Newbz' Spring Fling Mentor Group is FULL! (Page 32)

I was pretty much full swing into HIM training at this time last year.  I am obviously just doing short course stuff, so I feel like I'm not doing enough, so it's a challenge for me.  I can't push the run and my bike workouts are keeping me honest, but I may ask my coach to throw in another swim workout.  I really want to push the swim to be the best I can be and I think I can do that without too much fatigue.  I'm only doing two days of swimming a week right now for a total of 4-6000yds a week....Any suggestions?

I'm out for a day or two after the cortisone shots today.  That my friends is not exactly a fun time....although not as bad as I thought it would be.  The initial injection burns like a mofo and it's a bit sore to walk on now.  Doc says back to normal tomorrow.  We'll see.

Edited by jgerbodegrant 2011-01-25 8:46 PM

i'd def ask about adding in another swim workout if you can, 2x a week is going to be hard to make progress for anyone outside of a person that is getting in the water for hte first time.





As far as this year vs last, since the end of my season in 2010 i've been doing very very well.

I've learned a lot about what my body can handle as the training load goes up, and more importantly, what a high load feels like. That;s been important and has helped me understand the dif between being tired and normal training aches and pains vs something wrong, or the warning signs of something wrong. Because of that i've been a lot quicker to take steps when things start to hurt/feel off, and its amazing what a day off before things get bad can do to prevent weeks off later.

I've been able to put in more mileage in the past few months than i have total over MUCH longer periods of time, and i'm feeling good and getting faster.
It goes to show hard and smart work goes a long way, i'm living proof of that. A few years ago i was running mid 20min 5ks and was hurt every other week.

Went out for a ride at my favorite spot to do intervals for the first time since this past summer.  I was pleasantly surprised to see some pretty good improvements in my power numbers.  I was able to still hold around the same wattage on the hard efforts, but I tried to keep my recovery efforts closer to 75-80% of my FTP instead of 55% which I was doing before.

The result was an overall workout where I averaged 20 watts higher overall.  Speed was also about 2 mph faster, but I was on my TT bike today...I think the test I was comparing to was on my road bike.

Okay, will ask about an extra swim today.  As for progress, I'm glad to hear it.  I'm sort of where you were, so I'm hoping to see a good improvement through smart training these next couple years. 

what...do you weigh 45 lbs?  never knew you could average 20 watts and still go that fast! 

Yeah, there is something about them having your money that adds a little urgency to your training.  I mean, I can have something on my calendar and be training for it but when I pay the entry fee, I have added motivation.

Definitely.  Particularly in an event like Rev3 or IM where you are putting out $300-500 plus travel and hotel expenses.  My wife would castrate me for throwing down that kind of money on a DNF when that money could go towards taking the kids to the beach.  Quite motivating.

I had the turbinate reduction also, but I don't imagine a lazer was used.

Two days before the procedure, I made the mistake of looking-up the things that could go wrong. I should have avoided that one.

The gauze packing comes out this afternoon, but I can aleady see the difference in how the cartlidge (sp?) is shaped. . I'm expecting a great improvement, but not until I'm recovered. Right now it took all of my energy to make coffee for my GF, and I wasn't able to finish making it. Hopefully I can get at least on the trainer, if not on the road, in a week or so.

Good luck with the recovery!  You've got plenty of time.

I had a great swim today.  I worked on a bunch of the drills we've been doing in the tri club sessions.  I can really feel the difference in my technique and it seems to be coming along really well.  It also felt like I got a good cardio workout - which is not always the case with my swims lately.  A lot of the time, I'm going so slow to focus on technique that I feel like I'm not working as hard.

Yesterday ended up being a lost day of training.  I was going to go for a run when my husband got home and then swim after the kids went to bed.  Enter 3 hours of overtime for my husband, which ended up messing with both plans.  I could have done some trainer time instead, but I decided to just call it my rest day and train on the day I was going to rest.  Sometimes you just have to roll with what you get.

Hopefully the cortisone shots do what they are supposed to.  It'll be worth it then.  How's it feeling today?

I'm feeling really good about the run and swim, though I know I need to get more time on the bike.  I've been focusing on the run because of the half mary training, and I've sacrificed a bike session to get in extra swim time.  I just feel like I need to really take advantage of the progress I'm making right now and log the pool time.

I must admit, I'm also bored with the bike.  I'm sure I'll feel more into it once I can go outside, but it can be a challenge logging trainer hours.

I am happy with my training.  My running seems to have come back to where I was before getting sick in December, and my swim workouts are kicking my butt.  Last week was a "peak" week for my.  I logged my longest consecutive swim and longest overall session in the pool last week.

Recovering this week so pretty easy so far.  Start building again next week.

I felt great, until the ITB tendonitis. 58-mile rides, 36 in hills w/ 700ft climbs. 6-mile runs with the times steadily dropping. My swimming was improving, but not at the same rate as everything else.
Now, though, I'm going to be kinda starting over. So long as I can keep a consistent schedule and enough discipline to not push myself so hard that I aggravate the tendonitis, I should do well.

Weight loss isn't so much a priority for me, so I'm not concentrating on that. I expect I'll drop a little weight just as a matter of course.

Probably just due to the hip angle.  I imagine I would have the same difficulty.  David mentioned before that single leg drills aren't really necessary.  I sort of agree.  I understand the feeling or sensation it gives you to help you get proper ankle flex through the stroke, but for most people it naturally happens while clipped in.

This ^


That said. If you are going to do them. its harder on a tri bike due to the change in geometry.




The weather decided to ruin any chance of training today.

Woke up to the end of 5in of snow coming down, then it snowed/sleeted/rained all day, then aorund 7pm it started BLASTING down snow. there has been lightening and thunder mixed into the snow all evening. supposed to be getting 9in tonight.

fuuuun.....

This would explain why it worked way better on my road bike last year versus my tri bike this year.

And why would these drills considered to be no that beneficial?

The two real things that led me to stop doing were:


1- you are clipped in, you HAVE to pedal in a circle.

2- There have been a LOT of tests from people with better (see circle) pedal strokes vs those totally untrained, and its had ZERO effect on power output once clipped in.







And..... On a fun side note, work tomorrow is cancelled due to weather:-)

As promised...here's the video taken of me from Monday.  This is AFTER I thought I had most of my fish-tailing/cork-screwing fixed...LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM52LM8r7K0

Things that are obvious to me is that while I was trying to keep my recovery arm entering wide...it's still very close to center.  My left arm looks okay...but my right arm is funky.  I enter in way over my head, then fan it way out to the right.  I assume that's why I always tend to drift right when I swim.  It doesn't feel like I'm doing that when I'm swimming...so this video was an eye opener.

Also my kick is much worse than I thought.  I try to 2 beat kick...but my legs spread way to far apart, and my toes are pointed almost straight down.  My ankle flexibility isn't the greatest...but I can do better than that.

That being said...I'm still swimming pretty fast by my standards.  I can only imagine what I will be swimming if I can simply correct these obvious flaws.

Feel free to comment.  Butcher me if you have to.  My goal is to get better...not to have people adore me and pat me on the back.

Oh...almost forgot.  The most important points about my video that you must observe.

1.  It's an outdoor pool
2.  It's 7:40 pm
3.  The water is about 80 degrees and the outside temp is about 75

That is all 

Dagz' critiques are much more articulate than mine so he can probably elaborate more.  I'm a lot better at showing than explaining.  On the first lap, the first thing I noticed was your right arm obviously.  It looks like you are submerging your whole arm bent at a 45 and then extending the elbow which will cause drag (slow you) and may force a little of the zig zaging.  Picture a hole where your hand enters and concentrate on making your whole arm go through that hole.  That will help your arm get to the proper position to begin your next stroke with the least amount of drag entering the water.  I think if you get the entry fixed your right arm will be pretty good and shouldn't be reaching over to far center.

On the second lap the kick became obvious in the full body shot.  As you already pointed out, you are splitting your legs and the feet are at a 90 instead of toes pointed behind.  There isn't much kick there with the feet pointed like that so your legs are basically just dragging behind you low in the water.  Some good stretched to help with ankle flexibility are getting down on all fours with your feet stretched out in the proper swimming position and sitting back on your heels.  This will give a good stretch and you can easily control how hard/long you stretch by how far you sit back.  Another is to either sit in a chair or lay down in a situp position with one leg crossed up over the other.  Rotate your foot in a circle.  It can be as slow as you want just concentrate on making big circles to get as much range of motion as you can with the stretch.  I usually just do ABC's when doing the circles.  That's 26 rotations and I do them clockwise and counterclockwise with both feet.

The big thing I saw that could be the cause of the zigzag as well as the legs splitting is under the water but it's hard to see so I could be wrong.  It looks like when you are skulling, (the motion your stroke makes underwater) about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through your pull your hand is too far in under your body.  In order to clear your body at the end of your stroke for the recovery, you are having to force your hand back to the outside quickly which will give you a slight bump to the side momentum wise causing you to bend sideways with the hips instead of rolling them.  This could also be the cause of your legs splitting.

On the plus side, your breathing looks really good which is something that a lot of people struggle with.

I don't know how to post pics or links but here is a little diagram that shows where your hands should be underwater through the stroke.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/sports/images/swimmer.gif

Oh, I almost forgot
1-it's going to be a high of 25 here today
2-all of the outdoor pools have 2 feet of frozen green water right now
3-you are an @ss for rubbing it in.

Edited by ClydeNewb 2011-01-27 7:47 AM

I agree with almost 100% of what BJ said.  Just thought I'd add a couple things that I noticed as well.

1.  That right arm enters the water bent, but like BJ said, your arm doesn't follow the same entry as your hand,  it essentially snakes out to the side.  Looks like this is happening because your hand is entering the water almost on the wrong side of your head.  You are not pulling water straight back, passed your body, your more or less pushing it to the side and then back.

2.  Remember after you enter the water, the first thing to move is your forearm.  You should be breaking at the elbow and "grabbing" the water with your forearm and then pushing it back, past your body.  You are not breaking that elbow until half-way through your stroke.  You can can see this is evident paused at 1:11.  When this happens you are pushing water down towards the bottom of the pool.  I would suggest swimming with fists to correct this problem.  Closing your hand will force you to focus on using your forearm to pull yourself through the water.

I know you're not ian thorpe, but this slow-mo video shows that break in the elbow really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8qUpeDb8kI&feature=related

3.  Make sure you finish each stroke.  Looks like your not getting that push from your triceps right at the end of the stroke.

4.  The break in your legs from kicking only from the knee appears to have you hinging at the waist.  When this happens your legs also spread apart at the knee.  When your legs spread apart it makes that hinging worse to counter-balance your upper body.  Practice kicking from the hip and kicking small.  I sort of focus on a quick snap from the butt/hip.  Easier said than done in my case.


And thank you for the update.  Now I have my sister on Maui and you reminding me of the frozen land that is New England. 

PS...gas is 2.75 here.  And a block of chedder cheese costs me like 2.50.

Edited by jgerbodegrant 2011-01-27 9:37 AM

Touche.

I just filled up gas last night.  At $3.69 a gallon for 89 grade.  I wouldn't buy a block of cheese, but I know milk is about $7 a gallon