Elaine's Awesome Start to 2012 Group! - Closed! (Page 7)

Be responsive and flexible.

My boyfriend got really frustrated with me at first. We talked about it. To keep him happy, I did as much as I could in the morning. Any workout that was less than 2 hours was done before work - except when my pool with early morning hours closed for the season. My weekends were generally one long day and one shorter one, so we'd discuss weekend plans to place my long day at the right spot. If we had a party or event on Friday night, I'd do the long workout Sunday, so I could still stay out late and have fun with him.

He'd join me for parts of workouts. It was REALLY nice when on my longest run of 70.3 training, he came and ran the last 4 miles with me.

It got really hard when he got Plantar Fasciitis AND found out that he actually did damage to his shoulder that prevented him from playing baseball. It is really important that he has a hobby outside of us, but when he couldn't run with me or join a local over-30 baseball league - it just got rough for a bit.

I can recall skipping a few workouts to spend time with him - and reminded him that he is more important than training, but I'm happy when I can strike a balance with both.

I was MIA because I was out doing the Ragnar Relay in the Florida Keys! It was a BLAST!!!!

I'm back now

Sounds like a FUN weekend.

Good job starting 2012 out with consistency

Let's start this week off on the right foot:

Do you have a favorite workout? Maybe a swim set, biking with a club, or even just a running route...

My favorite swim set is 1000 SKIPS. That's 200s of Swim, Kick, IM, Pull, Swim. It was my college team's general warm-up, and now when I do it, it's usually half of the time I spend in the pool!!

One of my favorite workouts is a masters swim set that has 100 IM's.  I don't do butterfly very well but if it's only 25 yards of it, that's cool.  The IM sets really work you as you're using some of those muscles you usually don't work that often.

We actually had a warmup set last week that had a 200 IM in it, a first for me.  I'm pretty much warmed up after that 50 fly.  The 50 back after that is more like an active recovery,

That was how I raced my 200IMs. Eventually the coach stopped making me do them in swim meets!

A workout I grabbed from someone here (neweyes) is a great way to rack up yardage but break up the monotony:

600 swim

4x100 hard

500 swim

4x100 hard

400 swim

4x100 hard

300 swim

4x100 hard

200 CD

You can alter it to work with almost any distance. If you want to make the 4x100s 5x50s instead and reduce the longer swims, you can:

300 swim

4x50 hard

200 swim

4x50 hard

100 swim...

You get the pattern

The new plan is to try and work my schedule around my husband's schedule. He works a combination of day and evening shifts. So if he is on day shifts, I'll work out in the morning and if he's on evenings, I'll work out in the evenings. Today was my first day of this. His alarm went off at 4:30am (I'm not that motivated) so I got up at 6:00 and went swimming before heading to work.

Glad to hear you're working it out! Hope it continues to go smoothly

You shouldn't need to be up at 4:30 until those training hours start piling up!

Ok I went to another tri-clinic last night that focused on the swimming.

Can someone help me on the lingo. Like what is 4x100 and 200 swim, 200 kicks. Im lost.

Also whats the best way to keep track of your swims? Does anyone use something electronic like a garmin? do they even have it?  Sorry for all the questions.

4x100 means that you swim 100 yards (or meters) four times. You take a break every 100 yards. The break might be given as 10 seconds, or they might say to do 4x100 on 2:00, which means that you start a new 100 every 2 minutes.

In most pools, 1 length of the pool = 25 yards, so 100 yards would be 4 lengths of the pool. In the super-long Olympic pools, they are 50 meters, so in those, 100meters = 2 lengths.

200 swim just means to swim for 200 yards, or 8 lengths.

200 kick means that you'll just kick for 8 lengths, usually with a kickboard.

I write my workout on a small piece of paper. If you get it wet, it'll stick right to the pool deck.

I count my lengths/distance a few different ways. My most effective way is to count down lengths. If I'm swimming a 200, or 8 lengths, I'll push off the first wall and think "8", next time I push off, it's "7"... all the way down!

There are a few electronics that can do this, here are two options: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/03/swim-watch-battle-finis-swimsense-vs.html

For big sets, like 10x100, I'll move a kickboard along pool tiles to count. One tile per 100 or something.

Once the swim hits 400 yards or more, I get confused. I'm sure I've swam extra yards on occasion, and less yards.

It can be really helpful to know your rough pace. I generally swim 100s on 1:30 in practice. This way, I know that 200 yards will take me 3 minutes. 500 yards will take me 7:30....

And no apologizing for questions - that is why we're here!! I hope I didn't confuse you more!

And I'm sure you'll learn it over and over again. I know I do!

Congrats on a distance PR!!

Hi everybody, sorry to be MIA, started back to work last week and it just kicked by butt.  I have officially started slow, biked today for 20 min. made 4 miles at 70+ RPM. I wanted to get in the pool but unfortunately they had a massive swim class for the kids today. Hopefully sometime this week.

Life always finds a way to interfere with triathlon Welcome back, both to the forum and to training!

Happy Hump Day!!! Thanks for the Swimming 101 lesson!!

So much to learn and do! But its exciting.

I realize I dont have a favorite workout. I like really mixing it up and I like running with a group now! I used to not want to because I always felt so slow and I didnt want to hold anyone back or be in the back all alone. But With a group I never feel that way and it helps me to keep pushing when alone I just sometimes want to stop.

Favorite workout:  Elaine can attest to these she saw them posted alot last year.   3 or 4 400's with 30 sec. rest.   Brutal but the help a lot.   On the run side Friday intervals are great.    

Hope everyone is having a good week.    

My favorite workout is a Trail Run! Most of the time with friends.

I don't know if I have a favorite workout.

I do enjoy swim sets that have 100 IM's mixed in.

Another one I like is a 50-60 mile bike with with no wind and a few climbs to keep me honest.

Thanks for the drills, I tried them today! I can do them I just can't seem to do any of them for long.