Yanti and Lynn, Mentors of the Manatee Melee: FULL (Page 5)

Ah! I struggle so much keeping up with these logs.. haha so I apologize if anybody looks at mine and thinks "Whhhaaaattt??".

It sounds like most of you do 2x week swim.. If I'm beginning is it best to do 3x-4x/wk swim? That's what I've been trying to do, but I don't want to overkill or anything.

p.s. I feel a billion times better this week! Thank God!

Morning Manatees!    I had my first Master's Swim class this morning @ 5:30am - woot!  It was actually my first time back in the pool since my tri on 03/20, so almost a full month.  What??!   I was 'recovering'.  hehe.  But it felt good to get back to it.  And guess what???  Our coach is Olympic Gold Medalist, Misty Hyman!  She grew up right in the area of Phoenix where I live, and she teaches at this community pool right down the street from my house.  My kids actually go there at the end of every school year for a pool party.  How cool is that??    She also kicked off the swim portion of my triathlon last month as well.  She is SO nice.

Anyway, most of the drills we did were definitely new to me.  I'll try and remember what we did.

Freestyle warm up -- 3x50

Back drills (don't know what else to call them -- we had our arms over our head in a 'dive' position the whole time and then just kicked)  --  3x50

Kick drills -- 3x100

Dolphin (on our back) -- 3x50

10 and 10 (this where we kicked 10 times on our right side, then put face in the water and switched to the left side and kicked 10 times, repeating that combo)  --  4x25

It was a great feeling to get exercise in that early in the morning -- and it always helps to have other people there doing the same thing, as well as someone encouraging you and pushing you.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Not a bad plan at all, and if that's what you can do, and you're fairly comfortable in open water mass swimming (or will have some opportunities to practice beforehand), it'll get you through.

I have an idea of your swim speed, how long are you able to be at the pool each time? Also, is ~1600m right now about your limit in terms of swimming endurance?

I am a pretty strong swimmer.  I am not really tired after the 1600m workout, I could defiantly go longer.  I think its kinda strange that i have pretty good endurance after only swimming 2-3 times in the past 2 years.  I swam competitively when i was a kid.  When I swim I don't tire, just get board. As you can see from my times I am not that fast, maybe this is a sign I should step up the speed.  

When I make it to the pool I could spend as long as needed there, I swim on my day's off when I can get to town.  My day's off will be mostly dedicated to training.

Goooood morning everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't participated much in conversation. I am still learning how these Forum's work. Anyway, I am glad to be part of the group and enjoy reading all of your posts! 

I had a fun weekend! I ran a 10K and did a little bike ride in the sun yesterday. I live in Seattle and am anxiously awaiting some consistently nice weather.  The key word is Seattle though, so I may be waiting a while. 

Morning Manatees!    I had my first Master's Swim class this morning @ 5:30am - woot!  It was actually my first time back in the pool since my tri on 03/20, so almost a full month.  What??!   I was 'recovering'.  hehe.  But it felt good to get back to it.  And guess what???  Our coach is Olympic Gold Medalist, Misty Hyman!  

It was not nearly as hard as they want you to think.  There were about 8 obstacles.  The first was crossing a river (maybe about 30 yards?), it was a little higher than waist deep (I'm 5'4").  There were a bunch of climbing ones - a wall you climb with a rope, a mountain of hay and a big rope ladder thing.  A couple you crawl under - a dark tunnel and a mess of ropes.  There was one section where you have to go over a wall about 4 ft high and then under a fence about 1 1/2 feet high (they alternated and there was about 6 of each).  There was a rope thing that you had to climb up about 6 feet and crawl or roll across about 30 feet.  That hurt my knees balancing on the ropes.  There was a balancing one where you go up a board a little less than a foot then walk across a smaller board then down.  A fun one was run through a bunch of tires, run over a car and then through more tires.  One was kind of lame - it was supposed to be a ghost town or something, but all you did was run through a small wooden building.  The end was back through water that was a little deeper and there were about 5 or 6 logs you had to go over (you could push them down), then you had to jump over two small rows of fire.  The last was a mud pit with about 10 stands of barbed wire over it.  There may have been more, but that's all I can remember.  None of them were hard, they basically gave you a breather from the run.  The hardest part was the mud after the water parts.  It was very slick and lots of people fell.  It was a lot of fun, you should do it.  I heard that over 17,000 people did the Dallas race.

Is it just me?  I can't get the swim plan attachment to open correctly, and I would LOVE to see it.  

Also If anyone can help with an issue of mine, I have a wardrobe issue with the swimming. (sorry gentlemen) I am trying to find something that will work for both the swim and the run. I am much bigger on top than the bottom so I have already tried and rule out a tri-suit. ( I looked like the "Bud Girls") Not a pretty sight for a middleaged mother I need support for my full figured problem, any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Regards

Grainne Wynne

I'm going to second everyones vote for shorts, sports bra, and tri top.  I'm a fan of the moving comfort maia bra http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Comfort-Womens-Maia-Black/dp/B001B1KUS4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1303158161&sr=8-2

It is highly recommended on BT and I like it because it dries quicker than the other sports bras I like.  For a tri short and tri tops, lots of places sell them.  Yanti has some good links for discount places with some good selection.  I found my during the off-season on ebay for super low prices.  

It seems you can get away with wearing most anything for your tri, but it is nice to find something you are comfortable in.  

It was not nearly as hard as they want you to think.  There were about 8 obstacles.  The first was crossing a river (maybe about 30 yards?), it was a little higher than waist deep (I'm 5'4").  There were a bunch of climbing ones - a wall you climb with a rope, a mountain of hay and a big rope ladder thing.  A couple you crawl under - a dark tunnel and a mess of ropes.  There was one section where you have to go over a wall about 4 ft high and then under a fence about 1 1/2 feet high (they alternated and there was about 6 of each).  There was a rope thing that you had to climb up about 6 feet and crawl or roll across about 30 feet.  That hurt my knees balancing on the ropes.  There was a balancing one where you go up a board a little less than a foot then walk across a smaller board then down.  A fun one was run through a bunch of tires, run over a car and then through more tires.  One was kind of lame - it was supposed to be a ghost town or something, but all you did was run through a small wooden building.  The end was back through water that was a little deeper and there were about 5 or 6 logs you had to go over (you could push them down), then you had to jump over two small rows of fire.  The last was a mud pit with about 10 stands of barbed wire over it.  There may have been more, but that's all I can remember.  None of them were hard, they basically gave you a breather from the run.  The hardest part was the mud after the water parts.  It was very slick and lots of people fell.  It was a lot of fun, you should do it.  I heard that over 17,000 people did the Dallas race.

Congrats on the warrior dash! Those are a ton of fun. I did one in Oregon last year and it was a blast. Expensive though. 

I was running behind a guy wearing a diaper and a bonnet the entire race. It made for an entertaining/disturbing race!

Well in THAT case, pump out a 5K every time you go! I'm not entirely kidding, though. Seriously if you can do at least 3K 2x/week or if only once, yes, then a 5K, I'd do it. Your swim form is probably decent from your childhood swimming, and putting in some volume will actually allow you to self-correct a lot of your stroke.

I've attached a swim plan I created for my sister, which is for an Oly, and it's loosely based on one of the swim portions of the BT oly plan and Don Fink's swim workouts for Ironman. You might get some good ideas about useful drills and how to mix it up to get some good workouts in.

Anyone who is interested in specific swim workouts, of course, feel free to check it out too!