Mesteren's Group - CLOSED (Page 7)

Haha....Tell me about it.  I remember those days too.  Not so much the case anymore! 

Well, mother's day kinda turned out ...

Our youngest, Elizabeth, (a New Year's Baby) only 4 months old now was hospitalized with pneumonia, so I spent Sat and Sun night at the hospital.  Kinda messed up lunch plans for Sunday.  She's doing fine, but will be in the hospital for a minimum of 5 days (1 course of antibiotics) and then will be reassessed.   Also messes up training time.   Since I'm a look at the glass half full kinda guy, because I don't have to drop off Lizzie at the baby center I could ride my bike to school today which helps.

Countdown.... 1 month and 9 days to first Tri!

Oh wow, that's a tough weekend.  It's always scarry when your little one is in the hospital.  I'm glad she is doing okay!!!

Mesteren - 2011-05-10 9:04 AM Hi everybody

I am back home again after some very warm days in Germany.
Race went really good and I will make a Race report later.
I got 3rd overall and 2nd in my age-group

Going to read up on your blogs now to see if you have been doing something while I have been gone

That ROCKS!!  Way to kick some a$$! 

great job coach ;o). What a great result on the race. Looking forward to read the race report.

I decided to enter a local race instead of doing a training. Just to see how my body would react to a 10K run race. Training wise not the smartest thing as my longest Long Distance Run was only 7.5K

But I very happy with my result: 55m03s. This was almost 5min faster than my minimal goal (finish within 60min) and almost 1min below my desired goal of 56min. And in hindsight I think I could have gone about 1min faster as I really paced myself till the 6K mark.

Feeling more and more ready by the day. 11 days till first tri..

Mesteren, I can only dream of those kinds of results. And I will! You'll be awesome in your tri, Niezels! Duncan, hope your little girl is doing better now?

Official race results for me: I was 45/90 overall for the women and 22/37 in my AG.Total 1:18:41

Swim: 16:50

Bike: 29:18

T: 43

Run: 31:51

I can not complain about those results for my first-ever tri.

Mesteren - Awesome result... way to go.  Looking forward to the race report.

Niezels - That's a pretty fantastic 10k time.  You're gonna rock your first tri!!!

Calluna - Nicely done.  Looking forward to my race even more now.

Daughter is doing well, but they suspect it might be whooping cough (or 100 day cough in Chinese).  Part of me hopes that is the case, as then at least we know what we are dealing with (and its not that big of a deal with no real long term complications... just 100 days of coughing, which sucks).  Because Lizzie was dehydrated, when they took out her IV and tried to put in another one, they had a really hard time.  I had to send my wife home, as she was on the verge of freaking out at the staff.  Took them over an hour, and about 5 pokes (20 if you count my wife's way, but they only broke the skin 5 times) to finally get a good line.  Poor Lizzie was NOT liking it!  But they finally got it in, and are hydrating her again (She's been refusing to feed).

Just got in a lunch time swim at school... (6 * 100 at 2:10) * 2.  It was a good, but tough swim.   The last 500 meters were pretty much non-stop as I was coming in at about 2:08 seconds.  Still freaking out about 1.5km open water... yikes!

The bible is a nice book though I cannot write a recommandation as I haven't really read much in it yet. For swim technique my feel is that coaching (or reflection at least) is the best way. It is a lot about understanding the difference on how you think you swim and really swim. In things like: 

• If your having a good balance in the water
• Whether your tornading in a correct way
• breathing rythm

I guess as an alertnative there is plenty of Youtube videos available on proper technique. Not sure if a book can really help as it requires a lot of words to describe as much info as a 5 min can with illustration.

• No bubbles from hand on the pull  !!!! VERY IMPORTANT

That is an issue i a whole new category. I have no one yet complaining about my weightloss. But than again I'm not really losing muscle weight.

I can see why you like the training so much. If only for the main reason tri's are cool!!

I love to do goal orientated training. And I feel tri is just and above all just that for me. The body shape is just a (in my case welcome) result.

Just wanted to say "Hi" and let the group know I'm still here.  I should be involved more after today.  

Happy training!

Christi

Christi: Great to hear you are still around ;o)

I did my first brick training today. Wanted to mimic all parts of a real race. So I brought it all to the location. Including my racenumber of yesterdays run on a belt.

Was glad to have done this as I didn't really now what to expect of a OWS and the transistions. The OSW felt really good. The water was fresh but good. Weird though to have to orientate during the swim. Good thing there will be a line to follow during the real race. Looking aside is much easier than looking up front. T1 was quite fast. Other club members who finished there OSW training went on to cheer me on (sweet). Was a little bit disorientated but could cope with it by the time I was to cross the public rode. I was surprised as how well my body felt at the swim. Getting in a nice pace quite easily. Had to pound the final K of the bike though as it was a head wind there. T2 was also quite fast. Again cheers from clubmembers (one even went on to mimic an official giving directions (TY Kjeld). Start of the run was hard. Was capable of keep running but had to fight the calfs who were willing to cramp up. Altering runtechnique by landing on the heels more worked there for me. After 1K body was custom to the run again. So final K felt sweet. Did not push at any part of the training due to a race yesterday and the goal of today (just experience)

Overall a big succes for me.

If interested: The route I did is viewable at: http://www.afstandmeten.nl/index.php?id=621009.

That totally sucks Duncan hopefully Lizzie is feeling better soon and give your wife a hug from me. It aint easy to see your baby in pain.

Mesteren your amazing those are awesome results. I'm gonna have to read your race report.

Niezels you are more then ready for your first tri

My first tri is now less then two months away so its starting to hit me now I really gotta get ready. Ref up that training a bit more.

Yeah I guess experience it is the best way. But maybe my first OWS experience (yesterday) can help you a bit:

• Though you don't get the "pause" at turning in a pool. You don't get the disruption in the rythm either. I felt keeping the cadance was a good plus for me
• Another plus is that OW does not have ?chlorine. I hate swallowing chlorine. Not dealing with that stress is a plus
• The view is very limited (1 yard was the farest I could see under water). This didn't freak me out though. Not knowing how deep the water is made me not care either. This is a plus for compared to a deep pool where a bottom 4yards below the surface can freak me out a bit
• Orientation however is my biggest thing I need to train on. Without lines on the bottom to look at you have to deal with what you can see above the surface. Looking up front is kinda hard as you really have to lift your head for it. Plus with wet goggles seeing detail over 250+ yards is difficult. I tried to figure out in what angle to the shore line I needed to swim. As I was crossing the lake in a diagonal direction this was a bit difficult. However for this I would try to mimic as much as possible of the real race of what you can see.

But at the end you gotta tri it to know it. And OWS is kinda fun actually (I think)

Thanks Niezels for the post. I want to do something exactly like that to help prepare. My swimming professor kept saying that the hardest part about OWS is the orientation. She suggested that every so often I did a head up stroke. She had a name for this stroke in which you just arch your back and neck so that you can see in front of you while you front crawl.

Weird question for you; Did you see anything in the water? That is probably my biggest fear about open water.

Thanks coach for the swimming links. Just like you said I am getting more and more comfortable in the water.

It was a "sandy" lake which resulted in a brown sandy sight of 1 yard wide. As you are swimming on the surface there is enough light to not have issue looking into a dark hole.

Furtmore there were no fish in sight to company me on the swim ;o)

Anybody have suggestions for loosening up a tight psoas muscle (it runs from the back of your hamstring, through the pelvis and connects somewhere along the low back).  Apparently this area is tight and it causing me low back issues when I run and my stride lengthens.  Would love to hear any experience you have with this kind of trouble.

My doc gave me a couple of stretches, but thought I'd throw it out to you all in the real world.

Thanks,

Christi

Not much experience with OWSwimming... I used to surf / windsurf / kayak but never really spent anytime just swimming.   Except in a swimming pool as a kid, but that was just for lessons.

Lizzie is finally outta the hospital.  Cost me my lunch time run to go get her and my wife and take them home, but well worth it.  Erinn (my 6 year old daughter) is trying out a swimming class tonight... never been to this pool before (it's in a hotel) but am hopeful that I can get some laps in.  Class is 2 hours, so could potentially be a good long swim workout.