jerryrika's "anything goes" group now - Closed (Page 7)

It'll take more than the shoes, but it's a start.  Really focus on your form when you run.  Make sure your feet are landing beneath you, not in front of you.  Take shorter strides.  Also, don't exaggerate the forefoot landing, you'll end up keeping your heel too high and this will cause you all sorts of problems with your calf muscles (learned this the hard way).  If you really focus on keeping your feet beneath you and also on landing more flat-footed, with a focus on NOT landing on your heels it'll be an easier transition.  Try and keep the same cadence (170-180 per minutes, or 85-90 per foot), and take longer strides when you pick up the pace instead of taking more steps.  This isn't easily done, I'm still working on getting my cadence up to close to 90.  If you really focus on your form you'll find you'll be running faster with the same effort you use as a heel striker.  Let me know what you think of the Newton's (and give them some time, they take getting used to from what I've read).  I'm going to try a pair when my Zoot's wear out. 

Hi all! I'm so glad your first race went well charleybeth! I'm glad I'm not the only one here who hasn't been "here" much lately. At least I don't have too much to catch up on. However, my training has been going pretty well. I'm really quite pleased with my running and swimming progress actually.

I discovered that I was still running to fast and simply burning out to quick. So for now I'm running ridiculously slow and I am getting some much longer distances without getting winded or tired. Like today I ran 27 min outside with hills and all, and I didn't feel the need to walk once! (well just for a minute on the steepest hill but I pushed thru it)

Judd, you will be proud to hear that I can now breathe while I swim at least a little. I still have to do my drills to get back into the right form, but at least on the left side I'm getting more consistent. I have a question though. I still do tend to push my forward arm down when I'm trying to take a breath but I'm getting better about that. But the thing that seems to work best is to rotate my front arm's palm up as I rotate my body to take a breath because that seems to prevent me from pushing down. Is that okay? I mean am I going to mess up the alignment anymore by doing that?

So tomorrow I am going to do my long bike and maybe I will squeeze in my 3rd swim that I missed this week.  I look forward to hearing how everyone else is doing! Oh, and I'm down for another 5K at the end of June and I'm now debating going out for the 1/2 marathon in october. I can't believe it! This time last year I would have told you that I would NEVER even consider it, let alone do it. That says something about how well my recent runs feel!

peace and health,
Jenny 

Had my first OWS today, so I got to try my new Rocket Science Sports wet suit for the first time.  The swim was an open training session sponsored by a local bike shop at a private lake where I'll be racing a tri on July 19.  Alot different than swimming at the Y, but alot of fun.  Took some pointers from a veteran OW swimmer, she actually gave a few of us some nice lessons/tips.  The swim to the first buoy was a little tough, went out too fast, and with the wetsuit on felt like I couldn't breathe very well.  Took a bit of getting used to.  Once I go comfortable all went well, my buoy sighting wasn't bad, and I didn't need to look up except maybe every 15 strokes, so it was easy to get into a rhythm.  After the swim I went on a group ride, originally to ride the race course, but we decided to do a few more miles, so took a different route about half-way through, and of course got lost.  Nothing major, but ended up short of our 32 mile plan, instead getting in a 28 mile ride.  Only problem I had was I didn't use sun screen, so I now have a nice farmer's tan from my sleeveless jersey.  Alot of fun today, but I'm beat.  Got home, ate, and then took a nice nap. 

Matt... Congrats on your OWS and group ride, sounds like you had a great day! Were there a bunch of swimmers out there? The frustrating thing to me during the OWS during a tri is I feel like I'm constantly swimming on top of people and I don't feel like I can ever get a good rhythm going because I'm always watching where I'm going.

Jenny... I'm trying to figure out what you are saying your stroke is like. You want to be careful about turning your palm up, you might get in a bad habit that you will later have to break. The best thing that you can do is keep working on your drills. As you become more comfortable and better at those your stroke form with become more and more efficient. Keep working at it and you'll get there.

My weekend was good, but didn't get as much training in as I should have. I did do the Never Quit Never 5K and Beach Fest, which is new to our area and started by a pro-surfer whose father is suffering from the effects of a stroke. It was a great event but the sun and the heat were brutal and there weren't enough water stations. I ended up having on of my worst 5K times. I don't know what it is, but my times are getting slower and slower. I'm thinking it is because I haven't been focusing on my run training as much as I was previously and now I'm suffering through easy runs because of it. Time to get focused!!!

There weren't alot of swimmers, maybe 40 total.  And not everyone just jumped in at once, so it was pretty spread out.  I swam with a group of 7 or 8.  Will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out in a bigger group.  Unless it's just a packed swim I'm comfortable swimming a bit of a less than ideal line until things start to spread out some.  I'd guess in a local tri that the swimmers will be pretty spread out after a few hundred meters.  I think my next tri has a time trial start, not a mass start, but could be wrong. 

I did end up with a nice farmer's tan from the bike ride, need to remember my sun block next time.

Hi everybody. Haven't posted in a long time, but I just completed my first triathlon this weekend. Here are my results.

bib number:	271
age:	44
gender:	M
overall place:	223 out of 302
division place:	39 out of 46
gender place:	182 out of 229
time:	2:56:36
pace:	0:
swim:	46:52
tran1:	2:23
bike:	1:13:31
tran2:	1:49
run2:	52:01
penalty:	0:

Let me just say I am glad I finished.

I freaked out in the water! Like Matt mentioned in his post I felt like I couldn't breathe in my wet suit.

On the way out we had to pass 4 big buoys then make a left turn, swim past two buoys make another left turn and swim back to shore.

I almost made it to the first buoy on the way out and was so panicked I wanted to be pulled out of the water. I swam over to a kayak and held on. The lady was so calm and she just said to me "Don't worry your gonna finish."

I was thinking to myself "finish"?? F@*# I haven't even made it past the first buoy.

Anyway I calmed down and took back to the water. Needless to say I finished the swim although I was on my back most of the time doing the back stroke.

I don't think I will ever forget that girl in the kayak. "Don't worry your gonna finish."

I have a new goal now.

To become a better open water swimmer. (It is so much different than the pool)

Gotta start training for the Des Moines triathlon at the end of June.

Good luck everybody.




Edited by wjt2003 2009-06-01 8:12 PM

congrats on finishing.  I think the combination of being new to open water swimming and also your first tri made it even tougher.  I'm glad my first tri was in a pool, because I still went out too fast, but it was much easier to still finish.  I think getting used to the wet suit and also getting those first time jitters out of the way will help you next time.  It's just so hard to stay relaxed and go at the pace you need to when the race starts, really takes focus, which I hope I've developed since last time.

Will, congrats on the finish as that is the goal!

My wife and kids went out to parties on saturday afternoon so I took advantage of spending some time playing with my bike. Practiced changing my wheels and tires for about two hours in the comfort of my garage (had never done it before)...got some new lighter ones that I put on and really could tell the difference on my ride sunday morning.

Congrats on finishing William!!!

OWS can definitely be challenging. I'm lucky, with my swimming background, I've swam in open water and in pools for most of my life. But I will admit, the first time I did the swim part of a tri as a relay team, it was more like full contact swimming. When I got out of the water, I even had a foot outline on the front of my tri suit. Since then I've swam a couple more times as a team and have learned a lot. This time around I made sure to get all the way to one side so I wasn't in the middle of a big mob.

Found this article in regards to OWS anxiety. Interesting exercises to try out.

Makes me feel better that I am not alone with this.


http://www.ultramaxtri.com/trainingbible/TBArticle5.html

Congrats on finishing! I'm sure I'm going to have a freak out moment for my first tri next month and my swim is in the pool!! I'm just not a great swimmer. 

However, today's swim I think I made some more progress. I watched that part I video of the talk by Total Immersion that was in the newsletter and something he said stuck with me. The part about going in to EVERY training session in the pool with the goal of becoming a better swimmer. I really put that to the test today and I hope to continue with that mentality.

So, I was having some of the same issues with trying to breathe without getting excessive amounts of water up my sinuses. Then I just stuck my face in the water and started kicking laying face down. I went up and down the pool just rotating left and right, taking breaths. Somehow that was suddenly easier. I think what I figured out was that I'm not rotating my body enough. In an effort to get my face out of the water without pushing down with my hands, I think I was not reaching forward and rotating enough. So my question now is: where does the initiation of the body rotation come from? Do you initiate the movement with your hips or shoulders? I think when I initiate it with my hips, the rest of my body follows quicker and smoother. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I'm happy with my progress today because I was then able to swim much better for the rest of the session. Too bad I only had time for a few more laps. I really wanted to imprint that movement more. I'll try again tomorrow though.
peace and health,
Jen 

I think I figured out what you are saying now about your stroke and I would say you are going to rotate quite a bit back and forth throughout the stroke. When your forward arm is as far as it will go forward you are also turning your shoulders to get the most out of the reach before you start pulling back. That's also when you should be taking your breathe. To me, I feel like the rotation comes from both the hips and the shoulders because you are going to be rotating both to some extent. What are some of the drills that you are trying? When I was coaching swimming, I would usually have kids do something along the lines of 10/10 to get used to the rotation and full extension of the arms. 10 kicks on one side, take a stroke and 10 kicks on the other side. Once they got comfortable with that, I would have them put there head into alignment with the arms.

thanks for the thoughts charleybeth. Yes, I am turning my shoulders with my hips but I think before I was only turning my shoulders. I felt a dramatic difference when I concentrated on rotating my hips too. I felt like I was just flipping back and forth and even though I wasn't going very fast, I felt like I was flying! Very cool feeling that I haven't felt before. 

I have been doing mostly breathing drills to work on getting the alignment with the breath. One thing that seemed to work is simply rotating side to side fairly rapidly, making a stroke and a breath on each side to get used to the feeling of the rotation as well as the location of the head with the breath. I also have been kicking on one side and practicing just rotating my head in and out of the water to get more comfortable with just moving my head without dropping my front arm. I don't know how it looks, but it feels SO much better. I am excited for my swim session tomorrow to see how much more progress I can make.

I am going to get together with my mom soon (also a member here) so she can give me some feedback on how my position really looks. And I think it was Judd who talked about overcorrecting to get a different feel for how the body positions can feel. Well I did some experiments with my head in all kinds of crazy directions (totally flexed, totally extended, looking straight down) and I think I actually have the correct head position most of the time, I think my arms and legs need attention now.

I hope you are all having good training sessions. I am inspired by everyone's races so far and I can't wait to come back here at the end of july and joint the ranks of the triathletes! In the mean time I'm still training and have a 5K at the end of this month.
peace and health,
jen 

Charlotte, I think you were right about tight muscles being the problem with my leg. I had them rubbed down, but could not find anything. Finally we found knots right next to the shin bone...they just got sooo big we noticed them. It seems the knots cause the mucles to be tight, and then I tried to run, which pulled and hurt. That will explain the pain coming and going. Now we are rubbing them, and stretching MOOOOORRRE. Thanks

I've been having some on again/off again pain in my left calf.  Strained it a week ago biking.  Finally bought some calf compression guards, and despite looking totally dorky, they have helped me I think.  I just wear one when I workout, limits the dork factor by 1/2, and am wearing both now (my wife makes fun of me).  After a 5 mile easy run Saturday my leg was really stiff and I was limping around all day.  After a track workout today I'm still a little sore, but not nearly as bad.  Something to consider.

I have been out of the loop for a while and am encourage by everyones progress. I did my first 'brick' today. I think that is what you call it. We had our normal 1.5 hour swim practice (3400 yds) then road home. Only 6.5 miles (around 20 mins) but still a good workout for this novice rider. I only have to go 9miles in my sprint tri in August so I was happy with this.

Tonight during our swim time at the end we did 2 5-minute swims. We rested 2 mins between. We were to swim the 2nd one faster than the first. For those that are new to swim, this is a great way to see how your endurance is holding up. For those more experience, you can do 2 - 10 minute swims.

Awesome!!! That's great news!!! It's amazing how much on little tight muscle can cause so much pain and discomfort! I'm saving my money and treating myself to a good massage after my next sprint triathlon this weekend. I also signed up for a running class with a local running group which offers various clinics during the 10 week class. One of the clinics is on stretching... I'm hoping to learn alot because sometimes I feel like I'm just one big ball of knots and tense muscles.

And Sprint Tri #2 is now done!!!

25 mile ocean swim/ 13.6 mile bike/ 3.1 mile run in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

age: 32
gender: F
overall place: 228 out of 347
division place: 5 out of 9
time: 1:35:28
swim: 12:36
tran1: 3:44
bike: 45:48
tran2: 1:19
run: 32:31
penalty: 0

I did better than expected on the bike, which had us going over a long bridge that goes over the intracoastal waterway, twice. An an uphill on ramp. I'm not too disappointed about the run, but it makes me even more excited about a 10 week running class that I'm starting on 6/24. The class is going to have clinics, and will be running on the track every Wed and long runs every Sat. There will also be one-on-one consultations.

I'm kind of sad how I did on the swim... I sighted bad at the beginning and had to swim further than I needed to in order to get back on track.

My next race is 7/11 and I'm looking forward to working hard between now and then in order to really improve my times!!!

That is so exciting! Awsome race, I was waiting to hear how you did. I am really jealous about your running class though. Hope you can share some of what you learn.

Charleybeth - I'm so impressed by your 25 mile swim in 12 1/2 min!
 

I notices that too, very, very fast!

I wish that was correct! More like 0.25...

Great job and good finish!!! Specially with the fact of doing better then you expected, congrats! I also hope you can share some of your run class tips with the group.

Edited by bk broiler 2009-06-19 12:30 PM