GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 79)

FoxfireTX - 2010-03-03 9:42 PM

Steve, I am so sorry about your mother in law.  My condolences to you and your family.  Even when it's expected, it is not easy saying goodbye.

Anne, thanks for the info on the Phonix product.  I started taking a homeopathic supplement about a month ago and it seems to be positively impacting my sciatica as well.  Between the stretches and the supplement, I am healing much more quickly than usual.  But I will keep the info for future reference.  And I love your comment about the wind.  I will try to view it as a postive training tool.

Lisa, the heat simply does not help me at all with this problem.  Not sure why, but if anything it seems to exacerbate the pain.  The only thing that works for me is the ice.

The ride yesterday went fine despite my back.  I did use a support belt just to make sure I didn't do any further damage but no problems.  Got in 8.6 miles. 

AND I felt like I had a major breakthrough on my swimming today!  I had stopped using the pull buoy for part of my lap swims last week and as usual my legs sunk like a stone.  My trainer suggested another drill on Monday and that didn't help much either.  But through lots of experimentation today, I finally found something that seems to be working.  With each recovery, I am taking a loooong time on each side before starting the next stroke, like 3-4 kicks, and making sure my hips are completely up at the surface before beginning the next stroke.  It took awhile to get it down, but once I got it, it seems to be working.  I figure if I can get my body trained to keep my hips up on each side for awhile, then I can simply begin shortening the time in between each stroke.  It worked and I drilled for 30 minutes just trying to relax and stay buoyant.  For whatever reason, it truly felt like some kind of a new revelation, primarily because I actually kept them up, did freestyle the whole time, was breathing on both sides, had no problems with my shoulders (far fewer strokes there) and was not using a pull buoy to keep me up!  I am so excited to find a drill that really seems to work for me.  Given that I am not running this week, I am going to swim every day and try to get this drilled into my muscle memory.  This obviously is not doing anything for my speed, but if this can become my "sweet spot" even if I need a break while swimming I can return to this and not stop swimming.  WooHoo!

As noted above, my sciatica is improving far more quickly than usual.  So I am not running this week but hopefully still can pull off the 5K, even if I need to walk part of it.  All of this is so new to me that I really feel like I need to get through a race to get beyond that.  This probably seems crazy to the veterans in the group, but just doing the race is huge for me. 

Our weather here finally seems to be reverting to normal rather than cold so it will be a great time to focus on getting comfortable on my bike and swimming while I am not running.  And I am really looking forward to the volunteer time for the sprint tri on the 14th. 

stevebradley - 2010-03-04 9:21 AM GANG! Thanks, all, for the well wishes; they are greatly appreciated. We are still in flux here, but it looks like I will drive down tomorrow morning, returning Sunday afternoon/evening. I would like to think I can check in here somehow, someway, but not sure what machines will be available to me. So, if I'm not around much........don't think it's because I don't love ya! And my responses may be pretty brief for a while, just because there's lots of running around still to do. (I guess that's one way to keep me from writing reams of nonsense -- create a good old family crisis!) Onward!

latestarter - 2010-03-04 12:55 PM



Really going to miss you.   I am excited about starting the Fitz HIM plan next week and have been saving up some questions for you.   My test run of the schedule this week is really working out nicely.   Funny how you can resist change and then it actually turns out better.  

I didn't end up running last Sunday after my 'valiant' attempt at the swim.   My mind wanted to, but I couldn't lift my legs.   I did have a commitment that day that prevented me from resting and trying the run later.   

Yesterday I ran 5km - not the way I wanted but it did turn into somewhat of a success.   Ran for 12-13 minutes until the left shin was so tight it hurt and the left foot neuroma issue was making itself known.   Knew I couldn't carry on like that so decided to run 2', walk 30", and by 21 minutes the tightness in the shin had totally disappeared and so had the neuroma.   I think they must be connected.     The weirdest thing was that my pace wasn't as slow as I thought it would be with all that walking.  

Also thought back to last year and what I did differently that made my running successful.    Before every run I would do a 1.5km walk/run w/u with running drills - high knees/kick butts/side stepping/skipping, etc.  Guess I am just going to have to accept the fact that I need a good w/u before running.    I am going to try that tomorrow and see what happens.

Hope everything goes as well as it can while you are away.   

thall0672 - 2010-03-04 1:01 PM Woo Hoo!!! MAJOR swimming accomplishment for me this morning. I've been practicing doing 50 meter sets with rests in between, and gradually decreasing my rest times to build up my endurance to eventually get to 500 meters. I've been feeling really good with the swims the last few weeks, so today I decided what the heck, I'll go for 250 meters without stopping and see what happens. To my delight and surprise, I was able to complete the full 500 meters! At around 300 meters, my arms started to get tired and I was getting a little winded, but I think it was because I was pulling too hard. So I re-focused on keeping my arms relaxed and rotating my core, and that helped a bunch. It was quite a relaxing swim! It took me about 16:30, so I won't be winning any awards for speed, but I don't care! I finished it!! I'm psyched because back in December, I was turning purple and ready to keel over after doing 75 meters. I remember thinking, how in the world am I going to ever do 500?? So now I can use the time until the tri (August) to work on my technique and therefore (hopefully) improve my speed. Yay! Tracey

thall0672 - 2010-03-04 12:40 PM I am not a seasoned swimmer, but I don't think I have any glide. In other words, there is always some part of my upper body that seems to be moving at any given time during my stroke. Maybe I SHOULD have more glide to be more efficient....? Tracey

thall0672 - 2010-03-04 1:01 PM Woo Hoo!!! MAJOR swimming accomplishment for me this morning. I've been practicing doing 50 meter sets with rests in between, and gradually decreasing my rest times to build up my endurance to eventually get to 500 meters. I've been feeling really good with the swims the last few weeks, so today I decided what the heck, I'll go for 250 meters without stopping and see what happens. To my delight and surprise, I was able to complete the full 500 meters! At around 300 meters, my arms started to get tired and I was getting a little winded, but I think it was because I was pulling too hard. So I re-focused on keeping my arms relaxed and rotating my core, and that helped a bunch. It was quite a relaxing swim! It took me about 16:30, so I won't be winning any awards for speed, but I don't care! I finished it!! I'm psyched because back in December, I was turning purple and ready to keel over after doing 75 meters. I remember thinking, how in the world am I going to ever do 500?? So now I can use the time until the tri (August) to work on my technique and therefore (hopefully) improve my speed. Yay! Tracey

manfarr1974 - 2010-03-04 1:47 PM



I am a TI girl, well, I read the book "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy" and try to emulate it.  I find I keep going back to it to remind myself about certain things when I feel I am struggling (most of the time).  I am sure my stroke has VERY much to be desired as far as technique goes, I am pretty slow, but I have never had anyone look at it.  The catch up drill is a really good one to help slow down your stroke a little and think about gliding more.   Another thing I have found that helps me elongate and be more like a fish (ha) is that I sometimes say to myself "reach, pull, reach, pull" When you are reaching, you really are gliding too.  It slows down your stroke some, but you get less tired.  I don't know if I explained that right nor not?  I just read it and confused myself.

FoxfireTX - 2010-03-04 2:05 PM

Tracey, huge congrats on your swim distance and time!  Hey, you seem FAST to me.  Way to go!  But it gives me hope that I can make some progress on timing before the May tri.

SteveB, the drill my trainer suggested to get my legs up was to swim facedown with my arms at my sides, just kicking and breathing from one side to the other.  That didn't do much because I could do the TI side drills (sweet spot) with no problems.  But as soon as I added the strokes, my hips would sink.  But now I am stroking, and still staying buoyant, but just doing the strokes very slowly with a very long glide while still kicking.  I swam again for 30 minutes this morning just doing this same drill.  There are a number of things I can work on with this, including the place my hand goes into the water to begin the stroke and the switch timing on the stroke which I had all wrong before studying the TI drills. For part of the time this morning, I tried to go faster with the strokes and that worked as long as I didn't go too fast, i.e., continuous strokes.  When I did that, my hips would sink again.  The only thing I can figure out is that I must tense up or something.  So I'm just going to work on staying on each side, relaxed, and not begin the next stroke until my hips are all the way up.  The other good news is that it is really helping with my less balanced side as well as breathing on both sides.  I actually forgot this morning which side was the better balanced and had to stop and think about it.  I remember the TI stuff saying that the more you could improve your less balanced side the more progress you'd  make so that was good.  I was feeling my sciatica by the end of the swim so if I ride at all today it will just be few miles around the neighborhood.  I ended my swim, however, feeling pretty confident that if I keep doing this drill for a few more days I will have the buoyancy imprinted in my muscle memory as well as the other things I'm working on at the same time. 

It feels like this is coming very slowly until I think about the fact that I wasn't in the pool for most of January and in early February couldn't even swim six laps without major shoulder pain.  When I remember those things, it really feels like I'm making major progress.  I suspect, however, that I may still be the last one out of the water for the May tri.  Sigh. 

latestarter - 2010-03-04 3:54 PM

TRACEY/DIANE,

That's one thing I have no problem with - doing a run/walk in a race.  Alot of people think it is some sort of failure if you can't run the whole race, and that is just not true.  I remember one of the BT coaches said - 'what's your goal? a fast race or saying you ran the 10km w/o walking?   If you want a fast race, do a walk/run combo."   It's hard to believe that you   can actually end up with a faster pace when you have short walk intervals.    In fact, when I took a learn to run clinic a few years ago it included registration to a local Father's Day 5km and they suggested that we do a 5' run, 1' walk combo and even though I felt like I could continue running, I followed their advice and did it in just over 31' which I was very happy with.    

Last year I did the same race and ran the whole distance and it was only a couple minutes faster, but a whole lot more effort.    I also remember the coaches saying that it takes a new runner's body one full year to build up the tendons, ligaments to support running at a faster pace without injury.   I never believed them, but now I now they were right.  

I think as the three of us continue to work through issues we have running, and get stronger, we will achieve our running goals.   

thall0672 - 2010-03-04 6:46 PM  I'm doing a TI clinic at the Tri Expo in Boston on the 20th. Looking forward to that! Tracey

latestarter - 2010-03-04 4:05 PM



WELL DONE TRACEY!  

Your attitude is SO right.   You finished it.    That is the turning point.   Once you have done that, everything else will be so easy.  

I was paranoid about going from the try-a-tri distance (375 meter swim) up to the sprint (750 meters).  NO way was that going to happen.   Well, a couple of years ago at one of the races they measured the course incorrectly and we all swam 750 meters.   It was kind of funny at the time, because the course looked wrong, but the officials said 'oh, it's deceiving when you look out over the water'.   HA!    But the thing is, once I had done that, VERY slowly, the fear was gone and I was ready to tackle any distance.  

So happy for you.  

latestarter - 2010-03-02 4:06 PM

MANDY,

I checked out the link you provided to Baxter Park.   OMG, it looks like heaven.   I checked out all the pictures on their site as well as your last trip.   We have added it to our MUST DO list!   We love to hike and canoe and x-country ski too.   We have something else in common.   I love to eat and try out new recipes and printed all of yours.   Can't wait to try them.   I have some really good quinoa recipes.    I have really gotten interested in sports nutrition over the last few years and am always thinking about how the food I am eating is going to fuel the body.   That being said, I won't eat ANYTHING unless I absolutely love it.        Glad that everything worked out for your friends in Chile (for the most part).  

thall0672 - 2010-03-04 12:01 PM

Woo Hoo!!! MAJOR swimming accomplishment for me this morning. I've been practicing doing 50 meter sets with rests in between, and gradually decreasing my rest times to build up my endurance to eventually get to 500 meters. I've been feeling really good with the swims the last few weeks, so today I decided what the heck, I'll go for 250 meters without stopping and see what happens. To my delight and surprise, I was able to complete the full 500 meters! At around 300 meters, my arms started to get tired and I was getting a little winded, but I think it was because I was pulling too hard. So I re-focused on keeping my arms relaxed and rotating my core, and that helped a bunch. It was quite a relaxing swim!

It took me about 16:30, so I won't be winning any awards for speed, but I don't care! I finished it!!

I'm psyched because back in December, I was turning purple and ready to keel over after doing 75 meters. I remember thinking, how in the world am I going to ever do 500??

So now I can use the time until the tri (August) to work on my technique and therefore (hopefully) improve my speed.

Yay!

Tracey