Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 5)

Paul-a duathlon is a great way to get a feel for the sport. No worries with that bothersome swim. There are lots of good events up your way. Always something going on the the Chattanooga and Knoxville areas. Swim cords/bands are an option for out of pool exercises. If you are interested several sets can be found on www.swimoutlet.com. Start easy with any resistance training and work your way up. Jason should be breaking into his Halo bench trainer in the next day or so and hopefully he will share his impressions

I would love to go for a run on Christmas but nagging calf issue keeps that from happening. No bike/swim options at the in laws.  A lttle time away from everyone on a holiday does wonders for both mental and physical well being

Randy  

Well Paul -- you said you hadn't told your wife yet about doing a triathlon -- looks like you find a solid loophole.  

...

Very proud of myself -- just finished 35 minutes on the treadmill -- joked with my wife that I just did more physical activity on Christmas Eve than I've done on the previous 37 Christmas Eves put together.  

...

Running question for the group...  I've always heard the advice "run lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard".  Here's how I've interpreted that for my training plan...  (all treadmill running, all at a 1% incline, all with 5 min warm up and cool down)

• ~Tuesday -- 30-35 minutes easy run (about 6:25/km -- sorry I'm metric!)
• ~Thursday -- 30-35 minutes harder run (about 6:00/km)
• ~Sunday -- 60 minutes easy run (6:25/km)

Have been bumping up the distances ~10% a week, with a break week every 4 weeks (theoretically anyway!)

Questions:

1. How much "harder" should a harder run be (relative to an easy run)?
2. How frequently, and how quickly, should I try bumping up the pace?
3. Any other comments / critiques of the running plan?

Thanks all!

Scott.

Hey Scott,

I thought I "Conned" my wife as it were, but she likes the idea of me doing triathlons/dueathlons after all Needless to say, this shocked me.

She says I need to swim a lot more. She is swift in the water and should know.

Nice job on the Christmas Eve workout on the treadmill. Exercise time is vzaluable 365 days of the year, for sure! My gym is shut and I'm still on visits to meet my new American family for my first Christmas awzay from the UK, so you beat me hands down this year...

Scott-I think the current plan with an increase of 10% per week is fine. I would not worry about increasing pace much at this point. Build a solid base and then add speed later. As Nate pointed out in his post yesterday....lots of "easy" running can still make you faster. Many times people think of speed work as doing hard intervals on a track or something similar. It doesn't have to be like that. A set of strides after a run or maybe some short, marginally harder, segments built into the middle of a regular run. This gets the body accustom to running faster without the toll of doing a dedicated "speed" workout. Adding distance or ultimately adding intensity should be done gradually. Over the Winter maybe add a 4th easy run of 20-30 mintues to what you already do. This adds volume/km's to your training without greatly increasing stress on the body. Lots of short frequent runs are easier on the body, from a recovery standpoint, than 2-3 longer runs covering the same total distance. Jason mentioned the BarryP run plan and it is a soild system for building run frequency. 

Randy

On Thanksgiving I ran the annual 10k and recorded a new PR. After the run I felt pretty good and had no physical issues. The Saturday after I biked for 24 miles and felt fine after that as well. On Sunday I had a 10 mile run on my plan for the Dallas Half Marathon and after 2 miles my knee started hurting but not to the point that I needed to stop. I finished the 10 miles and went home to ice my knee. 

After that 10 mile run I had to stop running until Dec. 9th when I ran the HM. I hobbled the HM and hurt my knee if worse ... 

So last Friday I went to a Doc who specializes in Knee and Shoulder issues and he did all kinds of x-rays and twisted my legs in all different directions. I found out that I have no issues at all with the bones or ligaments in my knee. 

He gave me 4 different options for a path forward .... 

1.) Topical Treatment like BioFreeze and taking it easy

2.) Prescription Anti-Inflammatory (Oral) meds

3.) Physical Therapy

4.) Anti-Inflammatory shot right in the knee

Or any of those combined. I opted for #4 and I am completely free of knee pain ... he made sure to mention not to OVERDUE it because I am pain free. 

I am going to swim and bike until the beginning of January and then slowly increase my running again ... I will start over with a similar plan that Scott is currently working with. I am just excited that I am pain free ....! 

I am not sure how much more I will be posting today but I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Happy Holiday! Today and tomorrow are the two days for me that I will let myself enjoy the food that is coming my way ... 

Michael,

I recommend the Physical Therapy route for you.  I'm sure the cortisone has helped so far.  But, in my injury history, and my time in PT, I have found that a good PT doesn't just get rid of the pain.  I learned a lot from my 2 stints in PT about how to run so I don't have any more pain.  It sure takes longer, but IMHO it is worth it!

Good Luck with all the food!

I am going to not be very active for the next couple of days.  Lots of family time coming up!  I am not running today but might get a late run in tomorrow and the 26th.  Then 4 days of out of town with lots of family activities. 

This group has started off great!  I'm glad to be here for round 2.  We had a very good group last time.  I look forward to getting to know the new members as well.  Randy and Jason certainly have lots to offer, and a solid track record to back it up.

Name: Jim Barron

Story:  My only sport in Highschool was golf. I Began taking physical fitness seriously when deployed with the Marines in the Gulf.  Sitting in the desert we had lots of time for PT (aka exercise) and I caught the bug.  Started marathons in 1998 and moved to Tri's in 2002 and have found my true passion - long distance triathlons.  I have completed 10 IM's to date (IM Moo x2, IM LP x2, IM Lou x3, IM Texas x 2, IM AZ x 1).

Family Status:  Divorced after 19 years of marriage.  2 boys ages 18 and 16.  My 18 year old is studying Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego. (I am considering moving back to the west coast, not sure why I ever left???).   My 16 year old is a football/rugby player and avid athlete.  We often train together.  He hopes to study Business and play college rugby, his 1st choice is the University of Utah.

Current Training:  Having just come off IM AZ last month, I am in a maintenance phase but have been keeping up my swim volumes.  I'm going to be doing lots of trainer road riding in my garage this winter.

2013 Races:  I am doing IM AZ for sure next year.  My other races will depend on work schedule but am looking at 2 half IM's (Grand Rapids, and Steelhead), and am considering a few run events as well. 

Weightloss:  I could stand to lose at least 10 pounds. 

Why good mentee:  I love training and competing.  I've been hooked on triathlons since 2003.  For me it has almost become a way of life. I plan to keep doing them until I physically cannot.  I still see lots of room for improvement and am always open to receive advice to improve my performance.  I enjoy the comeraderie BT offers. 

Paul-Congrats on signing up for your first race and getting your wife on board.

I was planning a short run tomorrow but may end up doing something with the SO and his family. I have to work all day also. Also, my lower back has been hurting enough that it's hard to stand up straight. Hopefully it will pass but it could go either way. So I guess the answer is maybe I'll work out tomorrow.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I was asked about swim drills I recommend so let me see if I can make some sense of my swimming experience that might be of benefit to the folks in this group.  By way of background I started out as a back stroker and ended my journey as a freestyle & butterfly specialist with some IM thrown in.  My PR in the 100 yard free was 48.81.  I didn’t compete in a lot of distance races but swam a 1650 Free a couple of times under 19 minutes.

Having been a competitive swimmer for six years I was fortunate to have two really good coaches and one, not so much.  With that here is how I approach the sport.

Swimming is made up of three basic components:  Technique, Conditioning and Strength, in that order of importance.  If you cannot master the proper technique you will always be working harder than you should for less benefit than your efforts should return.

If you do not have the best form in order to swim faster you should slow down.  Too many swimmers think that a faster stroke or faster kick will make them faster endurance swimmers.  Wrong and wrong. 

Drill 1: Count your current strokes per length of the pool at your current workout pace for a 200 yard swim.  Now try to swim the same distance with one less stroke per 25 yards.  What you will find yourself doing is reaching a bit farther out and pushing farther back on the recovery.  The truth is at first you may be over reaching and not recovering fast enough but you will get a feel for getting more from each stroke.  The more you do this the more efficient your stroke will become.

To learn how to get more power from your arms instead of just your hands, you need to take away the use of your hands.

Drill 2: Swim while holding a tennis ball in each hand.  You can do this by just holding your hands in a fist but I prefer the tennis balls for two reasons.  First it requires far more discipline to hold your hands in a fist while swimming making it far more likely (and far too easy) for you to forget or bail on it.  While swimming with a tennis ball in your hand is not natural, holding the ball is.  Also, because a tennis ball will float, it also provides some natural resistance that requires you to really push through the stroke.

The primary purpose of your kick is NOT propulsion.  Big kicks are for sprinters not endurance swimmers.  Your legs should provide balance and rhythm first and foremost. 

Drill 3: Kick on your back without a kickboard.  Hold your hands straight out above your head, locking your thumbs.  The reason to do this on your back is to minimize the bend in the knee.  While on your back a deep knee bend is very unnatural.  Therefore you will shorten the depth of your kick.

While we are on the topic of kick drills, I never use a kickboard.  First off, most people use them incorrectly.  If you must use one, hold it at the very bottom of the board.  Using is any other way to support the upper body puts you in a very unnatural position that you will never swim in and drops the legs deeper than they should ever go while swimming. 

Try doing kick drills the same as above.  No kickboard, arms extended all the way out in front of you with thumbs locked.  Remember to keep your head down and roll to the side to breathe.  Except for sighting you should never lift your head up.

Finally, let me share my favorite upper body drill…poolside pushups. 

Drill 4: Get in the pool next to the deck where you cannot touch the bottom.  Face the deck and place your hands on the deck just wider than your shoulders.  Drop down in the water until your arms are fully extended while holding on to the side.  Now pull yourself up out of the water and push your body up until your arms are fully extended with your upper body out of the water.  You can kick at the same time but do not touch the wall.

I like this because it simulates a stroke.  You start with the pull and finish with the push.  You will find that a small dolphin kick will help but again, a small kick.  Any big kick will just end up bruising your knees on the wall.

Try doing a 100 + 10 with 10 seconds rest x10.  Swim 100 yards, immediately do 10 poolside pushups, rest 10 seconds then repeat 10 times.

There is a variation of this I heard Michael Phelps say his coaches had him do.  Swim 1000 yards but at the end of each 100 yards pull yourself completely out of the pool.  Immediately turn around and dive back in for the next 100.

I hope this helps.  I would be happy to answer any questions or offer ideas on drills for specific needs.

Happy Holidays!

OMG I go away for 1 day and I miss 4 pages?  LOL  Ok ok...btw am I missing the button to click that will bring you to your last unread post?  

As I mentioned before I'm recovering from a stress fracture so currently running is out....and I'm kind of a baby about biking in the cold so I'm stuck swimming and spinning.

So for swimming I really just started in August and have been pretty much just doing laps (4-6 times a week though).  I know I'm a lot stronger now but I need to start a real swim training program. If anybody who wants to put together a beginning plan for me I would appreciate any help you can offer.  

Although the Y is closed tomorrow so I can't start until Wednesday.

Happy Holidays ALL!

Randee I couldn't tell from your profile what you want to accomplish with your swim.  Any particular distance or event?

oh sorry.  Starting in June there is a tri series - it's a sprint swim and run distance with a 5M off road bike so that's my goal for now.  I think I have the endurance now to do it so I have plenty of time to work on my technique and speed!

Blanda-great to have you with us again. Post a new bio when you can.

Heading to my office in Mobile from the in-laws in a bit. The tornado that hit the Midtown area of Mobile was only about 1 mile from my office. Based on the path we should be OK. Sure was nasty in South Alabama yesterday/last night.

I feel like a slug. No training for the last 4 days. No swim or bike opportunities while out of town and sketchy calf has kept me from running. Hoping to do a short swim at lunch then a 5 minute power test on the bike tonight....UGH! I hate testing! What is everyone doing today?

Randy 

YIKES!

Glad you are safe!!

I'm a bit of a slug myself.  No time since Saturday to do much other than eat and open presents  Today is back to routine.  Swim at 6am.  Now I'm off to work.  Have a good day!

+1

Today is a bike day for me. I'm on week 4 of the Winter Bike Program. I did end up running last night though so didn't really take time off. I'll be going home to see my family this weekend so I may take Saturday off.