Sharona1973's Group - FULL (Page 5)

I sure missed you guys!!  The guests have been dropped off at the airport and i have filled in my Training log for Thursday and Friday.  I have not been this tired in a while!!!

Music: (If it's not too late)

1. Ray Charles- What i say
2. Bruce Springsteen- This train...not sure if that's the real title
3. John Mayer- I got a woman (Live)....an old Ray Charles song
4. DropKick Murphys- For Boston ...anything from these guys is going to have energy
5. DropKick Murphys- Dirty Water (both from Live on St Patricks Day in Boston Album)
6. Macy Gray- When i see you
7. INXS- New Sensation....good for warmup on Treadmill!
8. Pat Benatar- I Need a Lover (Live)
9. Rolling Stones- Everybody Needs Somebody

Okay, so i overcompensated for responding late.  I'm going to have to get in a nap before i do anything else today.  Going to spend a good day with the honey today or tomorrow, too.  And more swim drills tomorrow.  Plus, i think i owe someone else something....i'll read back through the threads today and figure it out.  Good day and good workouts (or rest days) to you all.

Just wanted to get in here quickly (I have to go to work today, just for a short time).....

You gals are AWESOME! Everyone has done really well this week and I'm so proud of each and every one of you for sticking to your goals and your "resolutions" for the new year. You've made such great strides and there is such a cohesiveness and comaraderie with this group that I can scarcely believe our good fortune at finding such good training pals and friends already this year. Keep up the good work for the next week and everyone have a truly wonderful weekend. And thanks for reminding me of what's important when it comes to dealing with loved ones. I appreciate it all.

Okay..the music...I do have some, Laura. I'll have to look at my list this weekend. I have a special song for the group though. I've been meaning to post it for a few days. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend.

Goofy, I'd love more swim drills. I have some new goals for my swimming to get ready for my first Oly!!

Oh and we had been talking about setting up a chat session......one thought, does everyone have MSN Messenger? I was just wondering because I was thinking that using MSN might be a bit easier than using the BT chat room. There are other BT members there and I don't think you can set up a different room or something, so chatting might be a tad confusing in the BT chat room, whereas if we had MSN, we could do a group chat. Let me know. I do have an MSN handle....Sharona1973....yeah, I'm SOOOO original!

Later my lovely ladies!

Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Laura:  My three songs are: 1) The Beautiful People- Marilyn Manson 2) Thunderstruck - ACDC 3) Not an Addict - K's Choice.  I have many others which I like better, but I don't think anyone would find them as motivating as I do.  They include: It's My Life by Talk Talk, Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve, These are Days by 10,000 Maniacs, Run by Collective Soul and Clocks by Coldplay

Sharon:  I think I have MSN on my laptop.  I've never used it tho.  Is it difficult to get the hang of?

AND A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR SHARON FOR HER DU TOMORROW:

YOU GO GIRL!!! 

g00fyf00ter is my msn thingy.  Those are zeroes.  I'm creative too!

Okay, tomorrow's the duathlon. Distances are 1.5mile run/12mile bike/1.5mile run. Feeling a bit nervous, guess it's the first-race-of-2007 jitters. Started to doubt myself a bit with negative talk about being last...which I will be, but trying to tell myself that it's okay, the placement doesn't matter, just finishing is the accomplishment.

You don't understand. I may live in a small city/town, but we have a really strong triathlon club and great athletes in this area. We even beat out Dallas this last season. Our club won the the South Midwest Region club championship for Category 2 which is 130-249 members. We had 130 members and still beat Dallas which had 202 members and we even had fewer total races entered...which meant that our triathletes placed higher overall. See what I'm up against?

Actually it's kinda cool to know that I'm with a great group of triathletes. We'll see who shows up tomorrow morning! I guess I'm off to bed to try to sleep off my nerves!

Here's to Sharon for jumping out there for the first race in the new year.  Like everyone, we can't wait to hear all about it!  I'm shouting EEK's cheer for ya. (After teaching 7th grade, I've got a big mouth, so you should be able to hear it.)

Remember this, it doesn't matter where you place because you are the leader of this pack!!

(I'm on MSN as LLP1970.  Thanks for all the music coming in, too.  You all will love the cover.)

Well hello.  It's Sunday and i have more swim stuff:

1. Golf: Swim a Free 50, count your strokes (everytime your hand enters water = 1), and record your time.  This Free should be at a good pace.  Add the number of strokes to your time in seconds.  So if you did a 50 in 45 seconds @ 45 strokes: your "golf" score would be 90.  Do this about 4 times.  Rest between 50s.  Your score should be pretty consistent.  Make sure your stroke is good for every lap.  If your stroke count goes up, slow down.  You are probably fatigued or "spacing out"...this will cause your stroke to suffer/reinforce bad technique.
2. Single Arm rythm: This is like the Single arm from last week, but different.  Do the single arm drill, but your non stroking arm should be at your side-not extended in front of you.  This is harder for me.  Slowly.  It is important to breathe on the non-working arm side, before the stroke is completed (while working arm is extended in front).  Focus on your balance and what your hips are doing.  This gets easier as you practice.  It is a great way to measure improvement: the easier it gets, the better your technique is getting.

The Golf drill is a good way to judge how efficient your stroke is.  The goal with this drill is to reduce your strokes.  Work toward < 43 for a 50m, and <40 for a 50yd. You could try  this:

• 100 free drill TBD
• 50 Free
• 50x2 Golf
• 50 Free
• 50x2 Golf

Once your stroke count is consistent and you feel comfortable with most drills/your technique then increase your laps.  Start by doing a pace test.  If you have a race planned, the pace test should reflect the distance.  I will put the details of a pace test up with next weeks drills.

Sharon: Is your Oly open water? Is the pool you train in a yard or meter pool?

Pack as a whole: Are these posts helpful?  Who is the runner of the group? 

Jesica

I can't even spell my name right.

Hey ladies! I'm working on my RR....times are off my Garmin, which is pretty accurate. Official times are not up online yet.

Was working on my RR and hit a button and it erased my whole report. Grrrrrrrr is beyond all I can say right now.

RR for the Dustbuster Du is up. Also uploaded some pics from today as well.

Just as FYI for my upcoming half mary in Houston, you can track my progress either through txt msg on your cell phone or online through email. You can choose split times or finish times.

Here's the link to sign up: http://www.doitsports.com/results/MSG-signup.tcl?sub_event_id=22495

And thank you for all the great support today for the duathlon. Couldn't have done it without knowing you were all cheering me on!

Good morning all!

I think I was able to set up a MSN thing.   (I wanted to be original like my fellow Dog Pack ).  I also think I got you added as contacts.  With my luck I've probably accidently added some terrorist or hardened inmate or something and all my computer stuff is now being watched.

Erin:  Forgot to ask.  You heading to Montreal for business or pleasure?  It's a neat city especially the old part of town.  If theie hockey team is still in the playoffs then, the city will have some serious hockey fever happening.  Just watch out for those drivers.  They are absolutely nuts.

Jessica:  Thanks for the swim drills.  Been printing them out and hope to try them once I get my TI technique down.  (first step is to get to the pool tho).

Erin:  I don't think I can really offer any advice on swimming as I know next to nothing about it.   I have seen classes for adults who are not comfortable in the water.  They start out with simple things like putting your head under water,  blowing bubbles under water etc.  You may want to try phoning around to some of the places that offer the lessons and see what they offer.  Do you have any friends who are really good swimmers?  If you can drag them to the pool with you, they may be able to offer suggestions and encouragement.

Sharon:  Thanks for the link for your half mary.  I'll be checking that out next week.  Awesome race yesterday my friend.  I knew as did your mentees that you would kick butt.  I can't wait to see the great things you're going to do next weekend! 

Dee, I know you're gone, but I hope you have a great few days off! See you when you get back!

Erin, Goofy might have some ideas for you, as well as some of our other Dogged Pack group, but here's what I think......

First, kudos to you for facing your fear of the water, especially with so many frightening and life threatening experiences.

Second, I think that adult swim classes are a GREAT idea to get back in the pool and start some swim practice with others around. You get to learn some new skills and even face your fear of having others with you in the pool.

Third, are there tris in your area that are not OWS? We have several tris in our area that are pool swims only. For those tris, you can even "walk" the swim...which is not fast, but is allowed. Basically this is for those who are either poor swimmers or afraid of swimming. I've seen some do it. They'll swim for a period and then actually stand up and walk while in the swim lane. You might want to check with some of the race directors in your area about that.

As for OWS, there are usually swim angels and kayaks out in the water with the swimmers. When I raced in the IronGirl Tri in Irving, TX, there were swim angels with noodles in the water and swimmers were allowed to hang onto those noodles if they needed to rest.

Additionally, there are lots of swimmers who use breaststroke and backstroke for their swim. There is no rule that you have to swim completely freestyle. Most do it because it's the fastest way to go.

I think that you can be highly successful in a tri and not be a great swimmer. Case in point, one of my tri buddies is a terrible swimmer. He finished the 1/2 mile swim in 45 minutes....(I did it in 22 minutes) and he STILL finished ahead of me in the triathlon!! I admire Wallace so much because he is a complete beginner swimmer and can't really swim more than 200 yards at a time and yet he goes out there and does it and still does VERY well. So YOU can definitely do it!

I would say that a pool swim tri would be great and you can definitely tackle an OWS event as well.....check with the race directors if there will be swim angels and if even if there are just kayaks, I think you can hold onto them...I'll have to check that. Additionally, there is a product out there that you can wear...it's like a personal safety floatation device that you wear around your waist during the swim. You can use it if something happens and you need help. It might be an option if it might make you feel more comfortable during your swim.

Oh, one more thing about OWS and crowds...you can always avoid the crush of swimmers by just waiting 5-10 seconds before going in the water. You can draft nicely behind the other swimmers....let them do the work!

Hope this helps!!

Good morning everyone!  I’m looking forward to seeing all of the workouts we will accomplish today.

Regarding music, I will start arranging the CD this weekend.  It sounds like the ice Sharon was dreading in Houston is making it’s way to us instead.  It may be a perfect weekend to create the Dogged Pack Motivational CD.

A few other random thoughts:

Sharon:  I’m aqua jogging today, and I’m going to try the ice if the ankle swells.  I always head to the heat just because I hate cold things.  I know, not a good enough reason.  Thanks.

Erin:  I really appreciate your candor regarding the swimming, and I think the ladies gave you some excellent advice.  From my novice perspective, I would highly recommend the adult swim class if it’s available to you.  As evidenced by your experiences with water, most often times fear is learned.  The great thing is you can “learn” strategies to overcome it.  Your situation epitomizes the beginner triathlete thoughts; I think we all have fears which we believe conquering this challenge will help us to overcome.    You impress me with your honesty and your bravery.

Jessica:  Thank you so much for the swim drills as well.  My program doesn’t have me in the pool for another three weeks.  Hmm…we’ll see about that.  Meanwhile, I have a growing binder of swimming information, thanks to you.

Many of you asked about Aqua jogging, so I found a link here on our own BT site for you to check out.  Resistance is the key to actually getting a good workout from this.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/Article-detail.asp?Articleid=746&vote=2

Hello my lovely ladies,

Okay, so I'm sending out a mass request for you gals to check in sometime this weekend. I would like to hear how you are all feeling about meeting your goals and if there are any other ideas that would make this group EVEN better! We're two weeks into 2007 and so far from the looks of the logs, everyone is doing super! So great job!!

Laura, thank you for putting together the Motivational CD. You must own stock in iTunes or something. But seriously, can we do something to contribute to offset the cost of this wonderful collection of wongs for the CD?

Okay gals, you're going to have to ask Laura and Jessica about the origins of the wongs! Tee hee!

Erin, I think you're going to do just great in your swim no matter what you decide! Just remember, a pool swim for a tri is still a swim and still a real tri!

You know, I wish I could be at each and everyone of your first triathlons!!!! That would be so cool!!!!!!!! Hey, I was thinkin'......how about doing the Walt Disney Half Marathon next year together? We could all make a few days out of it....it might be fun! Well, just thought I would toss that out to you.

Send good thoughts on Sunday!!! I'm going to need to rely on all the positive vibes from you guys to finish my run!

Okay, this was one of my wong submissions to Laura for the CD. It is actually a song that I had heard about a month ago during one of my spin classes and I just really liked it.

I don' t know if you guys have heard it, but here's a video from YouTube. I really like the words because I think that too often we don't really appreciate ourselves. It may sound a bit narcissistic, but really, I think we need to love ourselves more at times.

I hope this spurs your workouts more. I know it helps me run faster! Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKzMCbCZK-U