Today we learned about the push off for breast stroke. When you push off from the wall, you glide until you feel yourself slowing down. At that point you do one strong stroke with your arms, pushing down to your sides and then pushing the water behind you. Then you do one kick, and at that point you should be surfacing and starting your normal stroke.
She also mentioned that at the end of the stroke, where we're about to go down into the glide, we should imagine we're going over a barrel. So it's a little dive-like.
We did a bunch of laps at various intensities and various strokes. The last lap was 50m all-out freestyle. I think I was 48s. I was already sucking wind at that point, so it's all I could push out.
On a side note, before class started, I tried to swim from one end of the pool to the other on one breath, and succeeded! It was only 25m, and I thought my lungs would pop, but I made it. YAY!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Swim class: Breast stroke
Today, we learned the breast stroke. The teacher broke it down into stages. First was the legs.
We used a kickboard and did legs only. The motion is up, out, and in. Your legs are together with your toes pointed. Bend your knees up and out with your feet together and your feet flexed and facing out. It's like you're pigeon-toed in the water, your feet should face away from each other. Then you kick out in a wide circular motion, keeping the feet flexed. You want to whip your legs as hard as you can. You end up with your legs straight and your toes pointed again.
For the arms, we used pull-bouys between out legs to take them out of the picture. The arm motion is up, out, and together. She made the analogy of drawing a pizza and cutting it in half. Your arms go out in front of you with your face down in the water (this is the "glide"), then you move your arms out in a circle, but not so wide that they go past your belly-button. Near the end of the stroke, you pull your elbows in. Your hands meet, then your arms meet as you move them up to the glide again.
For both the arm part and the leg part, she had us do a two-second glide. So it was kick-glide or stroke-glide. The idea is that when the two parts go together, one half of your body is working at a time. She said "stroke-breath, kick-glide" So while you're doing your stroke, you breathe (not kicking), when you hit the top of the stroke with your arms out in front and your face-down, that's when you kick. So it's really stroke, kick, stroke, kick, not both at once.
We used a kickboard and did legs only. The motion is up, out, and in. Your legs are together with your toes pointed. Bend your knees up and out with your feet together and your feet flexed and facing out. It's like you're pigeon-toed in the water, your feet should face away from each other. Then you kick out in a wide circular motion, keeping the feet flexed. You want to whip your legs as hard as you can. You end up with your legs straight and your toes pointed again.
For the arms, we used pull-bouys between out legs to take them out of the picture. The arm motion is up, out, and together. She made the analogy of drawing a pizza and cutting it in half. Your arms go out in front of you with your face down in the water (this is the "glide"), then you move your arms out in a circle, but not so wide that they go past your belly-button. Near the end of the stroke, you pull your elbows in. Your hands meet, then your arms meet as you move them up to the glide again.
For both the arm part and the leg part, she had us do a two-second glide. So it was kick-glide or stroke-glide. The idea is that when the two parts go together, one half of your body is working at a time. She said "stroke-breath, kick-glide" So while you're doing your stroke, you breathe (not kicking), when you hit the top of the stroke with your arms out in front and your face-down, that's when you kick. So it's really stroke, kick, stroke, kick, not both at once.
Sunday bike ride
Sunday dawned a bit chilly, I hoped for the cancellation phone call, but it never came, so I headed out. Met R, A, and J at the park and we started our loop around Lanikai for R to look at ponytails.
Then we headed out to Kaneohe. I've never biked out there before, but I liked it. We went on K-Bay drive into Kaneohe, and then turned right at the bank. Did a bunch of hills, some of which left me gasping.
On the last one, R and I crested the hill and waited, but the others didn't come. Went back down and discovered that A had a flat. I sat down and munched on a power bar until I had the sudden urge to check my tires. Sure enough, my back tire was really soft. Good thing it didn't go on one of those big curvy downhills we were just doing. I found that I had a little sharp something or other embedded in my tire causing a slow leak.
It turns out I forgot how to change a tire. It's been a looong time. J took pity on me and helped me out. I had forgotten to let the rest of the air out of the tire. I guess every time in the past the thing was already completely flat, so I didn't have to do that. On a side note, this was my first time using CO2. That's so COOL!
We finished our ride going out past Heeia to the boat dock and then going home the most direct route. Along the way we picked up a few riders. It seemed whenever we looked back, we had a different guy or two with us. Very strange. Part way down Kainalu, the last extra biker turned off thanking us for the ride.
I think the oddest thing about cycling is that it's like you end up in a secret club. Put on a helmet and get on a bike, and suddenly you're a member. Total strangers wave and say hello as your paths cross, other bikers feel free to join the pace line and talk story like they know you. It's just weird. I don't mind, it's just a surprise.
Then we headed out to Kaneohe. I've never biked out there before, but I liked it. We went on K-Bay drive into Kaneohe, and then turned right at the bank. Did a bunch of hills, some of which left me gasping.
On the last one, R and I crested the hill and waited, but the others didn't come. Went back down and discovered that A had a flat. I sat down and munched on a power bar until I had the sudden urge to check my tires. Sure enough, my back tire was really soft. Good thing it didn't go on one of those big curvy downhills we were just doing. I found that I had a little sharp something or other embedded in my tire causing a slow leak.
It turns out I forgot how to change a tire. It's been a looong time. J took pity on me and helped me out. I had forgotten to let the rest of the air out of the tire. I guess every time in the past the thing was already completely flat, so I didn't have to do that. On a side note, this was my first time using CO2. That's so COOL!
We finished our ride going out past Heeia to the boat dock and then going home the most direct route. Along the way we picked up a few riders. It seemed whenever we looked back, we had a different guy or two with us. Very strange. Part way down Kainalu, the last extra biker turned off thanking us for the ride.
I think the oddest thing about cycling is that it's like you end up in a secret club. Put on a helmet and get on a bike, and suddenly you're a member. Total strangers wave and say hello as your paths cross, other bikers feel free to join the pace line and talk story like they know you. It's just weird. I don't mind, it's just a surprise.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Swim/Run: Heartrate training?
Last night I attempted a swim and run at Magic Island. I got there rather late, about 5:45, but the sun wasn't supposed to set until 6:30, so I figured I had time. Went in the water and I was just settling in and admiring how unusually clear the water was, when my goggles broke. Bummer. So much for that.
So I went for the run. I did intervals (2' slow, 30" fast) and worked on running on the balls of my feet. Along the way I ran into T (the guy I used as my rabbit in Tinman training). He's doing Honu training with a group that does Heart rate training.
The idea is that you do all your training at an aerobic level, so 180 - your age. When you go above that, you're training anaerobically (sp?). By training at an aerobic level, you don't get tired, so you can go further with less effort. As your body adjusts, you can go faster and faster without exceeding that threshold.
It's an interesting idea, but I'm a little sceptical. I wonder, if it does work, how long it takes for the body to adjust. One of the guys teaching the class is a fairly well-known ironman finisher, and he claims he went from 7.5 minute miles while running to 5.5 after doing this.
T was saying that he can run 8 minute miles normally, but they did a track test where he stayed in his aerobic level and that slowed him down to 13 minute miles. There was a 65 year old guy on the track who's been doing this for 7 years, and he kept lapping T. So, maybe it works. I'll let Tom try it out and get a report from him after Honu.
I went to Sports Authority after the run and bought new goggles.
So I went for the run. I did intervals (2' slow, 30" fast) and worked on running on the balls of my feet. Along the way I ran into T (the guy I used as my rabbit in Tinman training). He's doing Honu training with a group that does Heart rate training.
The idea is that you do all your training at an aerobic level, so 180 - your age. When you go above that, you're training anaerobically (sp?). By training at an aerobic level, you don't get tired, so you can go further with less effort. As your body adjusts, you can go faster and faster without exceeding that threshold.
It's an interesting idea, but I'm a little sceptical. I wonder, if it does work, how long it takes for the body to adjust. One of the guys teaching the class is a fairly well-known ironman finisher, and he claims he went from 7.5 minute miles while running to 5.5 after doing this.
T was saying that he can run 8 minute miles normally, but they did a track test where he stayed in his aerobic level and that slowed him down to 13 minute miles. There was a 65 year old guy on the track who's been doing this for 7 years, and he kept lapping T. So, maybe it works. I'll let Tom try it out and get a report from him after Honu.
I went to Sports Authority after the run and bought new goggles.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Swim Class
Today was interesting. We started off by doing serpentine for a warm up. Starting at one end of the pool and swim the short-course lane. When you reach the end, move one lane over and swim back. Repeat until you've swum through all the lanes and reached the other side of the pool. Since short course is 25m and there are 20 lanes, you swim 500m.
Some people didn't start at the wall if they didn't think they could make it. I did it, but it wasn't easy. I was sucking wind by the end. I thought about doing flip turns, but I was afraid I'd run into the guy coming after me.
After this we broke up into groups of 5. We had three groups and each group went to a different station. The first one was in the shallow end where you did leg work. You would run up and down the pool, or go sideways. You could pair up with someone and throw a ball back and forth as you travelled. I paired up with a girl who grabbed a medicine ball and we went back to back and passed the ball from side to side. The hard part was I kept slipping on the black lines. You could also grab a kickboard and run holding the kickboard in front of you in the water for extra resistance.
The next station was in the deep end. You alternated between jumps and wall crunches. You would do 10 jumps where you crouch down all the way on the bottom of the pool and then spring up as high as you can with your arms overhead. It's to practice your wall push-offs. You'd follow that with 20 wall crunches where you hold the edges of the pool and use your abdomen to lift your legs so you can touch the rail with your toes.
The final station was also in the deep end. You were to do vertical kicks or sculling to stay up. Some of us grabbed a ball and threw it back and forth to each other as we kicked in place.
We did each station for five minutes and then rotated. The idea of the day was to show us alternative means of getting exercise in the water. We didn't do any swimming stuff other than the warm-up, but it was a fun class.
Some people didn't start at the wall if they didn't think they could make it. I did it, but it wasn't easy. I was sucking wind by the end. I thought about doing flip turns, but I was afraid I'd run into the guy coming after me.
After this we broke up into groups of 5. We had three groups and each group went to a different station. The first one was in the shallow end where you did leg work. You would run up and down the pool, or go sideways. You could pair up with someone and throw a ball back and forth as you travelled. I paired up with a girl who grabbed a medicine ball and we went back to back and passed the ball from side to side. The hard part was I kept slipping on the black lines. You could also grab a kickboard and run holding the kickboard in front of you in the water for extra resistance.
The next station was in the deep end. You alternated between jumps and wall crunches. You would do 10 jumps where you crouch down all the way on the bottom of the pool and then spring up as high as you can with your arms overhead. It's to practice your wall push-offs. You'd follow that with 20 wall crunches where you hold the edges of the pool and use your abdomen to lift your legs so you can touch the rail with your toes.
The final station was also in the deep end. You were to do vertical kicks or sculling to stay up. Some of us grabbed a ball and threw it back and forth to each other as we kicked in place.
We did each station for five minutes and then rotated. The idea of the day was to show us alternative means of getting exercise in the water. We didn't do any swimming stuff other than the warm-up, but it was a fun class.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Dying up Tantalus
Yesterday after work, I took my bike up Tantalus for the first time. I've done Tantalus before, but that was on Stacy's bike, not this one. I went alone as Tim is out of town.
I discovered the following:
- I'm out of shape, dang I'm out of shape.
- I miss the granny gear.
- I really need to make the brakes easier for me to grab and hold, my hands just aren't big enough for these.
While it didn't go as well as I would have hoped, I did finish (eventually). I had to pull over and catch my breath far more times than I care to admit. The first time I did Tantalus was on Stacy's bike, I think I pulled over two or three times total. I don't know if the difference is because of me being less fit or because this bike doesn't have a granny gear. Oh well, while I lament the loss of the granny gear, I know it will make me stronger in the long run, so it isn't a big deal. The fact that I was sucking wind like a fireplace bellows is a big deal. I really need to work harder, that was brought into sharp focus.
Around the last mile or so, I had pulled over when two bikers came around the corner going up. The one in front yelled "Move your butt! There's no stopping on this hill." While it was unexpected, I took it in the "biker camraderie" sense and started up again. When she drew near I realized we actually knew each other. While I don't know her well, we have met before. I asked for her name (Marcie) and gave her mine and we labored up the hill.
I followed behind her without pulling over a lot longer than I would have on my own. I was about to finally give in and rest when we rounded a corner and saw the bridge that shows you are almost at the top. So, I sucked it up and made it. She couldn't have come along at a better time for me.
The ride down wasn't quite as fun as would have thought. Besides being bumpy I realized I have brake issues. My brakes make a hissing noise when applied and I have a hard time holding the brakes. I think my hands are too small for the setup, or it's related to the stem being too long so I couldn't get a good angle. I really need to get my bike fitted for me.
It wasn't ideal, but at least I did it. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow if it's not raining.
On a side note, Marcie and her friend planned to go down and then go up to the stopsign three times. Sounds like a good workout. I'll add that on if I ever get up Tantalus without stopping.
I discovered the following:
- I'm out of shape, dang I'm out of shape.
- I miss the granny gear.
- I really need to make the brakes easier for me to grab and hold, my hands just aren't big enough for these.
While it didn't go as well as I would have hoped, I did finish (eventually). I had to pull over and catch my breath far more times than I care to admit. The first time I did Tantalus was on Stacy's bike, I think I pulled over two or three times total. I don't know if the difference is because of me being less fit or because this bike doesn't have a granny gear. Oh well, while I lament the loss of the granny gear, I know it will make me stronger in the long run, so it isn't a big deal. The fact that I was sucking wind like a fireplace bellows is a big deal. I really need to work harder, that was brought into sharp focus.
Around the last mile or so, I had pulled over when two bikers came around the corner going up. The one in front yelled "Move your butt! There's no stopping on this hill." While it was unexpected, I took it in the "biker camraderie" sense and started up again. When she drew near I realized we actually knew each other. While I don't know her well, we have met before. I asked for her name (Marcie) and gave her mine and we labored up the hill.
I followed behind her without pulling over a lot longer than I would have on my own. I was about to finally give in and rest when we rounded a corner and saw the bridge that shows you are almost at the top. So, I sucked it up and made it. She couldn't have come along at a better time for me.
The ride down wasn't quite as fun as would have thought. Besides being bumpy I realized I have brake issues. My brakes make a hissing noise when applied and I have a hard time holding the brakes. I think my hands are too small for the setup, or it's related to the stem being too long so I couldn't get a good angle. I really need to get my bike fitted for me.
It wasn't ideal, but at least I did it. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow if it's not raining.
On a side note, Marcie and her friend planned to go down and then go up to the stopsign three times. Sounds like a good workout. I'll add that on if I ever get up Tantalus without stopping.
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