$1.79's Mentor Group FULL of fast people (Page 15)

Thanks for the complement!  I actually have a philosophy that looking fast and looking good is 50% of the race, lol.  For a male, I certainly color coordinate and stress over race attire more than I should EVER admit. 

First things first....put the bad swim experience behind you.  What you can't afford to do is get into the water and freak out.  Relax.  If you can get to open water in the next three weeks before the race...do it.  It will help.  No wetsuit can be intimidating if you have been using one as a crutch.  Now it is time to put on your big girl panties and hit the water.     You will be fine.  You ARE a much BETTER swimmer than you give yourself credit for.  You just have to keep it together between your ears.   Lisa B...chime in here and show some love!

Congrats on the weight loss.  It is a good feeling to know that your lycra/spandex outfits are too baggy.  Ahhh....enjoy that moment.   If you feel like the clothes are TOO baggy then replace them.  I have a pair of shorts that are a bit baggy, but I never really concern myself with the amount of drag they create.  Mainly, because my inefficient form probably creates more drag. 

Personally, I would stick with 2 pieces since that is what you are accustom to.  I am a big fan of a one piece but they are a little different animal.   Some like the snugness they provide but there is a small adjustment period.   And if you have to go to the bathroom, they are a real pain.     2 pieces, IMO, give you more versatility because you will use it in training too.  Not so much for the one piece. 

Now get something cute, sexy or fast looking.  At least look good in your pictures  :D

Ok - chiming in. 

First the swim panic thing.  It took me a year to pretty much get over panicing in OW due to a bad experience myself (mine though with a wetsuit).  What has finally made me comfortable was OWS.  This season I have gone every weekend if possible.  The more you do it, the less fear you will have.  The other thing that has helped me to get over the fear is more swimming which = more endurance which = more confidence.  My coach added a third day a week of swimming for me and as much as I cussed him this has been a huge help.  As the saying goes with two days a week you maintain and with three you improve.  If you throw in my OWS I have had quite a few weeks with 4 days of swimming.  A very good workout for you to do to gain confidence (which is usually my third day of swimming since I do plenty of pulling, kicking and speed work at Masters) is doing a straight swim.  My race this weekend is also an Olympic.  So this Monday I had to warm up with 15 mins of whatever stroke I wanted mixing in fast and slow (I only do free style - not into all the others as I'm not gonna do them in a race).  Then my main set was 35 minutes of straight swimming  with no touching bottom, not stopping, no resting.  This is around the amount of time it will take me to do an Olympic swim in a lake w/ no wetsuit (lucky me I get to swim in a river this weekend with the current).  One more thing I do to keep the panic away - I just go out and swim steady - not fast - comfortable so I never get out of breath.  I may not win the race on my swim but I'm good to go when I get out of the water and can kick it on the bike.

As for what to wear - I would never consider a 1 piece for two reasons.  The first is that I go to the bathroom a million times before the race starts and don't want to deal with a one piece.  The second is that I won't wear a one piece cause I just don't think they are flattering to anyone but the twigs.  And as Andrew said - you gotta look good to feel good to race good!  On the baggy thing - I would be more worried about what it would do to your female parts on the bike than it dragging in the water.

Hope this helps!

Awesome!  You're probably feeling better mentally just from adding back a little of what you love.  Did you get a waterproof cast so you can swim?

Actually, the injury hasn't messed with me mentally as much as some other stuff going on in my life right now.  And unfortunately the cast isn't waterproof so no swimming.  They still aren't sure if they going to have to do more surgery to reconnect some of the bone fragments.

The newbie checking in...

OMG, after only 1 session with a TI swim coach and a couple of practice sessions, I had a breakthrough in the water today! I can swim, LOL! I have been patiently doing the drills, and today spent the first half hour doing drills, then decided to try and bring it all together in the second half hour. The last 15 minutes were beautiful. I did at least 4 x 25 with only a couple of breaths in between. And I wasn't tired. I was swimming, working on timing, stroke, recovery, breathing. It is still early days, and the stroke is raw and will need lots of refinement but did it ever feel good! Afterwards, I felt it in my CORE more than my arms or shoulders - awesome. 

I'm still not sure if I'll be race-ready by September 7, though. Especially since some family circumstances are forcing me to take an unexpected trip. But I'm ok with that. I will keep working on the plan and see where I'm at closer to the race. If not, I'll work through the winter and do a race next Spring. At the very least, I will have built a pretty good base for next season. Coming from nothing this year, I'm feel pretty good about that.  

Congrats on the swim breakthrough!!!!  I am a huge fan of TI.  Glad to hear that you found it to be helpful as well.  Keep at it.  Drills are boring, but make a huge difference.  You'll be fine for your race in September. 

Andrew, do you wear your Garmin in races?  I can't come up with any real value, but may be missing something important.  I'm not going to change the setting from bike to run in T2 and figure I'll forget to put it on in T1 anyway.  I've used my waterproof Polar up to this point just to keep track of HR.  What do you do in races?

Yes and no. 

Last year, I purchased the garmin quick release that I mounted on my bike.  So there was no putting it on it t1.  In t2 you just snap it off and grab the wrist strap on the fly.   I use a powermeter now so there is no need for it on the bike. 

I do use it on 100% of my racing runs.  I like having the pace, laps , hr and clock.  This helps me strategize more effectively. 

The Garmin has a multisport function that you can use.  Or you can just treat T2 as a lap and hit the button. 

The key is learning how to do all of this on the fly.  I don't stop in transition at ALL.  I am always moving.  Putting on shoes is the only thing that slows me down.  I put on the garmin, race belt, visor, etc while I am running.  It cuts down time significantly. 

FYI....I am still lurking around if you have questions

I'm still around but my 'tri training' is not going well.  I officially withdrew from my Sept 70.3 race so the only thing I have planned is a half marathon in Oct.  Haven't swam in weeks.  Didn't bike for weeks.  Have been running some, just getting back some consistency and will start building up the long run distance again. 
I feel really bad because I did so well in May following the HIM plan then just fell apart in June and I'm not sure why.  I think the 40 hours of training in May was just a bit too much for me, not physically ( I felt great) but because it was just too much time focused on  training (and planning and thinking about it) so that I really did nothing else in that time.  I need to find a way to get in the training hours without having it be the only thing I do on my days off work.  Part of that will be not trying to cram 9 days worth of training into my 5 days off. I know I would really benefit from a coach but that is not in the budget. 
Not sure if triathlon racing is something I will do again, although I do plan to continue running and get back to the pool in the fall. 
Glad you are all enjoying your tri season.

What's up everyone?  7 weeks out from my crash now, and I'm in cast #5 (which is meant to be the last), using a bone growth stimulator for 3-6 hours a day every day, and have ventured outside to bike twice.  2 of the three big breaks in my arm have started to heal, and we're hoping  to see progress in the last break next Monday when I have this cast cut off.  Hope your seasons are going well.

Hey everybody.  I have actually been doing really well.  I have been consistently riding every Tue. and Thur. nights.  We ride between 20-25 miles and man, they are really intense rides.  My heart rate is insanely high (atleast compared to others in the group).  I can't believe how much fun I have been having.  There are a couple of other triathletes that ride with us and we have been running after the ride now for about a month.  It was a short 1.8 mile run, but we decided that it is time to start making it atleast a 3 miler, so we started to do 2 laps.  I haven't been feeling like I have been improving, but when I look back I think about how a 17 mph pace was way too fast for any distance longer than 50 yards.  Now I feel very comfortable riding that pace, and recently, I rode 28 mph for a little (while drafting, but I still had to work for it).

I am finally signing up for my 2nd and 3rd tri's.  One is in October and one in December.  I can't wait.  They are both sprints, and I know that I am going to do so much better than my first one.  I am hoping to do atleast an Olympic one next year.  Finding people to train with has done wonders for me.  They are a great group of people.  One has completed an IM and a few others just did their first sprints not too long ago.

I am hoping that I keep up this momentum.  I officially go back to work tomorrow after having 2 months off.  I think the good thing is that there are others there and we all rely on each other to show up.

Edited by JessRod 2009-08-09 11:24 PM

Andrew - can you talk about breathing while swimming?  I found out with our new Master's Swim Coach on Tuesday that I have NOT been blowing out at all while my head is in the water and waiting till I'm ready to breath and then have one explosive breath.  Coach said I am swimming anerobically the whole time and no wonder I fall apart by the end of my swims (nice thing he said was that I have good form, power and body position).  I worked on my breathing today but the faster I go the harder it is.  I find that now I am blowing out slowly underwater but still expelling the rest of my air hard before my breath. 

Thx

Breathing is good while you swim.  It is also beneficial when you are cycling and running. 

Do you want more than that?  :P    Let me see if I can find some good resources. 

You do want your breathing to be one continuous pattern.  The minute you finish inhaling you begin exhaling.  I imagine that it has something to do with better oxygen flow to the muscles when you empty the reserve and add new air.  And yes, it is harder to do when you swim faster.  I was struggling with going anaerobic today on my swim. 

I am super excited.  I did a 5K Muddy Buddy Run this morning and had a blast.  Tomorrow I am going to do my first actual open water swim.  I got my wetsuit a couple of weeks ago and I am finally heading out with a group of triathletes in the morning.  Because I have never swam with this group (I only know one of the members), I am a little nervous about holding them back, but on the other hand, I have always felt comfortable in the water, so we will see!  Hope everyone is doing well!

Well, I survived even though I didn't think that I was going to initially.  When we pulled up to the ocean and I saw a few sets of really HUGE waves, I decided I was going to be a photographer for the day.  Lucky for me, the group wouldn't allow it as these big sets did not come every time.  The frist 5-10 minutes I was in panic mode until I relaxed for whatever reason.  Wow, did that make swimming so much easier.  All of the seaweed was disgusting on the way out to the buoys.  I love my wetsuit.  It did take time to get used to it, but I LOVE how I can just float.  That is so awesome.  We ended up swimming a little more than a mile.  Our last 350 yards I felt pretty good.  It seemed that I got into a groove once I realized that I don't have to move my arms and legs so fast.  We followed with a 28 mile bike ride and a 6 mile run, and finally a dip in the ocean to cool off.  I cannot believe how far I have come along in just a couple of months.

Question:  After we finished with our workout, my stomach hurt, especially after everytime I ate (lunch and dinner).  I don't know how to describe it, because I haven't really felt like that before.  I know I got a little dehydrated, but I don't know if that has anything to do with.  Any ideas why this happened.