Tri with Seren - CLOSED! (Page 8)

My mind trick is to tell myself, "I'll just......."

For example, if I don't feel like running, I say to myself, "I'll just get my running clothes on and that's all." Once I have my running clothes on, I'll say to myself, "I'll just go out and walk a bit and that's all."  Once I'm out walking, I'll say to myself, "I'll just jog a bit and that's all."  Then I'm off and running.  For me, it's a lot easier that way.

I'll try that! The cold and the darkness of winter make it harder so I tend to stick to the gym which I find incredibly boring.

I thought this was an interesting article

7 Costly Mistakes To Avoid When Swimming

Mistake 1 - Forgetting the basics

Like any other sport, swimming has its fundamentals. The faster you move your arms and legs the

faster you'll move up and down the pool, right? Like 95% of people this is what you were probably

taught at an early age without any true understanding of how humans move through the water.

Have you noticed how the fastest swimmers look like their working the least?

Watch any Olympic Games and you'll see the best swimmers like Michael Phelps break world records but appear to be swimming effortlessly. It's not genetics. Its' simply a matter of practicing the basics in the pool and understanding where our speed comes from.

Mistake 2 - Thinking speed only comes from kick and pull Have you ever swum a 50m lap fast only to find your arms and legs exhausted at the end of it?This happens when we use only our kick and pull to generate our speed. You will see amateur swimmers kicking and pulling harder in an attempt to go faster. This is the hard way.  It 's just like trying to jump as high as you can without moving your arms or upper body. You can get  more power by using your whole body to generate speed. Speed comes from your hip and shoulder rotation.  You can also increase speed by reducing your body 's resistance in the water.

Mistake 3 - Shortening your strokes

Speed in swimming is a combination to stroke length (SL) and stroke rate (SR). Our speed in the ater is therefore our SL x SR. Have you ever noticed how some people have a high stroke rate but seem to be going almost backwards? This means they have a high SR but a short SL. More than 95% of people have this common problem. They 've been taught to move their arms faster to go faster. While this is not totally untrue, the biggest improvement in your swimming will come from increasing your SL. 

Mistake 4 - Swimming on your front

Swimming on your side allows the body to travel further for each stroke. Not only is your bodymore streamlined which reduces your drag in the water, but being on your side gives you an extra Are you having trouble with your kick, breathing or pull in freestyle?

Mistake 6 - Tensing your muscles in the water so you sink beneath the surface

As we mentioned earlier, we are naturally buoyant. We don't need to thrash about our arms and legs to keep us afloat. Our body will do that automatically for us. The trickiest part for a beginner is to relax and work  ?with' the water and not against it. As  swimmers, we simply move through the water with as little resistance as possible and allow the natural buoyancy of the water to keep us at the surface.

Now get out there and swim, people! 

With mine I find if I keep my head from moving I don't get water up my nose.  The second I start to rotate my head with my body I get some up my nose. 

Ha! That took me a moment.

Yes, 100 posts.

I always try to run the last quarter of my practice a little faster.  It gets my body used to knowing that I'm going to be asking something more of it at the end.

Good luck.

The company I work for has backed out of sponsoring a bike racing team this year.  Although I feel bad for the guys, I am a bit relieved.  I got a lot of pressure to race including the idea that the company wouldn't sponsor a team that wasn't coed and I was the only woman.  Bike racing was something I signed up for to make other people happy, but what I really want to do are triathlons and bike touring, maybe get into randoneering.

This will definitely free up more time for me to swim and run.

Way to go!!! 

I use a cap when I swim in a lake but I find it really hot when I swim in a pool.  The lakes here still have two feet of ice on them so I'm stuck with a pool.  Maybe I'm just a hothead. 

Happy 100th.