Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 42)

Jamie-nice workouts.  Over the jet lag from your trip?

Michael-I can't imagine making it through a Summer down here without AC.  We had 1 window AC unit at the house I grew up in Virginia.  It was a small house so it was adequate. I suspect it is like so many things....its all what you get use to.

Randy 

Conventional wisdom is that once you get above about 50 degrees (pretty much ideal temp for running for most people who can ignore the initial cold) you lose 5-10s per mile for every 10 degree rise in apparent temperature (i.e., taking humidity into account -- the 'feels like' temperature on many weather reports).   The effect is not linear -- from 50 to 80 it is probably much closer to 5s/mile and maybe less at the lower temps, while from 80 to 100 it could even be more than 10s/mile especially if you are not acclimated to the heat.

The important thing to remember is WHY the pace drops -- it drops because your body (cardiovascular system in particular) is busy keeping your core temperature down and can't be bothered with the running thing.  Fewer resources devoted to running =- slower pace.  It's inevitable.  It cannot be helped.

For easier runs (i.e., 95% of the time!) this shift of bodily attention from running to cooling is immaterial.  You can still train at the proper intensity (i.e., easy!) and get the benefit you need, although you do need to pay more attention to recovery.  For harder runs, it is best by far to avoid the effects of heat and train when your body can devote its full attention to the intended effort.  You don't get credit for killing yourself in the heat.  When it is hot here (in SC, we do know something about heat...) I try to keep my harder runs (whether that means long or intervals or tempo) reserved for the relatively cooler times of day, though even then, the pace is going to have to come down a bit.

Optimal training in the heat is actually pretty tricky, IMO, but as always, 90% of the battle is not at all tricky -- it's just a matter of getting out there and doing the work.  (I.e., the difference between 'optimal' and 'pretty darned good' is only that last 10%.)

That was a long-winded way of saying that you gave your friend good advice.  And by the way, keep encouraging him, and as we've lost a few members here (always happens), if he wants to join us, he's welcome.

What I LIKE to do and what I actually do are two very different things...  Right now, I have very limited time in the pool -- 40 minutes 4x/week (not really enough for IM training for me -- for some it's plenty).  So I mainly get in and swim pretty hard until the end.

When I have more time, my standard warm-up is some variation on this:  4x100 fairly easy with rest to full recovery (30-60s), then 4x50 kick, 4x50 pull, 4x50 as 25 drill/25 sprint on full recovery.  That's 1km.  Then I do a main set and maybe a cool-down.

What I'm focusing on right now is the fact that my 'work ethic' in the pool is not very good.  The very well-defined 40 minutes that I have (it's during my kids' swimming lesson, which lasts 45', so I see them off, hop in, and must be done to greet them at the end) really forces me to focus on a quality main set and forget about a leisurely (or, some days, any) warmup and just get it done.  I'm hoping this trend will carry over to longer swim sessions.  

I had an exchange with tjfry (extremely fast and experienced swimmer and former pro triathlete on this site) about this issue a while back, and he seems to think that if you have limited time in the pool (which is pretty much all of us -- he's talking about spending less than say 4-5K in the pool per session) you are better off focusing on the work and ignoring 'warmup' apart from maybe the first few hundred meters (yards).

Take all that with a grain of salt.  My swimming is still a work in progress...

Yeah -- 100 and above and you are really just surviving, not racing.  Best of luck to you.  Being from Texas, you understand heat, so, well, best of luck to you...

Blanda-agree with Michael on the limited time swim.  Get in and do either a set of intervals or a continuous swim....best use of time.  Right now my typical swim workout will be: 200-400 easy warmup; 500-800 mix of drills and some kick sets; 1500-2000 main set and 200 easy cool down.  Sometimes in the main set it will be broken up by a few short drill sets as kind of active recovery or to reinforce something I may be focused on.  I like doing drills as either 25 drill/25 swim or 50 drill/50 swim.  I feel like this gives me a chance to immediately incorporate the drill focus/purpose in a short swim.

There are tons of good drills on Swimsmooth and other sites like Finding Freestyle.  I like to see a video of how to do a drill and some information on what the focus/purpose of the drill is.  I tend to think of drills in categories like balance, catch, rotation and timing.  My coach has me do alot of fist drills which is just swimming with your hand in a fist...simple but does a good job of giving you the feel for a solid catch.  I almost always try to incorporate some balance drills to check my position in the water....Total Immersion has several and is big on balance /body position in the water. Another "go to" drill, although I have not used it in a while is to swim with a cord/strap around your ankles.....not tight but enough to keep you from kicking.  That really makes you focus on good rotation.  Its tough but very revealing.  The sites do a much better job of describing and illustrating drills than I can describe. One that helps me get away from my "catch up" type of stroke is "dog paddle". Basically you swim with your head out of the water and your arms stroking under water. Sounds weird and its not easy but to do it you are pretty much required to have your arms working opposite of one another...i.e when one arm is out front the other is finishing at the hip.  

OK, you would think with all these drills I would be a better swimmer.  Just keep it simple and try to focus on or improve one thing at a time.  Trying to incorporate too many thoughts into the stroke screws me up.

Hope this helps. Long swim for me at lunch...maybe today will be the day it all clicks............doubtful

Randy  

Despite all of my ramblings about swim drills I felt like I had zero rhythm during my swim workout today.  It was a drill heavy session with some hard intervals at the end. I did hit a bit of a milestone though.  I was to do a 200 hard "for time" and had my best time ever. 2:48/200scy.  I think that's 6 seconds faster than the last time I did this workout a couple of weeks ago.  I don't think the improvement is a sign that I'm a better swimmer.  Actually, I think I went out to hard  and was able to hold on through the rest of the interval. But, its always fun to have some improvement.  Unfortuantely, swimming remains very much a mystery to me....mostly average days and bad days with the rare and almost unheard of good day.

Good luck to all the racers this weekend. Jen, Rene and Michael.

Randy

Randy: You're helping a ton, thank you. You're full session looks a lot like what we do in swim team. Definitely going to put something together like it, or just copy it, ha! I'm doing my swims at lunch now with the instructor off island at the moment, so I want to have some kind of structure when I have time for it. Of course, if they'll help me improve, yay! I do love just continuous swimming though when I'm alone. It's so peaceful, but likely not helping my speed any.

Good luck to Jen, Rene and Michael! May the weather be kind and your mind and body strong!

I'm with you, Randy -- I definitely have good days and bad days swimming.  Lately I've actually been feeling mostly good in the pool, but so far that good feeling hasn't shown itself in a race.  I guess we just keep trying.

Rene -- I normally weigh a bit more just prior to a long course race.  I think most people do.  You'll lose it on the course!

Decent race today for me (sprint).  OK swim, pretty good bike, crappy run (but I knew it would be due to lingering pain and recent running, so I'm not down about it).  9th overall, second open masters, 3rd in age group (one fast M40-44 sandbagged as age grouper instead of open...).

Off to a canoe trip with my boys for a few hours.  Enjoy the day!

Rene-don't worry about the weight.  Just stay hydrated.  Hope you have a great race! Keep an eye out for my "Team MPI" teammates from Pensacola....Stay confident!  Pulling for you.

Michael-good job on the race.  Enjoy the rest of the day.

Well, it has gotten hot here. Did a longish bike with 3x20 min intervals in the middle. Then 30 minute brick was on the schedule.  I made it about 2 miles into the run and I was done!  Walked a bit and then finished as best I could but it was a struggle.  Only made 27 minutes.  Combination of heat, Friday evening running intervals and tough bike just took it out of me.  Going to be a lazy afternoon.  Long run tomorrow.

Randy   

I took the boys on a canoe trip to the Congaree National Park (an old growth cypress swamp).  Great times.  We paddled around and saw huge cypress trees, a couple of alligators, hawks, ibis, etc.  Best part was the kids had a great time and started really learning how to paddle.

Race report here.  Hope others had or will have good races this weekend.

Rene: I bet you've lost all that and more during the race! Hope it went how you hoped it would. Can't wait to find out.

Michael: I love your matter of fact reports. Great job and sounds like you had some good ol' quality time with the kids.

I got to watch two Guam women do a half IM in Japan. How inspiring! One finished in 6:07ish and the other in 6:49ish. First for both! One of them ran the run portion in two left shoes in 2:15! So stoked and I am totally putting myself out there with the triathlon community here to find out who's doing what race and where in the future so I can join them if it's possible. I'm quite the introvert in real life, but I want to do something in the Ironman category enough to reach out!

Not much training happened last few days with son and myself sick. Motivated for the next opportunity though.

ETA: The one that ran with two left shoes ran part of it in just socks!

GREAT race today in Cohasset, MA! We were fortunate to have warm (65 degree) water, clear blue sunny skies, and a spectacular, mostly shaded bike and run course.  I'll definitely being doing this one again -- IF I can get in -- it was the fastest sprint to sell out in the country, in under 50 minutes. Will write up a full report later. 

Blanda - hope you're feeling better. Rene - hope you fared well as BSLT. And I hope everyone else had a great weekend.  

Update: Race report: Unofficial time: 1:45:42 (and I didn't come in dead last!! yay!)

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=447495

Jen-great job.  Sounds like a nice venue for the race.  Glad you had a good experience.

Randy