Tri/tbay group closed (Page 3)

Mike, 

                                                                                                                                  Breathing on one side only is fine. And having a steady supply of 02 is preferred if you have to make a choice. Some will say it has its disadvantages for sighting, but I've never really had any problem due to one side vs. bilateral. Also swimoutlet.com is a good source to check things out. If you don't have a local source. Just don't get the old square paddles, kind of obsolete. Any of them with the hand contour will be fine.

Roy-thx for the invite to the pool.  My kids' activity starts at 10AM so I should have time to workout and get back (only 25-30 min drive) depending where your swim workouts are held.

Pls let me know where to go and what time?  I hope there's a slow lane...

Olman,                                                                                                                                    We swim at the Gandy Pool on Imperial Blvd. If you can be there at 8:30, I can get you in and go over some things and get you where you need to go no problem. I'll get the address for you if you need it. If you are coming over on 60 turn on County Line Rd. go North to Drane Field turn right, continue east past Harden Blvd, turn left under the Toll Way, turn right you are now on the Frontage Rd to Florida Ave. Turn left at the light, 2nd light is Imperial, Hooters is on the corner. Turn left about 2 blocks down on your left. Hope to see you there and meet in person one of the group.

I ordered a pair of Moon Paddles from swimpaddles.com, so we'll see how they work out.

I hit the pool again tonight, felt quite good, and my stamina is growing fast.  Having done 500m Monday, I did 700m tonight:  100m followed by 1 min rest x 7.  I did probably 400m using the pull buoy, and at least 100m each arm of one-arm pulls.  All told I was wet 23 minutes, so still making progress.

I noticed the tightness in my calves and plantaris tendon in my foot, probably from the flutter kick.  My arms are like jello this evening though!

Mike

i learned today that the rest of the week just opened up so I will be able to workout some more than I expected.

Today I did 1 hr spinervals - aerobic base. included some leg speed, HR control, etc. It wasn't bad but hot. I drank two full large bottles of plain water.

Stayed within zone 2-3 the entire hour so I am looking for cardio gains. (If only it were that easy)

Last noght I watched the 2008 IM broadcast again (recorded on DVR) - what a beautiful sport!

The foot and calves tightness is definitely from your kicking effort, and the fact that you are  probably making sure you have a streamlined foot. If you feel this try relaxing the feet, w/o loosing your streamline. If you have ever had the foot or calf cramp it is no fun. Some of our kids on the team will get these, it'll bring some of them to tears. Also if you are wearing fins this can be more of problem. So try to practice relaxation during your wokouts.

Good workout, take your time and build your yardage. For sprint distance races 1500 yard workouts several times a week will get the job done. Go farther if your feeling good, but you don't have to do it much.

It is always motivation to watch IM when on the trainer. Good work, and thanks for your inspire messages to the group. We are in this together to get the start line, so thank you.

Glad you'll be able to come over on Saturday. The address is 401 Imperial Blvd. 33803

[. For sprint distance races 1500 yard workouts several times a week will get the job done. Go farther if your feeling good, but you don't have to do it much.

What constitutes "several"?  I am just beginning training for an Olympic length and typically cover 1500-2000 meters in my 30 min-45 minute workouts.  The length in time and yardage are set to increase each week through the course of the training plan.  Right now my workout goes as follows:

Short swim 30 mins

500M warm up 

5 X 50 fast 1.5 min rest

200 stroke work (both kick and pull)

500M cool down

Long swim 45 mins

500M warm up

1 X 100 "race pace" <1M30S/100 recover to 120 HR 

2 X 200 "race pace" <1M30S/100 recover to 120 HR

1 X 100 "race pace" <1M30S/100 recover to 120 HR

200M stroke work

500M cool down

Keep in mind this is the first two weeks of training and the time portion increases by 10% each week 3 weeks out of the month.  Am I doing enough?  Are my times fast/slow?  I have been finishing my 500s in about 7:40 and my 100s in 1:20 to 1:30.  I don't have any paddles and I don't do any one arm stuff.  Just form swimming where I concentrate on the glide and catch and twist with my body. 

My training plan calls for an equal amount in number of workouts per week of each discipline.  2 workouts of each per week.  Two total rest days a week.  Anywhere from 8-12 hours of total training per week.  I don't feel overworked, however my hamstrings are sore today.  Time really isn't an issue, I will get up as early as I need to get a workout in or workout at night, or both (yes, my wife is a saint to not have issues with this).  I just want to make sure I am doing enough. 

Give me some pointers. 

Steven

[/QUOTEHello Steven, I meant to address your olympic distance plan and that would certainly include more swim yardage. Jumping to your times, you will most likely be in the front pack or FOP as you will see in other blogs with the times you are swimming. This will put you in at around 23 minutes or better by race day, depending on water and weather conditions, you will be in a good position with your running ability set up nicely. Based on the 10% increase the plan calls for it will have you going 3000-3500 a few times I suspect. 2 full rest days is pretty generous, you can probably add a workout in there if you want. Because what will begin to happen you will get antsy about having that extra day and will want to do a workout anyway, so you have some options there. I would like to see you get some paddles since you are already doing some pull/kick combinations they compliment each other and is a widely used combination in competitive swimming programs.

Soreness will happen and you kind of stay a little sore/tight/fatigued, this is OK but is shouldn't be acute or extreme in soreness or tightness. If this develops you better back off some and let those muscles and tendons relax. I guess "several" is kind of general isn't it. So I guess I was probably thinking of 3 swims a week where you feel the swim is the weak link.

Definetly a plus having a  spouse who will let you train and have some understanding of what it is you are doing. My wife was really great when I did my HIM last year, my best cheerleader no doubt.

Just keep working on the plan I'm good with the workouts. I was going to have everyone TT a swim in a couple of weeks, to get a base line on times for the upcoming season. Yours will be a little longer. Is your plan calling out the workouts in set form? or are you doing this? I can help on the sets in you need.

Have a great training weekend. Cold here in Florida again, it will be a cold run tomorrow AM in the 40's.

Roy--

I am making progress in the swim, but have a couple of questions.

 1.  What are kick drills?  I see other folks doing them but am not sure--are they kick-only using a board for flotation?

2. I worked some yesterday on relaxing my feet, and I think that has helped the cramping there; however, my calves are really starting to knot at the 700m-ish point--is this normal or is this an artifact of my kick technique?

3. This week I added 100m to each successive workout--what should my goals be...work up to where I can do 1200-1500m 3x per week?  Is adding 100m per swim about right approach or do I need to build in some step functions where I add 200-300M? 

(By the way, my tris this spring will be sprints, not Olympic.  Perhaps I'll do an Olympic early this fall but not sure)

Mike

Weather here in Houston was drop-dead-gorgeous both yesterday and today: lows around 35 (running weather for 10 miles this morning was as perfect as it ever gets here), dry and sunny, highs right around upper-60s...Yea!

From the peanut gallery here, this is a thought that came to me as I was in the pool yesterday:

To a runner, hills are kind of a natural enemy.  Many runners dread them and as such, never learn how to efficiently deal with them.  This past season, I paid special attention to hill work and technique, and lo and behold, I actually looked forward to the hills as a nice distraction from the boredom of the flat pavement during several marathons/half marathons this season.  As other runners were struggling, muttering to themselves under their breath, all while using absolutely horrible technique, I was cruising and breathing normally.  How does the old saying go:  The enemy of my enemy is my friend.  Of course other runners aren't really your enemy, but if the hills kick their butts and not yours, then the hill becomes your friend.

That is how I am starting to feel about the pool--my weakest event in traithlons by far, and likely so for the majority of triathletes.  The swim is something to dread, to just get through, to survive.  To those very fortunate in the minority who actually excel in the swim, they have such an edge coming out of the water, not only in time, but more importantly in the condition they are in heading to the bike.  While I will never excel at swimming, I am starting to embrace it as a friend and face it head on instead of fighting it or dreading it...kind of like hills.

Mike

Good Evening Mike,

As to your swimming, when you see kick sets taking place you will see most use a kick board, which isolates the upper body and then overworks the lower. This is helpful  to strenghthen the lower back muscles, glutes, and hamstrings used in kicking. If you are wanting to do some kicking, and I'm not sure what kind of kick you currently have I look at it this way. If you have what I call a natural kick, meaning you could grab a kick board and go up and back no problem then I encourage you to do some kick sets, either w/wo a kick board. If it is a struggle and is very difficult, my tendencies when working with triathletes is to not worry with doing much in the way of kicking. I do want to make sure there is some kick for balance and the rythym of the stroke, make sure the toes are streamline(which is where your foot and calf issue is coming from and the running that goes along with training), and making sure the kick stays inside the box, not splitting on the breath stroke and being completely inefficient. Message your calf when you get done at night, the discomfort will subside in a few days.

Give me some feedback on your kicking ability. Your adding a little distance to your workouts this increment is fine. If you get to where you are doing 12-1500/wo you will then be able to do a lot of combinations of yardage and sets. This will also put you at 100% or greater ratio/distance to be swam in the event. Perfect.

And your thoughts on hills and swimming, I will use the word CONFIDENCE, you are gaining confidence in your abilities, the water is becoming your friend and that is great to here. The one area I really stress to those that I help, is I want you to step up to that water line and be confident that you are going to make the distance, the work is done now go and do it. This was one of my first observations in doing tri's, I could see the self doubt on the faces of those who were going to struggle with swim portion. So I make it a point to work on confidence. 

I hope this is helpful, keep up the good work.

Roy-

Re: my kicking ability--I think I have a natural kick...until I start getting fatigued, then I have noticed that I start to scissor kick as I take a breath, raising my head or kind of lunging out of the water, instead of continuing my rolling breath when I am in a good side-to-side glide.  I used to do a lot of snorkeling and SCUBA diving, so I know that I don't bend my knee a bunch, more of a hip-calf-foot motion I think--not a big one, but a fluid one...not sure if I am doing a very good job of describing it or not.

I'll tell you--when I get a good rock-n-roll motion (my term, not a technical description) going, and am gliding through the water, it feels fantastic!  Honestly, although I've been comfortable in the water (and under it) since I was a kid yearning to be Jacques Costeau, I've never felt so good actually swimming.

I assume that swimming is no different than running--you build a base gradually, working on technique, then endurance; then you throw in some hills/speed work (sprints, one-arm pulls, etc.) to hone...and the stamina and longer distances will come...correct?

Thanks for the advice--I'll try some kick drills to see if I can discern anything I might be doing (other than I know I scissor when fatigued).

Mike

Sunday 2/1/09

long slow run is now below 10:00 min pace as standard.  Weight maintained this weekend even w/ couple of cheats (sat 1 burger with bun + 2 naked hotdogs = not quality meats)

Goal was to maintain HR at 170,: Results: aerobic Zone 3 (171 avg/184 max).

felt really good, no bonking even though I didnt take any sugar before, feel I could have gone longer. 

Kick-Azz Circuit Training

Roy,

The workout plan only gives the length of the workout in minutes, no specific workouts.  I develop them as I go.  Right now the emphasis is on volume while I build my base.  I have a college track coach developing a 10K specific running plan right now to start with 12 weeks remaining before my race.  I have a former Cat 2 racer for a cycling coach (a guy from my riding group).  I do not have a swimming coach, I am simply relying on memory of my workouts from years ago.  If you can provide some specific workouts for the 45-60 minute timeframe I would really appreciate it.  The time will increase by 10% each week throughout the program, so I will be training well over the race distance.  I'm thinking I will be able to complete a half Ironman by the end of the summer.  I'll look into paddles for my swim workouts.

Steven

With only 6 weeks before a race I don't think I'd start this--you will be pretty sore after the first session or two if you haven't been doing significant core work, and you know what they say about things close to a race--don't do anything different...! :-)

 Mike

Ok, I ordered a pair of Star Paddles from swimpaddles.com (thanks for the tip on the website Mike).  Now I need some drills.  I hope there's a booklet with the paddles that shows one how to properly use them. 

The next two weeks are the busiest for me away from training.  Both my kids wrap up their hockey seasons the weekend of the 14th, so 8 total individual games left in addition to Region and State tournaments (if qualified).  I will be concentrating on proper bed times so I can get up and work out consistently.  I will have to "do what I can, when I can." 

I received my swim paddles a few days ago but haven't been able to use them yet.  Unfortunately, I thought they were somewhat contoured to the hand, but they are flat, so hopefully they will still provide the pull enhancement that I need.  I suspect that, since they are just plastic, one could boil them in hot water for a few minutes and bend them just a bit to conform to a cupped hand.  Will try them as is first.