Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 64)

Michael great race.  I have never done a pool swim and the more race reports with them, the more I think I never want to.

Keep up the hard work and the weight will fall off.  Good job today!

Recovery? I'm wondering if it will ever happen? Fortunately, I have an option tomorrow of either off or 60 min easy spin. Will probably do the easy spin as I feel better with some active recovery.

Today was an unusual day with 2 workouts despite racing yesterday. Had a pretty good 9 mile easy run and then a 2000 yard swim. Legs alternated between feeling good and tired. Did some bike clean up/mainenance and then went for a 2-3 mile walk with my wife. Absolutely beautiful day here.

Congrats on a great race Michael!

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I spent it decompressing from my 12 weeks of being overworked and way over tired  Ate too much and spent too much money (don't worry it was on important things like sneakers!).  

Time to get serious.  I'm letting my heel rest today so I just went to the gym and PT and Core workouts.  Back to the pool tomorrow.

To me, this really marks the beginning of the season and I'm ready to get my head in the game.  I'm looking forward to all of your race reports coming in as well

So if I didn't have enough motivation to come back from this injury, I do now.  I just check the race results for the sprint I was suppossed to do on Sat.  Based on where I was and assuming no melt down, I would have finished 2nd or 3rd out of 11 in the age group.

So I am saying it out loud...write it down: I will podium in this race next year.

I see the doctor today for my first post-op visit.  Looking forward to getting off my backside and doing something, anything, but that is a few weeks away.  Until then I will be watching all of your great results and making plans to rejoin the fight soon.

Keep up the great work!

Jason you have heard me say many times, the only thing you get by muscling through a swim is tired. You just experienced that.  As for your remedy, your idea is ok depending on the execution.

Try this.  Put the extra effort in at the back end of the swims.  So if you are swimming a set of 400s, push the last 50 of each BUT don’t break form.  Specifically:

1. Pick up your arm turnover by 1 stroke per 25 to start.
2. Increase your kick SLIGHTLY.  Think about keeping your legs shallow but in the water, no splash.
3. Increase the number of strokes/breath by one-half or one full stroke.

Because you held form for the first 350 the conscious effort to increase the turnover and kick you should be able to hold form easier than just trying to sprint for 25 or 50 yards. 

You never want to just all-out sprint at the expense of form.  The swim in a tri is not a sprint, even in the shorter races.  What you want to achieve is stronger longer swims without expending all your energy.  Tacking on the extra speed over a short distance (to start) at the back end of each swim will get you there.

Try that and let me know how that feels.

Dave-nice job on the workouts. Glad you are feeling better. Seems we all have ups and downs with our training. We just have to remember to get plenty of rest so we can recover properly.

Mary-in most running races the mistake people make is going out to fast. I would recommend sticking with a plan that you are comfortable with based on your run/walk training so far. Then when you get to a point closer to the end see if you can run the remainder of the way and finish strong. That way you will not have tried to do too much too soon in the race. If you wait until closer to the end to extend yourself you won't have far to the finish if you fade a bit. You have done great building to this point. Really smart. Enjoy the race.

First of all, congrats to Scott on his birthday and conquering that hill amd congrats to Randy and Micheal on their races! Great job you guys!! Also good luck to Mary on the HM this weekend!

Ok. So I haven't been posting much. I was kind of ashamed about my lack of activity even though in my mind I had good reason. My HM was this past weekend and I've been saving everything up for it. I was so worried about injuring the IT band further that I've been on a 2 month taper. I was trying to be smart but it sucked up my motivation too.

The good news is that the race went really great. I felt great-relaxed and comfortable. The IT band held out until almost mile 10 when it got really tight as I rana short incline. After that I was able to hold pace even through the pain for about a mile before I got dropped. I limp-ran and walked the couple of small hills between miles 11 and 12 and limp-ran/walked th last mile.

The really good news is I still managed a PR although I'm a little bummed that I didn't get the chance to see what I could have done.

The even better news is that a few days out from the race and the IT band is healling nicely (I've been using Castor oil wraps for the last 2 weeks-at first out of desperation but now I'm finding it actually helps). I'm not doing anything until it stops being painful but I'm thinking I'll probably be able to swim tomorrow or Thursday.

The best news is that it's over and now I can focus on training smart without injury and letting this heal. And maybe get out for a bike ride finally. I miss my bike.

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great job managing to get a PR!

Great job Nicole!

No internet at the office today   I'd like to say I got more work done but it was crazy so just felt like I was swimming upstream all day. Did get to go swim at lunch and had a tough bike workout tonight. I'm hoping I'm past  the blahs I was experincing last week. Swim and run on tap for tomorrow.

That's great Jason!  Can't tell you how many times this happens to me, especially after a 12 hour work day.  The most dangerous thing I do (to sabotage my training plans) is lay on the couch right before a workout as the resistance to getting back off the couch and get it done grows exponentially both mentally and physically.  After about a mile or so of s/b/r something just "clicks" and I often have some of my best training sessions.  If there were only a way to be able to turn this on anytime!

I'm in Anaheim with my son (he is competing in a business competition called DECA).  We are going to have today off and will go to Disney.  We caught an Angels game last night.  It was a perfect night, such a cool father son thing to do.  Tomorrow I head to San Diego to spend a few days with my other son and hope to get back to my favorite 50 meter pool in Coronado, and run along the Silver Strand Beach.

Job hunting is exciting.  Will be ready to start interviewing soon.  Still evaluating where I want to end up but now Arizona is looking more and more appealing!

Jim

Rainy weather put me on thr treadmill for my run tonight which included several half mile intervals. First run in my Hoka Bondi B shoes. I'm thinking these might become my go to shoe for easy/long runs. They felt great with the extra cushioning and I didn't notice any different "feel" than I do with my other running shoes. I know Jason had been running in Hoka's for awile....I think I see why.

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Jason-read through the "Gator Deb" thread. Your responses were spot on in my opinion. You really can't expect much in terms of improvement without pushing yourself. Now, "pushing" will be different for everyone. For some it may be really fast splits on the track while for others it may be walking a mile. Ultimately, doing the same thing over and over will not yield much improvement. Satisfaction for some comes in completing the race while others may be dissappointed if they don't make it to the podium. Setting goals and reaching them is such an individual thing.

Pretty good bike workout tonigh. Definitely feeling better than last week on the bike!