Eriq's Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 9)

only one response to the swim vid? any more? i'm sure some of you can pick out at least one thing. =P

stephanie - looks like you have a busy week planned. keep up the work!

allison - maybe try swimming 50s. if you're working on technique stuff, i find it easier to do short intervals. no sense in doing a long interval when you're trying to work on technique because it usually just ends up breaking down as you go longer. and are you bilateral breathing?

SWIM SUGGESTION: elite swimmers swim every 2 strokes, not every 3. you should too. you will get more oxygen and endurance should improve. to practice bilateral breathing, just breathe on one side for a 25, then the other on the way back.

tony - like some people mentioned, it's tough running outside when it's THAT cold. but sounds like you might have more going on. rest and lots of fluids. if i'm sick and the symptoms are below the neck, i sit out until i'm good to go again.

brian - i might be racing a sprint in feb. southern california weather for ya. it was sunny and in the 80s this past weekend. =P

This is the time of year when I love living in the desert! I am training for my first sprint tri (pool) March 30. We have a series of  4 races, "Splash and Dash", that takes place at Tempe Town Lake, which is the swim portion of several tris and IM. I'll do a few of those in April and May. I have also signed up for sprint (Tempe Town Lake open water) in April and then thinking of signing up for an Olympic (same location again) in May. Keep wondering if I'll be ready to try to tackle a 70.3 in October (same location again!). Guess it's good to get used to the swim part, but the bad part is, it's Tempe Town Lake. Very gross. There's also an Olympic Mountain Man tri in Flagstaff over the summer, but otherwise there's not any racing opportunities close by in the summer months. 

What other races is everyone signed up/thinking of signing up for? Any good ones you've done that you'd recommend?

I cannot critique anyone on swimming.

I have nearly given up on the fact that I will ever swim faster than a 2:00 100 m or a 1:48 100 yard. I might try to bring my camera to the pool tomorrow but I swim alone so we will see how it goes. results to follow..............

Been slacking on updating my TP because of traveling/work. It is hard to get in a routine with no consistent circadian rhythm. Just hitting hotel treadmills and stretching.

If I am set on my swim pace, and do not see myself running that much faster, how can I gain speed on the bike?

For me, knowledge is power. It’s easy to just go out and train and do something just because someone said so. However, I find value in understanding why something should be done. I am more willing to do the hard work because I know how it’s supposed to help with my improvement.

Critiquing a swim is more about understanding the components of good swim form. If you are able to identify areas of improvements in someone else’s swim, you should be able to recognize them in your own to determine what you need to work on. That was really my goal in this exercise.

So even though you aren’t a super star swimmer, please feel free to contribute.

There’s a couple ways to gain speed on the bike. With it being early in the season and focus should be on base building, I’ll share two types of bike workouts that my coaches have given me that can help you out.

TEMPO WORKOUT
Strategically placing tempo workouts into your training program has many advantages: 

• Greater comfort while cruising on rolling terrain. 
• Better fuel utilization during long races or rides. 
• Increased capacity for more intense workouts. 
• Better power at moderate intensities. 
• Increased muscle glycogen storage capacity. 
• Improved free fatty acid oxidation, which spares muscle glycogen. 
• Increased mitochondrial development, structures within the muscle cells that produce energy. 
• Improved aerobic efficiency. 

Pretty much you will get stronger and faster.

How to Do It:
Pedal speed should be low. Try a 70-75 RPM range while staying at the prescribed heart rate intensity. This helps increase pedal resistance and strengthens leg muscles. Also try to stay in the saddle when you hit hills during your tempo workouts. This adds more pedal resistance and readies the connective tissues and supporting muscle groups before training heads into more explosive workouts. It is important that you try to ride the entire length of the tempo workout with as few interruptions as possible - tempo workouts should consist of consecutive riding at the prescribed intensity to achieve maximum benefit.

So for a 60-75 minute ride might look something like this.

Warmup 15-20 mins
3x10 min tempo intervals, 5 min RBI (rest between intervals)
                Tempo - 10min, Heart Rate Zone:4, Cadence:70-75/-, RPE:7
                Recovery – 5 mins, RPE:5
Cool down 5-10mins

MUSCLE TENSION WORKOUT
This workout should be performed on a long, moderate (5-8%) climb or on a trainer with your front wheel set on a slight incline, 4-6 inches above the normal horizontal plane to simulate your climbing position. Pedal cadence must be low, about 50-55 RPMs and the heart rate intensity is not important (because your legs are moving slow your heart rate will be low). Large gears (such as 53x12-15 uphill) are required to produce the low cadence and high muscle tension. Correct form must be strictly maintained during these intervals. Strong concentration is needed to keep your upper body absolutely smooth yet relaxed while concentrating on correct pedaling form (over the top and through the bottom of the pedal stroke).

So for a 75-90 minute ride might look something like this.

Warmup 15-20 mins
3x10 min MT intervals,
                MT - 10min, Cadence:50-55/-, RPE:7
                Recovery - 10min, RPE:5
Cool down 5-10mins

My critique on the swim.

She is lifting her head instead of rolling it

She seems to kick far from he center axis with her left leg.

swim critique (though I'm not much of a swim perfectionist) it didn't look as if she was shifting her weight between strokes/swinging her hips/rotating all that much and not really reaching all that far.  Her pull was seemed a bit half-hearted.  

As for my standard weekly workout...don't have one, but I did a new one for me today.  The "double" brick.  15min bike, 15min run, 15min bike, 15min run.  It was a reasonable slow pace (I was reading the newspaper while on the bike), but it was a good workout.  It was my first workout in a week due to work commitments, so it felt good to get back to training again.

As for my races...my first right now is either Syracuse 70.3 or the Musselman (a HIM in upstate NY).  Syracuse is in late June and the Musselman is in mid/late July.  I might do both, but am not sure yet.

BTW, if you're in Arizona or some other warm place right now and was wondering if the weather is all that bad here in the Northeast...well, I can say without reservation, YES!!  It was 14 degrees (-10 Celcius) here this morning.  Yikes!  

Hi all,

It is freezing in New England.  I was in Miami for 4 days and got some great outside runs in and swims.

Landed back in Boston yesterday and Allie and I have a 7 or 8 miler on the docket today......will be inside....yuck.  Treadmill and 19 lap track mix.........joy.

Swim vid...

• Casual stroke
• Ams tend to cross over and not reach straight foward - losing efficience
• She seems to pull down under her body but due to the starting position there may be lost effort as her arm goes sidewways
• head rotation is too high - full mouth is out of water to breath (I've seen this before.....A)  
• She is exhaling and inhaling all at once verses exhaling under water - you can see some spray as she first brings her head out of water

I'm not a swim coach but would say

• exhale under water
• work on elbow at high pause when at high spot to help work on straight reach
• practice a deliberite pull and glide, get max effort from pull

Love to hear the other thoughts

Great lunch time run inside.....

1:25:40 - 8 miles and 152 laps......not sure I can do that on a regular basis.  10:40 average mile - we increased our run segments and did 9, 14, 14, 10, 8 & 4 with 3 or 4 min walk inbetween so 59 minutes running. 

Base building ......

A guy kept watching us, a big guy 5 8 280lbs or probably 300 and he was walking in jeans and work boots a few laps at a time and then sitting.  We started talking and he saw we were having fun and he kept going and started resting for shorter time and we encouraged him and at the end of his session he said thanks!  Felt good - he helped us keep going and seems like we helped him get going.  We all need a little encouragement.

Sappy - but it felt good over all those laps.

152 laps...how did you keep count?  I probably would have lost count in the first 10ish laps.  But good job on the run.  That's great dedication!

I got in the pool today for the first time in a few months, and wow, I'm going to hurt in the morning.  Wait, I'm already hurting.  Swam 1000 yards, and yikes, that was really hard.  I have just about no swim endurance right now, so it was rough.  Technique was probably awful too.  But I got back in the water, so that by itself was a plus.  

I knew today was going to be bad, but as my swim fitness increases over the next few weeks, I'm sure it'll get better fairly quickly.

But yikes, that was tough.

man, i get cold just reading some of these posts...

looks like lots of you are still finding ways to get your workouts in despite the weather. that's awesome! don't know if i could do the same. 1 hr plus on a treadmill or track just sound terrible to me. haha.

oh! i wanted to pass along some swim info...

when i first started triathlon, one of the first resources i found was kevin koskella of triswimcoach.com and triswimpro.com. i've followed him on twitter for a long time (@triswimcoach) and find a lot of his info very helpful. i also got a chance to work with him this past summer as he needed swimmers to put together some videos.

anyways, he's posted a free audio download about open water swimming. you can get it here. openwaterswimsuccess.com

i also have some info that's from the endurance nation people. PM me if you are interested and we can try and find a way to get it to you.

although i don't agree 100% with either, there is still a lot of good info to be had. and just like everything else in life, swimming is very individual. different strokes for different folks, right?! i want to get you whatever info possible and hope you find out what works for you.

12 mile ride and a 1200 yard swim.

Time for dinner with a refreshing beverage.

The 150+ laps is math as it is 19 time around the track for a mile....I got bored counting so did other mental exercises.

Enjoy the weekend!

Friday night movie night again for me.  More specifically, 90 mins on indoor bike while watching the Peacemaker starring that Clooney guy and Nicole Kidman.  It was a good ride and a decent film.

Still very cold here in NY, but hopefully some indoor running tomorrow.

2800yds in the pool for me today.

main set was... 2x800 @ IM pace w 1min rest, 2x300 @ HIM pace w 45sec rest. Good endurance set for me.

it's raining here in so cal so tomorrows brick and sundays run will be enjoyable! have a great weekend everyone.

By midweek the frigid cold weather is supposed to break - Wednesday's forecast calls for the mid-50s here in the NY metro area, so perhaps I'll have a chance to get outside for a change.  But in the meantime, it's still indoor running and biking.

Ran a 10k on my treadmill last night (8:30ish avg mile) and did a biking interval workout tonight that kicked my butt.  Tonight's bike interval workout consisted of 5 min warm-up, 5x2.5 min sprint (at a wee bit less than max speed) with 2.5 mins easy between intervals, 5x1 min sprint (at *maximun* speed) with 1 min rest between intervals.  As I got to the tail end of the 1 min intervals, my legs were just about dead.  I pushed myself pretty hard, and I'm feeling it...but overall a good 45 min bike workout.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  How's your training progressing?

@Sandtiger - glad to hear that your training is going well.  As your training and fitness improves, you'll start to see some measurable improvements...and it sounds as if you're already seeing some results. congrats.

As for me, I went to the pool again tonight.  It went better than last time, form was better and speed improved.  Swim fitness is still behind my bike and run fitness, but I'm trying to catch-up.  Even at my peak last summer, I wasn't a fast swimmer, but I had endurance to go HIM/IM distance.  Right now, my speed is perhaps not all that different, but the endurance is lacking.  Oh well, that's what training is all about, right?

Happy Monday evening to everyone.  

Jana - Congrats on your progress!!! Keep up the good work. =)

Brian - I'm with you on working on the swim.

Been busy with family stuff this past week. Was down in SD this weekend but was still able to squeeze in a run around Lake Miramar down there, it's a 5 mile loop around the lake. Got in a bit more than 2 loops in some light rain, 11 miles in 90 mins.

About my wife's swim, I'll post my comments on it later today! Happy Monday.

Okay so I'm no swim coach but there are definitely a couple things that stand out and many of you hit on them. What's great but also not so great about swimming is that many of the wasteful things we do to expend energy in the water are often related. When one thing gets out of whack, so does a bunch of other things. But on the other hand, if we can fix one or two of those things, it can lead to fixing a whole lot of other stuff as well.

Many of you mentioned that Joce's head is coming too high out of the water. This should be pretty obvious as you can see both sides of her goggles come out of the water as she turns to breathe. Jana noted that this might be throwing off her rotation. But is that head coming out too high causing the bad rotation or the other way around?

Thomas and Brian hit it on the head that this is a result of her lack of rotation. Because of the lack of body roll/rotation, she has to lift her head in order to get her mouth out of the water. Another cause of this is her head position. Although head position is a very individualized thing, Jocelyn could benefit a bit from keeping her eyes more towards the bottom of the pool, instead of towards the front. She would have to turn less to breathe if she were to do this.

Jana also pointed out that too much of her arm is entering the water at the front of the stroke, something about the angle. This is difficult to see in the video but she's on the money here. Jocelyn's elbows skim across the surface of the water and away from her body instead of keeping her hand close to her side with a high elbow recovery. This is also from a lack of rotation.

Try this! Lie on the floor on your stomach. Now staying flat, try to put your arm in a high elbow recovery position. Kinda hurts, right?! So when you swim flat, you will most likely not have a high elbow because it is just plain uncomfortable. Now instead of lying flat, rotate a bit and get one side of the ground. Now try the high elbow recovery. Much easier now, yeah?

Good rotation will lead to a lot of good things. I should mention here that the rotation required is very little, about 30-45 degrees. There is no need to rotate 90 degrees all the way onto your side as if you were doing a side kick drill.

Let's see what else. Ah let's talk about the front of her stroke. She's definitely not pulling hard enough. I give her a hard time about that. I had her swim 25 max effort sprints and I was like "it doesn't even look like you're trying!!!!" HAHA!

Also, Jeff mentioned her arm crossing over. This is much more obvious when her right hand enters the water. By fixing this crossover, it would help with her reach that Brian mentioned. This crossover stroke is also the cause of what Thomas mentioned about her kick being far off her center axis, aka scissor kick. With the arm crossing over, your legs have to scissor out to maintain balance. Fix the crossover, fix the scissor kick.

See how one thing leads to a whole bunch of other stuff?! And yes, she also has a bit of runners' kick, kicking from the knees, as Danelle mentioned. I thought it was funny that Danelle, the runner, mentioned this. Does this come from experience? I came from a running background and I used to kick from the knees and my toes would point straight down.

Well there you have it! You guys are pretty good and collectively covered everything that I saw. Now anyone want to post a video for some group analysis? Feel free to post bike and run as well!

I escaped the snow and cold of MN and found myself in FL for a day. I forgot my forerunner at home but I think that was a good thing, I managed to go out and run in the 70 degree weather for about 50 mins. I have no idea how far I went or my pace but it felt good to get outside in warm temps and run. I even enjoyed not having technology and just running.

back to the cold tonight and planning swim/bike tomorrow (trainer ride)