UKC

So this morning I went out and managed a half marathon distance for the first time . Thats the running target, for the year achieved about 2 months earlier than expected. (see my earlier thread). Was slow 2:27:48 but i never went for speed and the conditions were horrible, wet and windy. There were also more than a few hills.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=381682&v=1#x5901305

Thats after a 1k swim yesterday and neither eating or sleeping properly for a few days.

SO now I'm thinking of setting a Triathlon for next year, thoughts peoples?

In reply to John Lewis:

nothing but respect john. pushin out a half marathon in less than ideal conditions is real - none of this fair-weather-running rubbish.

actually a fairly normal time by ultra standards.

triathalon?
of course.

In reply to John Lewis:

Well done. I think having a crack at a tri is the near future is the next step. Have fun!

In reply to John Lewis:

Triathlon? Do it! I have not read all of your original thread, but if you cycle and swim already as well as run you'll be fine!

In reply to fimm: I can only swim breast stroke or a max of 2 lengths freestyle) Still last year I could not run either

The great news is that today I dont seem to be feeling any effects of yesterday, which I am quite surprised about.

In reply to John Lewis:

You are allowed to do breaststroke in a triathlon, and people do. If you'd rather improve your crawl, then I would strongly encourage you to try some sort of coaching/adult improvers class or similar, if you can find such a thing. Swimming is quite technical, and you can see a lot of improvement by learning how to do it correctly, or at least more correctly. (Obviously fitness pays a part as well...)

Take at look at this site for lots of useful advice:
http://www.swimsmooth.com/

In reply to fimm: just trying to join a Local Triathlon club to get some coaching. I Know I can do it, if I learn how

In reply to John Lewis: went for a tri club swim last night, really surprised myself and almost kept up all evening front crawl 40ish lengths. Just needed the rests every 100m. Probably only missed 2 50 reps in the hour.

In reply to John Lewis:

Good effort!

In reply to John Lewis:

Nice one, well done! Did you enjoy it? Will you go back?

In reply to fimm:

I did, I will & I have set my target for 2011

Winter improve technique, stamina and distance

Summer series over 4 weeks increasing distances to last week 500m swim, 15k cycle, 4.5k run

and do an international distance Triathlon, not worried about time just doing it

1k swim 25k cycle 5k run (or maybe if all goes well double these)

J

In reply to John Lewis:

great stuff john. cool that youre seeing a next goal and then a next etc.
triathalon you gotta do, great thing to train for and opens up all sorts of other ideas.
got a whole winter ahead to enjoy short days running in slush and hot showers after.

In reply to John Lewis: That's a great target and knowing how much commitment you have put into your training and fitness they are well with your grasp.

However it means we can't chant 'run fatboy run' at you any longer as you most certainly don't fit into that category!



Cx

In reply to John Lewis:

Good work squire! Very impressive.

Si

In reply to John Lewis: I would like to point out the number of people who have helped me believe this would be possible and helped me get here,

ice solo for advice especially, SCC for telling me he was turning up and we would be running once - that got me out there scared, Lee P who outlined a plan that I could see might work, Ava Adore for taking an interest and listening to me endlessly talking about it, Clears for letting me go for a run and then feeding me afterwards more than once, Flikka for her repeatedly over months keeping on telling me I could, not to mention all the people who just added to the thread and fb on the matter. And of course the long suffering Mrs L who has washed every sweaty running outfit all year and given me the time to go and do it, even when she could really have wanted me to stay home.

Don't underestimate your help it it, without you all I would still be sat on my fat arse infront of the TV. You have been great mates and motivators, go and do it again for others too!

J x

In reply to John Lewis:

very noble of you john.
its your attitude that i like to see, youre not looking for a way out or the easy path. youre finding the results by putting your ass on the line and one foot in front of the other and have the bottle to post it. thats cool.
from wondering about it to triathalon training in a year or so is impressive. far more encouraging than just idle online chat.

cheers to you john for the progress and the one post that actually gets somewhere rather than the endless banter about israel, christianity, fig 8s and alpine boots (which i love too but you know...)

In reply to ice.solo: ^^^^ Clears agrees with ice solo whole heartedly. Adding to that John has also inspired me to get off my butt and make a start towards improving my personal fitness so for that one he really deserves a medal!

I'm nowhere near triatholon level but I am doing regular 4 mile runs, rowing for a club and climbing as much as possible now and have set a long term target for myself which I intend to meet. I can honestly say that a lot of that is down to watching John's progress and seeing not only the commitment but the enjoyment he has had from pursuing his goals.

Cx

In reply to Clears:

How's your swimming? I'm sure you could complete a triathlon, assuming you had the time to train for it (don't you have a smallish child, or am I confusing you with someone else?)

John, excellent, go for it! I'm intrigued by your "international triathlon" - it isn't a combination of distances I've come across before.

In reply to fimm: Yes I have a small person, he takes up most of my time but am back living with my o/h in Cornwall now so I can have some time to work on my fitness too.

Love swimming but my long term goal is rowing based as I think this is the most achievable for me and I love the team effort it involves (you never know I *may* set a triathalon one but unlikely

Cx

In reply to John Lewis:

I didn't see this post until now - just wanted to say that you're an inspiration!

In reply to Clears:

That is what is important, IMHO, that you have goals that you see as achievable. (I rowed a little at uni, a long time ago, its good fun and as you say hard work!)

Its just I get the impression that some people think that you have to be stupidly fit to complete a triathlon and that isn't necessarily the case!

In reply to fimm:

Watching some of the people in the races I've seen this year, it seems to be as much about stamina and determination - there always seem to be some people at the back who are just going out of bike-run transition as the first runners come back - but I think what counts is that they're doing it and that they're keeping going. It's more than I could/would/want to do!

In reply to Tall Clare: awww Thanks!

Know what you mean about level of fitness and yes if not so determined to swim front crawl i probably could complete the distance now

but its the training and not the event that is most important given what its doing to my body but the targets that motivate the training

In reply to John Lewis:

I have a swimming target to achieve by the end of the year and I'm not getting on with it in as focused a way as I could - this thread is getting me thinking about it again.

In reply to Tall Clare: Go do it and keep us informed of the progress

In reply to John Lewis:

Sounds like a deal!

In reply to Tall Clare:

In my first open-water sprint, we think the bloke had finished running around the time I came back off the bike to start the run. In the standard I did this summer, I was changing my shoes for the run and listening to someone telling his mate that the winner had just broken the course record (or was it the run record? - not that it matters, just he'd already finished).

In reply to John Lewis:

I remember my contribution to the original thread. Now, a year on, post pneumonia, elbow injury, knee injury etc the roles are somewhat reversed, you fit bugger.

In reply to Tall Clare:

<shakes hands on it>

In reply to John Lewis:

From self-confessed overweight slob to personal trainer to the stars. Nothing short of meteoric...

In reply to John Lewis: It's going to be the swimming thats hard to sort out, got on the bike for the first time in years yesterday and loved it, 10.2K with 11 year old son, 54:54 then again on my own 27:58, Very old heavy mountain bike. Hardly felt it

Did a swim on Tuesday, can really only manage 3 lengths front crawl before I need to stop.

In reply to John Lewis:

I think if you're stuck at 2 or 3 length crawl as a maximum, but you're otherwise fit, you've not got your technique right. Get someone to teach you.

I've always been quite a strong breaststroke swimmer but could never do more than a couple of length crawl without near drowning. In the end decided to take 1 half hour lesson. Coach made me practice arms only (with a fig of 8 shaped float between my legs). Felt a bit idiotic doing it tbh but it really helped to get a rhythm with breathing and arm strokes. She then told me to slow right down, i.e. swim the crawl as slowly as poss. Worked a treat, I can now swim about 10 lengths no problem and feel like I could swim any number of lengths if I put in the training.

In reply to John Lewis:

Technique will probably be the problem there - I was much the same a couple of years ago. I picked up a book and dvd by a group called total immersion (recommended by a couple of folk on here) and it transformed by front crawl. Last time I was in the pool in the morning lanes session I managed 600 metres following along behind the fit old guys who plough up and down the fast lane non-stop at a ridiculous rate of knots. The dvd, while being cheesey american self-help in style and hilarious, was especially useful to visualise what I needed to be doing.

In reply to John Lewis:

Front crawl is my challenge - I'm crap at it but got a lesson to show me what to do in the summer and need to do more practising!

I've got the Total Immersion book, and have also been pointed at a website called http://www.swimsmooth.com/. My boyfriend's a good swimmer and has offered to look at my technique (as it were) but I need to be a bit better before I'll submit myself to the humiliation of him looking at me and wondering what on earth it is I'm attempting to do in an approximation of front crawl

Good luck! I'm at the 'one length before feeling faint' stage so you're doing better than me!

In reply to John Lewis:

for sure a lesson. even just watching a good swimmer is enlightening.
its all about efficiency - getting good oxygen exchange with as little oxygen wasted on unstreamlined movement.
make sure youre getting a good lungful each breath by exhaling whilst still in the water and slowing if you have to on that stroke. get a good position in the water so you are able to fill you lungs, and forget kicking for now as it uses a lot of oxygen.

top swimmers are extraordinary athletes and worth watching.
find your 'envelope' in the water and both pull and push it along.

good exercises are to do a few laps at 4 strokes per breath, then 6 strokes/breath, then 8 per breath. go at whatever speed is needed. then drop back to 4 strokes/breath and you will be amazed.

if you can do it with running you can do it with swimming.

In reply to Tall Clare:

Clare, I would really, really, really encourage you to let him look at you sooner rather than later. The sooner you learn good technique, the better. Swimming is a really, really technical thing, and it it really hard to work out what you are doing wrong yourself - it is much easier with someone else looking at you and seeing what you are doing.

For what it is worth; when I met the bloke in 2007 I couldn't swim crawl at all. In 2008 I did 3 sprint distance triathlons (750m swim), one of which was open water. In 2009 I did my first standard (1500m open water swim). I am still not a very good swimmer by triathlon standards (I osscilate between the "improvers" and intermediate lane at the club swim). What I think has been important for me is a commitment to trying to get the technique right. When I was a child, I learned to play a couple of musical instruments: swimming is more like playing an instrument than anything else I've done.

This goes for anyone else starting out swimming - don't wait till you think you're "good enough" for a class or group - start now, learn it right first time, don't wait until you have bad habits to unlearn!

(and breathe)
Sorry, that's a bit of a lecture...

In reply to fimm:

You make a fair point. He has already laughed at me about this He's unlikely to be horrible - in fact he thinks it's a good thing that I'm trying to do this. i think that the ol' 'crushing self-doubt' is the bigger issue for me... But if John can do it, so can I! (the front crawl challenge, rather than the 'submitting to Clare's boyfriend's steely gaze' thing as that would be weird...)

In reply to karinh: Yeah Thats what I'm working on and why I joined a Tri club to get some coaching. (similar lesson to learning to run last year. Thanks

J

In reply to Tall Clare: My plan is to keep going and slow and slow and slow, untill I get it.

I'm sure the BF would be as encouraging and helpful, get over the feeling of humiliation. I know what you mean. I've spent enough time talking to runners in the last year and a couple of weeks ago finally admitted, I am now a runner and as boring about it as them! I'm also starting to think about running with others occasionally.

I was on the one length to start justa week or so ago, now it's 3-4. I will get there so can you!

J

In reply to ice.solo: That like all your responses makes so much sense, and now I'm almost ahead of you in knowing it.

Might try the 4-6-8-4 pattern to see what it achieves.

Like watching good climbers I know I will learn by watching swimmers and trying to copy

Occasionally i find the envelope of effeciency just need to know where it is rather than stumbeling on it.

Exhaling underwater yep already knew that, head position (tilted slightly further forward gives me a better breath draw, so working to that.

Legs are useless noted!

Was considering, maybe with all the climbing my arms and shoulders are strong but not areobically fit, I need to work on that like I have my legs this last year.

Oh and did a new PB for 5k tonight felt great. dropped 30+sec of my previous.

And yep I have done it with running so I can do it with swimming. Felt crap going to the pool on Saturday but managed 10 crawl (resting every 2 lengths) 10 Breast, repeated then two fast crawl. 1.05K

Tri club training tomorrow

In reply to fimm: Yes, all this training is more about learning technique, breathing, mental attitude, than I expected and especially swimming. I too spent far to long learning the violin, and gettign a nice tone from it as opposed to a vaguley tuneful note is hard (too hard for me ast turned out after 8 years) Swimming is very like that, getting everythign aligned and working together.

Thanks. I'll let you know how I get on

J

In reply to John Lewis: Tnx again for the advice.

Tall Claire - We are waiting for the updates, don't think I might forget, keep us posted please.

J x

John Lewis: <appologises for all the typos, will try harder and not sit in a stupid position next time>

message ends

In reply to John Lewis:
no thoughts, except bloody well done, guv!!