iPhone App for tracking workouts
Posted by sheila in Tools and Gear on April 7, 2011
Here’s a new app I recently bought for my iPhone to track my strength training workouts.
(It’s available in the App Store.)
I will be trying it out for the first time tomorrow. Looking forward to it.
Goal Failure on Pullups
Posted by sheila in Goals, Motivation, Strength, Training on March 22, 2011
Well, so I had decided I wanted to be able to do pullups. Well, at least one to start. I made this decision in November. I knew it would take me a while to work up to it. But with all the swimming I had been doing, especially the Masters swimming that I started in June, my upper body was stronger than I ever remember it being. And I was also doing some upper body strength training. It really seemed like a good time to go for the pullup.
I got some ideas from the Fifty Pullups site and also from the article on Mistressing the Pullup. I couldn’t do even the Week 1 program on the Fifty Pullups site, but I decided to pick some exercises and just keep doing them and at least make some progress. And I picked a date. First day of spring 2011. March 20th 2011. By that day I wanted to be able to do at least 1 pullup unassisted.
So the exercises I picked to work on were: Assisted pullup machine. Pullup position max hang with slow negative pullup. Lat pull downs. Modified (Australian) pullups. Also I have the stretch resistance chords for practicing swim stroke, which uses lats (latissimus dorsi … the muscles used for good, hard swimming and in pullups), so I do that sometimes, too. When I’m at home I do dumbbell pullovers on my weight bench and dumbbell rows. Read the rest of this entry »
My First Swim Meet
Posted by sheila in Race Events on November 20, 2010
Today there was an “All Comers” swim meet at Mt. SAC where I participate in the Masters Swim program. It was open to anyone who wanted to swim: high school, college, masters or club swimmers. Anyone. Entry fee was $5 and swim as many of the 13 scheduled events as you like. Today’s meet was distance format on a Short Course Yards course. They had a sprint format one in October but I had to work that day so could not attend. I would have MUCH preferred the sprint one.
Weather was cruddy today. Cool and raining. Not many people showed up for the meet. 17 total competitors. I heard that the sprint format meet last month had a lot more. Five of today’s swimmers were older: ages 48-69. I was in this group. The remaining twelve were very young: ages 17-24. Notice the huge age-gap.
I arrived at the pool at 8 am. Louis, my coach, asked me what events I would swim. I had picked the 200 yard freestyle and the 500 yard freestyle. He said we could start warming up. The meet was supposed to begin at 9 am. I swam about 500 or so yards in warmup. Most of it slow and easy. A couple of short 25s a bit harder with faster arm turnover. And some practice on my flip turns. I’ve been learning flip turns for 2 weeks now, and they are passable but not very good. Before the meet started I also got a chance to practice a dive off a starting block. I’ve never done that before. Louis just said to make sure I tuck my head down, which I did. No problem. Read the rest of this entry »
The Five Phases of Swim Training
So here is a good article from Competitor magazine, regarding swim training. It’s specifically for triathlon, but in general the 5 phases are:
Endurance, strength, speed, taper, recovery.
The link below takes you to the full article:
The Five Phases Of Swim Training – Triathlete.com
They have example workouts and detailed descriptions.
Orange Country Triathlon – Race Report
Posted by sheila in Race Events, Races on October 15, 2010
So on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010 I did the Orange County International Triathlon. This is an Olympic Distance triathlon, which officially means swim 1500 meters, bike 40K (24.9 miles), run 10K (6.2 miles). The swim was in Lake Mission Viejo and the bike and run in the surrounding hilly areas. However the distances in the actual race course for this triathlon, as with most others, varies from the “official” distances for an Oly Tri.
We went down to the race expo and packet pickup the day before at about 1 pm. And that’s when I found out I had to set up my T2 (Transition 2 area) the day before the race. In other words, that very day. I had not brought any of my running gear with me. No shoes. Nada. So we had to drive back home, get that stuff, and come back. I guess next time I shall read the emails better.
Turns out Chris had some sidewalk chalk in the trunk of the car, so I copied other people’s idea to mark my transition spot (I was lucky my spot was on the paved trail and not in the dirt like some of the others). My markings were much more artistic than the others. They did help the next day with locating my rack space at the end of the bike. Basically, I put my running shoes and a cap in the Walmart bag, loosely wrapped, on my bath mat. Didn’t want the stuff just sitting out in the open overnight.
O.C. Triathlon Brief Race Day Summary
So here I am in the pink cap, center front of the photo, running out of the swim.
Today I did the Orange County International Triathlon. An Olympic distance triathlon. I want to post a full race report, but the full results are not available yet, so I’m just going to post a brief summary for now. The official splits for the race results will not be available until Wednesday morning, which I cannot believe. In this day and age, the technology should make this much faster. Certainly tomorrow they should be available. Oh well. My Garmin 305 malfunctioned at the start of the run, but between time stamps on pictures my hubby took plus my final race time and what I could get from my Garmin, I have approximate information.
I swam 100 yards in 1:14!
Yes, it’s true. I really did swim 100 yards that fast. Last week on Thursday, September 30th. It was so unbelievable that neither the coach nor I actually believed at first that I did it. And I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do it again, but I sure want to so much.
Normally I swim my 100s on about the order of 1:50 plus or minus a bit. Depends on how fatigued I am and how hard I’m trying. The week before my Malibu Triathlon during my taper week, I did swim some 100s on September 7th in 1:38, 1:37, 1:40 and 1:47. That 1:37 was my fastest ever until last week. I have gotten around 1:40-1:41 a number of times in the past month.
Spiderman Pushups!!!
Wow, these look tough! I will have to try these sometime. The link goes to a video on usaswimming.org with a demonstration of the exercise. Basically it’s a standard pushup but when you go down you also take one of your feet off the ground and move the knee of that leg towards the elbow of the arm on the same side while bending the leg.
Just watch the video at this link:
Massage your Back – BackIt Ball
Posted by sheila in Tools and Gear on September 23, 2010
I think I want one of these BackIt balls. Looks like a medicine ball, weighs 8 lbs, but intended for massaging your back. You put it under your neck and roll on it, roll it down your back. It can also be used as a medicine ball for other exercises as well.
I saw it in a video on the GoSwim.tv website that was about practicing dolphin kicks for butterfly. They used the ball for the drill.
I suppose in the meantime, until I can bring myself to order this and part with some money, I could just try rolling my back on the foam roller. This ball sure looks WAY better, though.
Share the Damn Road
Posted by sheila in Tools and Gear on September 19, 2010
Great cycling shirts with a message for motorists:
Custom Cycling Jerseys. Click the tabs to navigate. | Share The Damn Road
I like the one that says, “Don’t Honk at Me.” I’ve had several cases of motorists honking at me lately. Like, I’m pedaling as fast as I can and I will move out of this lane at my first opportunity, believe me!
Anyhow, gonna have to buy some of these shirts.
Daily Mile Training
Upcoming Races
Sheila Runs- Getting Ripped Abs November 27, 2011
- Training for Cold Water Swims November 12, 2011
- Inspirational Moments for Autistic Boy November 4, 2011
- Good Core Videos from Rocky’s Gym November 1, 2011
- Guerilla Cardio – When You’re Short On Workout Time October 25, 2011
- Sufferfest Bike Trainer Videos October 1, 2011