swbkrun Mentor Group II- CLOSED FOR BUSINESS!!!

from my lunchtime run.  no mountains, but still pretty fun!!!!

Suzy's questions about swimming killed the thread!!!

My dear Suzy, the thread will NEVER be all about me. 

But thank you!  for the advice, I know for a fact my pull is weak.  I do better after those one armed drills but they are sooooo hard.  Thanks for the reminder to keep them as part of my warm up routine.

John, that is a beautiful trail!  I think you should have posted the beer pic after then trail pic.

Not as much as the turnip talk did. 

Totally!!! Is that like "Here's to us, we broke the server" ?????

Suzy, it's so hard to comment on the swim thing without actually seeing and studying. I think it's interesting that there are theories on "stroke diffeciencies" if you are faster with vs. w/o the pull buoy. I mean, can't it just be what it is? I never time myself when I pull. I use that opportunity for hypoxic (I think that's the word?) breathing drills... cuz that's what we always did in college. I don't know why we did (my guess it that no legs = easier to do breathing drills), I just did as I was told.

What is your purpose for pulling? If it's arm strength, then consider using a tube instead of a pull buoy. That'll get your upper body working (I HATE using tubes -- torture for sure). Not sure where to find a tube -- don't even know if people use 'em anymore. (LINDA, did you use tubes back in the day?) 

I like pulling for recovery, long distances, adding yardage, warming up or down... I never time myself so don't know how it compares to regular swimming, but I find it comfy and enjoy doing it.

That's my two cents.

Oh, and YOU ROCK for doing more yards and saving 50 HOURS!!!! Girlfriend, that's like 50 entire workouts!! More than a full work week!! And you are dissing yourself?? Where do you get off???? For Realz!!!!!!!!

Hey!! I resemble that remark!!!

Turnips made an appearance in my CSA again yesterday. I put 'em in my celery soup. It was good.

I love that we are so chatty about this sport (and turnips which I missed by the way) we BOMBED the servers....

Up until this Master's class, I rarely used the pull, but I see its purpose for certain drills.  The Master's coach knows how much I want to get below 2:00 so he has been trying to determine if its the upper or lower body causing the most issues.  There is plenty to choose from

Re: Dino's advice,1)  I do think when I am super diligent about pressing the T, my legs come up some so point well taken. I was good at it last year, but think the wetsuit spoiled me.  2) I also experimented with head position during the glide looking a tiny bit more forward which seems to help although it feels very foreign. Steve taught me to look straight down at the bottom, Ryan wants me to look 30 degrees--frickin' coaches need to make up their minds. 3) I am a right breather and know I over rotate to get air because you can see both of my goggles in video footage taking in April '09.I was told to breathe more into my armpit like you suggested. I try to work on it, but it never seems to be a priority with all the other deficiencies (no whine, just fact) and 4) I barely kick at all although apparently since I did so much OWS where I never kicked, I have picked up a tick now that I am back in the pool.  I am very single minded.  I need to pick one thing and work it to death before I can move on.  Give me two things to do in the same workout and I am a bad example of rubbing my head and patting my tummy

Nothing to say really but I wanted to be on page 1...

Umm for her thats more than a full month of work!

Where was this?

Yes!  Spent a lot of time with those.

I also enjoy the pull sets.  Also prefer to use paddles...feels much stronger.
I use it more to focus on my the mechanics of my arms.

Cochran Shoal in Chattahoochee Natl Forest.   A 5 minute run from my office!  less if you're fast.

Edited by fattyfatfat 2010-10-07 3:18 PM

Kim,  I too dislike pull buoys.  They hurt my back.  I have a very flexible back and with the extra buoyance from the pull buoy I seem to arch my lower back too much and it screws me all up.  I don't use them anymore.  The simplest thing that works for me is thinking about pushing a beach ball down with my chest and it elevates my hips.

BTW, Birdy will be so proud his MG killed the server.  WE ROCK!!!

Trev--such a funny Canadian, but one who doesn't know math....It's actually 83% of my work month!  Just don't let it be how long it takes you to walk the LV marathon!

PC, PC, PC

Sorry, I meant to write more but just got my taxes done and the accountant was yelling numbers at me that frankly were making me confused.  However, it is like this every year and we somehow manage to get through it.

But I was going to remind you that I had a mac laptop that I could not get to work with either TP or the CT and it might have been the fact that the laptop was an older version, however, I was running the newest OS software.  I ended up buying a 400 dollar pc laptop that has been perfect with the CT and for my uploads.  If you go that route, I would get XP instead of Windows 7 because it seems like there are little nuances to where the files go that I had to have a software friend help me figure out.  People with Windows XP don't seem to ever have as many questions on the racermate forum.



Edited by kt65 2010-10-07 4:15 PM

I'm a PC

Kim, I took a few swim lessons before my last tri (i was really behind in my swim training due to the traveling and he got me into shape in no time) and the guy made me do suicides to strengthen my upper body.  IE swim 100*5 while doing 10 vertical push-ups on each end of the pool with 30 sec rest and if your time was slower then the last 100 start all over..  It strengthened my upper body in no time.  He said my triceps were weak compared to my biceps and they need to be about equal.

For the sinking legs thing..  the thing that helped me most was making sure i have proper head positioning.  Also every coach that I had, said that in your reach/glide, you should reach and have your legs/toes extended as much as possible  IE trying to be as tall as possible during each reach/glide.  The more extended I was the flatter and vertical i was..

Good tips and a nice description of the reach/glide.  But, I am not clear as to the vertical push-ups.  Is that holding onto the edge of the pool and doing the pushups?  

I worked out this week AND a new thread page started...what a coincidence!  And only 1 page to catch up on

Can I hang out with you guys again?

Stan-what are vertical push ups?  I envision it's almost like if I was going to get myself out of the pool without the assistance of the ladder (which I prefer!), and then just push myself up and down on the outside of the pool?  with legs hanging down?  Aiyah.  My triceps are super weak!  I have been trying to do chair dips at home 2x/wk along with that p90 stuff, it is hard to squeeze it into the schedule.  Maybe I will try that!  thanks.

btw, love your new avatar, glen.