HILDEBEAST'S Mentor Group, CLOSED! (Page 3)

thank you for the Swim Distance tips  
looking at the list of the members on Hilde's team, i see that i'm the only "outsider" here :D

Yikes!  That is some murky, brown water!!  Where exactly is "Roll Tide"?! 

I would bring everything you'll need on race day so you can test your equipment out.

I love ocean swims.  I tend to over-think the sea creatures when I'm waiting around for my wave to start, but once you start swimming you won't give the creatures a second thought!  You'll be focusing on breathing, finding your rhythm and getting out of the water!

Yes!!! Thank you for the table Hilde!!!

It is Mobile Bay- it is brackish water- a mixture of salt and fresh- there can be sharks. It gets closed for swimming several times a year due to pollution- I will be detoxing after this race  

Yes I have been swimming in creeks/the ocean my whole life I can do the distance -if I don't freak worrying about fish.  Honestly after reading Erin's race report I think I need to quit whining suck it up and just do it!

I'm pretty new to BT also, but as far as  I know you will not be notified if someone logs. You can go to someone else in the group's logs and see what they have logged. 

You would know if you were added by going to their log page and you would see your picture on the left side under friends.

thanks Melody.  i'd try browsing through our group's logs because i'm sure i'd learn a lot from it

Yes, Charlie, Melody is right... you will not get notified if someone posts in their log, you gotta physically go there to check. Also, if you click the + sign on the left where your friends list is and where you add everyone, at the bottom there should be a list of all the people who have you as a friend... sometimes it can be enlightening, I have some people on there I have no idea who they are! 

One other thing, and this comes up everytime I have a new mentor group... if someone sends you an inspire and you want to say something back to them, you MUST click on the REPLY button, a new inspire window will open, you should see the inspire you just got, and under that, type your reply and press Submit or whatever that button says.  If you type in the box under the inspire, it goes in YOUR log and the original poster may or may not see it.  When you click and do the REPLY, it goes to THEIR log and they get a notification they have an inspire waiting for them... I LOVE seeing that red number when I open my log!

Remember, to GET inspires you have to GIVE inspires!!

Also... the table above came out bigger than I wanted, I have a smaller version on my dashboard, I think you can copy and paste.   Oops, no you can't, here it is!

Melody had posted a swim question or observation over on her log and as I was typing her an inspire, I thought that everyone could benefit from this!  So here it is!

For what it's worth, I breathe pretty much every time on the left (I'm right handed).  My gut feeling is if you need a breath, breathe, no sense depriving yourself of oxygen!  That said, I CAN breathe on both sides, although left is more comfie for me.  It's good to be able to do this because in a race, sometimes the sun will be in your eyes, or you want to scope out the competition.  Swimming 1000 yards straight all the time will build your endurance, but it won't do anything for speed.  To get faster you need to incorporate some intervals, something like swim 50 yards/meters (up and back in a 25 yard/meter pool), rest anywhere from 10-30 seconds, repeat so that you've done 8 of them.  You've now swam 400 yards, FASTER than you would have done without the rests, and your body will begin to adapt to the speed.  Shorter rests build endurance, longer rests will build speed.  Check out a website called swimplan.com.  It used to be free, I think you can get one workout a day for free.  You can pick which strokes you would like to use, what swim toys you have, an approximate distance or time for the entire workout, etc, and it will spit outa workout for you including a warm up, drills, main set, and a cool down.  I print them out and then reuse them.  Another great website to get a really good mental picture of a perfect stroke is Swimsmooth (Google it, I'm not sure of the complete website name).  Mr. Smooth is an awesome swimmer!

x2 on the swim tips here!  Hilde is a terrific swimmer.

I have found the workouts on Sara McLarty's website helpful.  In the past I have not been very good about following a workout plan of some sort.  But lately I have been and find that I am able to swim longer and with more energy.  So I am a swim session convert!  I print out the workouts, save them, and bring them to the pool in a plastic page protector.

Thanks Hilde!  These tables are always helpful.  I've also added everyone in the group to my friends list so you can see how terrible I've been at working out and posting over the past few months.  

Happy workouts to everyone today!

Another tip that helps me immensely with my mentor groups since I can't connect during the workday is the "Toggle e-mail notification" button in the bottom right hand corner of this thread.  If you activate it, it will send you an email whenever someone posts in this thread, which can be helpful (or overwhelming if people start talking about a whole lot of nothing).  

Melody,

I am right there with you about the creatures in the water.  I saw JAWS when I was way too young!  Even the music gives me chills.  I shuddered when I read that there were sometimes shark in the water where you will OWS.   But ... here's my story.  I live 1 hour from the pool which has limited open swim hours which seem to be designed for non-working folks.  Once the weather gets nice, I am pretty much stuck with OWS.  Of course, no oceans or gulfs here in Montana.  I have the river (a little treacherous, and often too shallow) and a murky reservoir chock full of slimy carp and catfish.  I don't like them, Sam I Am. 

Unless it is brutally hot, I swim with my wetsuit because I can't stand the idea of a fish touching me.  I have been known to hyperventilate and flail around like I am drowning when I spot something moving in the water.  My first sprint, I was most worried about embarrassing myself and crying, "Fish!" like a siren.  What happened, though, was that I discovered I liked swimming in the group because than I had friends/protectors/water thrashers.  It was completely different than solo swimming.  I did not think once about the creatures.  Now, if I could just convince 50 other people to swim in the reservoir with me when I want to train ....

Hmm, I think my critter fear may be less than most.  Cool something in tri that I'm good at!  Not a big fan of snakes, but luckily where I am they are mostly harmless.  Not many dangerous fish/sharks where I'll do OWS or race either.  Good thing there aren't many spiders in OWS, LOL!

Also, I float quite well!

I guess i am just gonna have to remember I am now a BEAST!!! I have seen water moccasins several times (Lonsome Dove scene anyone?) but they generally scatter when there is a lot of commotion. 

I got a pretty big blister on my foot (bottom inner edge) toward the end of my run today. I am not sure what caused it, I have been running in the same shoes for a month or so, I dont know what to do to heal it quickly & how to avoid more....grrrrr I dont need to slack up on any training now!

best thing i've used to heal blisters is to apply aloe vera (the plant) on the blister, and keep on re-applying when it dries.  the blister will still be there in the morning but it won't hurt anymore, and you could run again

Awesome, thanks!  Il ove natural remedies. I only have one blister- I hope Erin and her poor feet see this!!