Swimming, Dealing With Soreness As Training Intensity Increases, What Is A Good Tri Investment, And Tri Bike Fitting

The time has come to get more race specific training and leave the winter base building phase. The week before last I hit a 100 yard swim PR of 1:38. Last week I beat that at 1:35! I feel like I am finally moving through the water some! Having some faster swim sets has really helped improve my swim time after having worked on technique with TONS of drills for the past six months. I am working on reaching out with LONG arms and pulling back with a high elbow catch. Here is some advice on the high elbow catch that I found to be useful from Brenton Ford:

http://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle/the-locked-elbow-pull/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=locked%2Belbow

Somehow I have lost 10 seconds on my 100 yard time in a two week period just by transitioning to faster swim sets. I'm pretty excited about the progress and like how I am actually starting to "feel" the water.

Rumble Roller

With the increased intensity in my workouts, I have been REALLY sore! I am so thankful I finally broke down and bought the rumble roller! Yes, I thought it might be a bit of hype and it's a bit pricey but rolling this over my sore muscles has helped immensely!! I LOVE it! 

With all of the aches and pains I've had this past week, one of them was knee pain for the first time ever. It led me to read an interesting article on cycling and knee pain in which they discuss plausible explanations for knee pain associated with cycling: http://www.fix-knee-pain.com/cycling-knee-pain/. Here they also discuss how you can use the rumble roller to alleviate some of your aches and pains. 

Taking the plunge to finally buy a roller leads me to this next subject of interest: What makes a good tri investment? What are you willing to pay to be faster? What products will help you get there and what is worth the money? I just read a great article on Training Peaks called "Get the Most Bang for Your Buck". It discusses whether it is worth it to get those uber cool carbon wheels or whether it is worth it to invest in a coach.  It breaks it down into the following:

1. Bike fit or Aero Helmet?

2. Power Meter or Carbon Wheels? P.S. I would LOVE To have a power meter on my bike! That would be C-O-O-L!

3. Training Plans or Hiring a Coach?

4. Losing Weight? 

The answers were easy for me. I LOVE my Zipp 808 Carbon Clinchers! They are just super fun to ride on! It was also worth it to get properly fitted on my tri bike. Last year I hired a coach to specifically fit me for my tri bike because I found I could never really get down in an aero position after paying for an expensive fitting at a local bike shop. Although I have had my tri bike since 2010, last spring was my first time really down on my aerobars because for the first time I was properly fitted. I hired TriAdventure Multisport Training in order to help me get down on my aerobars and make the proper fit for my bike. The local bike store was WAY off and it was well worth it to hire TriAdventure for one month to work with me to transition me onto my aerobars. However, what tops it all for me has been having an amazing coach like Jim McGehee with One-On-One Endurance! I wouldn't trade his coaching services for anything in the world! It has been such a great experience and he has really made me love triathlon even more (was this possible??) and love training as well! 

I hope everybody is having a great time training! Let's hope this crazy weather warms up and stays warm! Doesn't the weather know spring is just right around the corner?!?!