Milaminute and Sparco's Group - Closed (Page 3)

Name: noz/adam

Story: i swam competively from the age of 10-21 at which point i said "enough, i want to do nothing now."  after i chunked up to 260 pds, i figured i had better do something about it.  i turned to the anti-sport of swimming which is running.  after i got running a while, i threw in a triathlon just to see if i could do it.  got back into running, and after i finished a marathon, i was looking for a new challenge.  triathlon was never far from my thoughts.

Family Status: married to a beautiful woman for five years and have since made each other stupid for anyone else.  we have a 2.5 year old daughter with baby noz #2 due to appear in may '08.

Current training: injured!  just finished my most aggressive season and now i am kind of recovering.  trying to swim a bunch for the december challenge.

2008 race schedule: not many slated.  baby noz #2 will be taking up a lot of time.  ironman is on hold for '08

 What i hope to get out of being apart of the group? the best thing about bt is learning from each other.  each person brings a unique set of skills and point of view to this site, it's a wealth of knowlegde.  "i not only use the brains that i have, but all that i can borrow"  pres wilson.

yeah, a quote!  eat that!

Seesh Mila...Noz found us...now what?

Craig, welcome!  I'm 43, so you're in good company.  Mila's 29.  She's a youngster.

Congrats on quitting smoking.  I find if I have a goal race, my running and swimming become much more focused.  For running, I try to have one speed day, a tempo day (what you feel is a good race pace at a shorter distance than the race) and a LSD (no not the drug) day (long slow distance, slower than race pace, comfortable and slightly shorter than the race distance).

For swimming, drills and intervals is the way to go.  I typically do balance drills and mix in some intervals, 50s and 100s.  I rarely do continuous swims...maybe once or twice a month.

Maybe the high school and college swimmers can chime in here.

Hit the trainer or a spin class in the winter. 

HR training is a great way to go.  I find that I have less injury that way, because I'm in the body's 'normal' operating range during most of my training, and not overexerting myself for every workout.

Good luck with your training and welcome to the group. 

Welcome Jeff!  I hear you on the swim.  Confession:  My 1st open water swim (705 yds).  I was wiped out at 350 yds and hung out on a float and chatted with the life guard until I caught my breath and swam the remaining 350.  My goal for my next tri was to swim the whole distance continuous.  Hit the pool in the winter and did a lot of Total Immersion balance drills (www.totalimmersion.net) and lots of yardage, and ta da!...no problem with swimming the distance continously the following year.  My current goal is to work on speed.  Trying to get my times below 1:45/100 yds.  We'll get advice on how to do that from the swimmers in our group . 

Next steps:  just post away on this thread.  Fill us in on your training...what is working and what isn't FOR YOU.  AS A GROUP, we'll try to give you advice. 

Welcome to the group...

EDIT: and BTW, I grew up in Erie, PA, just north of Pittsburgh...

ferdinand magellan - 2007-12-12 7:36 PM Hey Guys, I'm fast approaching 50 and am new to this whole triathlon business. I registered for an Olympic distance tri this coming May. I've never swum much and can barely do 50 meters in a pool without having to take a break. I can see that the swim is going to be the most taxing. The biking seems to be coming much easier. While I've done a couple of marathons a few years back, I'm extremely slow and running 5 or 6 miles is quite a chore now, but I'm excited at the prospect of completing my first triathlon! I've always been active, playing a variety of sports, including lifting weights. I don't see being able to bench press a lot of weight working to my advantage in this sport but I'm not going to give up the strength training as I love to play softball and like to dial up doctor longball on occasion.

Hiya Ferdinand Magellan.  I used to do the coolest unit on explorers when I was a teacher... but I digress .

Congratulations on signing up for an Oly!  We'll help you prepare and hopefully provide a few laughs (at Sal's expense, mostly ) along the way.  You have plenty of time to get ready and we have some awesome swimmers in the group who can give us all some advice.  You can swim twice as far as I could when I first started!

Welcome to BT and to the group. 

ferdinand magellan - 2007-12-12 6:36 PM Hey Guys, I'm fast approaching 50 and am new to this whole triathlon business. I registered for an Olympic distance tri this coming May. I've never swum much and can barely do 50 meters in a pool without having to take a break. I can see that the swim is going to be the most taxing. The biking seems to be coming much easier. While I've done a couple of marathons a few years back, I'm extremely slow and running 5 or 6 miles is quite a chore now, but I'm excited at the prospect of completing my first triathlon! I've always been active, playing a variety of sports, including lifting weights. I don't see being able to bench press a lot of weight working to my advantage in this sport but I'm not going to give up the strength training as I love to play softball and like to dial up doctor longball on occasion.

Ferdinand (don't know if that's your real name), I was in your position about 3 years ago.  I would tire after 50 yds.  I found out I was kicking way too much (and inefficiently).  As I slowed down my kick and worked on balance, I could instantly swim FOREVER, quite slowly, but forever.  As a newbie swimmer I was a big TI (www.totalimmersion.net) fan.  The speed for me came as I continued working on efficient technique and intervals.  Still not where I want to be, but getting closer.  I've kind of 'outgrown' TI, so my stroke, breathing and kick are changing slightly as I work on speed.

Nothing wrong with strength training.  I think a lot of triathletes start shifting into more core training as they get closer to the race season.

Welcome!

Yup, there's room.  Welcome to the group.  Please tell us a little about yourself and your training goals!

Welcome, Gygy!  Please tell us about yourself and goals and we'll do what we can to keep you motivated and accountable .

I told you we should have changed our usernames before starting this thread...

Whoa!  We're CLOSED! 

Congrats to all you lucky winners.  You've got the golden ticket to the premier Mentor site on BT.

Let's rock and roll...

Heh.  You just made me spit diet coke all over my computer... yes, yes of course I'm 29 plus 9

Hmm...look at that...according to our titles, I'm a master...and Mila's an expert...what's next...wizard?

(pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...)

Jiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmm!!!!!!  Welcome!

Yup, indeed... I went ahead and closed the group.  Here's a list... be sure to add each other to your "friends" list on your training logs so you can link up with others' logs easily.  Let us know if you need help getting that set up. 

Milaminute - Mila
Sparco - Sal
1.  Redlv - Kara
2.  LWoodtri - Corey
3.  HammerOZZ - Andy
4.  Crouse - Craig
5.  Scarface - Jeff
6.  There is no number Six (yeah, you just kinda have to get used to it...)
7.  Cashmason - Cash
8.  Ferdinand Magellan -
9. Noz - Adam
10. JJCraig - Jim
11. Givemeashot - Amy
12. Pilotncommand172 - JC
13.  gygyhawk - Gygy

Just you wait until I get my 6,000 post and I get to pick my own title

Welcome Gwendolyn!  It's nice to have another female in the group (o.k., was that non-PC?).  I was starting to think that Mila was the reason all these guys were signing up for this group.  Oh, wait...that's probably not too far from the truth (I've been to her spin class...she's hot ).

It's great when you can find group workouts that fit not only with your schedule but also your level of fitness (or that cater to multi-level workouts).

Anyone else training with groups?  I am part of the North Atlanta Multisport Club and often do group rides with other members.  It's a fun way to train. 

Masters swim programs are also an excellent group training activity.  Don't let the name dissuade you... you don't have to be a "master" at swimming to participate.  They usually have an A, B and C group and you complete the appropriate workout. 

Awww, shucks, Sal... that invisible font thing is making me blush.  Kara, Amy, Gygy and I will hold our own with all you boys .

Holy smokes that's a huge jump. 

Did you have marks on your face from the mask?  Is the raw area sort of in the shape of the edge of the mask?  It sounds like maybe it was too tight... which you might not have noticed on a short swim but the increased length of time in the pool... but it seems like that wouldn't have come on 30 minutes after the swim.  I'm not sure.  Bodyglide on the edges of the mask?  I don't think you'd wanna get it in your eyes though.  Hmmm.  Hopefully some of our swimmers will weigh in on this.

milaminute - 2007-12-12 9:46 PM Today's gold star goes to Corey for posting his workout here.  Nice run today!  Sal gets negative 4,000,000 points for not posting his after my request .

If you just give me a minute Milaminute:

Here's today's workout:

Hit the snooze alarm way too many times and was late for George's spin class (the same play list as last week...errrghh...Mila, can you move up here so you can teach spin class?) so only got 19 min of spin in, did an additional 17 on the stationary, then had to go to work and sit in a WHOLE day of meetings.

How's that for mentoring?...I am a shining example to the BT community...

Have a 2000 yd swim workout on the docket for tomorrow...