40+ Club : Where the Cool Kids Are

Hardcore 22: Resistance 2 and a 6-mile run, which included the warm up, cool down, and 6 x 400 m intervals...DONE!

Temp: 80F
Humidity: 80%

That was hard! I think my only saving grace was that it was overcast the whole time. I definitely soaked and spent when I finished.

Djproulx wrote: »

Hey Kids, Happy Friday.

Nice weather today, so we're swimming outside tonight. Two weeks out from the first 70.3 race of the season, so this is the last high volume weekend before starting to taper for race day. Long bike ride then a transition run tomorrow. Long open water swim at race pace, then a 2 hour easy run on Sunday.

Stay Cool...

Amazing!! I'm just starting to work on my swimming. My daughter wants me to do a triathlon someday. I have the more realistic desire of not drowning. Yes, I can swim; however, I'm terrible at regulating my breathing while swimming, and I'm gasping for air after every lap. Any suggestions?

Happy Friday kids. I am still sore as can be from class and then crazy enough to take yoga. My body is a tad beat. I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend.

Today in a nutshell: ate a lot of junk; didn't exercise.
I feel like I needed the rest, but I didn't need to eat so much.

Training schedule says to row, but we're away for the weekend, so I ran instead. Sunny, cool day. Perfect!

Swapped my usual post-run snack for a protein drink (chocolate flavored protein/greens powder, milk, and iced coffee). Not bad!

Djproulx wrote: »

BettyM1017 wrote: »

[
I'm just starting to work on my swimming. My daughter wants me to do a triathlon someday. I have the more realistic desire of not drowning. Yes, I can swim; however, I'm terrible at regulating my breathing while swimming, and I'm gasping for air after every lap. Any suggestions?

Anyone who can run through fire like you can will certainly be able to swim with a little practice!! It just takes some technique work and practice. I am an adult onset swimmer who started out 4 years ago, so I'm familiar with that feeling. I have some suggestions.

First a couple questions:
1) Do you swim the freestyle stroke, and if so, do you breathe on one side or both sides? (bilateral breathing)

2) how is your technique (other than breathing?) Specifically, do you keep your body flat to the surface, or do your legs tend to sink?

3) How hard are you working to move through the water? More to the point, do you feel like its mostly just a breathing problem, or do you need to "fix" your stroke? How far do you swim during a session currently?

1. Freestyle, I breathe on one side (right side)
2. My technique used to be better. It's funny that you mentioned the sinking legs. That's exactly how I feel. I definitely feel like my kick is a mess these days, like I'm working way to hard to move forward which contributes to my need for more oxygen, I think. My arms feel good, but I'm like a duck. Calm on the surface, and paddling like crazy underneath.
3. The lanes are 25 meters. I make it one length, and I have to stop and catch my breath. I am warmed up before I start to actually swim. I do about 16 lengths, pausing to catch my breath in between each length, and then I'll switch to a much easier backstroke for a few lengths, and finish with a couple of lengths with a kick board and walking a couple of lengths. It's really only a 30 to 35 minute workout when I'm done.

Trying to run with a head cold is not fun. Only got in 2 miles, but that's better than just lying around so I'll take it.

Upper body & core day. Otherwise known as band practice, on a drum.

[/quote]

1. Freestyle, I breathe on one side (right side)
2. My technique used to be better. It's funny that you mentioned the sinking legs. That's exactly how I feel. I definitely feel like my kick is a mess these days, like I'm working way to hard to move forward which contributes to my need for more oxygen, I think. My arms feel good, but I'm like a duck. Calm on the surface, and paddling like crazy underneath.
3. The lanes are 25 meters. I make it one length, and I have to stop and catch my breath. I am warmed up before I start to actually swim. I do about 16 lengths, pausing to catch my breath in between each length, and then I'll switch to a much easier backstroke for a few lengths, and finish with a couple of lengths with a kick board and walking a couple of lengths. It's really only a 30 to 35 minute workout when I'm done. [/quote]

BettyM - Great! There are no surprises in your answers. You've just described me and at least 10 other swimmers I know as we learned to swim over the last few years. So here are a couple suggestions for starters.

1. Freestyle breathing - Since you breathe on one side, you probably take in plenty of air by breathing every time you lift your right arm. So therefore the trick is to work LESS hard, so you are not having to gasp for air. Try to think more about your exhaling while underwater. You should be exhaling a slow, steady stream of bubbles when your face is in the water. Then, as your lungs are just about empty, you are lifting your right arm and turning your head (NOT lifting the head) so that you can take a breath as your mouth comes out of the water. One trick to help you get this rhythm is to repeat a cadence to yourself as you swim. For example, I breath from both sides, so I started out by thinking to myself " Bubbles.....Bubbles......BREATHE.......Bubbles......Bubbles.......BREATHE" And this mantra matched my stroke, so I would say bubbles, (left arm stroke) bubbles (right arm stroke) then BREATHE as I made another left arm stroke and lifted my head for a breath.

2. Technique and associated sinking legs: This will be a game changer for you, because it is for everyone who learns to swim. Swimming is all about reducing drag. So that means you want to be STREAMLINED and are trying to "hide" your body from the water. Now think about a seesaw or fulcrum. If your head is too high, your legs will sink, exposing more of your body to the water and that creates drag. So you will either have sinking legs, or have to work very hard to move yourself forward. So lets take your legs out of the equation for now. The way to do this is to use a Pull Buoy. Those are the figure eight shaped foam floats you squeeze between your thighs. By doing this, you get several benefits. First, your legs don't sink and you don’t kick,which saves energy. This reduces your drag and lets you move through the water easier. Secondly, this removes the need to gasp for air and lets you focus on breathing technique and improving your stroke mechanics.

3. As a new swimmer, you want to focus on quality over yardage. Swimming is all about efficiency, so you are doing yourself a disservice if you continue swimming after your form breaks down. So start slowly and when you sense that your form is breaking down, stop swimming and pick it up again the next day.
Finally, a great approach would be to have a good swimmer observe your stroke and offer feedback if possible. If not, you could find many videos online that show what good form looks like and then have sometime take a video of you while you swim, so that you can compare your stroke to a “perfect” stroke.

This is only scratching the surface, but too long to post more here. Happy to provide additional details via pm or email.

New to this forum... Hi all.
I'm 41 in August and I'm finding losing the numbers on the scale harder than ever! I have probably a stone to lose, have lost 10lb since January but am stuck at 13stone.. I go to the gym and lift weights 3 times a week and have started jogging with couch to 5K app... my daughter thinks I'm too fixated on scale weight and to put them in the bin, anyone else have this problem?
I used to find it easy to lose weight but since hitting 40 it feels s much harder

BettyM1017 wrote: »

@Djproulx You rock! Thanks for taking the time to "coach" my swimming. I'll definitely pay closer attention to those details you described and find out more about the pull buoys. I know our pool has a supply of them in the cabinet with the kick boards, so I'll find some video on using them. You're right about the too much too soon. I'll scale things back a bit for now until I get my form down.

Thanks again for your help!

@gam3rguy So.....how was Spartan??!

Spartan is ALWAYS fun. Savage coming up in two weeks!!

Ok chest and legs done and I'm pretty much back to where i was before we went on holiday end April ...