Benihana's Group - CLOSED (Page 3)

Life will always get in the way, and since we are not professional triathletes, we can not make training our number one priority.

A couple things that help me to get at least something in when the days get a little busy is to bring my stuff, and either run before work or during lunch. I find it really hard to get to the gym (very little pool time this year) after I get home, but if I can get it in before I get home that always helps. Another thing is to try to get to bed early and then get up an hour before you normally do and get a run in

I ran 2 miles Monday, biked 4 Tuesday, swam Wednesday (didn't go so well), and will run 8 x 400's tonight.  I'm still trying to build my base back up and will start increasing distance next week.

Is it an absolute no no to race with a nose clip?  Trying to breathing correctly in the pool last night was kicking my tail.

I have seen people race with them before, and some even race with ear plugs. I think as long as you are comfotable, that is the main thing.

I would, however, recommend e-mailing your race director (their contact should be on the race's website) and just double check with him/her. The last thing you want to happen is to train with one and get used to it, and then find out that you are not allowed to use it on race day

How was everyone's weekend? WEre you all able to get outside and get some good work outs in?

Work is still wearing me out, but with the limited time and energy, I'm not too upset with what little bit I got in the past couple of weeks.  My running is starting to feel really good, and my swimming is coming along.  Time on the bike has been almost non-existent though.  Since I'm not comfortable in rush hour traffic yet, it makes it difficult to get out on the roads except for on the weekends and for the past month, its been raining every weekend.  Also, I don't have any legit cycling shorts, so my bony @$$ is taking a pounding..........   not ready for long periods on the bike trainer.  I'm topping out at about an hour.  Hopefully for the rest of this week I can really get back into a good routine.  Can you suggest a good HR test for the run?

how do you count your strokes when swimming?  is it only one arm or both?  Additionally, what's a good stroke rate to reach for?

Each arm.  I'm at 21 right now (2 weeks ago I was at 21 with fins on)  My coach says he wants me down to 16 or 17.  However, he also said it depends on what style swimmer you are.  For others that are more gliders and streamlined, he would try to get them a little lower.  For me he wants me turning over more to use my upper body strength.

I count them together....usually I am right around 8-9 (16-18) strokes per 25 yards, but that can vary. I think the most important this is to make sure you are doing it consistently. And like GG said, one coach will have you do it "this" way, and the next coach will hat you do it "that" way.

I think the stroke count that GG mentioned is a good starting point, but you also need to look at the time it takes you to swim the length of the pool. For instance, I could use only 4-5 total strokes to get down the pool, but my time would most likely be double (I would be focusing more on my kicking). So you really need to play around with a few to find the right count for your body, but I would say to start with 18-20, and go from there

I finally did it. As I was pulling up to the water fountain, clipped out with my left, realized I was too close to the fountain and tipped over right... (face palm)  Luckily there were only two cyclists watching, oh and a group of about 15 runners meeting at that exact spot for an early morning run .  I didn't even look at them.  I got my water and pedaled away.  Bike was fine, pride was shot...

Been there, done that....except mine was at a busy intersection, and while my brain said unclip, unclip....my foot said "what does that mean" Over I went....a scratch on the pedal, and a bruised ego....it happens

shortly after that I was going through a 4 lane intersection slightly uphill from a standstill and couldn't get my left shoe clipped back in.  I have the look keo pedals and the pedal was turned over.  I couldn't get it back around.   I pray to God no one had a video camera rolling that early, because it couldn't have been pretty.  Its a quick light and there were cars that were bearing down coming from the right which clearly meant the trip on my intersection was about to occur and they weren't slowing.  Thankfully I was able to get a couple of pedal strokes while not clipped to get through the street.

That's where the one legged pedal drills come in handy!!!

um, ok.  So I've recently come to the realization that I need to take a master's swim class.  My times are not improving at all.  my distance is improving, but my speed is not at all.  I am guessing that my form is off or my breathing or something.  BIG problem though.  The master swim classes at my gym don't correspond with my schedule.  So I'm leaning toward more self fixing.  Is there somewhere that shows the position-to-position stroke movement we are supposed to have?  I just saw something on a post about keeping your high up near your chest during the pull in some kind of contorted position?  I had assumed you want it relatively straight during the pull.  So apparently I'm all kinds of messed up!!!  At least that explains my slow times.  know hwere any instrucitonal video are?

Not really to answer your question but...  I was doing masters swim for two months  Started from scratch.  My stroke was atrocious but i got to where I could do about 2000 yards/practice.  Not getting any better though and received no coaching.  I've recently taken two lessons and planning a third. My 100 yard time is smoking now but thats about all I've got in me.  I can't figure out how to slow down(to keep from exhausting myself) and increase arm turnover (like coach wants me to) at the same time.    Since you have the stamina though, I would suggest you go with private lessons.

Yep, I would reccomend private lessons as well. If that isn't an option, I would look at total immersion, you should be able to search for that on youtube.com and find some video

Gaither,

You know when you are having a bad day and then hear about someone else having a worse day, it makes you feel better about your's.  Well I'm about to make you feel like Michael Phelps.

Last night for the first time ever I swam 25 yards breathing correctly.  HOORAAYYY!  Baby steps.

I know I sound like a ratard (The Hangover), but I actually am really excited.  Now I just have to build endurance.

Good luck with your swimming.

So I got something worked out on the swim lessons.  time ti get after it!!!!!

CV, thanks for the encouragement.  I appreciate it.  Keep it up.  Your baby steps will pick up pace and lengthen their stride soon.

On to another question.  I have a sprint - Oly Tweener (1,000 mtr S; 18 mi B; 6 mi R) coming up in June and will hit my Oly in September.  so far, so good, I feel like I'm on track to hit all distances.  I want to hit a HIM by Sept - Oct of 2011.  Need to know when I can work a half Mary in?  I feel like if I can complete the Tweener then I should be able to hit up a half mary, right?  I mean it's all endurance, right?

Another question is, I didn't do any GU or bars or anything for the sprint.  I don't think I need one for the tweener either and I'm not thinking I do for the Oly.  Figure as long as I make sure I'm hydrated (NOT HYPERHYDRATED) going into the events and eat some fruit for breakfast then water and Gatorade will keep me hydrated and energized.  Is this a bad idea?

Gaither,

I ran a marathon in December.  My advice with the GU is if you can train without the GU and feel good only hydrating with water and gatorade, then you should be able to continue the same pattern for the race also.  Just my humble opinion. 

A friend of mine invited me to go ride with some pro cycling guys on her team yesterday.  I did ok, obviously they are in a whole nother world, I was just trying not to get left.  This was my first ever ride with anyone else and my first ride over 40 minutes.  Those of you familiar with Alabama know how hilly it is.  We had 3 ridiculous climbs that I was happy just to make it up without stopping.  They waited on me though.  Then at about mile 31 on a descent, I couldn't make the sharp left and ate it.  I'm super sore and the ego is bruised about as badly as my shoulder is.  They were cool about  it, but I felt bad.  one of the guys swapped his back wheel for mine, because mine was no longer ridable.  Bc of his break set-up, he was able to ride with a slightly bent wheel until we got back.  2.5 hour ride and I learned A LOT, mostly the hard way, but lessons learned.  Hats off to those guys too because they all rode with me for a bit and gave me pointers and whatnot.  I thought that was pretty cool of them and I wasn't expecting it.

Nice work on the ride....that is definately an accomplishment. That was pretty cool that he was willing to swap his wheel for yours....hopefully you make a speedy recovery

It's official!   I registration yesterday for my first Sprint Tri on Aug. 21.

Question:  Since you all have been swimming longer than I have, do y'all still get out of breath while you are swimming?  I was wondering if that is normal or something that I am doing wrong.  It may be my bad swim technique or the fact that I'm still not in great cardio shape.

to a certain extent, yes, a little out of breath, but once I get settled in I am normally fine.


I would reccomend slowing down a little and not trying to go so fast in the pool and to focus more on getting the distance down, and then work on getting the speed up once you are able to swim for longer periods of time.

That you mention you are not in great cardio shape will have some effect on it as well

So I had my first masters swim class on Tuesday.  One of those things where I had to MAKE time.  Anyway, so it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!  She changed like 8 things right off the bat.  I swam for an hour and half trying to get the form repetition into my muscle memory as best possible.  We'll see how it works out next week.  But the big plusses were: a) I didn't lose any time.  I kept my same pace with less strokes. b) I felt like I could go for hours on end.  I think I did about 2000 yds, but I felt like I could have easily done 4,000 yds.  c)  everything she told me was stuff I had read, but thought "there's no way they mean to actually do that, that just feels weird".  I needed someone to reinforce, "yep, they really mean to do that".  Anyway, thanks for pushing the master swim issue.  would have kept putting it off had you not.

Good to hear that the class was beneficial....now I just need to follow your lead and get going myself!!

So...first race coming up this weekend.  Any advice?