Wurkit_Gurl's Group - CLOSED (sssh...we're training) (Page 5)

In college, all I had was my bed.

Good morning, all.

Okay, after an hour on the phone with tech support, I am back

SteveyD - I think we have a Canadian in our midst, so you're not the only non-American.

To answer your swim question - butterfly kick is very different than regular freestyle (or backstroke) kicking - the kick for butterfly is also sometimes called a dolphin kick because you don't separate your legs - obviously, you do with freestyle. The idea to "kick from your waist" is an effort to keep newbie swimmers from kicking from their knees, almost like they were running. Have you ever played soccer? ("football" to you Brits) It's a similar mechanism - the kick comes from your hip (not your waist, really) - your knee is relaxed, so it will bend a bit, but you shouldn't be bending your knee to kick, if that makes any sense. Your ankles should also stay loose and relaxed - as you kick, the tops of your ankles/feet will push down. But the kicking movement should start with your hips, go through your thighs and down through the rest of your leg. If you want to see good kicking, watch any of the underwater footage of the Olympic swimmers.

The difference, however, between "swimmer" kicking and "triathlete swimmer" kicking is the intensity. As triathletes, we aren't sprinting out 100 meters - we need to save our legs a bit for the long distance, and for the bike/run ahead. So a triathlete should really use their kick as a means to stay afloat, not propel themselves through the water. An even flutter kick is more appropriate than the whipping sprinter kick. This is not to say however, that triathletes should not bother with kicking drills. If you do the drills right, your quads/hips should feel worked. A strong kick is useful in certain situations.

Make sense? Let me know if you want any more clarification.

Good morning!

What's on tap for everyone today? It's raining here, so bike drills will happen on the trainer. Then swim practice at 9 pm (so late! ).

Yes, exactly. 

hehe, I had lots of fun on beds in college too

On the tri-suits/tops - some of them have built in bras. Not sure how busty you are, though - some women feel like they need extra support, even with the built-in. Just try on a bunch and jump around in them A lot of women on my team love the Moving Comfort Fiona bra - apparently, it dries pretty quickly and supports well without lots of gross underwiring or anything. I even tried one on recently (our tri club uniforms are all "unisex", ie, men's clothes, so no built-in bra) and I thought it was pretty decent.

I used to be a good swimmer, back in the days of sixth form and secondary school, (the equivalent to your high school is last 2 years of secondary and sixth form, so sixth form is your equivalent of junior and senior years, and secondary school is the 5 years before, basically about 5 odd years ago from where i am now :P) with breaststroke as my racing stroke. <insert witty breast stroke joke here when not concentrating on uni work>

I'm intrigued to open water swimming i've swam in the sea a bit but not really any distance, and can see this being quite interesting.

Damnit i want to swim. Its raining too so i dont fancy a run or bike, looks like a gym session today

Yes, the breast stroke jokes never get old :-P

I "dated" a guy in college for a bit who was on the swim team (at his college, not mine) and his specialty was breaststroke, so naturally all of his fraternity buddies never let up with the endless jokes.

Fun! I meant to get up and do yoga this morning, but I was having a dream and the alarm went off and somehow in my dream, I decided to turn off the alarm and reset it for 7:30 instead (when I normally get up if I don't work out in the morning).

Hey James - sorry to hear about the smoke detector!! Ours is super-sensitive and goes off if my roommate even opens the oven! So we have to put a towel over it while we're cooking - and then remember to take it off afterwards.

It's raining here today - no biking outside. It was drizzly for my run last night, which isn't bad. I need to get a rain jacket that is breathable for running (I don't own anything with a hood that is comfortable to run in), so I don't have to puss out if it's pouring. Slowly gathering the gear, season by season...

Fantastic! I usually don't mind getting up for early-morning workouts, but it's just been cold for too long and now it's rainy all the time, and I don't feel like crawling out of bed. Once summer actually comes, it'll be better.

Eh, you can boot the cats out of your way The husband, maybe not so much - is he understanding of your training efforts?