Sink or SWIM! with WittyCityGirl - CLOSED (Page 52)

Race report is now up...

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=262969&posts=1&start=1

MUST SEE!!!!

I forgot / screwed up.  At the tri yesterday there was a "TEAM" that competed.  You have to open this link and take a look at what these two accomplished.  If you're not impressed, I'll eat my hat!!!

It was incredibly impressive to see first hand....

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=262957&posts=13#M3622725

I get a kick out of people's preferences.  You learn a little bit about them that way.  =)

Kate, for the bike I've heard two different suggestions:  eat something every 10 miles or eat something every 30-45 minutes.  Definitely practice, practice, practice nutrition/hydration now that you're getting into longer distances on the bike, great work!

AWESOME!

Good luck with the family swim races Mike.

Great work on the race Curt. Hope you can sort out the cramping legs soon.

Stupid question. I'm looking at getting to 200m this month and continuing the agressive c25k program with the beginner exercise program to build up my biking.

The question is:

Do I stay at the 200m mark and continue to work on the bike and running stuff or should I continue building my swim base - for instance using the beginner swim program - which works up to 750 while doing the other stuff.

If I keep working for 3 months at everything with the beginner programs I'll end up with:

running no probs - I'll have already done a 5k about a month before anyway

biking: 75- 80 mins

swim - 750m.

Curt -- thanks for the link. That team is awesome! Reminds me of the Hoyt's (A boston area father/son team that has done 100's of races in a similar way - including several times at Kona!).

Good swim today, and it felt different (in a very good way) than recent swims. Was 2000 yards total, and I thought I felt slow. However, when I figured out the actual swim pace on the main set, I was at 1:28! Hopefully I can be that 'slow' all the time . Seems I've busted through the mental block I had with the swim a while back. I have lots of room for improvement, but its getting better. New pair of jammers today may have helped as well.

Great work on the new "slowness" of the swim. Glad you've busted through the mental block.

I've heard of the Hoyts guys they've got some videos of them doing some of their races and an FB fan page if I remember rightly - gives a lot of links to other athletes who are doing simalar things or athletes who are disabled.

One of the videos we watched in class last year had a guy with C5 cerebral palsy (I'm studying disability support) which is the lowest you can go and still be able to ambulate (according to the paralympic classifications) who did the NY Marathon.

Great idea!

How about:

China Grove-Doobie Brothers

Paparazzi-Lady Gaga

Mike, I think the jammers did the trick ok, maybe it's the time you're putting in!

Suzie, if you can handle increasing the swim, try it. You might find as you increase the bike and run you might need to stay at that swim distance. Keep it up!

Curt, I'm impressed with your race. OP might be your thing but you got through it and your bike and run were great! Congrats to your son too. He's going to have some podium finishes in his future.

Kate, great workouts this week. Love how you're really getting into training

Sara, did you pick your next race? Are you gearing up?

We spent last weekend watching my nephew race his 1st ironman at Vineman. He did awesome! Came in just under 14 hours and ran a super consistent race.

I'm headed out of town again on Thursday. A friend and I are taking a horse each and trailering to Whidby Island in Washington to visit a friend that moved up there a couple of years ago. We are going to ride with her (she has 3) and do other fun stuff on the island. I'm taking my bike with and should be able to get most of my workouts in.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Johanne

Thanks Johanne. I may look at trying some bricks or something to see how much the swim affects/effects (I'm always getting those two confused) the biking. Of course to do a true swim/bike brick I would have to do a bike/swim/bike one because it's the only way I have a chance of getting my bike to the pool, lol.

Have fun with the horses and good luck getting the bike rides in.

Mike--a half marathon? Better you than me! Go get 'em, train hard and you will do awesome!

On Sunday I did an OWS with my husband (actually, he sat on the beach while I swam)...I also decided to do it without a wetsuit--it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be--800+meters, in about 30 minutes. I was pretty happy with it. I did an elliptical workout followed by a swim yesterday, ending my peak week workouts---ok, a bit more than a week---it was 8 days of training basically--oops. Today, I am relaxing, basically, making a dent on the couch in front of the TV. Of course, I already am getting antsy...I want to be doing something! Oh well, I need to rest today!

aw thanks! I could use the money!!!

I still have a long way to go, I would like to swim more than 75 meters continuously... but I'll keep working on it--Ha! I might be some real competition if I can ever do that!

Mike - With no foot pain I'd say GO FOR IT!

Kate - great work on the OWS. I'm trying to find some way of doing one myself - not sure I want the first time to be on race day, lol. Have fun with the relaxing. You'll get beyond the 75m continuous eventually, just keep swimming - and yes that is taken from Finding Nemo, lol.

Actually I used that on my bike last ride except I paraphrased it to "just keep spinning" to get up the "slight incline" I was on. I'm thinking I really need to work on hills, lol.

Curt -- OWS....my recommendation (based on my experience) is to get in the water and just get comfortable. Don't necessarily swim, just get comfortable. Try to exhale with your face in the water. Do some breast stroke, or just float on your back. Slowly try to do a crawl stroke, and if you need to, roll over on your back to breath. Your comfort with it will come, it just takes a bit of practice. My first race I had the total freak out. My first race this year, I almost had a bit of a freak out during warm ups, but I caught myself, and just stopped. Took a breath, and went back at it. Last race? Didn't even thing about -- just thought about swimming.

Today's topic -- its tough getting old.  Had some knee area pain last night (more like knee area muscle soreness) and woke up this AM with it still there. Enought that I bailed on my bike/run brick plans for the morning. Will try it tonight, but what the heck? These bizarro random, seemingly unknown origin pains are a real drag .

Could not agree more Mike.  This year was not nearly as bad as last.  I was actually really relaxed and calm.  Just pissed that I was getting tired and did not feel able to swim.  Mistake I made was not getting in another OWS.  Final event of the year is in a week and a half and is semi-open water.  Last year I did great / I'm really looking forward to having a top notch race.

On the getting old topic, I feel your pain -- pun fully intended!!!  One of the hardest things about sticking to the schedules I make is when my body says "no".  I've been trying to figure out how to balance wanting to improve, wanting to use the tri training for health, and wanting to avoid getting hurt.  Struggling now with whether I should stick with what I have been doing (which is awesome for my health!), increase distance, or increase intensity.  We'll see.

Hang in there and keep training.  At least we're still upright and doing better than all of those folks on the couch!

Well, Advil does magic, so I'm feeling better.

Not quite sure what a 'semi' OWS is, Curt - please share!

I'm definitely going to go workout tonight. I feel the need to get moving!

Swim is in old quarry in an "M" shape.  It's "in and out" of deep water / rest available!!

I gave up ibuprofen 4 weeks back so that's not an option any more.

Enjoy.

I think Johanne may have made a comment about the bike/run... your cardio fitness on land is built by the combination of these two sports, so it's why a lot of triathletes don't stress about getting run volume in-because bike training is helping by increasing your cardiovascular system's capabilities and preventing injury from excessive running. 

So... this is why I think it's okay to continue working on building that swim.

From my observations... when people get tired on a bike, they just pedal easier.  When people get tired on the run, they start to walk.  When people get tired on the swim, they start doing sidestroke or breaststroke, which is fine, but (correct me, group, if I'm wrong here) it's more stressful for the athlete and the people on the swim course trying to protect/keep you safe when athletes have to resort to other forms of swimming. 

So, bike fitness will likely improve your overall time the best, but swim fitness will improve your overall safety the best.  I hope that makes sense?  

I forgot what your swim distance is for the race... is it 750m?  Try to build up from swimming 200m without stopping to 250 then 300 then up to 500. 500 yards or 500 meters seems to be the magical point where sprint distance athletes can be okay as their longest swim before an open water swim in a race.  Keep in mind, when you do a longer non-stop distance for the first time, it's more important to go slow enough where you don't have to stop then to keep a pace that forces you to stop on the wall.  It's very, very important not to stop on the wall when you're building endurance (some people even turn before they touch the wall, have you tried that yet?).

Definitely add 25/50 yard drill work around your continuous swims, too, to help with technique.

=)

I think I'm doing another brewery ride. =) This one will be from Syracuse, NY to Cooperstown, NY.  100 miles.  Ommegang brewery is sponsoring it. Totally unsupported ride, so it's way less expensive, dinner at the end.  It's called a Point to Pint tour.

Johanne, enjoy horsing around!

Happy and healthy training, Mike!

A massage makes a GREAT strategy for getting around antsy-ness!!!!!!  I went once a week for a few months while I was IM training-it works wonders!