Erin's "Insanity is Relative" Group - CLOSED (Page 5)

Swim caps aren't meant to keep your hair dry, they're meant to keep your hair contained and to minimize the drag created by hair.  If you're using a silicone cap and find that it slips, try a latex cap.  They don't move as much.  I find that my silicone moves upwards because my face lotion makes my face slippery.

I'm not "racing" my race tomorrow.  I got a free entry thought Team SunRype (my Active Ambassador team) and I had a 2 hr run on my schedule.  I thought, hey, I can do my run with a ton of other people, get race swag, and a beer garden at the end, plus wear my team kit and hang with teammates.

I think I'm going to do my 2 hr bike ride inside on the trainer.  Its in the 40's out and I don't feel like freezing and riding by myself.  I'd rather suffer on the trainer but be inside watching tv.  I have a LOT of tv to catch up on....

Drop everything and race!  That was my Sunday morning -- DD7 wanted to do a race with me and there was one downtown, $25 fee, kids free.  So here I sit with a new Tshirt and a tired daughter. She did great the first half and flagged the second half but her spirit was high the whole time.  What fun!  

We'll see how soon she's ready to race with me again, I suspect today will end up being a grumpy day as her physical efforts catch up and overtake her mental happiness.  

Hey all... back from vacation last week. I managed some running in while I was away, plus some tennis to boot...although I did a fair share of eating. The end of this week was trying to get back to work and school, plus catch up on household chores. Considering we were traveling the first half of the week, last weeks training went fine.

Today kicks off week #2, and my goals for this week are to hit my target training and find a place to swim. Last year I had purchased a membership to the local YWCA to swim, but the memberships are expensive and once the temperatures warmed up, I swam outside. I need to decide if I will do the same this year, or bite the bullet and jump outside early. BRRR...I don't really like the cold water.

I need to remember to stretch, often.... it seems as though that is one thing that I'm not great about doing. When does everyone else stretch, and what types of stretching do you do?

Thanks, and have a great week.

Christine

Its that time of the week!  How did you match up against your goals for last week.... and what are your goals for this week?

My 10 mile race went suprisingly well.  I managed to run 22.5 miles since Friday afternoon... and I can still walk.  We will see how I feel tomorrow.

Stretching - I do IT band, quads, calves, hammies after every run.  I also use a foam roller / The Stick about 3x a week.

I did not know that about swim caps. Good thing I asked. I was getting frustrated. I'll stop putting lotion on my face too before I head to the pool, that might help with the thing popping off my head. Thank you!

Way to go Erin and movingsouth (and your DD) on your weekend races.

Last week's training went OK. After Tuesday's swim I was extremely sore and tired. I had to take an extra rest day. I did 3 bike rides, 2 swims, 1 strength training, 1 elliptical and only 1 run. This weekend's long run never happened. I'm hoping the weather is a bit nicer tomorrow so I can do it then. I don't want to go on the treadmill.

This week I plan on doing 2 swims, 3 runs, 2 strength training, 2 bootcamps and 2 bike rides. DH is gone for the next week and a half so I won't have any excuses why I can't do a workout.

Have a great week everyone!

Good job on your almost-Mary Erin!!

I missed one of my runs last week, but I'll excuse myself since I had a sick day.  My run feels like it is coming back easier this time than other attempts at getting back... now I just need to enjoy the ride and not push too hard and get hurt!  13 days to my 5K "race."

Nice job getting some running in while in vacation Christine - I feel like my only vacay training ends up being simply carrying my equipment around but little actual workout time!

My goals are again the same

2 bike, 2 swim, 3 run which seems a manageable goal.  I'll add in a core workout as my little challenge to myself!

Cynthia

Goals for this week:

3 run sessions

1 bike session

1 swim session 

get all my insanity workouts in

My goals for the week are primarily revolving around running, as my son and I are doing our 5K next Saturday.  So far, we've run the distance twice now.  The second time we managed to drop off 4 minutes off our time.  It's still slow (34 minutes) and we're still walking some, but we keep improving.  As soon as this race is complete, I will begin working on the other two sports and start training. 

Sorry to be late!  Internet was down for past 3 days--we were having some serious withdrawal at my house.

1. Do scheduled workouts (3 swim, 3 bike, 2 run)

2. Find wetsuit for Tempe Oly which is LESS THAN 2 WEEKS AWAY!  AAAAAAAAH!

I have to get up in 6 hours for a 40 mile bike ride with my husband, who is training for his first organized event ever, a half century ride in May.  I'm really proud of him

Here is my latest question. I'm not good at getting my water bottle out of the cage and drinking on the bike.  For sprint events I just don't bother, but for an oly, especially in the heat, I think I will need to drink fluids.  Should I just practice drinking more while I ride?  Do you think a camel back type water backpack slows you down that much?

Thanks! 

I didn't make it to my goal last week... I over-did things on Tues/Wed and then took a couple days off to 'recover' (I don't recommend doing a kettlebells class the night before biking to/from work from 'the next town over'). Monday I was hit with a migraine, so I'm feeling a little off my game right now.

~  ~ ~

This week's goal: get out of the slump (emotional more than anything) that I'm in and, weather permitting, do my second bicycle commute to work on Friday.

~ ~ ~

I saw someone else on here say that they'd be a better triathlete if it weren't for work. How do people fit in their training when they have a very busy schedule. I know that the goal is to strike a work-life balance... but the reality of my situation (as we're moving offices this month) is that for the month of May the 'work' side of my work-life balance will be a little heavier than usual.

I have a history of shoulder issues (and when I was younger I didn't have the patience or the desire to stick out out through physio), so I've started with physio. Last year I did the swim-portion of a team triathlon and although I managed to "hold my own" doing a mix of front crawl and back crawl, I really would like to be able to swim the full portion doing front crawl. Anyone else have any recurring physical challenges that frustrate / discourage them?

Great goals everyone!

Jamie - I have some thoughts.  1) practice more drinking from a bottle so you do get comfortable with it, 2) camel back is ok.  I will cause drag, but if you're not looking for a podium, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.  You won't see many camelbacks, but there are a few people out there who race with them.  3) buy a Speedfill .  This is a 40 oz reservior that attaches to your frame and has a flexible straw that goes up through your handlebars.  Its got a bite valve, so you don't have to suck too hard to get liquid.  I LOVE this thing.  It is incredibly hard to clean, so I suggest you rinse it out as soon as you get home (if you put sports drink in there). Its $100, but I use this thing a ton and I feel its money well spent.

Niki - I had tendonitis in both biceps tendons (front part of the shoulder) that calcified my senior year of high school - from swimming free with poor form and being a varsity starter butterfly.  I couldn't lift my arms higher than my shoulders.  It took me a good 10 years before I was ready to go back to swimming, partially because my tendons were still tweaky and partially because I was scared.  I am extremely happy to report that I've been a Masters swimmer for 8 years (!!) and rarely have any shoulder issues.  The key is getting your technique looked at.  My first team was very Total Immersion based and almost immediately the coach started tweaking my form.  The key is to rotate (from your hips), swim with high elbows (fingertip drag drill is great!), making sure your head is tucked (pretend your spine is a rope that comes out the top/back of your head and you want to keep that rope TIGHT as you swim), and that your hips are higher than your chest as you swim (you almost push down with your chest to keep your hips up).  If you can't find a team with a hands-on coach, I'd suggest some private lessons with a reputable instructor.  My old coach has some helpful articles on his website.... I'll post some links in a bit.

My point is that when I graduated high school, I wasn't sure I would ever swim pain-free again.  My shoulders hurt randomly for YEARS after I quit swimming.  And with proper technique, I'm back to being a swimming machine - pain free

ok, I am back with some links!

Bottom Up Swimming - part 1, part 2, part 3

Claim your Lollipop

Dreaded Dropped Elbow

Air and Gravity

A Question of Balance

What Floats Yer Boat

I'd also suggest going to YouTube and finding the following drills:

Fingertip Drag

Side Glide - especially 1) kick 10, take 1 stroke, kick 10  and 2) kick 6, take 3 strokes, kick 6  (these teach you to rotate)

high elbow or catch drills

Got my workouts in last week....lost count of my laps in swimming, I'm going to have to get some chips or something to keep track of each 100 split.  Cycling was a little off as my neighbor is trying to get back at it so I took him out to show him my 15 mile loop, second day out he fell and dislocated his shoulder.

I'm still thinking the June tri is doable.  Going to step up the intensity of my workouts this week for sure.  Went last night on a group ride, feeling it in the legs for sure today.

Kelly - some questions/thoughts:

Are you running non-stop?  When I was starting out, I found that running continuously (at a low heart rate) was faster than doing run/walks.  Run/walk is a great way to start out, but I strongly feel that running continuously yields the most growth.

Are you doing tempo work or are you running at the same speed all the time?  The only way to get faster... is to run faster.  Try some fartleks - warm up for 1 mile, then do ~5 repeats of 3 min fast, 1 min easy.  But be careful with the speedwork if you are new to running.  I've heard its best to not do speedwork if you've been running for under a year.  You want to push out of your cardo comfort zone but you also don't want to push so hard you end up injured.

Think about getting your form evaluated.  Several of the shops in my area offer "Good Form Running Clinics".  Click HERE for a website that describes what good form is all about.

Finally, distance vs speed.... What distance are you training for?  If you're training for a 5k, I'd say keep your long runs no more than 5 miles.  If you're training for 10k, then ~8 miles.  I recommend doing BOTH distance and speed, ideally running 3 times a week.  One run should be a speed workout, one should just be a run, and one should be distance.  Also, always try to negative split the long runs - that means have your second half faster than your first half.  This usually means holding back a bit at the start of the run.

Kelly, when I started out I found I needed distraction to not hate running.  I found friends to run with or listened to books on tape or radio shows  while I went.  It got me to the point that my baseline running fitness was good enough that I could start doing more speed work and it was a lot more fun.  Eventually I "graduated" to being able to run alone without distraction, although I still fall back on it for solo runs of more than 10 miles.  Don't know if it will be true for you, but I hope it helps!

Anyone else have favorite work out music/shows?  I've been listening to a lot of free podcasts lately.  I love "This American Life"  and "TED radio".

Happy Friday everyone.

Question: How do you keep track of pool laps? I have a Timex Ironman watch which is supposed to be waterproof but in Amazon reviews people complain they can use it once or twice in the pool before it stops working. Apparently you can't use the lap button underwater. I've looked into other products but can't seem to find anything. Any ideas?

Thanks

I lose track of my laps... I used to use my water bottle to count - I'd move it over one tile each lap and then count the tiles at the end of my session.  Worked great.  Now I'm in a different pool and not swimming far yet so...I use my addled brain and lose track

Peeps have talked about using a stack of pennies to count, move one over to the left at each return lap.  Of course if you do flip turns that doesn't work but I don't -- one, I have never learned howto flip, but two, I figure there is no wall in the middle of the lake so a touch with gentle pushoff turn is more accurately reflecting my real OWS swim.  I just try to make it quick so I'm not stealing extra O2 that would also need to be earned in the middle of a lake!

Happy weekend all!

Cynthia