The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge
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@sammyc said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
@rancid-schnitzel said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
@mariner4life said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
Update
12 weeks to go. This week i thought i would attempt the swim distance in the pool. Put the pull buoy in a did 1.9km no worries, wasn't even blowing at the end, more bored than tired. 47 mins was a bit slower than i would like to do the event swim in, but still time to get that right.
Haven't done a really long cycle yet, but doing 50km twice a week. Maintaining an average speed of 29-30kmph over the ride though, which is good. Need to put a bit more work in to my cycling from now on. Thankfully it has started to cool off.
So, i'm feeling pretty comfortable given where i am at, and where i need to be, and how much time i have left. Big work-ons are keeping my hips up when i swim, i get very tired very quick without a bit of buoyancy help. I need to get used to swimming in my wetsuit, will head for a lake swim in a couple of weeks (still too many jellyfish and crocs for ocean swimming yet). And just need more kms in my cycling legs. 90kms takes in an awful lot of Cairns.
Just a (utterly retarded) question regarding the swimming. What is the key part of the body that has to be used to swim that far for that long? I assume it's mostly legs right? My big problem is that I tend to forget my legs and overuse my arms. But then the kick has to be economical as well to be able to last that long so what is the best technique for that?
Hope you can some sense out of that. Basically I'm asking how you swim that far without being fucked after 100 metres.
If it’s a wetsuit swim (which most of these events are) then it’s your arms and the quality of your streamline/glide at the end of each stroke.
Kicking in long distance swimming is generally only used for balance, the speed gained by kicking hard is generally not worth the extra effort involved
Cheers mate
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@rocky-rockbottom said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
@mariner4life said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
Put the pull buoy
Modern wetsuits have a lot of buoyancy around the hips and will have the same effect as a pull buoy.
BOTH of you morans have misspelt "pool boy"
And you misspelt moron!
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Yep, that swim on tuesday was all upper body, no kick at all. Need to save my legs for the bike
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well, shit. We've just entered and Olympic distance tri in 3 fucking weeks. I haven't even swum in a wetsuit yet, but somehow i have to belt out 1.5km.
I'm actually packing myself.
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@mariner4life Happy Chaffing!
Seriously though. How many swims with wettie can you do in three weeks? 2 a week?
You can buy some seriously cool wetsuits for this sort of thing.
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Mate, probably none this week given all the shit in the lakes from the fucking floods we've had over the past couple of days. And the ocean isn't exactly safe yet either. And you'll cook in the pool.
Probably do one a week over the next couple of weeks, and go with that.
If this magic fucking thing doesn't float by itself i might die.
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Big training weekend, but awesome for my mental state.
Saturday morning did 92km on the bike. Took 3 hours 19, a time i was really happy with actually, considering the longest i had ridden previously was 50km. But jesus that is a long time to be doing anything. Especially by yourself, your mind wanders to some random places. Happy to have done the required distance, now i need to work on getting a bit quicker. Last 10km was a series of small climbs, and my legs were fucked! But the only thing that hurt afterwards was my knees for some reason.
Yesterday did my first lake swim. Stuck the wetsuit on, and did 1.6km in 36 minutes, which i was absolutely stoked with. Got out of the water feeling good too. Those wetsuits are amazing! you just float along on top of the water. I think i kicked 3 times the whole distance, just dragged my feet around using my upper body. First couple of hundred metres i had to get used to the suit though. Constricted through the arms, and seriously through the chest, it took a while to get the hang of the movement, and used to the breathing.
But I'm feeling pretty confident now, which is good, because before this weekend i still had doubts.
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First ever tri yesterday (well, duathlon for me i guess), the Yungaburra Olympic distance (1,500m swim-40km bike-10km run). Bit nervous going in, but i think we did good.
Teams were the last in the water for our distance, and i honestly thought my swim sucked. Only my second open water swim, first time in a pack, 2nd wetsuit swim. I just couldn't get in a rhythm until about the 2nd lap. I'm a pretty slow swimmer anyway, but i was pretty far back in our pack. Mental state not helped by the first open mens competitor passing me (they started a half-lap ahead) and then hearing he was out of the water in 18 mins!! 2nd lap was heaps better, and i made up a bit of ground. Got out of the water at 34 minutes, which i was fucking stoked with, and was really surprised actually, given how i felt during it.
Bike was fun! All up hill or down hill, no flat, basically the first 12kms was up, then 8km down (flat out) then turn around and come back. Apparently i go up hill pretty well, because i passed a lot of people. Bike done in 1.24 which i thought was great given the course. 2.04 in total for my two legs. Got off the bike feeling really good too.
Handed over to Mrs Mariner for the run. Glad i didn't have to do it, was starting to get hot, and half of it was up hill, looked brutal. She did great though.
The guys at the pointy end of the open men are fucking awesome. The winning time was about a minute quicker than i did my two legs in. Just awesome. Fuckers...
7 weeks now until the 70.3 and i am feeling pretty good about it. Another 400m on top of that swim yesterday won't be too bad, and i have been doing the distance on the bike pretty well already. And the bike is way flatter then what i rode yesterday. Would love to be a faster swimmer, but i really think that is my pace, slow and steady. Maybe if i actually kicked my legs...
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@mariner4life said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
Got off the bike feeling really good too.
Next time put in an effort, it's a race.
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@antipodean my bad
Actually this was training for 7 weeks time.
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In all seriousness, it's a good feeling to give you confidence going forward.
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The other thing yesterday was a test for my nutrition and hydration. I think i had it about right, was well hydrated before, and stayed that way (swallowing lake water probably helped...) and ate enough before and at transition. A gel at the halfway point of the bike gave me a little boost as well.
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@rocky-rockbottom haha yea that sounds wanky as hell. But I'm more talking about the gels and shit you take while you're racing.
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okay, I'm officially fucking sick of the training for this thing. Sick of the pool. Sick of the early morning rides. Sick of the hours spent by myself.
Did an hour on the mag trainer this morning (something i hate with a passion normally reserved for Richmond fans, or chippy Cantabs) and all i could think of was "fuck this. This is shit. If i got off who would know?".
4.5 weeks to go. It can't come soon enough.
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@mariner4life said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
okay, I'm officially fucking sick of the training for this thing. Sick of the pool. Sick of the early morning rides. Sick of the hours spent by myself.
Did an hour on the mag trainer this morning (something i hate with a passion normally reserved for Richmond fans, or chippy Cantabs) and all i could think of was "fuck this. This is shit. If i got off who would know?".
4.5 weeks to go. It can't come soon enough.
You need a training partner, join a swimming squad.
Agree entirely about the bike trainer, even half an hour on those things is just terrible
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@sammyc said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
@mariner4life said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
okay, I'm officially fucking sick of the training for this thing. Sick of the pool. Sick of the early morning rides. Sick of the hours spent by myself.
Did an hour on the mag trainer this morning (something i hate with a passion normally reserved for Richmond fans, or chippy Cantabs) and all i could think of was "fuck this. This is shit. If i got off who would know?".
4.5 weeks to go. It can't come soon enough.
You need a training partner, join a swimming squad.
Agree entirely about the bike trainer, even half an hour on those things is just terrible
I did join one. Then the Wednesday evening session got canned due to lack of numbers. The only one left was 5.30 saturday morning. Which i admittedly was not exactly committed to, because beer on Friday. And now, closer to the event, I've been doing other things on a Saturday (lake swims etc) so squad got canned.
I will probably go to a different squad in the lead up to the Mt Maunganui event, as i need to get my speed up, and i can't do that myself apparently.
The bike trainer is just so shit. But it does appear to help the legs, i go up hills pretty good because of it i reckon.
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Race week. Finally.
Training done. Saturday did a 1.5km ocean swim, and it was fun. It's unreal how buoyant you are in a wetsuit in salt water. Then jumped straight on the bike for a rapid 20km ride.
Yesterday did a 45km ride with a guy who is a bit of a gun, so it was the fastest i have ever ridden. Great fun.
Conditions on the weekend, and today, are perfect, so i have everything crossed it can hold out for another week. Pleeeeease stay away wind.
Have been reflecting on how far i have come since the OP above basically a year ago. 25-30km rides felt long, and now would feel like cheating. I couldn't swim 50m without feeling like my lungs were going to explode, and now? I did 2.5km in the pool last week. It's been fucking great, and now i can't wait until Sunday.
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@mariner4life said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
Race week. Finally.
Training done. Saturday did a 1.5km ocean swim, and it was fun. It's unreal how buoyant you are in a wetsuit in salt water. Then jumped straight on the bike for a rapid 20km ride.
Yesterday did a 45km ride with a guy who is a bit of a gun, so it was the fastest i have ever ridden. Great fun.
Conditions on the weekend, and today, are perfect, so i have everything crossed it can hold out for another week. Pleeeeease stay away wind.
Have been reflecting on how far i have come since the OP above basically a year ago. 25-30km rides felt long, and now would feel like cheating. I couldn't swim 50m without feeling like my lungs were going to explode, and now? I did 2.5km in the pool last week. It's been fucking great, and now i can't wait until Sunday.
Just goes to show it's never too late to become a fitness machine.
Just don't ruin everything by becoming one of those guys who goes to cafes in Lycra with other Lycra clad blokes.
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@mariner4life How did you go mate? Was watching the coverage on tv last night. Great results for the professional kiwi athletes
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@sammyc said in The rebuild of M4L and a new challenge:
@mariner4life How did you go mate? Was watching the coverage on tv last night. Great results for the professional kiwi athletes
the kiwis cleaned up!! Given the day, i can't believe course records got beaten in both races.
@SammyC i can't give you enough respect for doing a full iron man. It gets reinforced to me every year what a monumental task it is just to complete the bloody thing. I was coming back to Palm Cove on my ride, so was 60km in, and they were just starting their ride. Fucking long day still ahead of them!
I stayed in town until 10pm to watch, guys had been going for 14 hours, and there were a lot still on course. Incredible.