kenj's group closed, training hard and having fun!! (Page 37)

Keep track of the packet pick up. All the races I do have the packet pick up the day before the race and typically not at the race site. I also get my body marked at the packet pick one less thing to do on race day.

My first tri this year is at the end of a dead-end road. Cars are lined up for miles down the road. Most people bike in. Not good if you forget something.

I had a nice swim workout during lunch today.  I did a few 200s and wanted to do them at 'race pace,' or what I thought could be my race pace (1:50/100yd).  I ended up doing them a bit faster (1:38-1:44) which is slightly shocking to me (in a good way).  I'd never done the conversion from yards to meters before so I was a bit surprised to see that 1:40/100y is about 1:50/100m.  Does that seem to be right?  For comparison sake, my 750m sprint swim is about 825y in the pool.

I've mentioned this before in our group, but I've spent a lot of time with bilateral breathing - believing that it's best for balance in the water, rotation and for just being able to do it.  I'm not convinced, however, that I'm faster that way.  Today on the 200s I did most of my breathing on every stroke.  I feel as though the extra breath kept me stronger throughout the interval - maybe getting more oxygen to the muscles?  A slight sacrifice of body position for increased oxygen and ultimately greater strength/endurance/speed.  Any of this make sense?

I was on the swim team in high school.  That is where I learned bilateral breathing.  I do feel that breathing every stroke slows me down - but when I get going, I get out of breath and I just have to breath every stroke.  Sometimes what I do is breath to the right a few times and then switch and breath to the left a few times (does this make sense?) that way, I am still get more breaths in, but I am also getting both sides.

Two quick questions:

1) What is the length of an official sprint? (if there is such a thing)

I see various distances for all three disciplines for different events.

2) Is it normal to have new kinds of knee pain when starting speed work when running?

As a twist on my (too infrequent) run last night I decided to push things, and my knees feel decidedly different today. If this is normal I'll ignore it, but if I've done damage I'll pull back awhile.

I didn't overdo it, merely sprinted every second set of telephone poles for about 1.5k. Felt fine last night, no issues, but this morning the front of my knees are achy and complaining. I'm thinking this could easily be associated with the different/longer stride when going faster, but could also be from increased pounding - at 220 lbs my legs get a fair bit of that.

Particularly at this early stage of the season injury avoidance is mission #1. Been there, inflicted that, trying desperately to learn.

Sprints seem to be the only race that does not have an official distance.  I'd say generally that a sprint is 750m, 20k, 5k.  I've seen variations of each discipline though depending on the race, the location and the race director.

I think you nailed it with the increased pounding from the increase in speed/longer stride.  I get some patella knee pain (right under the knee cap) from harder workouts or races.  Ice the areas if the pain continues and take a few days to run easy before another hard workout.  Most times this will help the knees to recover.  Ibuprofen should help too.

ETA: The more frequent you add in the harder intervals, the more your muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments will strengthen which will (hopefully) reduce the aches and pains the following day.

- Bilateral breathing means 50% less O2.  Good for training to even stroke.  Good if you can do it for long distance to swim straighter.  I can't hold it in a race though and my swim coach told me that was probably true.  Need more O2.  So I do what you do...a few strokes one way, a few the other, sight, then repeat.  Also bilateral training is great so you can breath on your weak side to avoid the sun or waves from one direction if necessary. 

- Knee pain when running.  Did you ice after?  Take Ibuprofen too.  Anti inflammatory meds are good.  But can be a lot of things...how old are the shoes...your stride may change just enough to cause issues...are you landing on your heel, if so try for mid-foot.  Watch Chi Running vids on youtube.

Things are going good for me.  I ran 9 miles in 95 degrees last night at a decent pace with two brief water stops.  Swimming is going good.  Bike is good...VO2 exercises are harsh but it's all paying off.  Just wonder if I'm doing enough...Will ramp up steadily from here through... 

I felt great last night after the run, no issues whatsoever beyond the heavy breathing, so didn't even consider icing knees.

After some of the stuff I've read lately I'm trying to avoid NSAIDs, I've used them rather extensively in the past to deal with goalie knees and diving. I'd checked with a DR and he said it was fine (taking them every day) but he was just a GP. Some of the more recent research indicates that long term damage can be done so I try to take them when only absolutely necessary. Checked with a physio nurse who does sports medicine and she said she doesn't recommend them to her patients because the long-term implications are not well understood.

The only time I encounter a sprint that is the same distance is when I sign up for the same race the next year. It seems around here that logistics play a big part in the race. Swims are mostly 500 meters to 750 meters but the bike and run legs of a race vary greatly. I think with shorter races the RD’s have less flexibility in the distances and routes and re just kind’a forced into distance. That might be different elsewhere but around here the race sites really dictate the length of the race.

As for the knee pain sounds like you over did it, sprinting just increases the stress on your knees. Follow icemans suggestions (advil, ice etc..) and take it easy next run.

I just lost my whole post.  damn.  Is there something I am doing wrong that causes my posts to disappear when I submit them?

What button do you hit as your last step in making a post?

"submit"

I highlighted those two points because, in my opinion, they are critically important. When I increase my pace, I focus on increasing cadence rather than stride length. I think that over striding and landing out in front of your body rather than underneath is a recipe for injury.

Not only are sprint distances not standard, but many are also inaccurately measured. That, plus varying terrain makes it hard to compare different races. It's much easier to compare the same race done in different  seasons.

I wish I could breathe bilaterally! When I learned freestyle (over 45 years ago, yikes!), I only breathed to my left, and I can't break the habit. Like Scott said, it would help in a race depending on waves, sun, buoy placement,etc.

Tom, getting back to your race when you lost your breath, I agree with Scott, you probably went out a little too fast. Once your breathing gets out of whack while swimming, it is very hard to get it back. On race day, first I try to get a nice warm up swim. Then, at the start I try to focus on nice, easy, long, smooth strokes, and a good glide. A quote I like pertaining to swimming is "slow is smooth, smooth is fast".

Haven't posted much, but I've been following the thread and everyone's logs and everybody has been doing a lot of great training and racing! Keep up the good work!

My first sprint this year (which is in a few weeks) has an advertised bike leg of 8 miles - it's really more like 7. The run is advertised as 3.5 miles it's really closer to 4 miles plus you have run about an 1/8 of a mile down the beach to get onto the road course. Now that's a real brick workout for you.

End result is it looks like I'm flying on the bike but really slow on the run - Well I like running better anyway so longer runs are better for me....

Sherri's Stupid Swim Question of the Day:

Swimming = easy.  No sweat.  Not worried.  Swim in the lake.  I have been in the ocean.  (Grew up in a town on the shore.)  Started swim lessons at the age of 10 months.

So.. it occurs to me the other day that the biggest difference for me between the pool and the open water is...

wait for it...

No wall to push off of every 25 yards.  Duh.  Just straight swimming.  ~hmmphf~  So - when any of you pratice in the pool - do you practice NOT pushing off?

No...not on purpose I miss the wall....

I just bought three race wheels and a Power Tap on eBay.  Great price.  First eBay auction purchase.  I hope I didn't screw it up...

If it's not too impolite to ask, what do those things go for these days and how does one actually use a power tap?

I push off the wall, just try not to overpush.  My right shin gives me a lot of trouble which is mostly from running, but believe it or not I can feel some pain when I push off of the wall (usually push with my right foot) so that helps me to keep my 'pushes' light.

Not a stupid question at all, in fact it's a very good question. Since you swam on a team, you know how important that strong push and long underwater glide is when you are racing in a pool, and you are right, you don't get that chance to push off every 25 yards in OW. However, you also don't have to stop every 25 yards in OW either. What I do is push off just hard enough to get right back up to speed. This way my form and especially my body position stays good. Hope that makes sense!