Gray Guys/Girls Masters Focus Triathlete Forum (all levels welcome)--CLOSED (Page 31)

Hi Dave,

Good job!  If you are at week 6 you are just starting the true endurance build part of the plan I suggested for Kris.  How is your swimming at this point?  How is your technique at this point?  At this point you should be able to swim 100 yards, without stopping, fairly easily.  Is that the case?

Remember that consistency is very important, especially during a base endurance build.

Keep up the good work!

This brings up an interesting question/debate topic.

All of my kidding about weather and temperature notwithstanding, we do get the occasional cool morning here.  When I lived in Indiana, I regularly had to deal with cold temperatures with single digits, snow, and ice often in the equation.  In the cold, I always add 20 degrees to whatever the temperature is to 'properly' dress for runs.  If the thermometer says 34, then I dress for the run as if I am going to be 'lounging around' in 54 degree temps, if it's 45 I dress for 65 and so on.  I do the same thing but only add 10 degrees to ambient temp for bike rides.  The bike's a bit harder however because of the wind chill so in cooler temps I always have a wind breaking outer layer of some sort with me (wind breaker, arm/knee/leg warmers, etc. as needed).  In cold weather (below freezing) I would actually start subtracting degrees for the bike due to wind chill and add layers as appropriate.

Now that temps are starting to climb, wondering what everyone else does?  This is the time of year when you are most likely to get caught out with way to many layers.

Dave,

Not sure if this applies to you, so if you are already doing it, then good for you!  I always tell swimmers I work with, "If you are not inhaling, you should be exhaling."  From your comment in bold above, it sounds like maybe you are not exhaling underwater?  Remember when you learned to swim and the instructor said put your face in the water and blow bubbles?  This is why.  You should ALWAYS be exhaling underwater, then when you breath, you only have to inhale.  It makes for better breathing, and it also helps with balance in the water.

Here is a drill you can do to help with kicking.  (Yes, I am actually suggesting a drill!)  Sit on the first step in the pool.  Legs outstretched in front of you, toes pointed.  Now begin to flutter kick.  Kick from the hip with NO knee bend.  The advantage of this method is that you can actually SEE your kick, unlike on a kickboard.  You want to strive for no 'gap' between your feet - meaning your feet are generally side-by-side through the entire kick movement.  When you kick from your knee, your feet separate by several inches.  Do this a couple minutes before each workout for a few days and your kick will be SUBSTANTIALLY better.

Since you are just at the beginning of an endurance build, a quick suggestion.  As I have said MANY times, I am not a fan of long swims in training, however they occasionally have their place.  Specifically, I like to see a couple 1,000 yard time trials, one early in the season and one later in the season to determine and track improvement of what I call the "basic swim fitness level."  If you take a swimmer and have them swim far enough, you will eventually get to the pace they can hold 'all day long.'  For the majority of swimmers, a 1,000 yard time trial will generally provide that data.  Preferably you have splits at every 100.  If you feel up to it, I would encourage you to do two time trials after a good warm-up.  A 100 time trial, as fast as you can go.  It should be an all out effort.  Once you have recovered fully, by which I mean you warm down for a couple hundred yards and your heart rate is back to normal - probably at least 10-15 minutes -  then do the 1,000 yard time trial.  Press the split button on your watch every 100 or have someone take 100 yard splits.  On the 1,000 you should try to go at a steady pace.  From those two times and the splits on the 1,000, you will have a baseline from which you can objectively measure progress, plus you will have pace from which you can plan workouts.  If you can't go 1,000 yards yet, then a 500 TT will likely give you a starting baseline that you can work from.

If you decide to do the time trials, let me know and I will help walk you through planning workouts from those numbers.

Keep up the good swimming!

Just got back from NY late last night.  I'll update 2 weeks this weekend.  

Mentally I am done.  I train for the physical outlet of my frustrations....Seeing my mother failing is becoming my un-doing.

I am sorry Judi. I am still sending you strength!

Sorry Judi.  Prayers for you, mom, and family.

Tough going for you and your family.  Sorry that this is all happening.  

Happy Friday everyone.

So far I have had a good week of training.  I am gradually increasing the speed and duration of my runs.  My swim time has dropped a bit since January (thanks Scott!).  The weather has finally turned and I foresee consistent ability to bike commute and catch my weekend group ride.  In fact, I have my group ride tomorrow.  I am sort of dreading it but looking forward to it at the same time.  Last time I did it I was pretty wiped out for the remainder of the day.  Roads are still pretty filled with potholes, sand and salt so it will be a ride w/ my commuter bike.

I am deviating a bit from Scott's swim recommendations for the next few workouts.  My focus is finding my 'recovery' stroke.  Much like the jog/pace we might do between running intervals.  My hope is if I can determine what this stroke effort is, I will avoid switching to breastroke half-way through the swim during an event.  I've yet to complete a race without resorting to breastroke half-way through.  This is due to lack of fitness and also not knowing what swim pace to target when I do get tired.

I also saw a number on the scale that I have not seen since last November!  Yeah!

Today I am foregoing a lunchtime workout for lunch with a colleague.

I hope everyone has a nice Friday and a good weekend.

Fingers crossed. I am going to attempt to go for a real, outdoor bike ride this weekend. I hope my foot doesn't act up!

Originally posted by JREDFLY Hi Scott - This mornig I felt like my stroke was going too deep when taking a breath. When I would breath to the left my right hand goes too deep and vice versa when breathing to my right. I told my coach this and he said I was probably taking too big of breaths and to shorten it a little and take less head turn keeping more of my face in the wateer. It appeared to work with the few laps I had left , my arms didn't feel as if they were working as hard (which I think is a good thing).. My cadence was going a little high so I tried to slow it down a little to make sure I was reaching and brushing my hip. .Any thoughts, do you think my coach was on the right track? BTW I like the new kick drill, I need all the help I can get.

Hmmm.  Without seeing you in the water, my first inclination is that you may be lifting your head a bit as you breath.  You can easily see what happens by getting into the "swimmer's position" and putting your arms and head into the position you would be in as you breath.  Now, raise your head and watch what happens to your forward hand - it drops several inches.

I would suggest a couple things.  First, make sure you are exhaling while you are swimming.  A good thing to remember is, "If you aren't inhaling, you are exhaling."  That way, when you breath, you are only breathing in, which makes it faster.  Second, you should only be turning your head, not raising your head and your head should essentially follow your shoulder rotation.   As you turn your head to breath, tuck your chin just a little bit.  Your forward momentum through the water creates a 'bow wave' in front of you.  That wave creates a trough, or stated another way, a low spot, that extends down both sides of your head.  By tucking your chin as you turn your head, you are breathing from that trough area.

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you go 5-6 strokes without breathing (other than turning blue)?  Do you have the 'dropping your hand' feel?

Ahhh!  So you have been exploring TT!

I have to give you a bit of background to answer your question.  Since I put a link to my catch/pull article up here (I posted it here in the gray guys/girls forum as well as in answer to a question over in TT) I have been inundated with questions regarding technique.  Enough so that decided to put together a new website specifically about triathlon swimming.  It is going to cover everything regarding triathlon swimming from training to endurance, from technique to open water swim skills.  I have been working on that for a couple weeks now, so Johnyo's video came along at a very timely moment.

Now in answer to your question.  I saw Johnyo's video shortly after he posted it.  My first thought was, "He is doing the catch that I wrote about in my article."  We use different terminology, but we are both saying essentially the same thing with regard to the catch.  A couple of people over on that thread said they had read my article and were trying to reconcile the 'differences' between his technique and mine.  I answered that I saw no difference.  Indeed, if you look at his hand position at the moment of entry, it is exactly the same as the hand position I describe in my article.  The other seeming differences are, in large part, because he is on dry land and there is no 'water line' to reference.

Now, I will say, he is only talking about the catch.  I think you need to look at the entry and the beginning of the pull to fully understand the catch.  He doesn't go into the entry and only briefly touches on the beginning of the pull.  However, if you take his video in conjunction with my article, you have the whole picture.

In my article, there is a paragraph in which I discuss getting your hand into the correct entry attitude.  If you read that paragraph, follow along and get your hand into that position, then look at your elbow as compared to his video, you will see they are in exactly the same position.  Several people have made comments about how much flexibility you need in your shoulders to get into that position.  That actually isn't true.  If you focus on the hand position, the elbow position will take care of itself.

That video absolutely compliments my catch/pull article so since Johnyou posted his video, we have PM'd back and fourth a couple times.  I have asked his permission to place that video on my new website and he has graciously allowed me to do so.  I think his video perfectly augments what I say in my article.  I am going to rewrite the article a little bit to incorporate the video.  I think together, the article and the video provide a very good foundation for a proper entry, catch and pull.

One final comment, I am not so enthusiastic about the balance ball drill at the end.  As I said earlier, I think you need the 'whole picture.'  His ball drill does not promote proper entry attitude nor does it really help with proper pull position so I am not so sure I advocate the ball drill.

Hope that answers your question.

Thank you, but I think you are the one putting the laps in.  You deserve the lion's share of the credit.  Good job and keep up the good work!

I actually thought this was pretty informative...so that's what they mean!

I looked at that thread....need to go back to that video with a few other points that I have f=received of late....maybe there is hope for that mess I call swimming yet.