Sprint_DA's Mentor Group...full (Page 3)

Hey guys,

Sorry about being quiet recently, but this is mirrored by inactivity on the training front.

I am still bumming around Thailand but will be returning to Beijing tomorrow. 

The year started off well with me doing 50 pushups and 50 situps everyday, as they are the easiest way to work out when on the road.  But partying with friends that I haven't seen in 5 years caught up with me, and I've been lazy for the past few days.

Despite the cold weather, I'm actually looking forward to returning to Beijing.  My New Year's officially starts tomorrow, as I find it hard to get into a routine when I am traveling. 

The plan is to start swimming every morning for 30 minutes and gradually work my way up.  I can't believe that I used to be able to swim 2 hours straight everyday.  Arrrggh.  It sucks so much now, even with my background in competitive swimming.

I will also alternate biking and running in the evenings with one off day--most likely on the weekend.  I plan on doing short, medium, and long days for these two events.  Anybody have suggestions on ways to mix it up within these parameters.  Unfortunately, due to weather and pollution, I will be doing all of my training indoors.

As far as nutrition, I am taking Muscle Milk in the mornings when I wake up and as a recovery drink after working out.  I am also taking 5 to 10 mg of glutamine with my recovery shake.  I felt pretty good, but I was only doing this for a week before coming to Thailand.  Will keep you up to date when I get back.

For those that are interested, I also have a book that is filled with exercises for swimming to help you focus on the various muscles used.  I forget the name but will post it when I return to Beijing tomorrow.

BTW, anybody heard of the 100 push up or 20 pull up challenge? 

Take care,

JDR

JDR,

Sounds like you've had a great time away.  You are still able to maintain push ups and sit ups, is what I need to do when I am not able to workout due to work.  I would like to know the name of that swimming book.  Thanks

Dan,

Thank you for your insight and I will start swimming.  Like JDR said 30 min then build up from there, but will keep running (indoor for now) downloading ALOT of music on the iPod..  Thanks again

Sounds like you've done what you were able to do while on the road.  Good work.  I can imagine it being tough to have to work to do a portion of what was once easy.  It also sounds like you've got a good basic plan for your workouts.  I would recommend adding some aggressive speedwork in to your short workouts after you've built up a base.  Just remember to take a day off/easy day after your tough workouts.  I would usually take mine after my toughest run of the week, that way your body has time to recover from the pounding a bit.

Good luck with your swimming too.  If you don't have much of a swimming background see if you can have someone do some stroke analysis for you so that you can make sure your form is good and your stroke is efficient.

Back home in Beijing. Looking forward to getting into the gym tomorrow.

Here is a link to the book, I was talking about.

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Weight-Training-Swimming/dp/1932549390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262935820&sr=8-1

 

I have a similar book for cycling, Cycling Anatomy.

I have a training question.

Currently, my training schedule for swimming builds to 77 minutes and for running to 62 minutes. The concern I have (Olympic distances) is that I can currently swim the distance in 28 minutes and I can do the run in under 45 minutes. So, how far over the race distance should I go? And, does it make a difference for each element (swim/bike/run)?

When I use to do marathons we would build the endurance, yet, never actually go over the distance? As a result, I would have thought once you were 10% above the distance you should/could focus more on speed (interval training) and technique (that would be slow but a distance of 110%). Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.





Edited by Whato 2010-01-08 5:12 PM

I run regardless of the weather and the swim is in the pool. For me, the bike is most impacted by the weather. Inside watching a video or listening to music. Looking forward to getting the bike on the road when ever I can.  

Scott and Dan I found the following web page to be outstanding for swimming.

The free down load breaks down the "ideal" stoke.

http://www.swimsmooth.com/

Enjoy.

I see your plan doesn't have a workout breakdown in it...that's something I did like in the last plan I used.  If you can do the distance in 28 mins, swimming 77 is going to seem like complete overkill.  Your swim speed is great.  I wouldn't really try to go that full time.  Do some drills, speedwork, anything to break up the monotony of swimming laps.  I would also consider setting up a swimplan.com account (free swimming workouts) which will give you some direction in your work.

Yeah, I hear you on this.  Biking inside is not nearly as fun as riding outdoors.  I too am looking forward to getting back on the road.  Only 2 more months probably.

Whato,

How are you with swimming other strokes i.e. butterfly, breast, etc?  Adding these to your swim sessions may break the monotony and allow you to target muscle groups different from the crawl.

JDR 

That's is a good idea that I have been thinking about. I am OK at fly and breast stoke (back stoke is very average). I started doing fly, however, the lane is not big enough! I have to be right in the middle of the lane or else me hands hit the lane markers and it hurts like a &^%#$. I do think that more fly would do wonders for the back, core muscles and swimming endurance. 

Alright, so how is everyone's week looking?  Anyone have a big week planned, or some new training they're considering?

Hit a wall yesterday. Big time.Did my core work in the morning no problem. But couldn't seem to get the motivation to get to the pool, even though it's only two blocks from my house. Freaking cold in Beijing.In the evening, I went to the gym with the intention of lifting for a short while and then doing a short run work out to practice speed work. The weights were no problem, but the second I jumped on the treadmill, I felt a tremendous sense of lethargy. Not sure what happened, as I have been psyched about getting back to running.Maybe its a nutrition issue. I got to the gym around 5 and started running around 6. The last time I had eaten was around 12:30, so I'm hoping that if I sneak a small meal in the early afternoon today, I can avoid these problems.Anyway, today I woke up and did my core work. Even added an extra pushup rep to each set. The goal is to get up to 5 sets of 20 and then add another set and go back down to 12 or 13 reps per set.Good training guys.

Justin, I had the weekend planned out workout 2x both Sat and Sun.  Then reality hit...work called and I did not make it to the gym.  I had all intentions of getting up at 5am this morning to get to the gym...didn't get up till 6:30am and then it was too late.  Need to get motivated!!! Work just sucks the workout outta me. Need to win the lottery.  Will try tomorrow

Sometimes you just have an off day.  Sometimes it's better to listen to your body.  Last week I was sick on Monday and felt fine Tuesday, went for a swim, made it through half of my swim workout and just crashed.  Barely made it out of the pool.  Rest isn't a bad thing.

Sorry to hear that Bonnie.  I hope he recovers.

Made it to the gym this am.  Only ran 2.75, but felt good to get into the gym.  As long as work keeps me busy I will try that much harder to workout at some point

Bonnie hope that everything is going well with your family.   Health problems are always stressful, so try to give yourself some time to keep your sanity.

January 2010 Goals.

Thought I would list my personal goals for the month, so y'all can hold me accountable, and I also have them somewhere.  Would also be interesting to see what the rest of y'all are trying to accomplish in the next couple of weeks.

Swimming:
1.  Getting to the pool
2.  Swimming 1000 Meters Straight
3.  Completing 50 yards butterfly

Cycling:
1.  Completing 75 minute straight ride
2.  Develop an understanding of how to structure short, medium and long distance cycling routines

Running:
1.  Complete 1KM at 4:00
2.  Complete 5KM at 25:00
3.  Complete 9KM during long distance run

General:
1.  Perform 5 Pull-ups
2.  Perform 40 Push-ups
3.  QUIT SMOKING

Bonnie,

Hope it is all going well with your family! Hang in there, try and get a workout of some sort you'll feel better for it.

Whato

Ok justTRIn,

Love that name totally cool. Any how, I'll try and keep you to your goals, without becoming a bother. I'll even make a few suggestions My first one would be to take your general goal #3 and make it your first priority! Forget the push ups quit smoking - you'll live longer and it will make everything else easier.  Really dude smoking and running 1K at 4:00. For me, that is like running with a brick tied to your left foot. If you do it and still smoke - wow you would be smoking fast (forgive the pun) if you didn't smoke. I would also suggest that you forget distances and focus on length of workouts (swim, bike, run) so that you build a base. However, I think Sprint_DA would be the one to weight in here..... there are some great programs that you can load into your training log as part of this site.

So over the next few weeks, so you can send the love back, here are my goals as list within my train log on the site (I think you can see it?) and a few more I have not put on it as yet.

1) Building base on all sports (swim, run, and bike). Not working on any speed work at all - no interval training planned for January at all. February - I will commence swim intervals as the distance is now easily covered. I think my bike and run distances will be covered by January, but I will probably take February as well to solidify the base prior to interval training in these elements. In the swim for the rest of January - I want to get to consistent 5 stroke breaths, not the three I am currently on. I also want smooth strokes with focused roll and a solid catch. I also want to improve my flip. On the bike, as I build the base, I am attempting to get use to the different cadences. Do I know what 90, 100, and 120 feel like? And, are the rotations even all the way around? Finally, the run, my old sport (boy have I lost stuff here with age), my goals are no pain in the legs at all, staying off concrete, no running with groups until I have my legs back, and smiling for the last 10 minutes every time I run. 
 
2) Introduce a core program to augment the other training going on. (At least three core workouts a week) Not sure which days to include this with. So, if you folks have any thoughts let me know. Look at my planned schedule and you will see what I have going on.

3) Make my kids laugh and my wife smile - not at me, but with me.

See you online soon,
Whato

Edited by Whato 2010-01-14 10:04 PM

Justin, great goals.  Especially, as Lachlan said, quitting smoking.  I've heard from others the incredible increase in endurance when they quit. 

There are also some great winter maint/prep plans.  I actually think I'm going to upload one soon.  This early part of the season is a great time to just build up a base of activity in the three sports.  There will be plenty of time to work on "speed work" as you get closer to your races.  Right now, especially for those of us with deficiencies in one aspect of our racing, general work on form will make you faster faster than trying to do speed work...if that makes any sense.  So much of speed and power comes from efficiency.