Dominion's Sprint/Oly/70.3 Group--Closed (Page 3)

Hi Chris, thanks for the welcome and sure more than happy to share experiences and insights, coaching is something I really do enjoy. My most enjoyable coaching experiences have been seeing a few complete novices, unfit and in one or two cases very overweight, complete their first triathlons, the emotion is amazing! Looking forward to being part of the group, and receiving support for my first 70.3 in June!

Chris my training suffered more from two 30 hour days and a 12 hour drive to disney. Three spins, 1 swim and 1 run. Adjusted my bike and really like the new fit

Well. I am in California & although it not as cold as others parts of the country. It is cold for me. I am working out in my local big box gym. My biggest challenge is fitting in my workouts when I work 12 hour shifts. Second, nutrition. Going into my third week & i have been pretty good with my training.

Actually, yes, there is! Snow shoveling is considered a "sport," as is yard work and home improvement. I log everything that makes me sweat!

Edited by burner2 2015-01-12 12:08 PM

I thrive in the cold and trade running for cross country skiing. To me, the ideal triathlon would be swimming, biking, cross country skiing. I can ski for miles with no hip pain, but I did hit the treadmill at the gym twice last week and ran a personal best: 5K in 40:57. I know that's really slow for most people, but for me, that's fast. I haven't run that fast since high school. My skiing's slowly getting faster, too.

I'm also getting used to using my trainer and figuring out ways to get past the mind-numbing boredom.

These are really dumb, but they work for me. I've found counting to 100 equals about a half mile on the trainer and keeps my mind engaged, so I when I feel like quitting, I just tell myself to count to 100. And then I'll count to 100 again. And I just keep counting to 100, adding about a half mile each time. It's psychologically easier for me to add miles when I'm looking at it as counting to 100 instead of riding a half mile. It keeps my RPMs up and keeps me from watching the mileage counter on my bike computer. I might even engage my inner child by making a game out of it--count to 100 while keeping my speed above 20 mph. I've surprised myself a couple of times by riding a few miles beyond my original goal.

Also, I might put something on Netflix and talk myself into riding just until the show is over. If I just want a short workout, I'll pick a comedy. If I want a longer workout, I'll put on Dr Who or Star Trek. Then it's kind of like a reward (I don't have a television, so watching a show is not something I regularly do). But, I don't do like those people at the gym--stare mindlessly at the screen while slowly (and uselessly) spinning the time away. I make sure I keep up my RPMs and also do counting if I find myself slowing down or wanting to quit before the show is over. Once I hit the play button, then it's a commitment, and I don't let myself out of it.

This is just what I've found so far that help. It's all about keeping the inner child happy.

Randy I bet you can already swim the distance. Only the first few hundred meters are physical, from there it it's mental. Most people recount acute changes in distance. Largely because they finally realized they could. Make every week longer by 100 yards (just 4 lengths) and you will hit your distance in no time. I had a big hurdle with this last year and worked up to a mile and a half straight. I was only limited by boredom and my ability to keep track of laps

First swim of the year, 1250m back feels ok, let's hope it stays that way!

One thing I do on the spin bike is focus on spinning at about 95 rpm, gives the mind focussed!

I've found TrainerRoad a big help with boredom (only been using it a month, so take this with a grain of salt). There's a certain element of "I can't stop until the workout ends itself", but also the rides I've been doing are all broken up into pretty small segments. So even if it's 3x12 intervals, those 12 minutes are broken down even further so every minute or two you change you cadence, stand up, etc. It means I never have to think too far ahead.

Does TR require you to have some type of power or cadence meter/counter?

Nate, I think I can get there or close to it now if I'm properly warmed up. I think one thing that is holding me back a little is that I don't want a repeat of last year. On only my 8th swim ever trying to do laps in a pool I was able to go 1700 meters. It took me 58:00 minutes because I was going so slow and just trying to learn to swim with decent technique. The problem, in my eyes, was that I increased my distance much too quickly and it aggravated a previously existing shoulder issue. I spent the better part of the next 3 months trying to get over it, which made it harder for me to train. I had to drop to just one swim a week and even then I was nursing my shoulder through a lot of it.

This time around I'm trying to be a little more careful about going too far too soon. I want to make sure I slowly build my distance to allow my shoulder to get acclimated to it and not end up injured again. The first few swims back to start my training seemed like I was going to be in the same boat. I was having to put Icy Hot patches on my shoulder to help get over the pain I was feeling. But it seems to be getting better. My last swim session, I did an 800 meter "lap" (and 1700m overall) and didn't feel the need for the Icy Hot. Yes, I wasn't out of breath or nearly drowning after that 800m and I could have gone farther, but I exercised some caution and ended there. I'll want to repeat that at least one more time, hopefully without pain again, and then I'll set my next target at 850 or 900.

Oh, and I use a SportCount lap counter and timer. I love it. It fits on your finger. You count your laps with a single touch and it makes it a lot easier to keep track of your laps. In a 25 meter pool, I count one lap as 50 meters. So for an Olympic distance swim, I'll need 29 laps. I don't want to have to remember which lap I'm on, I want to focus on paying attention to my technique. The SportCount has worked great for me and would recommend it to anyone. When you're done, it will give you the total number of laps, total elapsed time, fastest lap (lap # and time), slowest lap (# and time), and your average lap time. My only complaint is that I would like to see my splits for all laps, but it only gives you fastest, slowest, and average. I liked it so much that I bought one for my brother, too. :-)

Edited by rjchilds8 2015-01-12 9:40 PM

Room for one more? If so, here's my story:

I'm 37 in a week. I was active through highschool and even rowed my freshman year of college. Then I took a break for about 15 years. A few years ago I began running. I've never come close to really racing, but I've finished a couple 10-milers and one HM. After taking too many months off at the end of 2014, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a Sprint Triathlon (I've been contemplating it for a while, but the decision on the actual race happened quickly). My first tri will be on May 31. It's not a mini, though it's shorter than some sprints -- 400 yard pool swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run.

I have a number of challenges, though none are insurmountable. I've run, as I mentioned, and have done long bike rides in the past as well. I haven't really done any lap swimming since I was a kid, though, so now when I try to do some I'm often stopping after each 25 yard length. I'm certain a lot of this has to do with stroke mechanics and efficiency. I also have signed up again for the 10 mile race I've done the past few years, which takes place 5 weeks before the tri, so I am trying to figure out how to balance training for both. Last, finding training time is difficult. I am an attorney and a father of two wonderful kids (6 and 4). Both keep me very busy.

In any event, I'm looking forward to the tri and I hope you still have room in the mentoring group to answer what may become innumberable questions about some of the basics of triathlons.

Thanks,

Dan

Hi,

I'd like to start out the year by participating in a group which I haven't done in a couple years. I'd like to join you guys if you don't mind!

I started in triathlon in 2010 after completing my first marathon in 2009. My goal at that time was to do one sprint tri. I did and then got hooked and did a bunch more that year. By the end of that year I got motivated by one of my mentor group buddies who did an Ironman his first year so I went ahead and trained for and completed an IM in 2011, my 2nd year doing tris. Since then, I've done mostly sprint/oly's. I trained for a Half Ironman in 2012, but got injured badly so I took time to heal. I finally got back to steady workouts again in 2014 and now I plan to complete two HIM's in 2015.

My username isn't very creative. After i created it, and joined a group and saw all kinds of Kool names and I wished for something "cooler" but it is what it is. I didn't realize at the time of joining that I could've picked whatever. So I'm "ecpasos".... just call me Enrique


Enrique

I live in Northern California and chose some close to home. I'm doing the HITS Napa Valley half ironman in April. Then I'll train for the Ironman Silverman near Las Vegas which will happen in October. I'll take the family to Vegas for a vacation on that one. I'll also do some local Oly's and run-only races to keep me interested.

I'm super excited to do my first Half Iron distance. Can't wait!!

Just to be clear, it will give you your average time to complete a lap. You have to manually advance the lap counter, but it's just the touch of a finger. So it doesn't know how far you are swimming, just that you have counted a lap. More than once I have accidentally recorded a lap when I had only gone 25 meters instead of the 50. In those cases, I usually make up for it by going 75 m before recording the next lap. It will screw up my slowest and fastest laps, but the total and average will be correct.

I have the blue one and I forget how many laps it records. It's either 50 or 99. There are several models, so if it's only 50 for the blue model you might be able to find a different model that does up to 99. Here's a photo array of the screens you'll see showing total laps, total time, average time per lap, fastest lap #, fastest lap time, slowest lap #, and slowest lap time. The blue ones retail for around $30. I think a couple other models might be closer to $35.

Edited by rjchilds8 2015-01-14 12:44 PM






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I can recommend the swimovate watch which I've used for a couple years now. I bought mine for $100 and I see online now that the more recent versions are selling for around the same. It's not so much that it breaks the bank and it will count laps and yardage in a pool. It provides tracking of time so you can get an accurate swim time. The only manual part of is is hitting the button when a set is complete and when you start a new set. Here's a youtube video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GmkcI1oz_U

Enrique

Edited by ecpasos 2015-01-14 2:18 PM

This one is relatively inexpensive at $30. Just gives you the basics. For me, the two most important numbers are the total laps and total time. I can't tell you how many times I lost count in the middle of a swim before I got the SportCount. Too many to want to admit! Yeah, I could calculate the average time by myself, but it's nice that it does it for you. And I do like to see which was my fastest lap and which was the slowest. To be honest, about 99% of the time, the first lap is always the fastest! LOL My slowest lap is in the middle a lot of times. Maybe I feel like I'm going too fast and am afraid I'll wear myself out before finishing my planned distance and I slow down to make sure I make it? I think the last thing I get from that information is to look for consistency. I like to see the time gaps between my fastest lap, slowest lap, and the average. If those gaps are low, then it means that I was in a pretty good rhythm and had consistent times.

Got in 21 minutes of swimming tonight (though I'd imagine at least half of that may have been hanging onto the side of the pool trying to catch my breath. Total swim was 500 yards.

WU 25x4 / kick 25x2
50x3 with 30 seconds rest (ended up being 50, 25, 25, 50, and the last lap of the 50 was largely breastroke)
25x2 catchup
Kick 25
25x2 catchup
Kick 25
25x2

Any thoughts on how to move from here to doing more non-stop swimming. Even the 50s are hard at this point. Step one is just getting to the pool regularly I guess. And a close second to that is probably finding someone to assist with my form. Beyond that, though .... ???

Also, what does everyone think of coaches for someone just hoping to finish, not really "race"? Worth the money?

NOVAdan, do you have a masters swim class in your area? That's how I learned proper stroke and worked my way up in distance. Mine was free as it was offered at my gym.

Enrique