Sink or SWIM! with WittyCityGirl - CLOSED (Page 6)

Lori,

I rode a hybrid last year for 3 sprints and 1 olympic. It was fine. I got passed by the fast people on road bikes but I passed some others too It's a really comfortable bike and was great to start with. Just my 2 cents.

Johanne

David - I will be at IMStG with some friends cheering on a guy named Mark.  I probably won't make it there until after the swim but will be there later.  

Johanne-  I see your list of races and recognize a few.  Ran and PR'd at Napa 2010.  Awesome race.  Ran Disney and really LOVED running on the Jumbotron in Angels Stadium, and Las Vegas (mixed reviews) will be cool to run at night.  Dress warm and I may have some "local" recommendations if you would like them.

Chet,

I PR'd Napa too. The beauty of a 1st race I would love to do it again and be a little more ready for it. It's a beautiful course. Dave and I have done Disney with our youngest daughter for the last 3 years. Love the way the whole race is so 'Disney'. For Vegas, it will be our 3rd or 4th year and I agree about the mixed reviews. I go to Vegas every year to go to the NFR with some college girlfriends. One year we said why don't we start running and do this next year. So we did and that started the running thing for me. Running at night should be interesting. Not my best time of day but that race is just for fun. I'd love local recommendations from you. My sister and brother in law are considering moving to Henderson next year too so it would be interesting to hear how you like the area.

Johanne

Guess I'm a swimming hack -- took 27 SPL this AM for around a 1:15 50 yards = 27 + 27 + 75 = 129.  Like the 88 I shot on the real course on Sunday!!!!  On the good news front, the 27 is down from around 32-33.  AND on my 19th 100 yard today I actually felt great / could feel myself "pulling" the water and being on top/streamlined -- that one came in at 2:20!

Sara,

I have a question regarding the pull bouyes.  I read an article saying  that they weren't good to use because you don't really learn how to lift the bottom half of your body.  My bottom half has a tendency to drag down and not float thats why I use them.  What's your take on this?????

Thanks,

Alicia

Darn! Next time, and I hope there is a next time!

I wish I had gotten some saddle time.  My tires were flat, so I bought a pump, but the pump didn't work and walmart is 45 minutes away.

Then spent tonight changing the breaks on my daughters car.  I really hate it when life happens.  I will swim and run tomorrow.

Awesome, we will be up friday night. . Alicia and I plan on taking our bikes and seeing a little of the countryside too.

So, did 3 'rounds' of swim golf this AM, and was rather consistent with the results. Did each for 50 yards:

1 -- 83 (48 sec; 35 strokes)

2 -- 85 (47 sec; 38 strokes)

3 -- 83 (47 sec; 36 strokes)

The swims were quick, and I was feeling good this AM. The sleek/glide feeling was happening in spades .

One thing I do need help with is some mental HTFU attitude adjustment. I've been able to swim up to 2500 yards non stop but the past couple of months I've really done jack squat with any type of endurance building with my swimming. Part of it was trying to fix some swim problems, and I feel another part of it is dealing with my foot injury. So I have a few questions:

1. Is there any real relationship between running fitness and swimming endurance? I realize swimming is primarily technique, but in the 7 weeks since I've had to stop running, I feel my swimming endurance has suffered

2. I'm willing to try just about anything to clear up the case of plantar fasciitis I have. As mentioned above, I've been on the shelf for 7+ weeks from running. It is killing me to not run, and to have an injury which doesn't seem to want to get better. I've seen the orthopedic guy, have done the rest/ice/golf ball/shoe inserts/boot at night (for as long as I can stand it)/tape thing, and while its better than it was originally, it seems to have plateau'd and is just nagging. I want this to go away *now*.

3. Swimming endurace -- I'm planning on getting a couple stroke things fixed (lessons next few weeks), finding a good plan, and essentially playing the HTFU card. Right now I get 1/2 through whatever I"m doing swim wise, and just feel like "eh, thats enought for today". Then I get upset with myself for being a big loser and not doing more.

Overall, I'm not feeling like I'm in a good place training wise. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Oh -- biking is actualy good. No complaints there. I have a new tri bike I received as a christmas present, and will hopefully get it off the trainer and on the road this weekend.

- Mike

Chet-that's pretty cool that you got a tri top from the guy.  I had to chuckle about your comment just because I know how often athletes end up at the Drs office.  Hope all the injuries you've had are healing up!

Curt-great to read that your stroke counts are coming down! I promise, it makes a big difference. =)

I try to explain to new triathletes that the swim is a warm up to the rest of your race.  It takes SO much energy for an efficient swimmer to drop time on the swim that they may not have enough in the tank to finish out strong on the bike or the run.  It's better to have a smooth, pretty stroke so that you can focus more on the BIG chunk of your race-the bike.

Next time you're in the pool, take a moment to figure out what your arms are doing in relation to your feet.  I prefer a six beat kick.  This means when my right hand enters the water my right foot kicks, then the left foot kicks and then the right foot kicks.  THEN pull with your right hand and enter your left hand.  Kick, kick, kick.  Right hand in the water, kick, kick, kick.  Left hand in the water, kick, kick, kick.  This will elongate your stroke and give you time to get used to swimming on your side.  You create less drag if you can roll on to one hip as you kick.

Mike 

Regarding getting through your long swim sessions. I always try and break any of my long sessions down in to smaller segments. I went out to do an hours swim a few week back and thought i'd been going for ages. When i looked at my watch i'd been going for just under 15 minutes. I found it really hard to keep going. So what i do is use the lap function on my watch and reset it every 5 minutes or so. I find it makes a big difference mentally to know i've only got 2 or 3 minutes left rather than 57. Also found this works with my runs as well.

Hope this helps

Simon

oooOOOooh! I LOVE questions like these!!!

Pull buoys shouldn't be used as a floatation aid per se, they should be a fitness aid.  Swim technique is best learned when you break down swimming into pieces (the pull, the kick, the breathing) and practice those pieces then put the pieces back together.  It's hard to get that concept for people that come from a running or biking background, sometimes.

When using a pull buoy, use it to help your legs float so that you can concentrate on your pull form.  Gaze forward when you swim and watch your hands.  The hand entering the water almost touches the hand that's out in front before the hand out in front begins the "catch" phase of your pull.

Also, the pull buoy is SUPER helpful if you have a leg injury.

What happens if you're the person that has sinking legs?  BUILD. THAT. CORE STREEEEEEEENGTH!!  Engage your core muscles: suck in the belly and squeeze that butt.  Press your sternum slightly down.  Kick so that you hear your feet splashing on top of the water.  You'll be a better swimmer if you can get your feet up without assistance.  Woohoo!!!

Sara,

Cuernavaca is a very hilly city surrounded by mountains.  I live at the top of a hill.

Security is a big issue in Mexico.  It has always been because of poverty, but it’s worsened in Cuernavaca during the last year, when the war between drug dealers reached us.   I joined a Triathlon team mainly for security reasons, since it would be impossible for me to ride on my own.  But their rides are very long and I don’t have the endurance to do them all yet.  I only join them on Wednesdays, when we do an uphill 20K ride (I’ve only managed 10K so far).  The rest of the week I bike in the secluded area I live in.

My house is one of 14 in a closed area that is within another larger closed area. So I have double security.  Streets are privately owned, which means that the inhabitants of those areas own a piece of the street each.  LOL  We have an administration that arranges private security services, electricity, water, gardening, etc., for common areas.  This means that not even police or government have access to us without our permission (we don’t trust them either).  It sounds like a prison, doesn’t it?  I guess it is, in a way.

I do a circuit around it and it gets rather monotonous after a while, but it is nice and a bit hilly.  There’s a forest behind my house, no noises from the beaten track, only birds singing, the odd neighbour walking a dog and the beautiful clear blue skies of what until recently was paradise.

Have a great day!

Mike-where on the South Shore are you? I'm doing the Harpoon B2B ride in June and we start in Boston.  I've been all over the North Shore since I went to school in Salem, but I have friends down on the S. Shore, too. =)

Those are great golf scores...too bad we don't live in the same town because it looks like we'd be close in speed.

1.  If you've stopped running, your cardiovascular system probably doesn't have the stress it needs to keep improving.  You don't have something to get your heart rate up because swimming doesn't cause your heart rate to go up like sports on land do (has to do with compression of the water, it's floatation properties, etc).

2.  PF is a p.i.t.a. I have it right now and it's not as bad as it was last year, but I do feel your pain.  You've gone through all the avenues to get it fixed except for surgery, unless you can find an A.R.T. specialist.  I've heard wonders from kenj on BT (he's a friend of mine, so you can find him in my friends list).  PF is just a tough injury to HTFU through, so look for the ART specialist in your area.  I know I'd have to drive 2 hours to get to the closest one, though.

3.  You not a loser.  You may feel like one, but you aren't.  Luckily, the swim is the shortest leg of a tri and it's right at the beginning, so you don't lose much for not being in your best swim shape on race day.  I'm more concerned about your running.  Like you said, you're losing that fitness and I worry you may compensate for lost time by doing too much when your body let's you run.

Anyone else have thoughts for Mike?

Mike and Curt-if you look back at my BT blogs a year ago, you'll find that I wasn't exactly my happy-go-lucky self during Ironman training.  It wears you down day in and day out both mentally and physically.  Your posts about problems with fitness/motivation are great for the newer triathlets to see.  It's a struggle sometimes, but if you get to the finish line HEALTHY you'll have a much better traithlon experience.

For longer swims, you can do what Simon suggested by breaking down a long swim by minutes or by distance (500yd chunks, 750yd chunks, etc).  I also have to have something rechnique-related to focus on during my swim.  Unless you've got a planned "swim for a half an hour straight" workout where it doesn't matter what your distance is, so you can space out and think about whatever you like, you SHOULD constantly be assessing what your swim feels like.

So, start with 250 yards or 500 yds (or shorter, for anyone else reading!).  Focus on one thing, like finishing your stroke (this is important because too many people forget to extend their hand past their hip!!).  When you finish your stroke-which means your hand exits the water after your hand has pulled past your hip- you actually swim roughly (very roughly) 5 extra inches within that stroke.  Doesn't seem like much, eh?  But when you get 5 extra inches out of one stroke, and multiply that over 37 strokes (I think that's what a group member did recently) you swim 37 strokes x 5 inches = 185 inches farther with the same number of pulls. So, that's almost 15 1/2 feet.  Sorry, metric people, not sure what that means... maybe 5 meters? 

I find that I can swim 3,000+ yards much better if I break it down into a bunch of 500 yard swims and focus on something on each swim.  I have to admit, I haven't started looking closely at peoples training logs, yet, but I think that part of lack of motivation comes from boredom with swimming.  It actually shouldn't be THAT boring.  Are you including kicking with/without a pull buoy during your workouts? Are you doing drills? Are you throwing in some backstroke/breaststroke/sidestroke?  Are you swimming some stuff HARD and some stuff cheesy easy?  Variety is the spice of life and that goes for swimming workouts, too!

Mike,

I haven't had any PF problems so I'm not much help there. My husband is in the middle of some foot pain and I'm hoping he gets it checked out and if they offer anything new I'll pass it along. I will, though, second looking into ART. Training for my marathon was causing some IT Band issues and a really tight quad. I went to my chiro one a week for about 6 weeks before the race to keep it in check. I really saw a difference after treatments. 

I think it's really hard mentally to have an injury slowing you down in one sport and staying focused in the others. You'e not a loser for wanting to cut your workouts short but stop it! Haha! Try to break the work out up a bit to make it go by faster. Warm up, main set, cool down. Stick to it. You know the biking and swimming is maintaining your fitness so when you ease back into the run you'll be good to go. Can you water jog with PF? I have no clue? If you can, see if you can get some running in that way.

Johanne