|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
ontri.com Newsletter - Volume 8 - May 11, 2006
Welcome to the May 2006 edition of the ontri.com newsletter and Happy 2nd Birthday ontri (officially May 17th). Thank you all for helping make ontri the largest and fastest growing triathlon community on the internet.
Swimming... In April, I had the fortune of spending a weekend with Total Immersion at an intense two day swim clinic, one of many they put on throughout the year. My first triathlon back in 2001 included a water thrashing swim that was more survival than actual swimming. Since then my swimming has improved a bit both in confidence and in minutes per mile. I've even learned to enjoy the swim rather than dread it, although part of that is due to the buoyancy of my tri-wetsuit. But as a self taught swimmer, I never really knew what to focus on in the pool, other than just putting in time, so when I met some veterans of the Total Immersion Swimming program at this year's New England Multi Sports Expo it peeked my interest to learn more.
The weekend with Total Immersion was incredible. It was humbling at times, especially when we watched the video footage of ourselves, but at the end I felt at ease in the water and was flying across the pool with much less effort than before. Most importantly, when I swim now, I know what to focus on and when things go wrong I know why and can make corrections. It was an amazing transformation in just 2 days and I've been logging lots of swim miles since!
The weekend began with a videotaped lap across the pool for each of the seven class members. Upon completion of this inaugural lap, I felt confident that I was at the top of the group. What I learned moments later, when they began to break us down to basics, was that even though I could get across the pool faster than most in the class, it was only because I had spent more time reinforcing my bad habits. In the first hour I quickly became the worst in the class, inhaling water, flailing around and getting frustrated quickly. My bad habits were hard to break. Fortunately the Total Immersion instructors were patient and kept working with us until we nailed each step before progressing on to the next. Late in the first day, I could start to feel it coming together and by Sunday everything was clicking.
We spent the first morning focusing on balance in the water, making minor adjustments on each lap until we could all feel the impact that slight changes in body position have on our balance. By focusing on balance first, we helped to get our bodies into a horizontal position to make us more streamlined in the water. A common mistake for new swimmers is to pick your head up in an effort to see and breathe more easily but even a slight pick up of the head causes your legs to sink and create unnecessary drag. We did several drills to help us focus on keeping our nose pointed down and rotating our bodies to breathe rather than picking our heads up. It felt unnatural at first but as we repeated the drills over and over, our muscle memory began to lock in the new positions. We even did a drill where we attempted to "swim downhill" to counter the natural "uphill" tendency that many of us have. As our balance improved, we then began to focus on length, or what they call "skating" in the water. By lengthening each stroke, extending our bodies like a speed skate and maintaining that position much longer than feels natural at first, you get more out of each rotation. By holding the skating position longer, we each began to feel a more natural and easier glide through the water. With balance and skating we were on our way, then adding some breathing drills and arm positioning drills and by Sunday afternoon the entire class was zooming across the pool. The final video comparing our first swim to our last was dramatic.
The coach I worked with is Celeste St. Pierre and she is phenomenal. Celeste runs several Total Immersion clinics as well as triathlon camps. For more information visit her web site - www.tritekcamps.com or the Total Immersion web site at www.totalimmersion.net
Improving ontri.com... We continue to improve the site and as always we welcome any and all input so please keep it coming. Recent highlights include:
-Customize your training plans: We recently added many new features to make it easier to edit the ontri training programs and added the ability to upload your own program. If you've selected a training program that you want to edit, click on the trainer tab, then click "edit plan" which will take you to a week by week view where you can add, delete, edit and move the assigned workouts. In addition, you can download the program to Microsoft Excel, make edits in Excel and then upload the changes (in csv format) back into the ontri.com trainer. You can even upload your own training program from a .csv file if you have a program that you developed or a coach developed for you. To do this click on the trainer tab and then "change my training plan"
-New reports: We added new reports this month to offer new ways to compare your performance to the ontri community. You can now view superstars by total calories, total run miles, swim miles and bike miles as well as report on the fastest swimmers, cyclists and runners. The reports can be run by month, year or all time and you can report across your club or the entire ontri community. In addition, we added a report to view your weightlifting details. You can report by time period and sort by date or by exercise to view your progress on each type of workout that you do. To access any of the new reports, click on the trainer tab and then the reports link.
-Enhanced events: As promised, we added better international capabilities to the events database and also added the ability to edit events. Our events database continues to grow and by clicking the "I'm doing this race" link, you can let others know which races you are participating in and connect with others prior to race day. If your race is not listed, please add it from the events tab.
trivillage.com introduces Kestral triathlon specific bikes... Trivillage.com recently began offering triathlon specific bikes from Kestral. These are top of the line, stunning bikes and trivillage is one of the few online retails to carry their products. Ontri members will get special deals on Kestral bike orders but you must call Trivillage for details on your discount. Check out www.ontri.com/gear2.html for details.
ontri.com members continue to get 10% off all other gear purchased at trivillage. We work with trivillage because of their great selection of gear, unbeatable deals and superb service. Check out www.ontri.com/gear2.html for information on how to get your discount.
Featured events...
TriChic "Wine Country" 4 day (all-inclusive) Training Camp (June - California) Camp Participants get a FREE race entry into the TriChic Traithlon
on June 4th. Train in the most beautiful part of the
world and enjoy spa services, the sulphur springs pool and wine
tasting tours during your free time. It's a great weekend
getaway for yourself and/or with your girlfriends. You'll leave camp
with better racing skills, with new friends and
memories you'll never forget.
TriChic Sprint Triathlon for Women Only (June – California) Race Bags can be picked up on Race Day at the Race Site OR on Saturday at St. Helena Cyclery (NO RACE DAY REGISTRATION). All TriChic Race Finishers will receive a Limited Edition TriChic Pendant Necklace. http://trichic.com/html/events.php
CGI Racing Presents three great races this season (Philly, New Jersey, Maryland) Philadelphia Women's Triathlon, July 9
New Jersey State Triathlon
Feedback and suggestions…
Happy training!
ontri.com - triathlon training for the rest of us
|
|||
| Triathlon Training Marathon Training Health and Fitness | |||
 |
