Gary's Mentor Group - Re-OPENED for Training (Page 31)

Did my second Oly Saturday.  RR is up here http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=260981 

Longest OWS with no wet suit to date.  Wasn't happy with the swim time but was happy with how comfortable I was in the water.

I've been a single mom this past week and will be for most of next week too so my training definitely hasnt been where I'd like it to be but thats life.  I'm mostly limited to my lunch hour during the week (which I'm taking at 10 so that its cooler) and trying to get a sitter for an hour or so on the weekends.  No bueno.  And the kids have been waking up early (like 5:45) so I cant even get in my morning trainer rides. 

But enough complaining.  I've started doing more tempo runs and track workouts and yesterday I ran 6 miles in 50 minutes!!!  Although not a lifetime PR, its definitely the fastest I've run in at least 15 years.  I can tell that the hard work is paying off and am totally thrilled about it. 

Hope that everyone is having a great week and managing to stay cool!!

Its great that you're getting more comfortable without a wetsuit.  For me, a wetsuit makes a huge difference and acts as a security blanket in the water.  I know that I'm not going to drown.  I'm much faster with one becuase I dont have to expend any energy trying to stay afloat.   I have my first race without one at the end of August and I'm nervous about that part.  I'll find out how much slower I actually am. 

Still training too.  Got in ~12m ride Sunday morning and ~1200m swim Sunday evening.  Did a spinning session Monday and will hit the pool again tonight  for 1200-1500 meter swim. 

Oh and Gary ... nice form on the dismount from the race   looks like you've eliminated the socks?

Wow!  Thanks for posting folks as I was beginning to worry that our group was diminishing.  Many of the mentor groups have closed and I really hope this one keeps going. 

One special note: This is one home you can always come home to.  Once you join you are always welcome, even if you only posted once.  So if life gets in the way and you are away for while please remember you are welcome here (although bringing beer also helps!).

Okay, I have to ask the question: Is there something we aren't doing you would like to see?  Most of the challenges I have put up don't last long (probably my fault) but I am not sure the challenges are that motivating.  If you would rather PM me that is fine also.

Mike, nice RR!  Don't sweat the swim (although in those temps you probably were).  You now have your non-wetsuit Oly PR that you can beat next time.

Glad to hear everyone's updates. I'm here still too- just don't always have computer time with kids being out of school. My dd is about to do her second tri next weekend also, so I've been doing my training and supervising hers. Makes for a ton of outdoors time but very little computer time. I've got to get my buns in gear though. I think dh and I are signing up for the Santa Rosa Triathlon in October in Pensacola. There is a kids tri the next day with it so it will be a family affair. Anyone want to come down and join in the fun ;-)

Shelly

Gary - I think that the biggest issue for me right now is time.  I'm here and I'm training but I dont have as much down time in the summer to be online (other than most of the day at work when, in theory, I'm working).  I also havent had many questions recently - probably because all I do is train, get injured/sick, train, get injured/sick, and then bail on my races.  I expect that this fall when the weather is bad again I'll be more active again.  I enjoy being part of this group and having people other than my family to share my obsession with and I like hearing about everyone's ups and downs in training and know that I'm not alone.  Overall I like being part of this mentor group and if it continues into the fall, I'll continue with it even if I'm not a super active/post-every-day member.

Elizabeth

I for one hope our little group doesn't close. I too am crazy busy with my little one out of school for the summer, but it's nice to know you guys are here and it's my triathlon home away from home. I would love to see some more opinion questions just to get to know each other better, I try to keep track of who's who, who's married, has kids, etc. but I'd love to learn more about everyone in the group. Of course I'm a talker and a social butterfly so I like to get the personal side of people I meet. Not a big deal either way, but I love the human interest side of people- ;-). 

Shelly

Great news from all of you!  Appreciate the input and we will be here for a long time.  We may eventually add a few new members but we will have that bear to cross later.  Life has been a little tough the last few days, work politics, more A/C issues, etc.  DS is back from camp today, he had a great time but is very tired.  My training is actually doing fairly decently.  First sign that summer is ending is my pool moved the bulkhead so instead of swimming in one 50 m pool it is now 2-25m pools.  I guess I sneak extra breaths (with more turns) as my 500m warmup is now somewhat easier.

Fun question (hope doesn't offend anyone too much):  There are some clothing optional races out there (running 5ks).

Would you do one? 

For me, nope, I would not want to subject anyone to a view like that.

Her is the link to images of me from my first tri, wish they were priced a little better, I might purchase a couple.

http://www.backprint.com/view_user_event.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=81201&BIB=457&S=230&PWD=

Clothing optional not an option for me. I was a little embarased to wear my new tri shorts and very self concious coming out of the water until I could cover up with my shirt.

Thanks again to Gary and the group, I could not have attempted the first tri without all the great stories and coversations and encouragement. Keep it up.

David

David, the link didn't work for me but found it.  Maybe this link will work:

http://www.backprint.com/view_user_event.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=81201&PWD=&BIB=457

BTW, loved the smile on your face in the swim pictures.  That is what it is all about.

Gary

I love this question. I bought the runner's world magazine a couple of months ago and cracked up over the article about the clothing optional race. I even came home and told dh that I found our first race to do together. My son immediately chimed in that he wanted to do it. I hadn't shown either one the article. I told son that I didn't think he could handle this particular one and he went on and on about how he could do it and beat me at it- I just let him brag on and then I showed him the article- he almost fell off the chair he was sitting on. We all laughed so hard watching him back pedal his way out of that one- lol. 

But to answer the question- No- I don't think I'd subject anyone but my dh to that sight either. As much happier as I am with my 50 pound lighter birthday suit- I don't think I'm one who could walk around in public in it. Now I might enjoy being a spectator- or not- depends on the sights there- lol.

Shelly

Hey all ... still here too.  Like the others life is busy, and I've added another swim session to the week, so there's little time for the computer.  Actually, I think this makes a great statement about the group in that we don't have a tremendous amount of questions; spend a lot of time with training and racing; and encouraging others within the group. 

FYI, here's a link on wheelsets in case ones are looking to buy speed for cheap.  I've spent a fair amount of time past 2-3 weeks fretting over wheelsets and found this link: http://www.bikewheelsets.com/ .  My current wheelset is Ritchey Protocol wheels with Rubino tires.  The tires may be OK, but the wheels need to go.  I'm considering Ksyrium Equips or Reynolds Solitude wheels ... not bad cost via e-Bay.  These are versatile enough to ride, train and race in without too much cost ...

Oh and definitely NOT on the clothing optional race.

Ciao all

Love the pics!  Looks like you had a good time.

David,

Loved the pics. Looks like you had a good time. I have to agree with you on the prices of race pics. I haven't bought mine from my first tri yet because they are little pricey. I have a couple days left to order them and I'm starting to lean towards doing it. Of course, they did send out a discount email code as incentive- lol. I figure I'll only have one first tri so I'm thinking I will get the pics. 

thanks for sharing,

Shelly

So for the past 2 weeks, I've swapped a cycling session at the gym for swim training (2 swim and 2 cycling sessions per week).  Too, I've spent a bit of time watching youtube videos on the total immersion swimming technique.  One thing I was doing with the swim from the start was way too much effort with the kick.  By that I mean I'd kick non-stop, such that by 50 meters I thought my lungs were going to explode.  I'm not sure how this works with OWS, but for the pool my kicks are now one little 'blip' with each stroke and I can swim much further each session ... 1200-1500 meters. 

I noticed Saturday that when my pull stroke gets short - my feet start to drop.  When I felt the feet begin to drop, I'd immediately lengthen the pull stroke and could feel my feet rise.  And by lengthening the stroke, I mean stretching the arm so long you can feel the pull - way down your side, through the ribs and to the waist.  One of the vids in the article section of this forum points to a direct correlation to speed via a long-slow stroke in lieu of a shorter-faster stroke - the former being the more efficient.  Swim times for me are still slow ... 7:00 minutes for a 250m swim, but this is 3.5 minutes faster than my first tri in March and faster than the latest race in June.

I'll end this with saying I've just started to get past all of the 'mechanical' thoughts going thru my head (head down, breath 3rd stroke, legs straight, et al) while swimming.  And it's getting to be fun now because I've started to do things naturally ... I 'feel' the water and 'moving thru the water' in lieu of just beating the water.  I can feel the rise and sink a bit with each pull stroke, I naturally switch off on the breathing - sometime 2 beats -3 beats or 5 - whatever I need at the time and I'm working on a flip turn. 

It's really nice to see some return for ones efforts ... keep up the hard work out there

Dorm - nice job.  I know late last year things started to click and this year my swimming is much better (although lately my energy level for swimming seems to be lower.  At one point I was happy with 2:33/100m for 100m and a couple of weeks ago I hit 2:06/100m for 1000m (50m pool).  The two big changes for me were:

1.  Kick - saw this on a video analysis and my masters coach was harping on me about it.  I was getting my legs way too far apart on certain strokes (think super exaggerated kick) and it was like putting on the brakes.  Coach had me practice kicking with a pull buoy to get me to keep my legs together.

2.  Pull - concentrating on high elbows.  When climbing a ladder we don't keep our arms straight, we put our elbows out as that generates more power.  On my strokes I was reaching too far towards the bottom of the pool.  Working on high-elbows it helped me generate more power thru my strokes (poor explanation but if you search youtube video on this there are some great ones, I think Gary Hall Sr. has a great one).

That said I a still a MOP swimmer at best.  Someday would like to be a little closer to the FOP, getting there but it will be another year or so.

FYI, on the TDF competition I won some tires!  Kenda's.  I rarely win prizes so this is pretty cool!

I'm still here too. As i'm not writing much i still read all the posts (may be a few days between reads but i do read and enjoy them).

Clothing optional race i would have to say ..... no. I would talk a lot about entering but when it comes down to it i don't think i would. Get me drunk enough, maybe but then i'm not gonna want to run. There was a Seinfeld episode about good naked and bad naked and i would fall into the latter category. I can't imagine watching the first olympics some odd thousands of years ago where everyone competed naked.

Dorm - Great job on your swimming improvement.  It is nice to see hard work finally pay off. 

Gary - congrats on the new tires.  I never win anything.  But this week I'm convinced that I'm going to win powerball.    I'm really tired of working every day and think that life would be so much more fun with my own private jet.

For me, no way on the naked run.  Although I feel like overall I have a pretty good body for a mom with twins, I absolutely do not have a body that I'd want to show the whole world.  Quite honestly, even at 16 when I had a great body (although I was too young to realize it) I wouldnt have entered a naked race.  Just not interested.  And, on that note, after participating in Bay to Breakers this past spring, I saw plenty of naked men and the kind of man that gets naked in a race is not the kind of man that I want to see naked.  Makes me shudder just thinking about it.

Have a great week!

Thanks Gary. I do have an issue with the kick when I turn my head to breath.  When I turn my head to breath - my feet and legs go haywire.  I realize it and am working on it but for now it's just a quirk.

For the pull, my mental picture is that of an army crawl - elbows out and arms high and pull yourself along.  I also got a tip from a swimmer to finish the stroke all the way through and actually 'flip' the water as your hand is coming out. 

I have seen Gary Hall's video on the pull and use of the elbow-high arms and this being a more efficient technique.  I tested this for myself some ~3 weeks ago wherein I timed a lap with the hi-elbow vs windmilling.  I saw a little improvement in time, but the real benefit of the hi-elbow technique was it's a much easier stroke to maintain and requires a lot less energy and this overall translates into a more efficient stroke; i.e. swimming faster longer.

All,

Below is the link to a friend of mines logs, she is another member of the Left.Right.Repeat mentor group that I joined a long while ago.  She wrote up her 70.3 RR in her July 25th log.  It is a great RR about sticking with a race when just about everything goes wrong.  She did not a get an official time for her race as she missed the cutoff time.  That being said she is more of a triathlete then I am and completed her first 70.3 IMHO.  Please read if you get a chance:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.asp?memberid=40789&year=&month=&day=

Dorm - I have a competitive swimming background and have coached and taught swimming in the past.  These are the drills that I recommend:

The best drill to practice for high elbows is finger-tip drag.  With every stroke drag the tips of your fingertips across the water - it forces your elbows up.  I'd also recommend catch-up stroke where you do one right arm stroke, then one left, then one right, repeat.  There is a slight pause at the top when you switch arms.  This is a good drill for concentrating on your stroke and it also really makes you pay attention to your kick when you try to breathe on your side.  I also recommend kicking with one arm out in front, one at your side, and breathing to the side with the arm down.  You'll be slightly on your side the whole time.  If your left arm is up, your right is down and you practice breathing to the right.  This also makes you concentrate on your kick while breathing. 

Also, you dont want to envision an army crawl too much while swimming.  You'll raise your head too high, which drops your hips and legs and makes it impossible to maintain a streamlined position and makes it way more work that it should be.  It can also make your back hurt.

Hope this helps. 

Elizabeth