dhyte's Group - (Full to the brim) !!! (Page 6)

Mastering and utilizing flip turns is not specifically needed for triathlon (unless you compete in events that have indoor swims).

Depending on where you swim train, it may be helpful though.  If you swim with a group, and you are circle swimming (3+ people sharing a lane) you generally need to swim about the same pace.  If the others in your lane are able to enter/exit the wall quickly (doing flip turns) then it might be helpful to be able to also perform the flip turns.

Flip turns are generally faster then using any form of "open turn" at the wall.  However, you can still practice mastering a fairly efficient/quick open turn.

Either style of turn is also highly complemented by your technique after the pushoff.

A powerful pushoff, with arms fully extended, hands together in a single point, head pointed down, tucked between shoulders/upper arm.  Several dolphin kicks, and then as you come to the surface, take a full stroke or two BEFORE taking that 1st breath, in order to maximize your speed off the wall. 

I wish I could swim as fast as Shamu !!!!   Maybe if he was chasing me.....

MilkeC - 2008-01-23 8:00 PM Let me learn how to swim properly first, then I'll work on the flip turns since I still look like shamu the killer whale when I swim hahahahaha but hey, i'm getting there...

dhyte - 2008-01-22 9:01 PM

A great video for practicing your flip-turns in the pool:

For an excellent lesson on flip turns from D3 Multisport, with video demonstration, click here!

Thought I'd check in with everyone...pretty quiet in here!

I did a hilly 43 mile ride this morning with a large group of people. There was about 2000 feet of ascent. My legs were pretty wiped out afterwards.

Heavy rain predicted tomorrow for my area (San Diego). It may be a good day to go to the gym and do some weights and maybe some elliptical or treadmill.

What's everyone else doing this weekend???

Hi Nancy,

Sorry to hear about the back problems.  I never realized how awful they were until I suffered my 1st back injury....Holy Crap...it hurt even standing at the sink brushing my teeth !!!

Rest, gentle stretching help me alot.  Sometimes seeing the chiropractor has helped when it just wasn't getting better.  Listen to your body and don't try rush back too quickly.

LadyGator - 2008-01-26 6:25 PM Had a good week training this week. Was able to sneak into the pool at the university for a good swim, and after doing a lot of icing and stretching on my shins my running's becoming a lot less painful. Ran a long of 1.5miles straight before it started bothering me Today was move day out of my apartment at school and into my dad's garage until I can get an apartment (I'm still waiting to hear a final offer from my new job). So my workout today included lots of lifting and tons of stairs since I lived on the 2nd floor. And well... sometime in the move I pinched a nerve in my leg/lower back, pretty bad. After doing some googling, I think it's something like the sciatica nerve. Hopefully it'll ease up somewhat soon.. so until then I'm just trying to get comfortable

Brian,

I was looking at your logs and....YOU ARE A MACHINE !!!!

Talk about a consistent effort ! 6 days a week, double and triple workouts, avg of 90 minutes a day!

I'm tired reading all those workouts!!

It made me consider the fact that whenever my exercise load has been consistently heavy, I have had to really guard against letting myself get over fatigued/run down.

A steady balance of good eating, vitamin supplements, and getting at least 6-8 hours of sleep have kept me "on the road". For me, it is very easy to start skimping on any one of the above items.

Some tell-tale signs that I am not fueling/resting/recovering properly:

- bad attitude (when I don't get my sleep I can be a "little" nasty)
- lack of concentration / ability to speak coherently/succinctly
- difficulty getting up for early morning workouts
- inability to finish challenging training session strongly

"Sleep is a weapon. Use it." -Jason Bourne

For everyone who is ramping up on their workout volume, I can't stress enough the importance of stretching.

I'll add that you need to be a little careful and not over-do it. Some of my most aggravating minor injuries have come from being over-exuberant in my stretching.

I usually do some very light stretching before exercise. Then I try to start slowly and let the muscles warm up, and stretch a bit on their own during the gradual build-up of effort and range of motion.

I try to actually do a bit more stretching while cooling down (again not over-doing it).

Here is a link to a BT article witch some good stretches:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=283

I was looking at a couple of the different logs and thought I would suggest the following:

When doing kicking drills, I would recommend not using the kick boards; use a variety of kicking drills without them.  The kick boards cause your hips/legs to drop causing drag.
They also do not force you to work on balance and breathing.

My favorite kick drill is on my side, 1 arm extended, the other flat on my side; head tucked into armpit of extended arm; face pointed to bottom of pool. Gently rotate your body/face upward to breath as needed.  A variation of this is to take an armstroke every six kicks.  I usually breath immediately before the armstroke and immediately after. 6 kicks, breath, armstroke, breath, 6 kicks, etc...

Here is a good video of the basic side kicking drill:

   http://www.triswimcoach.com/samplevideo.asp

I found another great swimming website also, that has all sorts of good videos:

   http://www.goswim.tv/drilloftheweek_archives.php?id=100

You may want to go into your local bike shop (LBS) and get your bike fit checked.

Using the aero-bars changes your geometry and you may need a seat adjustment to compensate.

I don't think I noticed any foot problems when I first added my aero bars.  The biggest adjustment was the different weight distribution on my arms, and letting my back adjust a little.

BTW, I have a Felt F50 with aero bars added (I really have loved my Felt bike!! - although I have been eyeing a variety of tri bikes for a couple years now.....)

Yeah,

I have liked my Felt F-50 bike - I thought it was a decent bike for the price.

Here is the original version of my bike:

Here is how the bike looked last November (picture taken the day before IM Florida):

Welcome aboard Mark!!

I'm at work right now, but I'll respond in more detail tonight.

Please read through the entire thread (if you haven't already) to get an idea of our discussions so far.

I'm looking forward with working with you and seeing you be successful in triathlon and a healthy lifestyle !

Danny 

Hi Mark,

Welcome...and congrats on the big step to become more active again.  Way to go !

The health concern you described sounds like it was pretty scary.  I hope that in addition to embracing a more healthy/active lifestyle, you have also been to see your doctor to get checked out and make sure you are not putting yourself at risk.

I enjoy the entire triathlon community, but being a big guy myself, I really identify with the challenges that the clydesdales (and athenas) deal with.

When I was initially getting interested in triathlon, I read Michael Pate's book "When Big Boys Tri" and was very encouraged.

There are tons of success stories of people overcoming all sorts of diversity in their lives while persevering through triathlon.  I can easily see you having a great story to tell 1 year from now regarding your own journey.  All I can say is, what a great year you have in front of you...enjoy the heck out of it!

 Which triathlon are you doing in May?  We have a list of events everyone in the group is doing that you should re-post with your info. 

I'd also like to know if you have a training plan you are following - if not I will make some suggestions. 

Here is a shirt my wife recently bought me (from cafepress.com).......

Greg,

I was cracking up reading your post....we have a lot of similarities.
I was already thinking that then I read you rlast part about being a heavy sweater...I have been known to leave a lake of water around me during exercise! But this was true even when I was a skinny teenager, so it may just be in the genes.

Remind me to discuss hydration planning (especially due to high sweat rate).

I would consider focusing on the quality of your workouts, not just the quantity, and adding "one more session per week". Part of that has to due with protecting your health, and part of it has to do with intentionally mixing up total volume with some very specific/acute sessions to push yourself to another performance level.

On your run training, are you just cranking out miles, or do you mix it up? SHort runs, tempo runs, hills, strength, distance variety?

Finding your ideal pace for a distance and training specifically for that will be the goal.

I understand about struggling on the run, and having it be the weakest link.

3guysdad - 2008-01-30 8:38 PM Looks like a group for me! I started triathlons in 2007, finishing 2 neighborhood sprints (oddball distances) and 1 standard sprint. My goal for 2008 is at least 1 Oly with a couple of sprints, a 10K and maybe a few other races I can find. I'm debating the CapTexTri (Memorial Day) as an Oly AND the Austin Triathlon (Labor Day), or just Austin as the Oly. I'm squarely in the Clydesdale group and don't see myself getting out of it, although I'd like to be a little closer to the cutoff. I'm 6'2" and currently 225-230. Age 41. High school athlete (lots of sports, mostly baseball) and a short time in college baseball. Late in 2004 I started running somewhat consistenly to train for a local 10K and have more or less continued training since then. At that point I weighed 260-270 with high body fat. I also started lifting weights again (first time since college) and continued that along with sporadic running. Problem was I couldn't get my weight below 245, although better body fat ratio, even with 5 times a week lifting and 2-3 days/week of cardio. In late 2006 I decided to train for a half mary and quit lifting becasue I didn't have time for both. I finished the race, but when my mileage got up above 30 miles/week, I really felt it in my knees and ankles, and realized I couldn't do that week in and week out. So I decided to get some cardio in via spinning classes. Remembered that I did some club swimming in high school and viola. Here I am. I dropped close to 10-15 pounds in 2007, hope for at least 10 in 2008. Mixing up disciplines keeps me motivated each day, and saves my joints for now. I've always been a strong swimmer. ( very obvious SNL reference) . Bike is OK; decent power from having to ride hills in Austin but I lack endurance. My running is less than desirable (it sucks); I'm much slower than I'd like to be and I generally don't enjoy it. Overall middle of the pack. My biggest issue for racing is I seem to just fall apart on the runs. Part based on going too hard on the bike, part needing more time on the bike so I don't use up too much, but mostly mental. I've upped my run mileage for December and January trying to get at least 3 runs in per week to hopefully improve endurance and speed. Feels OK and pace is gradually coming down. I'm a software development project manager with 3 really cool, funny boys ages 8, 6 & 4. I have very little free time just like all of you. Work, t-ball, baseball, Cub Scouts, yadayada. And I dislike mornings. Or love to sleep in. One of the two. Help with efficient time use and effective/efficient training would be appreciated; if I get one workout longer than an hour a week, I'm lucky. Also advice on moving from sprint to Oly distance. Training in the heat/adapting to heat helps as well would be great; I sweat in buckets, overheat easily and spend 3+ months at 90 degrees or higher. And if anything I over-hydrate.