First I would like to congratulate my Husband and my brother-in-law, I know kind of late (it was like 3 weeks ago).. But they finished there 1st Ironman 70.3 at Providence RI. Very Proud of him..!
Well.. now to my training. Last Thursday was my 1st group meeting/training.. We meet twice a week, with a 6 day workout plan. On the first day we meet and went over questions and answers about Tri's and the program. Then off to the pool. We did 1 hr of drills. I need to work on my stroke and make sure I don't cross in front, but overall she said I did well.
Swimming points:
- Swim with good, tall posture, and keep your head in line with your spine, looking straight at the bottom. Find your balance in the water.
- You actually swim on your side (well, at ~45 degrees), rotating from side to side as your arms enter the water and reach forward
- Hands enter the water in front of your shoulders, not crossing the centerline of your body, fingertips first, hands flat or in a handshake position. If your hands tend to enter across the centerline, think about putting them in at 10:00 and 2:00 of a clock to correct.
- After your hands enter, they continue to extend forward – this is when your body rotates to the other side, and it is also when you would initiate taking a breath. You do reach forward, but do not “lay on your hand” until it starts to drop. If you do this, reduce the “glide time.”
- You breathe by turning (not lifting) your head to the side when your arm is reaching its forward position and your body is already rotating.
- Breathe out by forcing (most) air out while your face is UNDERwater. That way you are ready to breathe in when your head is turned. Sometimes it helps to practice this by bobbing up and down rhythmically in the water for a minute or so, forcing air out when you are under water, breathing air in when you are above.
- You pull underneath your body, again, not crossing the centerline, keeping your shoulder and elbow higher than your hand. If you cross the centerline, one thing you can think about to correct that is dragging your thumb down your side or tapping your thumb to your thigh. If you drop your shoulder and/or elbow, you can think about grabbing the water around a barrel, and holding that barrel under your armpit.
- Swimming is like climbing a ladder. You catch the water (a ladder rung), then pull your body over it. To be most efficient, you want to pull the water toward and past your feet.
- Your arms recover out of the water – and it doesn’t matter how you do this as much as that it sets your arm up to enter back in front of your shoulder.
Then we meet on Sunday for our first group ride. I love riding in a group.. much more fun.! Since it is a beginners group we went over some safety rules first, then we went out for a 7 mile bike ride. We pretty much concentrated on keeping a high cadence.
Meeting again this Thursday for more swimming at a pool.. Next week we will have our 1st open water swim..!
