hey all, I've recently decided to try and do a triathlon or two before football season. I've been reading here quite a bit and have learned a lot, but I was wondering if there was some kind of FAQ or something of the like you could reference me to? I have no clue how it works, how I set my bike up, when do I set my bike/other clothes/during race nutrition stuff up?
I'm just not sure on the whole operation of the race, any sites or write-ups or personal experiences are much appreciated. As for clothes I've read that it's fine to just swim in tri shorts, then I can just throw on an Under Armor shirt for the bike/run?
Thanks a TON for any info/insight you have, call me stupid or call me ballsy, I'm hoping to do a 1000m swim/25 mi ride/6 mi run in 4 weeks, I haven't done any cardio in 3 months, and I don't even have my road bike yet....and I just finished bulking up to 235 lbs for football......o well, it wouldn't be fun if it weren't a challenge, right?:D Just from the reading I've been doing I've gotten excited enough to plan every day's workout for the next 4 weeks, I gotta say I think I'm well on my way to an addiction :)
jrennie
06-15-06, 06:59 AM
Your aspirations are great as well is your enthusiasm, and Olympic distance is a long race for your first tri but it sounds like you are motivated.
Check these out
Trinewbies.com
Trifuel.com
Slowtwitch.com
RNS
06-15-06, 09:13 AM
thanks a bunch! I'll get readin! It all starts today with a 2 mile "run" after my bench press work. Unfortunately I've been powerlifting for the last 4 or so years, hopefully this 2 miles ain't too tough!!
Fortunately I've been training for 5-6 years, and 4 specific to powerlifting. I hope I got the mental will to make this happen, I've always been in awe of how marathoners and tri athletes come up with the balls to just go go go.
andygates
06-16-06, 05:45 AM
Heh, I made the jump from heavy lifting to tri this spring. Not very good at either, but even so ;) 4 weeks, oly distance? Go for it!
magyar
06-16-06, 07:19 AM
Another good website is beginnertriathlete.com (http://www.beginnertriathlete.com). It has training plans you can download, training logs, etc. Good luck.
RNS
06-16-06, 11:48 AM
thanks for the support guys! I kinda thought everybody would roll their eyes at me and say I had no shot, thanks for the motivation!!
RNS
06-17-06, 12:16 PM
hooooooooooly crap! I can't swim for diddly squat. I know my 230 lbs is holdin me back a bit, but the actual swimming isn't the problem. Unfortunately all I could muster was a measly 225 FEET, and I was gasping for air like it was my last breath ever for half of it. I can't believe how inefficient I am at breathing during it, I was trying to take it easy and just breath deep but by 100 feet I was gasping, and I kept gettin water up my nose and swallowing it; brutal :(. At least I ran 3 miles after that, but dang I got some reading to do!!
tajsss
06-17-06, 01:00 PM
You may be trying to go too fast. This is most people's problems who are just starting out. Try and make nice steady smooth strokes. You may also want to work on your backstroke a little. I find I get tired and flip and do backstroke for a while during a race to catch my breath. Having my face completely out of the water gives me an oppurtunity to take some nice deep slow breaths and relax for a moment. I found it doesn't even affect my pace much, probably because my freestyle is not real fast anyways.
RNS
06-17-06, 01:09 PM
That's actually one thing I was doing, I was trying to be as relaxed as possible and get in a zone but I just couldnt. I found some stuff that I think will be pretty helpful, mainly techniques on how to breath properly. I know for a fact I wasn't exhaling enough and was also pulling my whole head out to breath, I could feel myself almost come to a stop when I was really tired and gasping for air.
Good tip with the backstroke, I'm guessing when the race actually comes I'll be using every swim style known to man plus a few I make up on the way, anything to stay afloat and finish the swim. One thing I really like about this training is I can do a it a lot, I'm used to heavy weight training where you need a lot of recovery, and though I know recovery's importan here, for conditioning I'm comfortable doing something just about every day.
After reading more I'm pumped to get after the swimming again. I have a rather broad set of shoulders and I'm sure they were squared up the whole time, completely killing any speed I could get. Pumped to start turning when I stroke etc., like a hot knife through butta :D
Hazelmn
06-17-06, 03:00 PM
These have both been mentioned before, but www.trinewbies.com has great info on workouts, specifically on how to train for the swim which is psychologically the toughest for most people.
Also, www.beginnertriathlete.com has a section on stories from 1st timers.... it was great for me to read others' experiences and tips prior to doing my first one.
RNS
06-18-06, 12:31 AM
I gotta quick question on hydration stuff. Do you guys find it necessary to buy all these accesories? Like the "fuelbelt" that has waterbottles attatched to it?
chrisesposito
06-18-06, 02:13 PM
I gotta quick question on hydration stuff. Do you guys find it necessary to buy all these accesories? Like the "fuelbelt" that has waterbottles attatched to it?
Depends on the distance. For a sprint, the race is so short (1:20 - 1:30 for me) that if it isn't in my stomach well before I'm at T2, it's not going to help me at all on the run. I usually have a couple of gels & some water at T1, and carry something on the bike.
For events longer than this (of any sort, not just tris) then some sort of food & drink is needed. From what I recall, muscle glycogen stores will only get you 60-90 minutes or so of hard effort. It takes 25 minutes or so for the stomach to empty (longer if the food ingested has significant protein or fat content), so eating / drinking something in the first hour is necessary if you don't want to risk a bonk in hour 2 or 3.
RNS
06-18-06, 03:14 PM
gotcha, there's an oly. distance coming up that i'm a bit unsure if i'll be ready for, then a sprint a few weeks after that. Thanks for the reply, I'll probably try different nutrient timings to see what works best for me.
andygates
06-19-06, 03:01 AM
Swim-wise, I found the same problem. A lot of it is efficiency - stroke efficiency, a nice high body position, and breathing calmly. I still swim a bit anaerobically so I tire too fast, and a lot of big strong newbies seem to do the same thing: mongo thrash water, mongo go fast? Not quite. But it comes with practice :)
RNS
06-19-06, 06:26 AM
haha, I lift heavy weight, no swim fast though, mongo sad! I'm off to have another go at it though, hopefully it goes a bit better and I can hit 150m or so. I feel like once I get the technique it'll skyrocket up cause I'll be able to get to a zone where I can actually tire my muscles out. Right now it's like I'm trying to run while breathing through a straw, my muscles are fine I'm just hurtin for air!
andygates
06-19-06, 06:50 AM
I found that slow breathing drills helped. If you count each stroke left or right as one, then try a length of lazy 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5breathe - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5breathe - just bubble out the air as you stroke. (Actually with me in the pool, I was humming and singing..)
RNS
06-19-06, 07:59 AM
well I'm back, it didn't go terrible but I still am not getting any distance. I did 4-6 25m laps just to try and get the form down a little and it definitely felt better. After that I did 6-7 50m swims. By the end I was gaspin pretty bad but now I'm a little more convinced it's just conditioning and it'll come. I was watching the other swimmers when I was resting and they're extremely relaxed and a couple women were going at a snail's pace. I need to find a speed where I'm relaxed but I tried going slow and my 230 lbs just sunk after about 3 breaths haha. For some reason when I try to just relax and go very easy I get out of breath, I inhale but then as I'm exhaling I want air ASAP.
Anyway, I think the oly. comin up in 4 weeks is out of the question. I thought it was 1000m but it's actually .9mi which is like 1450m'ish. I really wish I could do that one, the sprint of 500m/12mi/3mi will just be too "easy" (granted my swimming picks up in 6 weeks!!!) in that I wanted to do something where I'd really have to push just to finish.
O well, this is probably my addictive/paranoid personality taking over; ha today was the 2nd time I've ever actually tried to swim and I'm freakin. Babysteps RNS, babysteps....:D Plus I'm thinking once I can start riding, and continuing to run, that conditioning will help me swim longer distances, better cardiovascular shape and oxygen utilization.
Next time I go I'm going to try that breathing drill, honestly if I could go slow as heck but finish I would, so hopefully practicing going slow helps a lot. I did notice today that when you really pop your hips the power of your stroke is multiplied by a lot! Thanks for the replies Andy, I appreciate it!
RNS
06-21-06, 12:42 AM
hit up a quick swim tonight; it was actually my 3rd workout after some oly. lifting and front squats followed by a 3 mile run which I easily handled. I did 16-18 25m laps with 15-30 second breaks and it felt good. I realized I was literally gasping too much and not getting in a good amount of air. I closed my mouth a bit and really focused on sucking in a lot of air and it made me a lot more comfortable. I only have 1 workout tomorrow and that's a swim so hopefully that goes well!
Jimmy Higgins
06-21-06, 12:46 PM
hit up a quick swim tonight; it was actually my 3rd workout after some oly. lifting and front squats followed by a 3 mile run which I easily handled.
Just a little advice, so as not for you to mislead yourself. I'd recommend a moderate bike, immediately followed by a 3 mile run. You'll need to learn how to adjust from cycling to running immediately because the clock doesn't stop ticking when you are in transition.
Learning to swim properly is uberly important. However, triathlons start with a swim, when you are fresh. The run is done last, when you are tired. From my experience, a lot of people don't respect the run enough. I know this by how many people I pass during the run, especially those who passed me on the bike. ;)
RNS
06-21-06, 01:52 PM
Just a little advice, so as not for you to mislead yourself. I'd recommend a moderate bike, immediately followed by a 3 mile run. You'll need to learn how to adjust from cycling to running immediately because the clock doesn't stop ticking when you are in transition.
Learning to swim properly is uberly important. However, triathlons start with a swim, when you are fresh. The run is done last, when you are tired. From my experience, a lot of people don't respect the run enough. I know this by how many people I pass during the run, especially those who passed me on the bike. ;)
haha thanks for the advice. I have read about brick training and have 4-5 sessions planned, so no worries, I know I won't be fresh for the run :D My main thing is that if I can do the swim I know I'll find a way to finish, I'm tryin to get in 4x per week.
RNS
06-21-06, 05:14 PM
WOO HOO! Got my Felt F90 just now, takin it to the shop tomorrow :-D RNS is happy
rplong
06-21-06, 09:34 PM
RNS,
Here is my biggest swim advice: Push your chest down into the water to balance out your legs. "Swim downhill," as the Total Immersion program states it. Try to be as parallel with the water's surface as possible. The top of your head and butt should be sticking out a little bit. I am new to swimming too, but I have dropped 13 seconds off my 100m averages in races over the last 1.5 months just by swimming twice a week and working on form. Keep at it.
chrisesposito
06-21-06, 09:38 PM
RNS,
Here is my biggest swim advice: Push your chest down into the water to balance out your legs. "Swim downhill," as the Total Immersion program states it. Try to be as parallel with the water's surface as possible. The top of your head and butt should be sticking out a little bit. I am new to swimming too, but I have dropped 13 seconds off my 100m averages in races over the last 1.5 months just by swimming twice a week and working on form. Keep at it.
Our tri swim group did a drill along these lines on Tuesday; as above, our butts were supposed to just break the surface. I can just hear it now: "Honey, does this stroke make my butt look big?"
RNS
06-21-06, 09:40 PM
haha, thanks for the tips guys. I'm goin in tomorrow again to get after it so I'll focus on that.
Thanks guys!!
EDIT: Yeesh, I watched some online clips from TI and I think my biggest problem that I can see is that *I think* my strokes are starting above the water, meaning my hand is actually hitting the top of the water. I'm seeing these people just coast through the water and they're poking their stroke hands through the water right near their head and somewhat downward. I'm guessing not doing this is making me keep my chest up for balance just like you guys were saying. Hopefully there's some significant improvement tomorrow from focusing on this!
RNS
06-22-06, 08:49 AM
jeez, what a terrible swim session this morning. I did realize my body position must be off, when I tried pointing my face straight down and then breathing it felt like I had to raise my head quite a bit to get my mouth out of the water.
I think I'm gonna check out if I can do somethin with TI, this really isn't improving as fast as I need it to.
HAHA, whoops. No chance in hell I'm dishin out $500 bucks for that, looks like I could be SOL.
chrisesposito
06-22-06, 09:47 AM
jeez, what a terrible swim session this morning. I did realize my body position must be off, when I tried pointing my face straight down and then breathing it felt like I had to raise my head quite a bit to get my mouth out of the water.
I think I'm gonna check out if I can do somethin with TI, this really isn't improving as fast as I need it to.
HAHA, whoops. No chance in hell I'm dishin out $500 bucks for that, looks like I could be SOL.
Maybe not. You can buy the TI book / DVD for $40 or so, and I highly recommend it. There are several drills in there that will help.
I started swimming just about a year ago, and while I could finish a 50, a 100 would have wiped me out. Now a mile, *if I control my pace and technique*, is no big deal. It took a long time (at least for me) to learn how to swim well enough not to exhaust myself in the first few hundred yards; TI drills and a good swim coach, plus more time than I originally thought necessary were a big part of this. Water being so much denser than air, it is utterly ruthless in severely punishing bad body position and stroke technique; attempting to compensate by adding more effort gets me nowhere but exhausted. I'm still surprised by how much effect what I though of as small changes in technique have on performance and energy usage.
You don't raise your head to breathe. Raising your head causes your hips and legs to drop, which significantly increases the frontal area you are presenting to the water, which in turn significantly (if I remember my aero equations, super-linearly) increases the drag you create by trying to move through the water. My current understanding of how you are supposed to integrate breathing (and maybe H2OChick or the other fast swimmers can correct this, if I don't have it right) is that as my right arm (for example) enters the water, I roll partially onto my right side, rolling hips, shoulder, and head *as a single unit* so that my left hip / shoulder are just below or just above the surface. Since my head has also rolled to the left with everything else, my mouth is now at the surface. Since I started to exhale underwater about the time my right arm entered the water, all I have to do is open my mouth and breathe in. No raising of the head, and no more than a little turning of the head to make sure my mouth is clear of any local waves or chop.
This is all covered in the TI DVD, so if you are a visual learner and have a DVD player with good slow-motion / frame advance you can slow it down to get the timing.
RNS
06-22-06, 01:26 PM
I was actually going to ask about that, they have a combo deal of that video and somethin about tri swimming for $50 that I may go for.
What you're saying makes sense and is what I picked up from watching a few video clips from TI's site, I obviously just don't have that down. Add in that I'm 230 and have a 46" chest and that frontal drag is hyooooge I'm sure. I really gotta nail down the rolling part of all of this. What you explained though, about being able to do 50m but 100m wiping you out, is exactly where I'm at, and even that 500m for the sprint tri is looking out of reach. I'll probably try to pick up the DVD's soon, thanks a lot for the post.
kmkurdone
06-22-06, 01:36 PM
Okay, i was a state champion swimmer in high school (i'm a SR in college now) and know total immersion swim technique in and out and I think what people are telling you is right on. TI is definately a good place to start, but you have to realize, what you feel like you are doing is probably a lot different from what you are actually doing. The water makes it really hard to feel your body position. (i.e you might think you are rolling side to side, but you aren't). I really suggest finding a local swim team or masters team and having the coach watch you for 100m (or more if he is willing). He will be able to point out flaws you didn't know you had. If you can't do that, have a friend video tape your strokes. Seeing how you swim is so helpful. It seems to me that you are probably thrashing through the water. Remember this.......any "noise" or splash you make is going to be resistance.....you want to slide through the water. I know you are a big guy, but this is key. Also, make sure you have a steady kick. If you already do kick, do some kick work-outs because your leg muscles are the biggest muscles you use when you swim and they are going to put you into your anarobic thresh-hold the quickest. I have a lot of advice, but am typing a novel. Let me know if you have more questions. I would be more then happy to help you! GOOD LUCK! Take care!
RNS
06-22-06, 01:46 PM
hey thanks a bunch for the reply, type all you want I'm lookin to soak up as much as I can. I know what you mean about seeing yourself do it, it's the same with most sports it seems like and whenever I try to help my friends with their baseball swing it's like they never listen!
I might try to go to the pool again tonight, though I'll already have done a swim session this morning, and I'm leaving to lift in a second here, and then I'm trying to get a 6-7 mile run in, but I was thinking about just going and attempting some drills. I've read about quite a few of them, but what do you think are the best ones to work on? I'm pretty sure my biggest problem is my frontal surface area, I don't think my stroke motion is terrible, mainly my body position. What drills help this, and also what drills are easy to know you're doing correctly? Thanks a lot!
kmkurdone
06-22-06, 03:40 PM
I would say the best drill for your frontal body position would be this......and it seems kinda lame, but feeling is everything in the water. All you are going to do is float on your stomach, face down in your swimming position, and a very light kick (only enough to keep your feet from sinking). Once you are floating comfortably, lightly press your chest down in the water and you will feel your lower body raise up a little bit. This is a good drill to get you to feel how you should feel when you are actually swimming. Once you are comfortable with that........try this one. Float in the water like you were previously, but extend one of your arms in front of (if you were on land your and would be straight in the air) If you extend your right arm slowly kick to your right side, keeping your arm extending. You should be floating on your side with one arm extended at this point. With this in mind try to emulate the the press you did with your chest that raised your lower body. It should just be a slight press down and you should be able to get the same experience on your side, once you have this, rotate to your other side and repeat. This is a simple drill that will teach you how to feel like you are swimming "downhill". Once you are comfortable w/ that you can start swimming slowly focusing on your "press" that will keep your legs from dragging. All the while, keep in mind that proper swimming is done on your sides, not your stomach. Let me know how it goes....Take care!
RNS
06-22-06, 06:00 PM
hey thanks a lot! I'm actually feelin wiped right now, I had already swam in the AM and then lifted at noon and just finished a 7-8 mile run, so I'm gonna wimp out on the pool again. I'll be back in there on Saturday though, I'll definitely try those drills out though, I'm convinced my biggest problem is just the drag I'm creating.
H2OChick
06-23-06, 09:08 AM
...you could also recruit a friend/spouse/kid (whomever) to take video while you're swimming. You won't see the underwater stuff, but you will see body position, stroke recovery, breathing, etc.
Learning to swim properly is definitely a hands-on and eyes-on proposition. What I mean by that is you probably need to do it visually and physically. Reading our advice is a good start, but you really need to see it and do it to learn it.
To add to what chrisesposito was saying regarding breathing... what most non-swimmers don't realize is that freestyle is not done on your front. It's really more like you're on a rotisserie spit and you're rotating along that center axis. You should have good hip rotation with each stroke (you get power here) and you should have good "rolling" up through the shoulders with each stroke. You get power here as well as enabling yourself to side-breathe.
+1 on the advice to either go to a master's workout, recruit a proficient friend, or get the video. You'll really improve much faster if you have some hands-on help. I know you don't want to spend much money on this, but it would probably be a tremendous return on your investment.
RNS
06-23-06, 04:04 PM
thanks a lot for the input, unfortunately none of my friends swim but I'll see if I can get one to video me. I'll probably order the TI DVD for some help.
Rode my F90 home from the shop, I really like it! And though lots of people complain about the sora shifters I can easily flick the thumb shifter from the drops, so it's all good for me :D
rplong
06-23-06, 08:34 PM
I don't think there is any good reason to complain about those shifters, that is how campagnolo has most of their shifting setup. The benefit is that you can't accidentally hit the break when you are shifting down/up depending on which der. you're moving.
bps
06-23-06, 09:25 PM
All --
Please keep the info coming! I'm having a lot of trouble with swimming and have been feeding off the advice in this thread.
What is everyone's opinion on the best DVD/book combo out there? I assume TI is everyone's favorite. Is there another contender out there? Just checking as I will likely order one within a few days.
I'll probably seek out a coach too, but a self-study tool is a good start...
Thanks!
Bryan
rplong
06-24-06, 01:41 PM
I was looking at this book in the store the other day, I might order this book and the TI book soon
Please keep the info coming! I'm having a lot of trouble with swimming and have been feeding off the advice in this thread.To be honest, the most important things I learned about swimming came from a magazine article. Swimming is merely an episode in Fluid Dynamics. The most important thing to remember, and this got me from being a slow swimmer to a mediocre swimmer ;), you need to swim with your arms like a SINE wave. IE, fully extend your arms for a full half circle circuit in the water. (For the more advanced people, the next step... I'm told... is to sway your arms in an S laterally to help push more water with each stroke) Making sure you do this is critical. It'll mean your arms are in the water longer, pushing more water, propelling you faster.
The next key is length. You want to be long like a Crew boat. You usually want to have one arm in front of you at all times. So right arm stroking through the water, left arm straight ahead, right arm comes through the stroke and forward, send the left arm in the full SINE wave stroke. Repeat.
I'd repeat the chest pushing into the water thing, but that has been gone over a few times.
Swimming for intermediates is purely fundamentals. You want to be pushing as much water as possible while at the same time, being repelled by the least amount of water. This takes time and practice, and this is much more important to learn than breathing. Get through these steps will help keep you from expelling wasted energy. This will help in a large way with your breathing as you won't need to gasp as much with you conserving your energy.
RNS
06-26-06, 08:21 AM
man this is frustrating stuff, especially cause I didn't expect the swimming to be so difficult. I mean for the biking you sit on a bike and pedal, the running you tie your shoes and run, I figured the swimming would be as easy as getting in the pool and just going, like the other 2 events; obviously not the case at all!
kmk I tried those drills before I swam and I could kind of feel my lower half rise but once I started swimming and pushing down I found I was burrying my head way under water and couldn't comfortably get air because I was pushing my chest down. Every now and then I feel like a lap is easier than the others, and I think today I got a bit better and kicking on my side and getting air, but I'm still not swimming "effortlessly" by any means. Might be biting off more than I can chew with this swimming stuff :(
Jimmy Higgins
06-26-06, 08:39 AM
RNS, dude, your first post here was... what... 2 weeks ago? And you expect to be swimming like a pro by now? That's just silliness! This stuff takes time and practice. If you are having troubles breathing... just work on your stroke and keep your head above water. Don't try to swim like a pro if you can't. There are other important swimming things to work on. Sure, you'll have more drag, but you will need to work on swimming endurance. So you can keep your head above the water and just deal with that for a while. And slowly work the breathing thing into your workout.
You are expecting too much too soon here. I'm not too sure who is filling your head with the idea that it's simple to do all this stuff. It takes time and practice. Your eagerness is great, but you are letting it get your mind way ahead of your body.
Learn to swim.
Then learn to swim better.
Then learn to swim like a pro.
No DVD will help you practice quicker. Granted, I'm hardly an expert in swimming, never being faster than 40 percentile, but I've gotten through all my swims including 1.2 miles in a half-ironman, a jellyfishy 1/3 miles swim in Cape Cod and a few 1 mile swims in the pool. This stuff takes time.
RNS
06-26-06, 08:47 AM
haha, thanks for the reassurance, it's just difficult to encounter something where your expectations are waaaaaay off. I had no clue swimming was so difficult and now it's like dang I can't even go 100m!!! Most of my anxiety (btw I'm rediculously obsessive and have huge anxiety problems, when I played baseball I'd lay in bed at night thinking about 1 swing in a game that day and how it wasn't perfect and I'd almost talk myself into thinking my swing must be messed up) is coming from the fact that I leave for fall football camp on August 1st so it was kind of an all or nothing thing. It's extra frustrating to not experience much of any improvement over the last 2 weeks. Once I accept that swimming is friggin hard as heck then I'm sure I'll calm down.
Jimmy Higgins
06-26-06, 08:55 AM
I wouldnt' say swimming so "hard", just that it takes practice and that takes time and experience. Not being able to swim 100 meters tells me you are doing something terribly wrong in the water. I haven't a clue what, but 100 meters isn't too far.
The most important thing, I believe, is checking how your arms are going through the water. All the talk about pushing your chest, swimming downhill will mean absolutely nothing if you aren't moving your arms well enough to propel you.
bspurrie
06-26-06, 11:45 AM
You don't have to accept that it is hard, you have to accept that it is going to take time to get better.
I just finished my 2nd triathlon and over 80% percent of the people out there beat me in the swim. I know where I need to get better but it won't happen over night.
Just to give and example. When I started swimming this year I wanted to practice bilateral breathing. So I would pull three times and breath. I was telling my friend how winded I was getting and he said just breath as much as you have to until you get used to it. I now pull five times and breath. Of course yesterday in my race in open water I was pulling 5, 3, and then every 2. It's a whole different world in the open water without breaks between sets!!
Just hang in there and keep practicing. You will get better.
kmkurdone
06-26-06, 12:45 PM
Alright, I'm glad you got the feeling of the press down during the drills. It sounds to me that you are pressing much harder then you need to if you are diving your head under water while pressing when you swim. It literally is a LIGHT press. It should hardly move your head under water at all being that it should be your CHEST that is pressing down. Make sure you aren't pressing to far. That will cause a lot of problems. Let me know if you have ANY other questions.
RNS
06-26-06, 01:38 PM
alrighty, well I'll be back in the pool tomorrow. The part that annoys me the most is that I'm in a totally foreign world, as you said Jimmy I'm really doin somethin wrong if 100m is unreachable. I just do 50m and am gassed and dyin for air. I don't think it's purely conditioning because I have no problem running 3-4 miles at a decent pace, granted swimming is different but these short distances really seem harder than they should be.
My goals tomorrow are to work on the chest press, I'll probably reach around and feel where my butt and head are relative to the surface of the water, and then also to have good strong pulls. Today I felt like there was so much going on I was almost forgetting to pull. If anything that's where I should excel because of all the weightlifting I've done, and here I am probably pulling as hard as a 7 year old!!! I'll lighten up the press and also work on flutter kicking, I just saw a thing saying your knees shouldn't bend? I can parralel squat over 500 lbs but to this point I feel like I'm getting little from my legs, I need work on snapping my hips around.
I just had a good workout lifting so I'm in better spirits now, I was just real frustrated after the swim. I'm just waiting for that day where I can actually get in a zone cause right now it's a fight just to get across the pool.
Thanks to everyone for stickin with me, I really do appreciate it.
bps
06-26-06, 04:13 PM
RNS --
You may have already read it, but try reading Chapters 1-3 in the Triathlon Swimming Made Easy book by Total Immersion. It's free on their website. According to Total Immersion, it's all about efficiency and streamlining. Without that, you will get tired and wiped out...no matter who you are.
I am in the same boat as you. Swimming is way harder than I thought it would be. And yep, I get just as frustrated as you are. ;) Swimming is teaching me patience. I know it will come as long as I work on technique and form...
I ordered the 3-combo set from TI. The Tri Book / DVD / Waterproof Drill Cards. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Keep at it, and never give up!
Bryan
RNS
06-26-06, 04:40 PM
hey thanks bps, I haven't read that yet, just watched the sample video clips. I'll get on the reading tonight. Feel free to post in here with any updates or insight, the more people that discuss it the more opinions and views we'll get; hopefully this thread is helpin out more than just me!
chrisesposito
06-26-06, 08:01 PM
RNS, at the risk of overloading you with one more suggestion...
A few of the more surprising things I learned in my TI lessons last year were:
1) I kicked a *lot* more and a lot harder than I thought I did
2) I was really bad at it
3) As a result, my kick was creating huge amounts of drag while at the same time chewing up huge amounts of oxygen and energy
One of things I tried was to use a pool buoy (a styrofoam thing held between your knees, available at any pool). This prevented me from kicking at all as well as greatly improving my body position (the `swimming downhill' you may have read about). I was greatly surprised to find that I went much faster with much less energy if I didn't kick at all than if I did kick. As I have learned to kick properly, I have gradually re-introduced it, but still don't kick anywhere close to the amount I used to.
tajsss
06-26-06, 08:38 PM
Chris is right here. I took a swim class with my wife to help with our stroke technique. Use some pool buoys. Put them between your legs. They hold your legs up and you're not supposed to kick with them. I, like Chris, am much faster and swim with much less effort with the buoys. But these also give you the oppurtunity to forget about kicking for a while and really concentrate on your stroke technique. I also don't kick much even without the buoys because I'm not real good at it yet, can't seem to get into a groove while kicking, and it drains me much faster when I kick a lot than when I barely kick at all. Figure I might as well save my legs for the bike and run anyways.
Good luck. Keep working at it. Like others have said, have patience and the swimming will get easier and better.