I love to swim sprints in a masters meet but I also have enjoyed doing triathlons. It is very difficult to train for both. I'd love to hear from folks that compete in both masters meets and triathlons to learn how they balance training and competing in both.
Thrashing Slug - I agree with you that the bike and the swim seem to help each other, particularly in the kick sets. One of my favorite sets is 10 x 100 dolphin kick on 2:00 or 5 x 100 dolphin kick on 1:45 (no fins of course!). This seems to really work my core and my legs. Great job on your race this past Sunday!
Blackbeard's Peg - Maybe we can get you to join the small group of us that wear an HR monitor when we swim.
I'm a big believer in the HR monitor because like swimshark's dad, it helped identify an underlying medical condition. I started doing triathlons in 2000-2001 and really got hooked. By 2003, I was actually starting to get decent at them and thus, had big goals and big dreams. Starting in 2004, however, my performance started to decline dramatically to the point I had to walk the run of the last triathlon I did in 2006. I did not understand what was wrong. I tried backing off, etc. and nothing seemed to work.
I got my answer one night when I was wearing my HR while running on the treadmill. I had finished my run, been off the treadmill for 20 minutes, and was talking to somebody when I looked down and noticed that my HR was 140! I thought it strange and figured my HR was broken, but when I felt my wrist, my pulse rate was out the roof for somebody just standing still having a conversation. I had a friend take it and he got in he neighborhood of 140. When I sat down, it dropped to 60 in 15 seconds (my resting HR is 50). When I stood back up, it jumped to 136 in 1 minute and stayed up that high while I was just standing still.
Anyway, to make a long story short (I know this is a long post already), I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system. My cardiologist is a swimmer and a triathlete, so he has been very understanding of my situation. Many with my diagnosis are put on beta blockers but my doc said this would change my VO2 max. He felt I could continue to compete and not take beta blockers if I was very diligent about monitoring my HR while training and staying well-hydrated.
I've done three masters meets since I was diagnosed 2 years ago, but have yet to do a triathlon. It was a challenge to train to swim at Nationals and not make too much of a fool out of myself. I'm hoping now to take on the challenge of training to compete in a short, sprint triathlon.
Thrashing Slug - I agree with you that the bike and the swim seem to help each other, particularly in the kick sets. One of my favorite sets is 10 x 100 dolphin kick on 2:00 or 5 x 100 dolphin kick on 1:45 (no fins of course!). This seems to really work my core and my legs. Great job on your race this past Sunday!
Blackbeard's Peg - Maybe we can get you to join the small group of us that wear an HR monitor when we swim.
I'm a big believer in the HR monitor because like swimshark's dad, it helped identify an underlying medical condition. I started doing triathlons in 2000-2001 and really got hooked. By 2003, I was actually starting to get decent at them and thus, had big goals and big dreams. Starting in 2004, however, my performance started to decline dramatically to the point I had to walk the run of the last triathlon I did in 2006. I did not understand what was wrong. I tried backing off, etc. and nothing seemed to work.
I got my answer one night when I was wearing my HR while running on the treadmill. I had finished my run, been off the treadmill for 20 minutes, and was talking to somebody when I looked down and noticed that my HR was 140! I thought it strange and figured my HR was broken, but when I felt my wrist, my pulse rate was out the roof for somebody just standing still having a conversation. I had a friend take it and he got in he neighborhood of 140. When I sat down, it dropped to 60 in 15 seconds (my resting HR is 50). When I stood back up, it jumped to 136 in 1 minute and stayed up that high while I was just standing still.
Anyway, to make a long story short (I know this is a long post already), I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system. My cardiologist is a swimmer and a triathlete, so he has been very understanding of my situation. Many with my diagnosis are put on beta blockers but my doc said this would change my VO2 max. He felt I could continue to compete and not take beta blockers if I was very diligent about monitoring my HR while training and staying well-hydrated.
I've done three masters meets since I was diagnosed 2 years ago, but have yet to do a triathlon. It was a challenge to train to swim at Nationals and not make too much of a fool out of myself. I'm hoping now to take on the challenge of training to compete in a short, sprint triathlon.
