triwithms

My Total Immersion Drills Revisited

Terry Laughlin demonstrating the core balance position drill on the Total Immersion DVD.  There is a link where you can buy it on my TI Swim Drill section of my website [update: Website no longer exists. Go to http://totalimmersion.net).
 

After the disappointment yesterday, I really was hoping today would be much better.  In some ways it was and other ways it was still the same.

Today I did the following drills:

1. Relaxed kicking on my back
2. Rotate from kicking on back to stomach and then again onto my back
3. Fish drill - Kicking on side, then rotating to my back to breathe
4. Sweet spot - each arm
5. Skating - Sweet spot and then bring back arm from ‘pocket’ to face and back
6. Under Skating Switch - Same as skating but then perform a switch of hands rotating body
7. Zipper Drill
8. Zipper Switch

So what was good is that many of the drills were much better than yesterday, the bad part was that I was having trouble rotating to breathe so I ended up just standing most of the time when I needed a breathe.  I think tomorrow I’m going to spend a lot more time on drills number 2, 3 to practice the rotating to breathe and then will do my best to incorporate that into the remaining drills.  I was getting tired unlike last Friday so I’m assuming my body position was not great yet.

Besty Laughlin emailed me today and a couple of other times this week with some great tips.  I will have to try out some of the suggestions tomorrow when I go back to the pool.

Till next time...

Off to Practice My Total Immersion Swimming Drills

Terry Laughlin demonstrating the core balance position drill on the Total Immersion DVD.  There is a link where you can buy it on my TI Swim Drill section of my website [update: Website no longer exists. Go to http://totalimmersion.net).

 

Well I ran into a bit of a surprise when I went to the pool today.  Instead of the 1hr20min I had planned, I was only able to get in about a 20 minute workout since it was March break and the lane swim for the second hour was changed to free swim for the kiddies.

Even though I had absolutely no sleep the night before, I was still disappointed that the drills didn’t feel anything like when I did them with Karin on Friday.  I guess not having the demonstrations and corrections in the water made a big difference.  I was really happy after the lesson on Friday, and hope that I can get that feel back on my own with some more practice.

I just didn’t feel comfortable with the body rotation to breathe on my back.  I was getting water up my nose even though I was breathing in through my mouth and out through my nose.

I might need my second lesson a bit earlier than we were thinking if I don’t get the comfort back.

Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.

Till next time...

 

Running Room Clinic - Long Run Day - 8km Again

Today we did an 8 km route which was a pretty boring out and back route up Mississauga Road near my house.  I felt good, but probably was not going slow enough again.

I really have to get another HRM to keep track of my effort.  I took back my Polar HRM because I thought I’d prefer to get the foot pod version as oppose to the GPS version which I bought.  I will buy it again this summer I think.

Today I took along some water on the run and will probably continue to do so on the Sunday runs as the distances get up to 13 km in a few weeks.

I’m still injury free which is great and I’m thinking that my cardiovascular system is starting to see some improvements after 4 weeks.

Till next time...

Yoga Class

Went for a 60 min Yoga class at Leewi studio.  Saw the owner drive up in a Porche 911....Yoga pays these days!

Went for 60 minutes of a 90 minute yoga class since Lori and I had to go somewhere and didn’t have anymore time than that.  Considering my leg spasms from the day before I’d say it was absolutely necessary that I get in some stretching.

I had a bad class actually.  I was much too stiff for it to be enjoyable and was actually having leg, toe, and other muscle spasms during the class.

I guess I paid for the run yesterday.

Till next time...

Swim Workout with Total Immersion Coach + 6km Run

Wow, there is a lot to write for this day and doing it almost a week later I’ll see how much I can remember.

 

This week has been pretty eventful in terms of making some progress towards learning Total Immersion swimming.  First of all I was in touch with Terry Laughlin and later his daughter Betsy, who runs a Total Immersion Training Centre in Lake Placid, NY.  Betsy was incredibly helpful and had many good suggestions in terms of how I can go about learning the TI technique, including one option which is to go down to coaching centre and get a private lesson.  This option seems like a great idea and would like to do it after I’ve got some of the basics down from doing the some of the drills from the DVD.  She also shared many tips and suggestions around the technique also which I really appreciated.

So I found a local TI assistant swim coach to work with locally (Karin) and had my first lesson today.  Karin was remarkably generous with her time and was very patient with as I was just starting out.  The lesson was great, I felt good and she said I was making quite a bit of progress.  We proceeded much further than I expected since I seemed to be getting the drills and learning fast.  We met before and after the lesson to go over what we are going to do, and also which drills we did that I should practice.  I’m very happy with my new swim coach and look forward to work with her going forward.

Now on to the run...

Today was another double workout day and we ran 6 km with the running room clinic tonight.  My shins were not hurting anymore and I felt great for most of the run.  I did however get my butt kicked by a grade 9 cross country runner.  I had to go up front and show her the route since she didn’t know the way and ended up pushing myself a bit too hard.  It was funny that I was pulling muscles and had spasms in both my quads and hamstrings which made it really hard to stretch either without sending the other into a spasm.

Anyway, my running is progressing well since starting about a month ago.  I’m planning on doing the Mississauga and Ottawa 10 k runs in May.  I won’t be pushing too hard since I just would have been running for 10 weeks which should still be base building mode.

Till next time...

Swim During the Day - Running Room in the Evening

Went to the pool after debating since I have a bit of a cold and didn’t feel like going.  Once I got there and got in the water I felt okay and proceeded to attempt some of the total immersion drills again from lesson 1 (Superman flutter, etc.).  I still was having trouble with the breathing when my head was so deep in the water and turning to the side, I’m definitely going to need more practice on that.  I was in the pool about 1 hour and 15 minutes, although I did hit the shower after about 45 minutes, I decided to go back out and put in another 300-400m before stopping for the day.  Today was suppose to be my first lesson, but my new swim coach unfortunately was sick.

Later on in the evening I went out with the running room and did a 6 km run.  I started off running with Karen and her golden retriever.  She just had another baby about 11 weeks prior so it’s pretty amazing that she was out running with the group.  For most of the run I ran with Kathlene (?), who has her first 5k race this weekend.  She has 3 kids ranging from 9 - 12 years old and is quite the hockey / soccer mom.  It’s amazing with that many activities that they actually have time to do something on their own.  Anyway, the run felt great and the sore foot from the other day did not rear it’s ugly head...err...I mean toe...again.

Tomorrow will be a day off training and will hopefully fully recover for Friday’s double workout again (Swimming / Running).

Till next time...

Bike Workout - 45 min Intervals on the Trainer

Today I did a workout on my bike trainer and had to make it quick since I didn’t have much time.

I did a 90 minute yoga class as well earlier during which I was surprisingly much tighter than during my other 2 yoga classes.

So getting back to the trainer workout.  I did a 15 minute warmup then a 30 minute interval workout on the trainer.  I felt pretty good and was happy that my legs were holding up better when I went into a harder gear for a short period of time.

Lori and I went for massages after the workout which was great also.  I’m going to miss all this time to do the various workouts I’m doing once I go back to work.

Till next time...

Long Slow Run - 8km

So I did my long slow run without my watch or HRM so I had to monitor how I felt by my perceived exertion and monitor my speed accordingly.

For the first time during running this year, I was in quite a bit of pain.  The bottom of my foot was sore every time it hit the ground and had to stop to walk a few times on the way out.  On the way home from my out and back run, it was feeling a bit better.

I’ll have tomorrow off training and will do some yoga, hopefully my foot will feel better for the run Wednesday night.

Ski Weekend - Still Managed to Squeeze in a 5km Run

Every year me and my friends head up to Mt. Tremblant for our annual ski weekend.  In previous years the burn from the skiing the first day puts a major damper in the length of time we could ski the second day.  I remembered back to a year when I was training for a half marathon, and went for a run after skiing all day, and I recalled how it helped my legs feel great for day number two.  I thought I would give this a try this time as well.  It turned out that it worked and I felt great.

I didn’t manage to squeeze in my long run on Sunday as I hoped for, we had to get going on the road for the 8 hour drive home.

Will have to get back on the training program this coming week.

Till next time...

Running Night at the Running Room Club

We did a 5k slow steady run tonight and didn’t take any walk breaks.  It seemed much harder than the 6k run we did on Sunday where we did take walk breaks after each 10 minutes of running.  I managed to keep my heart rate in the low 140’s, but it still was a bit difficult for some reason.

We essentially do not have a clinic leader for the runs since our instructor is injured.  She is still there and does her best to help us by driving to the turn corners, but it is just not the same as having a motivation person to encourage you along the runs.

The yoga I did earlier in the week did at least help loosen my the tight legs and surely is going to save me from getting injuries related to pulled muscles.  Hopefully two times per week will be enough for my flexibility to improve.

Till next time...