kalalau's Group - FULL for now (Page 7)

OK - so I have been plugging away at my swimming and doing my drills and reading my TI book cover to cover. Well over the weekend I came across the most wonderful paragraph I would like to share. 

Grinding out run and bike miles may do some good, since those less technical sports get a bigger boost from gains in basic physical prowess. But hard swim-training makes no sense at all for the average triathlete whose best bet is to never, never, never swim hard. Figure it out. In the race itself, victory always goes to the fastest biker or runner, never (never, never) to the fastest swimmer. There's even a word for triathletes who work hard during the swim leg. They're called losers.

Now if only someone told me that after that first day I got into the pool! LOL!!!

I still have a lot of work to do to get to .75 mile...but that sure took a lot of pressure off!

Just wanted to share - hehehe

LOL I'm glad this popped up to the top of the next page, I am going to send the link to a friend of mine who keeps trying to compare himself to what the "average" swimmer will do in his next race.

Abbie, you are SO right!

I like doing laps at the YMCA when the swim team is practicing in the next lap.  It's good to practice fighting the urge to "beat" the swimmers.  I just keep relaxed and slow and let them all pass.

I'm sure it will be the same in our races.  When the race begins, everyone will sprint into the water and swim as fast as they can.  Don't get caught up in the frenzy.  Stick to your training.

I notice when I give a good strong push off the wall, my head will feel the water pressure and get "pushed" into a certain position.  Hmm... Could this be a method for finding that optimal body alignment that reduces drag?

I'll also hold my breath under water every so often to listen for "splashes" when my hand enters.  I'll try to keep arms as quiet as possible.  Noise = drag.

It depends, is it making you put your head in a more streamlined position? :-)

In a different topic, for your first triathlon, not only do you need to be able to cover the swim distance, but you need to get really confident in the water.  You are likely going to be swimming in "waves," meaning different age groups will start at different times.  This means that folks of varying speeds will be running right over top of each other (though they seem to "try" to work most of that out with the age differences, as much as you can).  So, you need to get confident enough that you can get hit in the head, run over, or even have your goggles knocked off, and you won't freak out.  I think that tends to fix itself with time in the water.  Think about it, you are comfy on land, if a runner brushed you on a run, you'd get irritated, but you would just settle back down and keep going.

To illustrate the idea, you should watch this AWESOME Clif Bar Triathlon Start Commercial .  I still talk about this video with friends, years later.  Very memorable.

How is everyone's training going this week and last weekend?  Keith, Steve, how did your long runs go?

I'll post one of things that I think of when I need motivation in a race.  Take a look at this guy.  He did Ironman Louisville 2007 in cutoff jeans and a 20 year old bike.  I looked for him at the 2008 event, and he was once again there.  He did not finish in 2008, I'm sure because of the heat in the 90s.  But think about it.  This guy did a 2.4 mile swim, then a 112 mile bike ride in cutoff jeans, and then a marathon in the same jeans.  At the end of August, in Kentucky.  The guy is awesome.  But look, if he can do an Ironman, with the equipment he had, can't we each achieve our goals, with better equipment?  I'm pretty sure none of us are going to be wearing jeans in our races. :-)

Is this 'acceptable' race etiquette?  I've heard that other swimmers may swim on top of you as they pass, pushing you down into the water.  If this is just "how the game is played", then I'll accept that.  If it's poor sportsmanship, I may accidently crack their goggles with my elbow.

;)

You were swimming pretty well, getting through 3/4s of it before the next wave caught up.

Good job on the 15 miler!  Yeah the ice stunk.  This weekend is going to be awesome!  Of course, I'm going to the Poconos where it will be colder. :-(  Where am I going to run in the Poconos?  Lehigh Gorge Trail again?  The Appalachian Trail maybe?  Mike?  I'm ready to start running again.  I have half marathons coming up.  B&A and Ocean City are hanging over me.  Plus there's the 10 mile "Club Challenge" which is a free race.

Steve, if you are looking for a group to run with, the Frederick Marathon is doing course preview runs.  There's only a couple of "official" ones with course support and such, and one is on the 22nd.  That's a bit of a drive though.  There are also supposed to be weekly lower-support runs.  I'll send you details if you are interested and don't have them.

Sighting Video w/ Peter Reid

You should practice sighting while you are swimming.  The linked video is a nice efficient way to do it, but if you aren't ready for that, do whatever you can do now.  Sometimes you can gather your thoughts and sight a bit with just doing a breaststoke for a second.  I like developing a rythym while I swim so I hate to break it up by stopping or doing another stroke.  Sometimes it takes me the whole swim in order to settle down and get a rythym going.  Whatever you do, practice it now so it's not foreign to you come race day.  It feels a bit silly at the pool, but just look up every once in a while and act like you are swimming towards the point you just spotted, hopefully the end of the pool. :-)

Some races have buoys that are a bit hard to spot, or far apart.  Others, like the Ironman trademarked ones (Eagleman), have huge ones that you could never miss.  Hard to say what you will get.  I imagine the Danskin ones have really nice buoys.  If you cannot spot the buoy, do what you can but don't assume the crowd around you is swimming the most direct route.  The crowd just may be following some other guy that just went off course. :-)

Sometimes you can head out to the swim course early, and study the course, getting a good gauge on things.  You might even be able to spot landmarks that you can sight on instead of bouys.  One race I did, the locals told me to just swim for the sun on the way back.  

Anything you can do to get yourself to swim the most direct route.  We don't want to add more distance than we have to.

Swim Drafting.  I didn't really find any good drafting talk, except for a section in this Open Water Tactics article.  In general, you will find swim drafting to be very beneficial.  You can swim faster with less effort, because the swimmer ahead of you is doing a lot of your work of getting through the water.  When you are in the middle of the open water swim, just find someone that is going a bit faster than you (or same speed if you are looking to just rest), and then get right behind their feet.  Frequently it is very hard to keep on these feet in the murky water.  Just look for the bubbles.  If you lose the bubbles, swim faster and try to latch onto them again. I like to be really close, because then it's harder to lose them.  But then you can have trouble with avoiding hitting their feet, which they would find quite irritating.  Often they will kick back at you if they do not like what you are doing.  But swim drafting is legal, and is accepted as an appropriate thing to do.

I thought I had read somewhere that the bubbles from their feet also lift up your body a bit and make it easier to swim, but I cannot find any information on that at the moment.  It does feel that way.

If you can find a nice pair of feet to draft off for the swim, it's a wonderful thing.  You get out of the water with a good time, without feeling like you put in a lot of effort.

Unless you have a buddy to swim with, it's going to be hard to practice this.  But if you do end up swimming with someone, try it, you can really feel the difference.

I know of a state park about 3 miles from my house - Jacobsburg State Park.  Nice trails, but they may be a little sloppy at this time.  Pretty "hilly" if you're up for a challenge.

That's right around the time frame when I would start thinking about gatorade.  Do you feel yourself trailing off at the end of the hour?  In the summer I would be more likely do drink it for an hour run, but I think you are ok if you feel ok.  Make sure you use it enough in training that it's not new on race day though.

Last year, there was a vendor speaking at one of the expos that said that even for a 45 minute run, we need something for refueling.  That, sure, we had enough electrolytes in our body to do a 45 minute run, but the fact that we are doing so stresses out our body, and then your body builds up these stessors and it affects performance.  Of course, he is a vendor, and I've never heard such a thing again.  

I think you are ok with water up to an hour if you don't feel yourself trailing off, and you've eaten properly that day, and if you eat after you are done.  They recommend eating within 30 minutes after your workout.  If you don't eat well during the day leading into the workout, I would consider using gatorade or your comparable drink of choice.

Thanks for the tip.  I ended up not running at all, and just waiting til I got home.  Between having a house full of people, and the high temps making it really yucky outside with the melting snow and ice, I talked myself into not doing it.

Kalalau,
How much discomfort is appropriate after a run?

After a "long" run, my knees and back will ache, and my shins will be sore.  This goes away after a day or so.  I consider that "normal wear and tear" for a runner.

I think my posture is good: straight back, like a marrionette bouncing on its strings (I read that somewhere) and shoes are relatively new - Saucony Omni 7, suitable for moderate overpronating.

I failed to comete in a 15K in 2007 because I got runners knee during training.  I just want to be sure I'm not headed for the same outcome.

What are your long runs up to now?

It may be a sign of your erratic training.  Have you been increasing your long run mileage by only a small amount each week? If you had more time, I'd add in a couple of "stepback" weeks, or maybe don't increase it for a couple of weeks.  But I don't think your schedule leaves much left for that does it.

I'm not too concerned except for the shins, or if the knees are one of the classic knee issues.  Does it feel like runner's knee?  Did a running shop suggest the Omni Moderates (I wear those too)?

If you start feeling these things on your midweek runs, we might want to start to be more concerned.

Yeah that's a good idea, going slower on the long runs if you think you might be pushing the mileage too much.  

I had forgotten that Mooney logs his workouts.  His half marathon is May 3rd.  Mooney, if your logs are up to date, I think it may be because you weren't running much at all, and then started running 3-4 times a week with a 4-4.5 miler on the weekend.  That might have been ramping up more quickly than the classic schedule.  I still think you're probably ok.  I like the fact that you are now getting shorter runs in during the week.  Even if it's short, it helps.  Just keep aware of these issues and make sure they don't get worse.

It's not unusual to get a lot of legs aches after each progression in your long runs.  But say if you did a 4.5 miler again this weekend, it shouldn't be as bad as last weekend's if that's all it is.  Focused pain like your shin complaint, should be watched and of concern.

Thanks, Steve & Dave.  Good advice.
I'm being very careful to increase  only 10% per week.  Doing the math, that leaves just enough time for a 13 miler by May 3.  There's even room for a taper week or two.

The long, weekend runs are at a comfortable pace - about 5 mph (12 min/mile).  I feel like I can run forever at that pace.

Two mid-week runs: I aim for 6 mph (10 min/mile).  Not exactly "lightning fast", but an effort to maintain for 2+ miles.  I'd eventually like this to be my 10K speed.

How does this sound:

LONG RUN:   SUNDAY:  increase 10% per week until I reach 12 miles.  Pace is a comfortable 12 min/mi.
SHORT RUN1: TUES: 3-3.5 miles each week.  Pace is a difficult 10 min/mi.
SHORT RUN2: THURS: 2-3 miles each week.  Pace is the slow 12 min/mi.

I'd like to keep my 2 short runs to avoid the "weekend warrior" thing.  If shins become a problem, I can drop to one "short" per week and/or run at the slow pace each time.  I'll keep you posted if anything develops - good or  bad.

I have to keep things in perspective.  Although I am very excited about my first half marathon, it's still just a stepping stone to my TRIATHLON.  I don't want to beat myself up in training.