KathyG's 2012 Awesome Mentor Group-Full up (Page 5)

Good morning/evening one and all. Hope you all have a productive and enjoyable day. For me, it's off to bed for a few hours.

 I have decided to sign up for my first 1/2 marathon (or perhaps full) so will be looking for a training plan that will get me there. Of course I need to discuss this with my wife first! Wish me luck on both!

Best regards to all.

Steffi: Exciting to be back on the bike. Hope professional fit and new saddle feels good. Time off takes a bit of time to feel back to normal. Do you put your Ceepo bike on the trainer? She has a hot tri bike!!!

Lorna: I swam first time in 2 months Saturday and swam 300 yards. My shoulder didn't like it but my mind and rest of me enjoyed it. I agree with Rusty I'd wait a bit until you can swim a bit longer to get lessons. Now would be a good time to look at coaches and find one that works with triathletes who learn to swim as an adult.

Makes me to see so many posts over night and early this morning.

May 20. Gives me about 18 weeks. I'll look at some plans out there and post what I think will work.

keep wrenching all you can. You never know when that knowledge will pay off on the road, trail, or in a race. It really is empowering just to take a bike maintenance 101 class at your local shop!

Hello all!

Missed doing anything on Saturday due to much too much time spent in a car or on bleachers watching a swim meet - which left a long (for me for now) run and long bike on Sunday. Sunday, I woke up, fed the family and went out for the long run (6.5 miles) outside. It was 35 degrees and pretty windy. The first 3 or so miles felt great, then I started to slowly lose steam until I finally got home I was so out of juice that I could barely take my jacket off.

I am following the Paleo for Athletes plan in an effort to lose some weight and be better fueled for the season, but I don't think I have figured out how to properly fuel the longer efforts. For a typical morning/afternoon workout, I have a cup of grapefruit juice or a gel which has been fine...but it just didn't fuel me properly for the longer efforts. Any suggestions/recommendations/experience?

(The long bike got cut short due to watching the Denver/Pittsburgh game at a friend's house because we don't have t.v....but we had a great time even though Pittsburgh lost.)

Steffi - I got my bike fit and a new Adamo saddle a few weeks back and it made a WORLD of difference. I actually felt like I could stay on without moving around a lot during a long ride, but even more importantly I felt pretty fresh once I did get off. I hope you have a similar experience.

The group that never sleeps!  That's great!  We're global! 

This morning, I'm swimming.  This evening, I'll run on the treadmill, lift some weights and teach my Spinning class.  May throw some yoga into the mix in the afternoon.

How is everyone else's day shaping up?

Cheers!

Hi All - I promise to disclosure more later, but short version - been around here for 4 years.  I know Kathy personally, from this site, and is one of the reasons I finished IMAZ in 2010.  I have been in many mentor groups and have been a mentor a few times.  I have take the last 13 months off, but the boss gave me the okay to do IMAZ again in 2013, so I need to get my rear in gear.  Other than that, have fun and ask lots of questions.

As far as activity for today, went to the gym for the first time in a LONG time. Just like riding a bike

Hi Tracy.  Like the new avatar.  How have you been?

Hi Josh!  Nice to "see" you!  Things have been going really good!  Can't wait to watch you ramp up to IM again! 

Eeeee gads!  Perfume ladies!

Since I have swimming issues, can we talk swimming?

What does everyone do in the pool?  I almost always have to begin with some 50's and 100's to get into a rhythm.  My main set generally consists of 250's or 500's or 750's.  I try (try is the operative word) to do a long swim of at least 1000 yards once per week.  Since I dislocated my ankle about 4 weeks ago, I have not done the long swim.

I need some advice.

When I do swim workouts, I usually have warm up 300-600 yards, c/d of about the same and main set.

Just like running or biking it is easier to go faster for short time than longer interval. After I get back to swimming for about a month, I will do 25s all out with long rest, then move to 50s.

I end up doing one short interval type workout focus, will do some 25s often at end of w/u before my main set starts to help my body remember how to move fast in the water.

After doing 25 workouts I will move to 50s and do up to 40x50. I have a love/hate relationship with them but find they help.

Unlike running, you can do hard intervals almost every workout in the pool. I rarely do longer sets even when preparing for IM as I get good at going slow. I'd rather do 4x500 than 2000 straight.

Last winter I followed the Finding Freestyle program. It is an on line class that you can get feedback from coaches via forum including posting videos or asking questions. My 50 time dropped 3 seconds after being stuck for more than 4 months. My 150 time dropped as well. There is not correction but more exploring how making changes to your stroke effects your swimming. Focusing both on arms and separately at kicking. It took almost a year but I was able to get six beat kick down after years of doing almost zero kicking. Best part of doing Finding Freestyle was it made swimming a lot more fun for me. I learned to focus on different things that helped swims be more interesting. I might do 50s where half pool I'd swim pull (no kick w/o PB), then next half 2 beat kick, next half 4 beat kick and last half a length 6 beat kick.  For me that is more fun than doing straight 50s.

For me the way my mind works, more complicated swim workouts keep me engaged. Like 40x50 won't be all the same effort...may be first 10 will be 1 easy, 1 moderate, 1 hard first 25/easy 2nd 25, hard 50;  the next 10 would be a little harder, ect.

Others who are better swimmers may have other tips.

In general to get faster at something you need to do that sport faster and to do that smaller intervals are easier to do faster than longer ones. But over time that increased speed can be done for longer and longer so you become faster at an endurance pace.

Kathy,

Thanks.  Glad to hear your son is in the Air Force.  I know you are proud of him.  I know in the Army we believe it is not only the son or daughter that joins the ranks, but the entire family.  It is the support behind the scene that allows the military member to focus on the mission and service to our nation.

As far as the IM plan I'm using is the BT 28 week beginner IM plan (3 swims, 4 bike, 4 runs per week).  I want to ensure I'm ready for the hills on the bike course (I have no issue with finding hills where we live).  I also want to get the miles logged in on the run (of course no flat land here to run on).  I used the BT 28 week HIM plan and was able to finish.  I also am reading again the Going Long by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn and reviewing the Training Plans for Multisport Arthletes by Gale Bernhardt.  If you have a program that you used...I'd love to see it. 

I need to read some books for mental toughness...I know during the run bad RJ is going to try and psyche me out.  The run is what concerns me for the Ironman...so I know I have to be mentally prepared to fight the mind games.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

RJ

Great weekend of training. The weather has been bizarrely outstanding. Cycled 29.5 miles on Sat, and ran 3 miles on Sun. Today I got in an hour on the trainer - Jorge Wk1D1 - not quite as hard as stipulated though; and a 1.1 mile run.

Someone was asking about water retention earlier. I have this issue especially after long/hard races, and long training days. I've found that a couple cups of green tea daily (1 caf, 1 decaf) help keep the waters better regulated. It may just be the extra fluids, but Green tea is also anti-inflammatory and a mild diuretic. I'll occasionally throw in some fresh ginger slices, and fresh lime/lemon juice to add extra anti-inflammatory kick. YMMV, simple thing to try though, especially if you're a tea drinker anyway. Works wonders for me.

kiri

I found dandelion root tea fantastic for water retention when I was pregnant - would make it the night before and drink it first thing in the morning.  Disgusting but effective.

Swimming;  I have a tendency to do long slow swims when I'm on my own so like doing swim squads to push me along.  We normally do a warm-up of about 500m, drills and then an aerobic set against the clock, we usually do 2.5-3km i  a one hour session.  I haven't been for a while and won't be able to go January as it's school hols. 

Another day, I do a squad with a different coach which is a technique session, so lots of drills but also lots of sets with us stroking to "wetronomes" where we have beepers in our swim caps.  Everyone has their own cadence and we vary it to push us further or support a better stroke. It's great fun, except when the synchronised swimmers are training and we have to listen to their bizzare music.  I love this coach (he swam the English Channel this year), I had a video analysis with him and it was fantastic.  I could see exactly what I was doing wrong and he gave me drills on how to improve my catch and body position.  None of this was picked up by the other coach who just keeps trying to make me glide more, but her session is at a really convenient time and I like the other swimmers there so I just really use it as an aerobic session. 

Then I have a third coach (don't know how sensible all this different input is but it works for me at the moment).  This is an OWSwimming session down at our local river, where a lot of triathlons and swimming races are held.  We do lots of sighting, how to cope with different conditions, swimming in a group, drafting etc.  It's exhausting as I not confident in the river - visibility is poor and there is a lot of wildlife, including a pod of dolphins which are always lovely to see.  Our coach is a 6 time world champion marathon swimmer and she is a hoot.  I love swimming with this group.  I was there  this morning and we were going round bouys different ways, clockwise and couter-clockwise and practising swim head-on into the waves; I got smacked in the face a couple of times and swallowed some water.  No major panic attacks this week even though there were jellyfish everywhere so I'm making progress :-) 

It's fantastic that you are both back it the water and enjoying it after surgery/injuries and I hope you continue to progress well.

Touch rugby last night was brutal - hot and we had no girl subs but we only lost by one try which we were thrilled with.  I felt like I'd been flogged though.  I was really pleased to pull up so well this morning - I thought I might be sore after such a tough workout.  It's sprint training really but with a bit of ball chucking thrown in.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday

Gwen

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