paddle and it's really coming together.  The goal is to get out of the water as fast as I can while still feeling good.  On the way!

You all in the Peoria BN Springfield Illinois area, (there seems to be about 4 or 5), maybe we can do a group ride in the hills over by Peoria sometime.  I heard there are some challenging ones.

Swam 1200 this morning...cut short because I had to shovel us out and then swim and then get to the paper to update the weather on the web site.    Ran 50 mins on the treadmill last night with strength and yoga after. SEs on the trainer tonight, high power, low cadence strength pedaling.  100% up to 110% and back down in 10 mins, two sets. Simulates grinding up serious grades. Ought to be fun!
 

I've been avoiding the pool since September. It usually only takes me two or 3 weeks to go from a quater mile swim up to a mile but I'm slow. I swim a mile in 43 minutes. I'd like to get that time down to 35 minutes this spring.  I've pretty much plateaued and need to figure out how to get faster. Lots of sprints? Drills? Lessons? I did drills last year, lots of one arm lead and head lead with a roll, kick boards, etc and they honestly didn't seem to make that much of a difference. That warm lake in Nevada sounds pretty awesome to me, I think I'd be swimming more if it was a fun adventure like that but going to my pool is a GRIND!
Sorry, complain complain...

I would love to be able to swim outside! Even in the summer it is too cold and would require a wetsuit, plus most of the lakes that would be swimmable have regulations against it. Right now they are all frozen.

I guess that works!  Congrats on a snack-free night! 

43 minutes for a mile isn't bad!  At my fastest (lifeguarding in HS/college) I could do a mile in 30 minutes (I did break 30 once or twice).  Peak IM training in 2009, I was down to 16:05 for 1000 yards, but I was swimming about 7000 yards per week.  1000 TT over Christmas was 17:00 (pretty darn good for me since I'm only getting 1.8 swims/week in).  Getting faster means swimming, swimming, swimming. 

Hey there, just wanted to check in to see how everyone's doing.  Had a long, busy day at work yesterday so I missed my run but I'll be able to make it up today.  We got about 3.5" of snow last night and still getting little bits today so all the schools are closed - including the one where I work.  It's supposed to be a bike day for me but I don't know if getting to the gym is going to be an option.  I'll have to see how the roads look later - right now they're still pretty bad.  If not, shoveling snow may be my workout for the day!

Shoot, 43 isn't bad.  I know cause it's what I did for 1.2 miles on the half IM.  I think more speed is about form for me and that means swimming lots.  Adding a 3rd session when I was hurt really improved things.  I'm thinking I'm going to be faster this spring.   

*sigh* I guess I know this and just wishing for a magical fix like, say, a DVD that makes you faster just by sitting back and watching it or something.

The only thing to really improve your swim time is swim, swim, swim. Drills, laps, lessons, sprints etc will help but everyone has their thing. Example: I'm a pretty good swimmer (1:15:14 at IMLP). Drills helped at first to get me more comfortable in the water. After that it was laps, laps, laps. Drills didn't improve my time at all, laps did. I know other people that were the opposite.

It takes me a lot to get back in the pool too even though I like it more than running. I've only swam 3 times since July '09, all pretty much in races.