Manatee Mentors 2015.2 CLOSED (Poptarts? Pet pics?) (Page 61)

I did my first masters swim today!

Turns out my stroke only mostly sucks.    Coach (who is also two of my kids' coach, as it happens) put me in my own lane and spent the morning helping me with my stroke.  Crazy awesome he would do that - very thankful.  (good chance he was just protecting the others from me)

Thursday it's the prescribed workout, though. 

Matt

ETA - hey Ben, maybe all you did was scare some of us straight. 

Shouldn't be a problem in terms of having to push myself.  As the coach was pointing out form of some of the other swimmers, he mentioned what they'd done. 

Non-complete list of some of the swimmers was something like: former national champion; first out of the water at Alcatraz; first out of the water in their AG at Kona.  Ummmm... and someone else told me LA occasionally swims with this group.

WTF?

Oh, and it's a good thing that tutu wasn't in orange.  That's all I'm saying about that... 

Matt

Another proof of life check-in ...

Kingsley and I are both pretty shattered. His swim squad (was one of the best in the country, and therefore world; several Olympic champions and a crapton of awesome national pool, open-water and triathlon swimmers have come out of it) has disbanded. It's been a central--the central--part of his life for 30 years. (Horrific mismanagement over the last few years, so no good reason). Due to his disability, he has no easy access to any other squad's training times or facilities.

My home country has gone to hell in a handbasket. More has happened than I can quickly write, but other than the fact that the state keeps trying to kill off my friends who are unprecedented national servants, and imprisoning 100% innocent friends on pretenses so false the whole country and world know it, my sister's and other relatives' personal safety has come under direct risk as well. I genuinely might not survive another bout of dengue or multidrug-resistant typhoid.

Given that my dad was a founding father of the country and many of its great institutions (and my mom some too!), and that I'd planned (and Kingsley too, happily at the time) to spend the rest of my life living in, loving and serving it ... this is very difficult for me.

So we're regrouping. My sister Tina and I will be buying a house in Germany this summer and slowly moving to spend more time abroad (with Perth as an interim base since it's fairly close to Jakarta).

Racing Manatees!

A listing of Manatee Races, Rides and Runs and other events

April 11-12
Melanie - Yuengling Light Lager Jogger 5K on Saturday
Adrienne - Squak Mountain 12K trail on Saturday
Janyne - Rock 'n' Roll Raleigh half marathon on Sunday
Tom - Kettering College 5K on Sunday

Disabled List
Yanti - Chikungunya
Jen - GI woes (dare I write improving?)
MD Mike - under the weather
Chris - under the weather

But it's not  PINK. 

Can someone tell me when and why it has become so popular to wear tutus for races?  I don't get it.

I haven't been able to find a Master's group in my area that I can get into.  The only one I've found requires that you be able to swim a certain speed/distance to qualify to participate.  I'm not fast enough, so I can't join.  I'll post something in the CO forum here to see if anybody else knows of another one. 

One of the rec centers has a "swim conditioning class" 2x/week.  It's a semi-coached drop-in class where there's a posted workout with a variety of drills and intervals of various strokes.  When I went last year, I really struggled with the drills due to back and hip issues and the instructor ended up mostly focusing on 2 other triathletes who wanted help with their swimming.  It seems to be a fairly small, regular group that pretty much comes in, does the workout, then leaves without interacting much with each other or the instructor.  He told me that he really likes getting to do some one-on-one work with people because it gets boring when nobody wants his feedback/help.  It might be worth my while to check it out again.

For private lessons, I can always go back to the tri coach I used this winter.  She's a really good swim coach and has already analyzed my swimming strengths/weaknesses using video. Even though I couldn't do it every week (she's located an hour away),I'm sure it'd be helpful.

So many options!

It's getting better.  Trying to change diet to see if that has an effect.  I cut out dairy for a few weeks, then had a milkshake on Monday.  Does not seem to be the cause of the problem.  Not sure what was causing it - maybe just stress? - but I think it's getting better.

USMS lists 22 masters swim groups in the Denver area.  I think that you'll be OK ;-)

Colorado Masters Swimming Assoc

ETA: CO link

I haven't been able to find a Master's group in my area that I can get into.  The only one I've found requires that you be able to swim a certain speed/distance to qualify to participate.  I'm not fast enough, so I can't join.  I'll post something in the CO forum here to see if anybody else knows of another one. 

One of the rec centers has a "swim conditioning class" 2x/week.  It's a semi-coached drop-in class where there's a posted workout with a variety of drills and intervals of various strokes.  When I went last year, I really struggled with the drills due to back and hip issues and the instructor ended up mostly focusing on 2 other triathletes who wanted help with their swimming.  It seems to be a fairly small, regular group that pretty much comes in, does the workout, then leaves without interacting much with each other or the instructor.  He told me that he really likes getting to do some one-on-one work with people because it gets boring when nobody wants his feedback/help.  It might be worth my while to check it out again.

For private lessons, I can always go back to the tri coach I used this winter.  She's a really good swim coach and has already analyzed my swimming strengths/weaknesses using video. Even though I couldn't do it every week (she's located an hour away),I'm sure it'd be helpful.

So many options!

Sorry, but that is dumb.  To me, Masters is for all abilities.  They should call themselves an elite club or something, not Masters.

Ok, now that I'm sort of caught up, I have an actual training question.  I'm trying to find a training plan for my half marathon (don't pay attention to my logs..I've been running but not logging).  Debating between:

1. 18 week Disneyland Jeff Galloway plan: only has 2 week runs (30 min each) and one weekend run. Not sure that's enough.

2. 12 week Hal Higdon plan: lots of longer runs during the week, but generally a good plan

3. 16 week half marathon plan: 2 runs during week, 2 runs on weekend. Might be easier for me than 3 runs during the week and I'd get more experience running on tired legs.

Thoughts?

Not dumb.  I think that a speed requirement is actually against USMS policy.  Masters refers to age, not ability/speed.

Shouldn't be a problem in terms of having to push myself.  As the coach was pointing out form of some of the other swimmers, he mentioned what they'd done. 

Non-complete list of some of the swimmers was something like: former national champion; first out of the water at Alcatraz; first out of the water in their AG at Kona.  Ummmm... and someone else told me LA occasionally swims with this group.

WTF?

Oh, and it's a good thing that tutu wasn't in orange.  That's all I'm saying about that... 

Matt

Their website says this for prerequisites: "You should feel comfortable in a 25-yard pool and be able to swim 300 yards freestyle within six minutes, rest one minute and then repeat."  Are you saying that having this type of requirement is against the rules?  The team claims to be the largest in the Rocky Mountain region and their coach was named COMSA coach of the year a few years back.  I'd think that if their speed requirement was against the rules, they'd have been called out about it.

I did find another team on one of the links posted above that I'm familiar with.  I thought they weren't around anymore so I'm excited to see that they are.  They even practice in the evenings, which is when I prefer to work out, and they swim not too far from my house.  I'm definitely going to check them out.

Their website says this for prerequisites: "You should feel comfortable in a 25-yard pool and be able to swim 300 yards freestyle within six minutes, rest one minute and then repeat."  Are you saying that having this type of requirement is against the rules?  The team claims to be the largest in the Rocky Mountain region and their coach was named COMSA coach of the year a few years back.  I'd think that if their speed requirement was against the rules, they'd have been called out about it.

I did find another team on one of the links posted above that I'm familiar with.  I thought they weren't around anymore so I'm excited to see that they are.  They even practice in the evenings, which is when I prefer to work out, and they swim not too far from my house.  I'm definitely going to check them out.

Win!

At the very least, it's against the philosophy.  I mean, the USMS FAQ says:

I'm not fast enough (or in shape enough) to be a Masters swimmer...
This is something a lot of Masters coaches hear. However, most Masters coaches and swimmers don’t care how fast you are. In nearly every program, there are others of similar ability, or those who started where you are and have improved. Don’t let your perceived ability, or lack thereof, hold you back. Although it’s important to have a physical examination before starting any exercise routine, you don’t need to be in shape to start Masters swimming—Masters swimming will help you get there.

+1

Oh, and it's a good thing that tutu wasn't in orange.  That's all I'm saying about that... 

Matt

Alright, my crazy mountain  race report is up. Sorry if it's a bit scattered and grammatical error-laden. I haven't had much time but wanted to get it while it's fresh! 

Your RR got me wondering if I should try to do some trail races.  I looked it up on Runningintheusa.com and found a short one in April (not happening before my marathon), then longer ones in May, July and early August.  Think I should do some of those to get some practice before PPA?

I don't think you necessarily need to race on the trails but I believe you should run on them. Honestly, I also think hiking is extremely relevant too. Especially steep stuff.