apw0397's group - Closed (Page 5)

Happy Monday folks! Seems like this thread stopped all of a sudden.

How the heck are you doing?

Things have been going pretty good on this end.  I really wish that I would have done more running leading up to my race in two weeks, but oh well.  I got a bike.  It's a Trek 1.5 Compact.  I've only gotten to ride it a couple of times b/c of all the rain this winter.  Masters swimming has been great.  I can feel improvements after every practice.

I've still got a couple of runs and swims this week and hopefully I can ride OUTSIDE some before my race.  I've definitely lowered my goal for the 1/2 mary.  I just want to finish and not hurt myself.  Have a great day!

Sick... Today is my first day of training and I'm skipping.  What a horrible start! I hope to be better by tomorrow so I can make up for the lost day. 

Erin, What is the name of this magical green drink you speak of? 

It's humbling.  You think your entire life that you can swim only to find out that you can't.  Who knew there was so much to swimming?

On a side note, I have a question for all of you about your training.  I've signed up for a Bronze level workout and (due to my temporary case of Ebola) had to postpone my workout until Monday.  How do you train when you do your specific workouts?  Do you do a proper warmup, workout and a proper cooldown?  For example, if you have a workout that slated to take 15 minutes, are you doing the 10 minute warmup, stretch, run, cooldown, and stretch (making your workout a total of 35 minutes instead of 15) or do you just run?  The same applies for biking and swimming. 

Any help is appreciated! 

I hear ya on the swimming bit.  I feel like I should be wearing water wings out there. 

As for your training question...I usually try to do an actual warmup and cool down in addition to the planned time.  I used to incorporate a warmup into my time, but it tended to throw off my "calculated" pace.  So now I just do it separately.  Once again, this is my first time around with triathlon training, so don't take my word as law. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Swimming is a lot like golf. It looks easy and should be easy, but there are so many different aspects to it. You can have great balance, perfect head position, good rotation, but if you do something as simple as opening your fingers instead of closing them, it will throw you off. That's why I'm a big proponent of having a swim coach. Having someone that can watch you and tell you what you need to do to improve will help big time.

As far as a warmup and cooldown, I typically will incorporate them into my workout, but only if it makes sense. I'll usually warm up and cool down for a mile when running, about 15 minutes each when riding, and then whatever the workout has for swimming, usually no less than 400 warmup and 200 cooldown.

Now if it's a really short workout, like a 20 minute run or 30 minute ride, that's more than likely a recovery workout anyway, so I keep it easy and consistent throughout.

Oh my! I didn't see there were multiple pages to the thread LOL!!!!

 I didn't get past the merry christmas one.

 seems like i have some catching up to do.  sorry about that.  but im still here. still training.  no water training yet but my biking is awesome.  I've lost some good weight too. 

 I've been doing the 'Cycle Class' and 'RPM' at my gym and man those are awesome.  I started running but I got some pain in my knee so thats where I am with that.  I'm just letting the weight fall off and my knee recover before I try to run hard again.  Anyway, I was just letting you guys know I'm still alive!

Pace yourself early. It's easy to let the excitement of the race make you think you can go faster than you really can. Make yourself slow down so you have something left. A good plan is:

• 5 miles fairly easy (Zone 2 if you have HR numbers)
• 5 miles a little harder (Zone 3)
• 5K all out

This way you are passing people the last 3.1 miles instead of getting pass. There is nothing more demoralizing than being all used up with a couple of miles to go and have someone pass you that you had passed earlier.

• Thank the volunteers.
• Hit the portajohn twice before the race.
• Don't eat anything before or during the race you wouldn't normally eat before or during a training run.
• Most importantly, HAVE FUN. Training is the hard part. Racing is fun. Smile when you finish.

Eric, how did your race go?  Did you feel like a champ afterwards? 

Sorry it's been a while since I've checked in... didn't mean to keep you all worried!    Well, I'm finally back to training.  A few weeks ago, I logged that I was feeling better (and I was) but about two days into training, my cold totally wiped me out again. 

I was explaining my symptoms to one of the hockey dad's that's a doctor and a runner, he said that rest is key.  Last year he had a patient ignore the symptoms of a simple cold and it took 4 months to get over something that would have taken 2 weeks to completely pass.  So, that's what I did... Fortunately, it gave me a lot of time to research a new bike and look at stuff on the BT site as well as research the boards - so it wasn't all that bad.

I got back in the pool last night and wanted to figure out my pace for training/racing.  I want to keep a typical 400m swim under 10 minutes, so after doing the math, I figured for a 25m length pool, I would need to swim 25m in 30 seconds. 

For my own logic, I seperated my paces into zones.  Here's what I came up with...

Z1 - Breaststroke
Z2 - Slow Freestyle
Z3 - Steady Freestyle, slight kick to keep legs level, abs tight with back slightly arched keeping my body straight with minimal hip rotation.
Z4 - Quick-Paced Freestyle, steady kick, abs tight with back slightly arched with max hip rotation.
Z5 - Sprint 

So I started the testing... as of right now at full speed, I can swim 25m in 22s (let's call this Z5 swimming).  If I go at a steady pace (Z3), I can swim 25m in 28s and if I swim at a slow pace (Z2), I can swim 25m in 38s. 

If I swim at a Z2 pace, my legs sink and I start swimming diagionally rather then horizontally.  Z3 is my preferred pace.  I am able to keep my abs tight and the movement in the water helps me elevate my legs a little better; however, here's the problem...  I'm only able to swim at a Z3 pace for 50m before my form gets sloppy from being tired. 

Here's my question - how do you increase swim distance endurance without maxing out on your training?  Meaning, if you are a bronze or higher member they say that you are not supposed to go over your alloted swim time or you will burn out early.  So, for the 14 minutes I have in the pool, what are some workouts you can do?  I have found a lot of workouts on BT but they are for 2000m swim workouts and I'm not up to that yet.  Any help on this would be appreciated!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. 

The race was great.  I guess you could always wish to do better.  My main goals were to finish in under 3hrs (check), not be last in my division (check), and not to fall (check).  It took a while longer than I thought to recover.  Really wish I would have trained more for it.  The feeling of crossing the finish line rocked.  I started a blog so my family and friends could follow my training.  I gave a race recap you can check out if you want... http://ericstrijourney.blogspot.com

Training has been going "ok."  I feel like I've been a bit of a slacker.  It's always easy to find an excuse not to go ride or run or wake up to swim.  I'm trying to stay focused and motivated. 

I'm glad you have a system worked out for your HR zones in swimming.  I can never be very consistent with my speed or effort.  I have to admit though, swimming is probably my favorite part (probably b/c my knees don't hurt afterwards). 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

(Andy, congrats again on the awesome 1/2 Mary time!) 

Couple of things about swimming. There are two ways you can go about it.

If you want to increase your endurance, swim longer reps in your sets. So if you have 1400, figure 200 for a WU and CD, so you are left with 1000.

You can improve your endurance by doing longer intervals OR by minmizing your rest.

Longer intervals means taking that 1000 and doing a 400, 300, 200, and 100 instead of 10x100. One caution about longer intervals is that your form tends to fall apart the farther you swim, so focus on that during the long intervals. Don't focus so much on speed. Endurance work is not speedwork.

Minimizing your rest means if you are used to swimming 10x100 with 30 seconds rest in between, try to do it with 20 seconds in between.

Try those a few times and see if you notice any difference.

It's really a judgement call. I know some people who just carry a bottle of water and nothing else. Problem is, and this happened to a friend of mine who did that, is that if you have a flat, your race is pretty much over.

I always carry a spare tube, a CO2 cartridge, and an inflater. I think that the minimal extra weight is worth it.

However, in a sprint, carry the smallest water bottle you can find. No need to carry a 24oz bottle when a 20oz bottle or 16 oz bottle will do. I rarely take more than a couple of swallows of water in a sprint anyway, so I only fill my bottle up that much.

The extra water you carry that you don't drink is just dead weight. The more weight you have, the more energy you have to use.