Swimming Facilities and Programs at Mount SAC

Posted by sheila in Resources, Training on August 17, 2010

I’ve been swimming this summer at a nearby pool that is open to the public for lap swimming and also provides a Masters Swim program and other training programs. I love this pool. The water is fresh and clean, not like the over-chlorinated, chemical soup at the 24 hour fitness pool (my alternative swim location). So where am I swimming? In the outdoor Olympic size swimming pool at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, or Mt. SAC as the locals refer to it.

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Kicking Drills for Triathlon

Posted by sheila in Tips and Advice, Training on August 12, 2010

Somehow in all the reading I had done about the swim portion of triathlon, and how triathletes should train for and approach the swim, I got the message that the kicking was very de-emphasized. That kicking was almost not necessary. Let your legs drag, if you wanted to. Use your upper body on the swim and save the legs for the bike and run. Makes sense, no?

And then I started my Masters Swim workouts. And the coach was having me do a fair amount of kicking. Although I thought I didn’t really need to be doing kicking drills, I tried to just suck it up and say nothing. After all, I was seeking the expertise of the coach. He knows more about this than I do, right? That’s why I was doing the Masters Swim. Eventually I did ask him about it and he said I needed to keep that end of my body up, or something like that. So…ok. Still doubtful but…just doing the drills like he said.

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Why do swim drills? Don’t you hate them?

Posted by sheila in Training on July 29, 2010

So I started a Masters Swim program at Mt. SAC back on June 17, 2010. Six weeks ago today. Although I seem to do fairly well at self-coaching myself on running, I have  no swimming background and I’m not very good at it and I knew I needed someone with knowledge to watch me, coach me, give me tips. I did do some reading…Total Immersion swimming books, articles on Active.com, TriSwimCoach.com, BeginnerTriathlete.com. And reading was good, and did help, and I did try to use the advice. However, implementing what I read was just not going all that great without a coach.

Now one thing I did notice was that a lot of the reading material encouraged drills. The TriSwimCoach specifically encouraged doing as much drills as you could stand. And other sites also recommended drills for improving stroke technique and efficiency. It makes sense. In running I do speedwork on the track and I would say that is analagous to drills in the pool. I know that speedwork really does help me. I have to assume with all these articles recommending swim drills that that would help me, too.

But I really hate drills. Or at least, when I was trying to figure out swimming on my own, I really, really disliked them and almost never did them. I would maybe do a few laps of drills. Less than 1/4 of my workout for sure. Maybe much less than that. And then freestyle all the way, baby, because that seems to be the most fun to me.

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Strawberry Fields Olympic Triathlon – Race Report

Posted by sheila in Race Events, Races on July 25, 2010

So this past Sunday, July 18, 2010, I raced the Olympic Distance at the Strawberry Fields Triathlon in Oxnard, California. One thing I will say about this race, is that if we do it again, we are going to stay overnight in Oxnard the night before the race. Under ideal conditions the drive from our house is about 1.5 hours, but when is traffic through L.A. ideal? OK, at 4 am on Sunday morning yes (heading to the race on morning of), but for packet pickup the afternoon before NOT. Must have spent 8 hours driving to/from Oxnard this weekend. Blech!

Here's the finish line. I'm not there yet.

Saturday, the day before the race, we went down to the packet pickup. We got there late in the afternoon, about 4:30 PM. It was chilly and windy. After the 100-degree temps we’d been experiencing at home the past week, the tank top I wore was just not sufficient. It seemed the race might be cold the next day. Packet pickup was well-organized. Transition area was nearly set up. We drove the bike course just to see what I had in store the next day. One thing about this race, the run and bike courses are some of the flatest I’ve had the opportunity to run on.

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Exchange between a cyclist and a motorist

Posted by sheila in Training on July 25, 2010

Yesterday after I got off work I took a ride on my bike. There’s a local 14-mile loop that I ride regularly. It takes me westbound on Temple Ave in Pomona towards Cal Poly Pomona University. The streets I ride are generally fairly busy, depending on the time of day, and cars travel 45-50 mph and faster. Most of this route has a bike lane available, but not all of it and some of the streets without bike lanes are narrow although they have 2 lanes for motor traffic in each direction.

So last night about 6:30 PM as I road west on Temple approaching Valley Blvd a motorist in a large SUV whizzed past me in the left lane, honking, and then swerved just ahead of me into the right lane where I was riding.

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Ocean Swim Entry/Exit Tips

Posted by sheila in Tips and Advice, Training on July 10, 2010

Here is a pretty good article from Active.com on entering and exiting the ocean for open water swim triathlons. I practice ocean swimming fairly regularly with the L.A. Tri Club, but I am not using all the tips suggested in this article. Saving the link here so I can review it from time to time and make sure I’m doing all these things…

http://www.active.com/swimming/Articles/Survive_the_Surf__Entrances_and_Exits_in_Open_Water_Swims.htm

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Master’s Swimming

Posted by sheila in Uncategorized on May 20, 2010

So, I think I will be starting to swim in a Master’s Swim program soon. Because I need some direction and motivation and someone to kick my butt around the pool. The Los Alamitos Aquatic Center seems to have the most flexible program for me, in terms of widest available hours I could make and most days/times offered for swimming. It’s not the closest program, but the cost is decent and the program sounds good.

Going to check out their open lap swim in the next week or so. Summer hours start on Mon. June 21st. Until then the open lap swim times are:

mwf 5:30-7 am
m-f 12-1:30pm
sat 9:30-11 am

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Heart Rate Training for Triathlon

Posted by sheila in Training on May 9, 2010

I have mostly avoided the whole heart rate training thing. I’m not big on wearing the chest strap, and though I have a Garmin 305 that includes a chest strap, I just don’t wear it and I don’t monitor my heart rate. I train by pace and perceived effort, mostly.

Well, at some point I will probably look into the whole heart rate thing. Here is a good article on the topic that seems to go into quite a bit of detail and I will want to come back and review it again. Seems balanced. Pros/cons. Alternatives. Etc.

Triathlon Training Principles: Heart Rate Training | Trifuel

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Cycling Drills

Posted by sheila in Tips and Advice, Training on April 6, 2010

Here’s an interesting article at Active.com that discusses some good cycling drills to help you learn better control on your bike. I really like some of these suggestions and am sure it would help me to practice them:
Bike Handling Clinic: Drill That Skill

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2010 race schedule

Posted by sheila in Race Events on February 22, 2010

Wow, I didn’t realize how long it has been since I last posted here. Oops.

Anyhooo… I’m 2 weeks out from the Napa Valley Marathon. March 7, 2010. Training is going “eh”. I will finish the race, but I have no expectations for my goal or finish time.

Two weeks later… L.A. Marathon. So that’s going to be interesting to see how it goes running two marathons two weeks apart. March 21, 2010.

After that, my plan was mostly triathlons for the rest of the year. But, looking at my availability, I am really not able to get to one until July. So, I will focus my training on triathlon after March. But I will do some running races until I can get some actual triathlons into my schedule.

Here is my tentative schedule for this year (2010):

You may notice, from my previous post in 2009, that I left the Ragnar Relay off. I have already taken off time from work for the Surf City Half Marathon, the Napa Marathon, the L.A. Marathon and I will probably have to take off time for the Catalina Tri. I don’t want all my vacation days to be for races. So…decided to give Ragnar a miss this year. Maybe next year. (Anyhow, my daughter Kaitlin is graduating from college this year…have to save some days off from work for that!)

For the past 3 years I’ve done the Huntington Beach 5K on the Fourth of July. May do that one again, but there are certainly other possibilities. Probably won’t be trying for a PR this year, though, given the proposed race schedule.

Also, we’ve done the Dana Point Turkey Trot for the past 3 years, also. But that event is really crowed and… dunno…might do a different one this year.

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