swbkrun's group- CLOSED (Page 42)

1 on 1 coaching.  I do once a month right now.  Since I have a pool where I work it really makes sense for me to do the majority of my swimming during my lunch break here, so Masters doesn't work for me with my schedule.

yep that makes sense on your breathing.  We have been working a lot of stuff, because I have a lot of issues : )  Other things we have been working on it getting "traction" in the water to allow me to get more power out of my rotation.  Kind of like a golf swing.  You have your feet to keep you planted to get a good powerful turn to hit the ball, in swimming you need to use your hands/forearms for that anchor.

The whole breathing thing tends to disrupt my glide on my left side, I thought it was that I just had a weak pull but seems to be the breathing keeping me from getting any kind of distance on the left side.

It is amazing the few times it all seems to come together, gliding effortlessly(sp?) along the water, seems to use almost no energy and I look at my watch and I am 5 - 10 seconds faster per 50.

I was swimming 2:15 -2:30 per 100, now I am down to 1:45 - 1:55 per 100, just working on keeping that pace up for a whole 2000M, because I can go even faster if I just do a 100 which before I was always the same pace no matter how fast I tried to go.

Yes and no. The suit is a rental.  I don't if you followed the Annapolis Olympic ordeal last year, but the race ended up being cancelled and I did the SavageMan International in western MD instead.  Killer hills!!!!!!!   This photo was trying to blow off nerves before the ice bath swim.

Yup Barry. THose are exactly the same bars. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. How do you like yours?

Hey Tony...Looks like a sweet ride for you coming this year!!

Question for you-- Is that your artwork in the background?

haha yeah sadly that was the least junked up wall I could find to put my bike on.

I like the bars ok.  I mean, they work well, but I took them off after a couple of weeks because I really didn't think I would use them much.  I felt that it was pretty uncomfortable for me to get into the bars.  It may work better if I got a forward post and actually set up my road bike more like a tri setup, but I don't know if it is worth it.  I felt like there just wasn't enough angle between my thighs and torso.  I did like the flip up pads though.  I actually bought a set of bars that had stationary pads, but did not like them at all, because you were FORCED  to stay on the hoods, so I swapped them for these.  The flip up pads do allow room to put your hands on the straight part of the bar easily.  Hope you like yours.  My thought is there is no substitute for a tri bike and hope that I can pull that off before next year.  I think that for my HIM I just want to cruise thru the bike as comfortable as I can and really am not worried too much about the time.

Since you 2 are talking swimming.....I have started to try to do the bilateral breathing. And I suck!! I am a left side breather normally, and have that all under control. But as I am trying to incorprorate the right side breathing in every 3rd stroke, I have zero balance when I try to pop my head up on the right side for a breath. My left hand is still stretched forward, but I feel like I am going to topple overl. Thoughts?

I have to say the reading during my morning coffee has been more enjoyable lately.... keep up the good posting.  I'm feeling better this week - I wasn't sick or anything, just sort of not into it the last couple weeks and really having to force myself to do anything active and not really enjoying it when I did.  Bring on Daylight Savings Time!!!!!

I installed the cadence sensor for my FR 305 over the weekend and have been spinning on a trainer a bit.  Nothing worth logging, mostly trying to get a better fit on the bike.  One thing I've noticed is that 90 RPMs on my bike feels much faster than 90 on the spin bike at the gym. 

I don't mess with bilateral breathing.  Tried it, didn't like it, but can do it if really needed.  I have read enough here to see that there are some that do it always, some do it in training and some not at all.

One thought though if you want to do it is to make sure you have your rotation working so your body should be in the same position on the left as it is for the right, you just have to get used to turning to the left to breath once you are in the same spot.

I agree, this is fun to talk swimming, TBH until recently I didn't have much to say about it because I was so bad.  It is amazing what a few lessons will do for you.  If you have the time and $$ I highly recommend them every so often, maybe mixed in with masters to reinforce.

How are you on breathing on your right side only?  If you aren't comfortable with that yet, then you won't be able to do bilateral.   Concentrate on breathing on your right for a little while and you'll get the hang of it.  You can incorporate it into your training, not by necessarily only breathing on your right, but for a length or two, then increase it as you get comfortable.

I now alternate every 50 between left side, then right side.  I only end up doing bilateral for cool downs or some specific bilateral sets.  Alternating helps me prevent any kind of swimmers shoulder.

I found that learning to breathe on either side pays off very well in races because there will certain times that you may need to be able to site on one side more than the other, or to get some "cleaner" air away from splashing. 

I stopped doing bilateral in races mainly because of adrenalin - I needed to breathe more than what bilateral was allowing me to, and I ended up going to single side anyway.

I don't know the physics behind it, but I believe it has to do with the load being pushed. I could be pushing zero-load on a spin bike and doing 90 RPM, or I could be set to 50% load and doing the same -- obviously the 50% load at 90 RPM would be much harder.

On your bike, while seated on the trainer, you have a natural load being applied (friction of the wheel on the flywheel), so that's probably what you are feeling.

Assuming I read it right

@Tracy: No, I hadn't been following Annapolis, now I will have to go read up on it. SavageMan is exactly that from what I hear

Thanks for the laugh!!   Podium!  Hah!!   I'm basically resting, doing nothing!  I still have a horrible headache.  My doctor says to go cold turkey on the ster**ds (better?  or maybe I should call them my vitamins??) , it may help.  Also, my potassium is low, so that may be part of it.  Anyway, enough complaining.  It sounds like everyone is working hard.  Keep up the good work!

Karen

For the swimming I do bilateral breathing all the time. At least I think I do in a race. The reason I do this is to prevent any shoulder injuries related to breathing on one side only. It has become so natural now that if for some reason I don't breathe every 3rd stroke it feels weird. After you drink enough water off your bad side you will get a lot btter at it. The trick is to duplicate the breathing technique form your good side. Being unbalanced when you turn is also natural. Ask Tracy she is quite unbalanced even when not in the water (sorry it just seemed like take a shot at Tracy time). There is a very good video and cd available on the site by Kevin Koskela. It shows how you should be rolling in your swim stroke to make your technique better and results in faster times without additional effort. This gives you good balance in the water and will allow you to breathe on either side without having that unbalanced feeling. I know we have siad this before but it is true. Swimming is all about technique. Without good technique you can flail around in the pool as much as you want but you won't get really good or comfortable and you will tire yourself out a lot.

The bottom line is you have to do what feels right for you to get you through the swim portion of the race without using all your energy.

And just to qualify my opinion. I have only been swimming regulary again since March last year when I had a hard time doing 2 lenghts and could only breathe off my right side.

I read an enteresting post on BT which referred to slowtwitch.  Article talked about bilateral breathing, but breathing on every stroke ...right then left, then skipping a stroke and breathing left then right, skip, then right then left, skip, then right then left, skip, then left then right, skip, then right then left, skip, then left then right, skip, then right then left, skip, then left then right, skip, then right then left, skip, then left then right, skip, then right the left, skip, then left then right,  and so forth.  I hope you got that.

Anyway, so much for the technique, the argument was getting more oxygen into the system since you are rolling anyway, might as well get some air.  There was a video link which showed a world class racer which used this technique.  Thought I might give it a try, since O2 deprivation usually is what gets me first.

Same here, except for the strong swimmer part.

Since I am new to swimming, I started with bi-lateral breathing (b3).  I am now learning how to breathe on one side.  My instructor believes it is important for me to be able to do both based on OWS conditions.  In my first race, B3 was so ingrained I couldn't change it, but yet I had that paniced "I can't breathe" feeling and had to flip on my back for air (LOL!).   I agree doing what comes natural is a good idea, except if the side you breathe on is the side the waves are crashing at you.  Life would be so much easier if we didn't air when we swim!

Tony

I am at around 2:15-2:30s and have been for a while, what do you think the primary reason is for your improvement? 

Suzy

MY RIGHT CALF HURTS!

I just got thru running 4.5 this morning fairly easy.  My calf has been giving me some problems for a while now.  Seems like everytime I run, it feels like it is pulling...half way up on the outside of my calf.  It doesn't hurt bad, but I can feel it on every step.  What should I do?  I know nothing about taking care of these type of ailments.  Will it get better over time by doing light workouts, or should I lay off the running for a period.  It doesn't bother me at all when I walk.

I don't think it will just go away. It probably needs some manual intervention like trigger work which you can do yourself or through a practioner.

 It would be helpful to get a little more info on location.  Look at these links and give me a sense of which one is most accurate (scroll down to the foot and ankle section):

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/muscles/allmuscles.php

Is there foot involvement or does the pain only eminate from the point where it is tight?

Suzy

Here is my VENT for February:

I call my LBS to give them my final color selection from my bike build and get the crappiest news one could hear.  Seven is no longer confident they can build my frame small enough for me.  It is bad enough being 4'10" and not being able to put luggage in the overhead bin without standing on the seat, but now this!  Turns out they did their math wrong and standover would be 1" to 1 1/2" greater.  Serrotta already turned down the build.  Going back in next week to jurry rig my current titanium Seven to see if standover will be an issue.  I am pretty bummed.

Ok, Vent over.  Thanks for listening.

Wow Suzy, that stinks!

Is the main problem the compression of the mid-section of the frame, and the distance between the crank and wheels?

Hey Barry..I've got this "travelRoller" product. Its baasically PVP pipe with a yoga mat glued onto it. But i love it. At the end of the day when the kids are in bed, we are in the TV room getting our 1 hour of veg time/day the girls allow us, I roll around on it. It feels freat on the quads,IT bands and calfs. I haven't really figured out how to work it on the arms. They are a Calgary couple(she's kind of hot actually).- becuase we know that mattes. Its probably pretty easy to make something like it. It is harder than the classic foam rollers.

http://www.travelroller.com/