Dirk's Junkie group - CLOSED (Page 66)

WOW!!!  You are one fast mama!  Congrats on your race.  Don't pay attention to your garmin...it doesn't know .1 miles from a hole in the head.

I'm off to the Multisport world Expo to see Mark Allen talk.  Pretty excited about it.  I will let you know how it goes.  I think they put his seminar up on the website after if anyone is interested.

I also enjoy that same experience Dirk.  And the people that are most likely to succeed are those most willing to learn.  Must have been a blast.  And that's a very nice pool...looks like it was empty!

As far as your swim stroke...I think it looks really good.  Looks smooth and effortless, nice long reach and pull...not much in way of crossing over your mid-line at all.  I'd be interested to see some shots from under water.  I would really like to see what it looks like after 2500 or so yards of swimming also.  

Just as Jonathon said: don't worry about your Garmin.  They can be off even a fair amount over a short distance depending on trees, tall buildings and many other factors.  They will get you pretty close to what for all of your training distances for anything that really matters.  For training you run extra miles beyond your typical race distances that can help provide additional fitness.  BUT, for long course racing you don't need to go as long.

Anyway, the important thing is that you had an awesome race today!  That is an incredible time and one you can certainly be very happy with.  Congrats on second place overall!  That's AWESOME!

Here is a link fro the DC Rainmaker about GPS watch accuracy.  He is a very respected evaluator of these type of devices

Hardee Har har  Are you trying to kill me? 

Actually I tried to pace a little faster than an easy swim just to try to show some of my faults.  I know I get a little bit of the "S" in my stroke as I get tired and this proved it seems to happen more than I thought.

Awesome race, Allison! Your husband's time was smokin fast too. Good job, both of you.

Rain, hail, 50+ mph gusts, and a chance of thunderstorms today here. Not much likelihood of getting an outdoor run in for me today, and the lap pool at the Y is outdoor, So I might not get a swim in either. I guess I'll put the bike on the trainer.

My swim yesterday was very successful. I did mostly 50s and afterwards almost no gas pains. Now I just need to figure out how to string those 50s together into 880 without "overbreathing"

Well, I am on Cloud 9 after a great race this morning! I just finished my race report. Here’s a link for those of you who would like to read it: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=432715

And just a quick overview of my monthly races:
January 5K: 24:38
February 5K: 24:01
March 5K: 21:26 (new PR)

Lately I had been doubting the training I had been doing, even though I put in more miles than I ever have this month. It has seemed like my runs had to get slower and slower to keep my heart rate at the same place it was at. I hate to admit, but I just wasn’t sure if this slow and easy method was working for me. I was encouraged by Matt’s results to stick with it, but this race was going to be the ultimate determination. I am sorry that I doubted you guys. Turns out you knew what was best!

Also, since you know that Dirk, Brenda, and I swam together and recorded our swims, I think I have to share mine. Please don’t laugh too hard at my expense. Swimming isn’t my strongest discipline. Dirk was right that it is very telling. I will let others give their opinions before sharing the things that we have already discussed (and that I can now see so clearly!) There are attachments at the bottom- the first two are from the end of the lane, and the third is from the side. Thanks for meeting up, Dirk and Brenda!

Dirk, your video reminds me of “Mr. Smooth.”

John, I hope you got through your 2 hour bike ride today. That sounds like a great way to start off the weekend.

Dina, I can’t believe your back is giving you trouble again. Keep at the exercises, and I’ll pray that you heal quickly.

Jonathan, thanks for the kind words.  And yes, the Columbia City YMCA pool is nice, and usually I am the only one in it on Tuesdays at lunch.  It's nice to not have to worry about getting a lane.  I look forward to hearing your recap of the Multisport World Expo. Have fun!

It looks like the swim recordings are too large to post.  Here are some links for youtube (if I did this correctly):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNSPTvqJdGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0n3Y6ADfhU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyCdWJ4UPAk

In the same boat as Vero. The weather is awful!

I got a small ride in on Thursday. It was too windy yesterday. I got up this morning to head to the pool. I got there and it was closed to the public. WTF? I found out the South Korean Olympic swim team is here to train for the next month or two. Now I have to switch my swim around.

Sure wish we had California weather. Feels like Seattle here. I just want to get out and hit some road and get the hill climbs in I need for the century race in 3 months. I plan to ride the race course a couple times.

Great to see some good racing going on. Keep up the hard work!

Dirk - your swimming looks great to me! Glad you all had a fun training session.

Allison that is an impressive PR! Awsome work and glad to hear the training is paying off.

Hope the weather straightens out for all of you. Our weather has been unseasonably nice - dry and warmer than normal. Planning a little bit of a longer bike ride for today. Just hope it is calm and not windy.

I've completed a full month of my attemtp to get back to running. Most weeks are 4 days a week. I'm still hanging on to a few of those 5 min runs on rest days. My longest run has been 40 min. My question is now what for this month? Stick with the same schedule? Should I add some time to some of these runs? The first race I'm planning is a sprint tri in the middle of May. My runs progressed over the month from walk/runs to all running except WU and CD these last few weeks. Any guidance is appreciated!

Great job swimming guys, all your strokes look good to me and a lot faster than mine! I'll let people better than me provide the feedback.

Dina - great job on a full month of running. It sounds like the way to keep going is to add small amounts of time every week but to keep things slow, short and frequent, as with most advice though, I'll let those more experienced than me weigh in!

Allison - fantastic record, that's a GREAT time! Shaving two and a half minutes off a 5K PR isn't something that happens often. I'm happy all the patience paid off for you! As Dirk said, don;t worry about the Garmin. I've found every GPS if off a little and the more turns there are, the more the GPS looses.

Bike ride yesterday was great - capped off by eating a bee at 25mph in the last half mile. I didn't swallow, but I definitely bit down on the poor little fella! I had no idea they were kind of bitter tasting... It was a fantastic ride and well worth waiting for. I even had some new road tires on my bike which made me so much faster than I was with the CX tires on there. When I ride one of my regular routes during the week then I'll have a direct comparison.

Okay, I have to run - literally. Ten miles on the canal path this morning!

See you all later.

John

So the good news is that you already have some great basics down.  Like I said with Dirk, there's only so much commenting you can do without seeing your stroke from the underwater perspective.

The two things I did notice is that you have a very strong kick and you are crossing over a bit with that left arm.  The strong kick is awesome, you are clearly getting some propulsion from it, but the kick should come from the hips and butt.  Having a wider kick will put a hinge in your torso and make you snake through the water.  Even if you have a very strong core, it's hard to keep your torso in line if you have a wide kick.  Try to keep it a bit more of a flutter.

The left arm is obviously a given.  You can see that it comes out in front of your head and then you have to pull the water out to the side and then back.  It's not really bad though.  Just make a conscious effort to reach directly out in front of the shoulder.  I practice this by standing in front of the bathroom mirror.  I raise my right arm straight up above my shoulder over and over until I remember exactly how that feels.  Notice that when you reach up and then cross over your head you will get a hinge in your torso?  Now combine that with a wide kick and your snaking through the water. 

I hope all this makes sense.  You're doing an awesome job so far, so keep it up!

You have to try the underwater camera approach.  It's very eye opening!  I will try to get my latest vids up on youtube.  When you record from underwater, you can't hide any of the stupid mistakes you make. 

Seriously though...I have the same problem with you that I do with myself when looking at above water video...nothing stands out very much.  You are already a strong swimmer so it's hard to pin-point where you can improve without really dissecting your stroke.

My personal, experience would say to stick to your current running schedule.  The end goal is to be able to run whenever you want and to run healthy, so stick to the schedule until you feel that way.  You will end up running a bit faster here and there, but I would stick it out another month.  You're already passed what you need for that sprint, so that's not a problem or deciding factor.  In my opinion...two more weeks of 4 days a week (all easy of course) and then add another day of 1-2 miles IF AND ONLY IF you're still feeling absolutely fine.  I'll let Dirk/Jeff/Warren chime in because they know what they are talking about.  :-)

It looks like the mentor session is drawing to a close.  We will continue to post here until the next session begins and we will continue to offer advice until then.

I will remain in the mentor groups in some form but I am not sure to what capacity just yet.  I will let you all know as soon as I have made a determination .

Dina,  Does your back act up any while you are running?  I would suggest you keep the running to a low intensity but increase the time as long as your back will tolerate the increases.  If you can increase by a couple of minutes each run and make subtle increases every week I think that would be a good thing.  But just to restate, ONLY if you're not having problems.  The slow increases should allow you to evaluate any changes with any injuries that you have been addressing.

John, An outdoor ride sounds like it would have been a great time.  I have definitely passed the desire to be on the trainer since the weather broke a couple of week ago.  I had a 52 mile ride planned for yesterday but the temp never made it into the mid 50's as predicted.  It was only in the mid 40's when it came "do or die" time for the ride.  Instead I hit the trainer for a high intensity ride.

______

I had my first tempo run of the year today.  I planned 3 miles close to 10k pace but I got near the end of the third mile and decided to go for a 4th at tempo.  I started with a 2 mile WU because these runs can be pretty difficult for me to get up and really get going, so I always get a bit of a longer WU when I first start doing these each year.  I did turn up the speed a shade for the second mile but only to get my legs ready just a little more.

The pace, after looking was probably a little too fast for what I would have thought I should have done.  It was still a comfortably hard pace and not out of control.  If I were going to run a stand alone 10k this year I would target a similar pace or a shade faster.  All In all it was a really good, challenging run.

This sounds good to me! I am enjoying this running schedule so far.

Dina, I'd absolutely agree with keeping everything very easy, and if you add anything do it extremely slowly.  You have to honestly evaluate how everything feels each run, and don't be afraid to cut it short/stop it if the back flares up.  There are some pains it's ok to run through, and some it isn't.  Jeff might add to this but I would suspect back pain while running is not one you should push.

That said, the idea is to progress in some area of all our sports.  For the running, I am really on the side of adding as many runs (frequency) as possible given your life.  If 4 days is what life gives you, once you're at 4 that's it for frequency.  Then allow your body to settle into that new level, maybe staying level on your running for a few weeks.

Then start adding distance to each of those runs, until life runs out of time.  Then allow your body to settle into that new level.  Only then do you really need to add some intensity. 

So I guess the short answer I'd give for now is stay with what you're doing and try to add something, either more days or more time, a VERY little at a time.  And evaluate your pain during and after runs.

On my own training front, I took 2 days (Thur and Fri) completely off after my uncle passed Weds night.  The funeral was Saturday, so it was all put together pretty quick. 

I went on a bit of an ice cream bender over that time, and for those who know me, my "norm" is what most would call a bender so for me to say it was a bender is really saying something.  It actually felt great to indulge a little.  It ended Saturday with a trip with my wife to Lago's, which is one of our favorite “out to eat” ice cream places on the seacoast.  Jonathan may know of it.  They have a flavor called Scotty Lago’s Bronze Run, named after the bronze medal Scotty won snowboarding at the Vancouver Olympics. (the owner is his uncle).  Anyway, we had an awesome time enjoying the cone and that sort of marked the end of my off time.

Surprisingly, the damage to my weight was not very much if I can believe this morning’s weigh in and my long run Sat and bike Sunday actually went great.

Let's hear it for ice cream!  I did much the same.  Had ice cream Friday, Saturday, then ate most of a quart yesterday. 

My condolences to you and your family.  I'm glad you aren't beating yourself up over a little bender.  Let's just call it 'refueling'.

My condolences Warren. I think the bender is excused, not that you need an excuse because ice cream is awesome!

J

Allison, not only are you an awesome runner, but for someone who claims to be a poor swimmer you have a great starting point.  So perhaps you will be a great swimmer in no time!?!

I see a few simple things.

1. too much kick.  It's great to be a motorboat in sprints, but not longer swim efforts
2. The kick is wide.  Your feet, knees, calves...some part of the lower leg should brush each other with each kick
3. you look like you are straining to get your arms up out of the water because without body roll side to side you have to pull the arms back behind you to get them out.  So work on rolling side to side with each stroke more.
4. When you decrease your kick, you may tend to notice your legs sinking a little bit.  That can then be cured by lowering your head more.  It was a little high, but so were your feet so lower the head isn't called for unless the kick is the only reason your feet were high.

Most of us are in agreement about how you should proceed, which is encouraging!

As long as everything feels good, continue with the general plan of adding run time to the shorter days.  That means that priority is to lengthen the shorter runs rather than the 40 minute runs.  Adding days is of value too.  4 days per week is good, but 5 or 6 is better still.  Now if a run one day leaves you hurting to the point that you need to miss the next day to recover from it, then that prior day should be shorter.  If you are running the right amount, you can then run 6 days.

There are other priorities too, and it's understandable if it's life or other training that's keeping you from running more.  But if it's RUNNING that's keeping you from running more, then the prescription is to run more often, but less duration.

You can increase your running overall, but follow the same outline you have been, and the last thing you increase is the longer run.

And if you do add more run days above and beyond 4...those 'new' running days should start at just 5 minutes.

All of the above is contingent on your back feeling up to the challenge.  At no point during a run should you continue if your back pain is going the wrong way...ie. if it wasn't hurting and begins to...or if it was hurting a bit but is increasing...

It's OK if it starts out a little sore/stiff and is improving as you go.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=433040

My season opener.  It went well.  The run course was shortened over last year due to construction so I can't do an honest side-by-side comparison with last year.

I was 22 seconds faster in the 300M swim.

I was 50 seconds faster in the 10 mile ride.

and by looking at run times compared to other people that ran both years I think there's a slight improvement in my run too.

I improved my overall finish time by 2 minutes 54 seconds.  So how much of that time savings was from a short run course?   I would have to make a spreadsheet of every person's run time that raced both years and average the improvement.  I did that for the first 5 guys (minus mine) and found an average of 99 seconds improvement.  So my run time improved more than that by a small amount....

I couldn't beat that Wattie Ink guy!  Oh well, power to the W!  I did beat him in both transitions though...does that count for something?!?

So some pros showed up.  A third elite guy came, not techinically a pro, but nationally known.  He is in my age group.  So I took 2nd in my age group, but behind him it feels pretty good.  He only beat me by 2 minutes.

The deal is though, that I'm pretty sure he just raced at easy tempo.  And I heard him talking about his long run yesterday and how after the race he was going to put in a long training ride. 

And on another cool note!  I did a 5k with my 11 year old son on Saturday.  He set a new PR by about 1 minute.  (his 2nd 5k).  That was awesome!