Eliwashere's Group-Ready to GO!-FULL (Page 7)

On the flip side- I try to train too soon after a race.  In other words, it takes a while to recover from a race.
steve

Katie, Thanks I did reserve a room today after reading your post. You're right not much there, I did find a king room at Days Inn Ocean side at $218 for 2 nights.  Had pretty good reviews on line for the motel but who knows!

Do you know how many usually do this race?

Lookkng forward!!

Hey ALL!!!

A couple of questions

1.  I was wondering if any of you participate in any type stretching classes, I am thinking about signing up for a yoga class.  I know as you get older flexibility is important to maintain, but would if benefit your trainning or would my time be better spent doing something else now?

2.  If you have a treadmill in your home what do you have or what would you recommend?  I want to stay around $1200.  I have looked at the Sole F80 and read there reviews seem to be one of the best in that price range.

I've read plenty that stretching is of limited benefit for speed.

Flexibility may not help speed but it is probably of use in avoiding injury.  I think yoga would be beneficial on your off day or after a very hard training session.  It isn't very useful for Triathlons as a stand alone thing but definitely in combination.  The other benefit to yoga, besides stretching out your muscles, would be core strength.  Since a lot of the stuff requires balance, and balance usually comes from your core, it should help a little in that area too.

I won't be incorporating yoga into my plan but it has it's benefits, especially if you have concerns about your body holding up to all the training.  Just don't use it as a substitute for a training session because you will get more out of swimming, biking, or running.

Oh yeah, and I have no insight on treadmills.  Sorry.

Edited by crazyalaskian 2010-01-29 7:56 AM

Sorry, can't help on treadmill, but I do have an opinion on stretching.

First, what exactly do you mean by stretching? If you mean traditional static stretching or the ballistic style-Active Isolated-stretching before warming up? I agree that research seems to support the idea that this type of pre-workout stretching is not beneficial.
However, some of the core stretch/warmup type stretching, which I haven't seen many studies on, may be helpful.

The jury appears to be conflicted about post-workout stretching. I know for myself that I find it useful and "feel" better if I make sure to do a basic stretching routine after a workout.

Also, systems like Yoga or Pilates are more core oriented than just plain stretching. Strengthining and loosening your core DOES benefit your sports performance.

Hey all,
Just finished the ING Miami half-Marathon. My third time doing it.
My wife and I ran together. Neither of us was feeling great, but we finished right on target at 2:15 or so.
I can't remember the last time I was this tired after a 1/2. Usually, I go play with my daughter or hang out with friends. I had to nap for an hour +.
I think I may need some extra rest! I was glad I didn't try to PR today, as I don't think I had it in me.
However, I did sign up for the A1A 1/2 Marathon, so I have another shot before my 1/2 Iron!
Hope you all had great weekends!

Eli,  congrats to you and your wife on the 1/2 marathon!!

Hope everyone has a good week

Eli-
Echoing the congrats- it's super cool you share running with your wife.
Time with her will always be better than a PR.

steve

Jack-
Your logs show you've got the bilateral breathing going, so it's time to move on to your arm path.  Breathe every other stroke.

The Basics:
1. Put your arms in front of you as if you were about to fly like superman.  They will be parallel, approx 1-2 feet between them, depending on your shoulder width.

2. Let one of them drop straight down, and you should find your thumb brushing against your thigh.  As you swim, a good thing to check is your thumb brushing the outside of your thigh.  (Not all the time, just a check)

3. The rotation of arm to arm times out like this demo:
http://swimsmooth.com/
Basically, you don't start the lead arm stroke down until the other arm is plunging into the water.

Finer Points:
-Do Not "cross the midline" by placing a hand across the midline- keep them in the superman stance/width.
-It should be harder to stroke this way, because you're pulling maximum water.  That's good.
-You should rotate up the side you're stroking with, by "snapping" or rolling the hip/thigh up to meet the incoming thumb.

Hand/Arm entry:
You will literally "shoot" or "spear" your hand into the water and then extend it.  Your goal is to have very little air (bubbles) under your hand.  You want clean water to push against, instead of wasting stroke through air.  In the following BT'ers video, watch her SECOND swim, and watch her hand entry.  (Basically from 1:00 to 1:30min)  The first and third swims aren't for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shOM8BunXCM

I like to keep my head up enough to see my hands as they reach the end of their shoot, but mostly keep your head comfortable.

Two Drills you'll do this workout:
Shark Fin Drill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8X1Vr6hgmA
Yes, your head is way underwater during the drill.  Keep the lead arm way out, head on shoulder looking ahead.  I don't use fins, but feel free.

Fist Drill:
All you do swim with your hands balled up into fists.  It feels funny, but rewards keeping a straight pull instead of flailing around.

Workout this week:
50y warm up
50y Shark Fin one side
50y Shark Fin the other side
400y SLOW SLOW SLOW Arm Path focus
200y Faster, paying attention to the hip snap/body rotation
100y Fist Drill
200y Arm Path focus at a normal swimming speed

You will of course find many opinions on the best swimming techniques, but this is a solid foundation to get started with.
You'll modify things with time to fit yourself.
cheers,
steve

Steve,

Managed to try the swim drills today at lunch.  I must say that I failed at the shark fin drill.  I kept sinking I would move my hand back to my waist/thigh to recover, did manage to do the drill some.  I will try this again, hopefully with flippers, on Wednesday.  The other swimming went well along with the fist drill.  I have trouble extending/reaching with my right arm and breathing on my left side; however this is getting better the more I swim and breath on my left side.  I did continue to rotate my breathing every lap today.

I have been trying to work on my stroke paying attention to my arm path and hip snap/body rotation from watching the Total Immersion (TI) DVD that I have now.  With your help, focusing on bilateral breathing has been the most beneficial thing that I have done to this point.  It is allowing me to rotate more to my right side.  I have praticed the superman glide trying to get accustomed to my arm/hand position that is on the TI DVD.  Spelling out my drills like you did with the video examples  really helps me with my work out.

Thanks again for your help

Jack-
This stuff helps me too.
While looking stuff up, i read that the hand entry starts the hip snap.
Tried getting my hand in the water earlier- lo and behold the hip snap starts sooner!
=easy speed
cheers,
steve

My Bike:
54cm Cervelo 2007 P2sl aluminum.  17.6 lbs as shown.  Ebay: bought the frame, added Easton Vista SL (now called EA50s) wheels, DuraAce 172.5 cranks, SRAM carbon brake levers, Felt Bayonet Aerobar, DuraAce bar shifter, Sugino 50t single unramped ring.

The single ring works perfectly here in flat florida.

Post your bike pics everyone!  No judgement, in fact it's cooler the less "tri-specific" it is!  I'll never forget riding around 18mph, getting passed by a muscley dude on a full-suspension mountain bike at mile 10.

Cheers,
steve








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BikeSideWeb.jpg (87KB - 15 downloads)
BikeRingWeb.jpg (98KB - 19 downloads)

Steve very nice Bike!!


Someone tell me how to post a picture,  I did a search but didn't find instructions

Thanks

Jack,
"Attach a file after posting" check box.
All you do is a normal reply, then check the little box at the bottom (above and to the left of "submit").  Then browse to the file on your computer, and hit return to thread.  You can select multiple files, one at a time before returning to thread.

There may be a size limit, generally on the web it's around 100k.

steve

Steve,
Nice! I will go down and get a picture in a bit. But be prepared...she isn't pretty!

That's the point!  The ugliest/least tri-specific bike wins the title as "Coolest bike to be ridden in a race" and it's owner is guaranteed to have a great racing season.

Here's my contribution to the ugly tri bike contest.  My only bike (for now) is my 95 Specialized Stumpjumper.  Great for mountain biking but not much on the road.  I have to raise the seat as high as the seatpost will go and increase the tire pressure as much as I dare.  I've considered getting some slicks for it but haven't got around to it yet.  There aren't any races for a few months so I'm ok for now.





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Yeah bike porn.  It is a fuji roubaix road bike with clip on aero bars.  Double ring and with the hills and rolling hills I have been thinking about upgrading to a triple when I finally get rid of the cages and get clipless pedals



Edited by stiga00 2010-02-02 3:13 PM






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I hope this works here is my bike and guards.  I've got to figure out how to resize these I'm no computer wizard!

Edited by Jack54 2010-02-02 6:24 PM








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bike and dogs1645.jpg (30KB - 15 downloads)

PBDMAN-  Well, you're in the lead!  I did my first couple races on a MTB, and you know, it's the best training out there.  I like the truly stripped down look of your bike- it screams "I ride it HARD"

STIGA00- I can see how you did 18mph in your first race, nice bike.

Jack54- Beautiful canines.  Pic too small to see bike, but clearly you're out of the running for ugliest/least tri bike.
-edit- nice resize.  good lookin bike.

Edited by EvenOlder 2010-02-02 8:55 PM

OK, here it goes.....
The bike usually has clipless pedals, but I put the cages on for my wife.

Edited by eliwashere 2010-02-03 10:40 PM






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