Ernesto's group (third season) - CLOSED (Page 9)

Jen/Scott

I am intrigued by the 100 push up challenge, and thinking in following your steps and doing it. Definitely could benefit from some upper body strenght.

How did you go about scheduling the exercises? Morning/night? How sore/fatigued are your shoulders/arms after doing it? Do you recommend I avoid doing the push-ups on the same day I am scheduled to swim?

Thanks and Merry Christmass and happy holidays to all.

For those that are new to the sport and have questions, please ask... Don't think that the question is too dumb for the thread or anything like that, the whole purpose of mixing experienced triathletes with newbies is that of sharing information and getting back some of the enthusiasm that comes with beginning this (lifetime long) sport.

Also, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a lot of challenges for 2012. Don't ever forget that we do this for fun, nobody in this thread is a pro or profits out of this in any way (actually quite the opposite, hehe).

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I've got some swimming questions:

What is the benefit of using paddles during training?  Is it just to increase muscle development?  Also, What percentage of your workout should you use the paddles?  Any advice on buying paddles?

What causes your hips to sink when are taking a breath?  Could I just be going to slow? I know it might be too specific of a question without seeing how I swim but any general thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks-

William

William:

I am a new triathlete and not the best swimmer, but in my case my hips (and legs) normally sink because I am holding my head too high. Even when concentrating on keeping my head low (i.e. "tucked" chin, looking at the floor, not ahead), I sometimes still feel my legs sinking when taking a breath. I know in my case it is because I am not rotating my body enough, so I raise my head to breathe and my hips and legs go down.

Hope that helps, and lets see what the more experience swimmers think.

Ernesto,
I typically use paddles when my workout calls for form drills, which I think it the kind of thing you were referring to.  However, I was told by a former pro triathlete and swim instructor that I should do my long swims with paddles to build strength and endurance.  What do you think about that?

Samy,
We are doing the workout on hundredpushups.com.  We've typically been doing them at night sometime after dinner so it's definitely after all other workouts are finished.  I don't think it would affect your swimming because you do a test at the beginning to see what level you should do.  For example, we are both on the third column and the most pushups we did in a given set the whole first week was 15.  I found when I was weight lifting my swim technique was better but it might have been been all in my mind.  My primary reason for doing pushups right now is I have my annual fitness test coming up next month and I haven't done any pushups in a year.  Time to quit slacking!

Jim,
As far as how to indoor cycle qithout slitting your wrists, there is more than one way to skin a cat.  For the last few years, I've been using Spinervals DVDs, and Jennie now uses them with me in our basement.  I like them because on the bike I think I benefit from a coach yelling at me to speed up and stop slacking.  I've been running long enough to not have that issue with running.  I did most of my training for my last Half IM using the Spinervals DVDs and the bike leg worked out decent for me.  The run wasn't so good because it was so hot and humid that a fellow runner told me he was calling it the Disney Death March (long story).  Ernesto has suggested another DVD set called Sufferfest which uses a lot of real bike race video footage but I've only looked at them online and haven't gotten around to getting any yet.  But the nice thing about indoor cycling is, if you do it right, there is no wasted time and you can focus your workout on what you need to work on.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  I was supposed to run today but bailed on that due to getting up so early.  I decided a nap on the couch was more prudent today. 

I wasn't a super hero the past two days...  There was no way to cook, entertain and spend time with the kids and get a workout in.  I thought I was going to be able to do a Spinerval with Scott but I couldn't clone myself in time.  I did manage to get the 100 Push Up Challenge workout done.  Combined total of 68 push ups in 5 sets (week 1 complete).  

Samy- I know Scott responded about the Challenge.  My primary reason is strength building.  Hoping to improve my pull in the swim.  

Ernesto and Everyone...  I am doing the total immersion lessons right now.  My question is: Should I be doing other drills (paddles/ bull buoy/kickboard/fingertip)... Or only do the lessons from total Immersion.  We have the book Triathalon Swimming Made Easy, which is from the total immersion series.  I think we are going to the book store tomorrow to look at the other and well as the book for getting to "race weight".  

This week we start or hill training and hopefully my toe will not be an issue.  

Hope everyone had a great Christmas..  Scott bought me aero bars!!!!!!  Taking my bike in to have them put on and look intoo a new saddle.  The last 300 miles on that one have not been pretty!

Just as samyg said, you are probably lifting your head when you breathe.  Think about rolling your whole body from head to toe. Relax your neck and let your head drop.

Ernesto,
Agree on the paddles.  Not fun but if it can make me faster then I'll suck it up. 

On the group riding, we'll look into it finding groups to ride with, but we'll mostly be riding on base to start with so finding groups for that will be challenging.  Here's the route we'll be taking:  http://connect.garmin.com/player/105545268.  I noticed the scale on the elevation chart is whacked, so you'll have to go to the player to see the elevation.  The downhills should be exciting!

I think having your head down is extremely important whether in the pool or open water.  Even if you're in a lake, you need to keep your head down until you come up to sight.  For me, swimming is like golf.  I constantly have to remind myself to keep my head down.  If I can get back into swimming shape, I'll probably practice sighting when I do long swims in the pool to get ready for open water racing later.

Mitch,

Are you following Jorge's plan using power or heart rate?  I'm going to use heart rate, but I'm not sure where to start with my "threshold" heart rate... I think at the end of week 2 or 3 there is the 30 min test, and the average HR from that is used as threshold, but what to use until then?

Jen - I did TI for a couple of years and feel that TI is great by itself but doesn't necessarily integrate as well with other training techniques.  Since I started with a coach, I recognize some similarities between TI and what I am hearing from the coach - head down, lean on your lungs, long and efficient body position, etc. TI generally discourages the use of fins, paddles, buoys.  I have found the use of the equipment to be very helpful.  I really struggle with my feet/kick and TI does very little in terms of promoting kicking except for focusing on a two beat kick.  I got the 2BK down, but there are other aspects of the kick that I needed work on and didn't really get the help I needed until I started using fins per my coach.

How far into TI are you?

Joe

Struggling with the rotation part of the swim.  Anyone have specific suggestions or drills to help improve this?

Way to go everyone who got some training in yesterday, just couldn't swing it here.

Hey Guys:

If you go to my log, I gathered everyone's name  and links (except for Lynn - need to open access or friend everyone) to their respective logs and posted them to the top of my page.  You should be able to copy and paste them if you want into your log.  Let me know if I missed anyone.  

Let's get those inspires going.

Joe

Rotation issues usually relate to balance. Check these out drills and see if they help (they may be difficult):

http://www.teamintraining.org/chapter/rm/doc/swimdrills.pdf

What type of trainer do you have?  I would use power if at all possible.  If you have a cycle ops or kurt kinetic you can use the power version.  The reason I shy away from the HR is that HR lags and power is instant.  I think in the 2 week prep phase you can use RPE or approx. what your LT HR would be.  I guessed at my current CP for the first two weeks and was pretty much dead on.

True that there is no lines in the OWS.  However, how you train is how you race.  You should not need to site on every breath.  Do 1 site at the center of your lane.  I bilateral breathe and site on every 4th breath on the right.

Can you fix mine?  It's Cason...not CaRson.