BamaDC's Mentor Group v4.0 - Closed (Page 36)

Coming from you - THANKS!

And yes, the arms should be straight out. He has me drilling by swimming with them wide (over emphasizing) so that I get used to it and not cheat over to the mid line. But in those 200s as I was thinking about it, I could feel the power difference almost instantly!

Sicone, you are getting in some good swimming.  I've been slacking.

Sheep, good job on the times.  I took a clinic earlier this year that helped my stroke.  It focused on the wider entry and I've been able to tell a big difference in the pool.  Of course, they de-emphasized the last push before you exit at the back, because, how much benefit are you really getting out of that final push in the back vs. energy used.  Are you better served to focus on stroke turnover?  Sounds like you are getting some benefit from the final push out the back.  I may have to try focusing on that and see what happens next swim.

Since it's brag on swim day, did a timed 100 this morning at masters, and got it in 1:16.  Stayed even with the guy in the fast lane.  Took me about 2 minutes to recover from that one, but happy with the 1:16.  What do I do with that data besides know I did it and try to improve next time?

Great job everyone.

Flip turns are worth about .5s per turn, on average (if you do them well). So your improvement is significantly better than just the turns.

This is turning into a swim group!  You guys are dropping your times like rocks.  1:18, 1:16, a 2:37 200. Damn.

My times aren't moving at all, which is a good thing considering I have a big cherry on my hip and I'm swimming like never these days.  And I'm definitely not shouting my times off of the rooftops.  I have very little to shout about these days.  ;-)

The comment about hands in the water was aimed at sicone.  Sicone - when you do change your stroke, do be aware of overdoing it at first.  Your shoulder muscles are a bunch of little muscles, of which you can easily overwork one and cause a lot of soreness. 

BTW, your "power" really isn't power, it is simply that you are getting much more extension.  Keep working on stretching out and grabbing more water.  Heck, I do drills working on that.  Just a bit more extension and a good catch can add up quick.

Looks like I drew the short straw.

Work called me Fri afternoon and told me to pack bags and start traveling. Sunday I was in the air heading to Columbia, Missouri, where I'll be for the next 30 days. Fun times.

So, from the initial looks of it, I'll miss Rocketman Tri and come home just in time to make it to DC for Marine Corp Marathon. And sadly, it puts all of my Marine Corp Marathon training solo.

Fun times. Here's to training like a mad man while living in a hotel!

I so would have packed the bike and charged that to your expense account.  Damn - we were gonna have 4 people at Rocketman and now we are down to Jason and I to uphold the honor of the group here.  Bah humbug!

Ditto on taking the bike and charging the expense account.

That's a bummer for sure.  No way I can compete with Sands!!!

Sorry I've been MIA.  Got back from OBX late on Sunday.  Had some great workouts.  Awesome rides (it was dead nuts flat) and a little OWS (didn't get eaten by a shark).  Down side was that it was insanely hot an humid so the runs sucked and I eat and drank too much so my wait loss plan has been derailed again.  This week started off as a bust workout-wise.  Pool was closed yesterday so I couldn't swim.  And I crashed on my first post-vacation bike ride.  Worst part was that it was on the trainer. 

That's right... I crashed on the trainer.  I was doing a 20 minute power test and I need to ... um... adjust myself, so I stood up.  Since it was a test I thought I should keep hammering.  Not a good idea.  I started to rock the trainer and couldn't stop myself before I fell over.  The really crappy part was that I was almost 13 minutes in and averaging watts more than my last test and feeling really good!  Oh well.

Oh.. and I started I new job today so I'll probably won't be online much during the day until I get settled in.

Am I a bad person for thinking this is funny?

Sorry Drew but I also chuckled once I read it was on the trainer!

Don't worry, I think it's pretty damn funny too!

HA HA HA... Oh wait, I can't laugh. I did that the other day too I stood up, hammered, and before I knew it, the skewer fell out of the holder and down I went. I fell left into the shelf holding the dvd player, tv, and fan. I could only watch in horror as it teetered on the shelf...

It's funny now, not then.

Oh and good luck on the new job!

I'm working on that... Unfortunately, we're allowed $100 in "excessive baggage" and the airline was hitting me for $150 each way. I'm thinking I may make a halfway trip home next weekend and get it from the wife... but we'll see.

Who knew that you needed to wear your helmet on the trainer.  No rock and roll trainer for y'all anytime soon.

Good luck on the new job!!

Sands, you doing Mountain Lakes next weekend?

Also, have you heard anything about the TT for Thursday?  I'm trying to decide whether to get in the TT or a long ride, or try to do both.

I've heard of "trainer wrecks" and always wondered how that happened...and now I know!  Funny now but at the time I'm sure it was far from it.

I'm paid up and definitely going to Guntersville.

I haven't heard anything more than the announcement.  I'm going to go, though.  Good practice for ML.  I figure I'll do the course hard once and easy once and get 20+ miles in.

Sadly, I'm out for Rocketman Oly

I contacted the race director, and surprisingly, he's going to refund the whole amount instead of deferring me to next year. I really thought he'd defer me, and that I was happy with, but hey, the money is even better.

I did find a place than can rent me a bike, but it's a hybrid at $20/day. I'm not sure that I'll be able to pull that off... I'm trying to see if I can meet the wife in Memphis and get my bike then. My hotel is 6mi from the office, so I'm thinking that could be a fun TT in the afternoons on the way home...

And lastly, the local pool wants me to sign a contract for $71/mo. Are they CRAZY!?!?! I don't think so!

So, it's running and body weight exercises now. I'm putting my sights on the late season marathons and that'll be priority now. So, here we go...

Bike isn't worth it, but I'd pay for the pool.  IMO, of course.

Getting your bike from your wife is $.  Renting a bike box from Vulcan for $10 a week is $$ so you can save money and ship the bike back flying Southwest or another airline that doesn't rape you on shipping.

Last weeks totals:

 Overall, pretty happy with the week.  Needed a bit more biking, but not too bad.

This week isn't looking promising, as I have a race on Saturday, so not much training on Thursday or Friday, except to get ready, so I'm trying to front load the week, and it's not working out with work, meetings, etc.  Will see how it goes.

Anyone else working on their winter training yet?  I'm starting to plan my run races for the winter, and tackling the St. Jude half marathon again.  This time, I'd love to go sub 2, but not sure if it's within reach or not.

Any suggestions on training plans to look for a HM?  I'll have from October 1 til Dec 3 to prepare.  I've thought about doing marathon training to race the half, but not sure if that's worth it or not.  I don't do well with a lot of speed work, given my hamstring problems.

Hope everyone's training is coming along.

Pretty decent week for me, too.  The weekend was rough with a long run on Sat and a long bike/short brick run on Sun. 

Started tapering for Sunday's Oly, so numbers are down on last week.

My week was definitely run focused:

Run: 27mi - 4:42:06
Strength: 1hr 10min

Ok, so I'm really hoping I haven't injured myself. Sunday I ran the trails. I slightly turned my ankle at mile 4 (of 11.5). I thought nothing of it. It hurt briefly, but I could run on it and it didn't bother me. No swelling. No issues.

Sunday afternoon, the bottoms of my feet hurt so I still wasn't concerned.

Come Monday, the muscles all around the ankles were ON FIRE! And there was some actual pain on the outside of the achilles on the right ankle, toward the back of the ankle. I held off running on Monday to let it subside.

Today, same pain. Now I'm worried.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to abandon the trails and run out on the actual running trail (paved 6' wide 200mi long trail) instead of the woods. I don't want to take a chance.

Thoughts? Suggestions?