Mary Meyer Tri & Open Water Clinic

In preparation for the Danskin, D and I attended the early morning tri and open water swim clinics put on by Mary Meyer Life Fitness. We first heard about MM early in our Tri adventure, when some more experienced tri-friends said "definitely go to these clinics." So we checked Mary Meyer herself out at a totally free REI seminar she gives on triathlon tips.

First of all, ANYONE in the Seattle area who is considering doing a tri for the first time should go to MM's free seminar. 1) It's free. 2) It's extremely helpful. 3) Tons of those newbie questions your a tiny bit afraid to ask (like, um, dude--what the hell do I wear?) get answered with awesome humor and candor. 4) You get exposed to Mary Meyer, who is so cool I am now sporting a major girl crush on her. 5) It's free.

After you go to the seminar you will very likely sign up for some of MM's clinics. D and I each bought the First Timer's Package: a punch-card good for one each of the Tri Clinic, Open Water Clinic and Pool Clinic, plus Two Clinics of Our Choice.

I will admit that the panicked need I felt to attend these clinics had faded somewhat since actually participating in the 5 Mile Lake Tri, but I was still exceited for the tips and tricks. So yesterday morning, at 'o-dark-thirty, I roused myself and put together my entire tri kit. All of it: wetsuit, hydration, bike, helmet, more pairs of shoes than I normally take on a European vacation...and swung by D's place to pick her up.

I don't know what it is about D. I think maybe she drove too fast past some Bayou swamp one time and a Voodoo practitioner cursed her tires forevermore. Or maybe it's that she habitually under-inflates. Dunno. In any event, in the past three weeks she's popped a bike tube and one of her car tires. So I get to D's place and as she's rolling her very nice, three-month-old bike out of her house to load onto my bike rack the side wall of her rear tire explodes. Note that she wasn't riding the bike, she was rolling it. For like 20 feet. We examined the tire and the side wall had a 3/8", triangle-shaped tear in it, like maybe a nail had snagged the tire and pulled a hunk back.

So we navigate our way along Lake Washington Blvd through the bicycling hoards starting their first few hours of the STP! (Go guys! You rock!) D says we should do the STP next year. Um, only if she makes amends to the Voodoo practitioner.

We get to the tri clinic and learn how to set up our transition area, then prepare for the swim. Speedy Reedy was there letting people trial wetsuits, and D wriggled into a full suit (and hated it!). We divided up into groups based on ability, and D and I self selected into the advanced group.

We waded out into the lake and swam two at a time towards our group's two swim instructors. When we reached her she gave us each a few words. My word was follow-through. After we had all completed our swim, the swim instructors went through the words. Those of us who had follow-through issues were told to make sure we completed our stroke by extending our hand all the way back to our hip. Apparently I was cutting my stroke off at the end. I think I was doing this because I am trying to concentrate on front-quadrant stroke mechanics, and after my arm gets past my shoulder I want to get it back up front as quickly as possible. But the reality is that cutting the stroke off is just shortening my "glide" time and increasing my stroke rate, both things I don't want. So it was a very helpful observation.

After our semi-individual swim assessment, we swam out to a floating pier and worked on group starts, rounding buoys and pacing. Then it was time to swim in and move to biking. I swam in until I was literally grabbing silt and sand at the bottom of the lake, then stood up. I was told I could have swam in 4 or 5 more feet. Shit! Okay, have to work on that.

Then the bike...oh the bike. Well, due to her flat tire, D was stuck with the beginners group for work on shifting, mounting, dismounting, etc. I strongly considered joining her because, although I am physically pretty solid on the bike, I shift the wrong way all the time and don't have a really solid feel for starts and stops. Other options were the intermediate group, with a flat ride, and the advanced group for hill climbing technique. I have flat's down (pedal!), so I was interested in either technique with beginners or hill climbing with advanced.

D told me to go ahead and go with the hill group, so I joined that group. As I rode up I said, "I don't know if I'm advanced yet, but I'd like to try the hill work." And then I fell over. Yup. I fell over, bike on top of me, right next to the hot Asian chick with the Cervelo P2. Mildly ego bruising. And knee bruising. It was the exact same thing that happened after the ride with my sister: I had my right foot out of my clips, ready to put my foot down as I stopped, and as I slowed my bike....slowly...tipped...to...the...left. The side where I was very much still clipped in and basically helpless. Lesson learned: unclip BOTH sides before I even begin to slow down.

A girl behind me did make me feel much better when, 30 seconds later, she also fell over. And we were the "advanced" group. Heh.

The ride itself wasn't much better. After describing our course, our bike leader took off. I was behind a gal in a green jersey. I followed her up Lk Wa Blvd, with other people following me, until it became clear that we were no longer following anyone but each other. Our leader was long gone, and we had missed a turn somewhere. Our second instructor, who had been bringing up the rear took us up a smallish hill, where we rejoined our original leader and half the intermediate group (apparently there was a convergence at some point). It was all very haphazard. So then original leader says, hey, we still have time to get in some hill work. Let's go back up Lk Wa Blvd and head up Madronna.

Then she takes off. Again! I'm determined to stay with her, but by a mile later it's her, a guy with a cool accent and strong riding skills, and me. When I glanced back there was nobody. I'm fairly sure we lost the rest of the group again. So Original Leader waits at a bend in the road and Accent Guy and I continue on. So now I'm following Accent Guy and it's just the two of us, and we eventually do go all the way up Madronna. I don't mind saying: that hill is a bitch. But I made it to the top, which amazes me, looking back on it. I even stayed seated for almost all of it.

And then we come down. A 10 minute up was about a 10 second down, and we get back to the MM Clinic a few minutes late. Everyone who wasn't totally ditched is already there. No one else did the hill. Mary Meyer, please take note...better communication and group management on the bike, please. When some people ride 22 mph native and some ride 13, the group can spread out pretty quick. And many of us don't know the neighborhood.

When I got back, I saw that D had managed to fall too. She got banged up pretty good, with a monster gash in the palm of her hand. Apparently they were practicing dismounts and she totally stole my moves and ended up with a bike on top of her.

Anyhow, the running portion of the clinic has started when I return from my almost solo bike excursion. We get an overview of proper running technique that sounds very familiar and off we go...a short little flat and then up (wait for it) Madronna Hill. I am really starting to hate this hill. The running doesn't take too long, but I do have the opportunity to talk to the run coach (who is very pleasantly not build like a typical runner: shorter, busier, nicely rounded) who confirms that she's giving people Chi Running technique. (Sidenote: Chi vs. Pose--still trying to figure out which one's for me. I like the whole detached leg feeling I get from Chi, but I also think working on my turnover ala Pose is key to getting my speed up.)

And then, that's that. There may have been some sort of Tri Clinic wrap-up for those people who stayed another 10 minutes; I don't know because for those who are also doing the Open Water Clinic, it was time to move 50 feet to the right and join that group.

The Open Water Clinic was like a sup-ed up version of the Tri Clinic's Swim section. It started with a lecture from Mary Meyer and some of the other coaches. Those who had already attended an Open Water Clinic could skip the lecture and get right to the swimming. The rest of us got an overview of swimming strokes and learned several ways to sight. We also learned how to modify our stroke if it was really choppy or wavy in the lake.

Then we repeated the 2x2 assessment drill, with D and I working rather concertedly to get Mary Meyer as our assessor. (I mentioned my girl crush, right? Don't judge! I'm not cyber stalking her or anything! I just want to be just like her when I grow up.) MM said "entry & follow-through" and later explained that I was continuing to cut off my stroke at the back (damnit!) and was also slapping the water as I came down, rather than cutting through it smoothly. She also said that those of us wearing wetsuits needed to be carful not to swim too flat, as the wetsuit wade it easy to stay really horizontal in the water. Interesting: I thought that it was maybe a good thing that the wetsuit cut down on my body roll, but now I know to keep a strong body rotation component in my stroke, even in a wetsuit. Great tip.

When we swam back to her after the tips, she said I looked very good, so I guess my attempts to slice into the water, put a bit more rotation into it, and reach down to my hip on my stroke made a difference. Yeah! And then we swam out to the floating dock and I was the first one there. Not that it's a race, but yeah--kinda it is a race. So I felt like I really did belong with the advanced swim group and that was a really great feeling.

Aftter some more skill work we all assembled back int he shallows for a 300 yd mock race. We were to swim along the swim area boundry, out to a buoy and back to shore. About half way through I ran into MM. Plowed right into her. She said my stroke looked good but I needed to sight more. Yes, I guess pile driving your would-be swim guru is a sign that one should look up more. Point taken, Mary. I didn't have to fight back panic, but I did have to switch to breathing every two strokes. Something about being out there: even if your not actually panicking, even if physically you're not working that hard, it's reassuring to breathe more often. It seems to be my pattern that I am really calm for about 100-150 yds into a race and then start to lose a bit of that cool. I am hoping that the MM Swim Workouts will help with this.

I came out of the water probably 7th or 8th of maybe 75 or 100 people who were doing the Open Water Clinic, so I felt pretty good about that. D, this time sans wetsuit, was just behind me, and within a few minutes most of the field was stripping off swim caps and making their way to the complementary Clif products and vitamin water. Mini Clif Bars are just the right size; Shot Blocks are like the bastard child of a jell-o shot and a no-doz, and I think I love them.

And then, after several coaches including MM congratulated us on getting out there and doing it, we wrapped up.

All in all, a very helpful session. I would rank the OW Clinic as a bit more helpful than the Tri clinic, but mostly because I already had one tri under my belt. For a total virgin, I think the Tri Clinic would really help lay out the details. I also think that in some ways the tri clinic was tougher than the actual tri. Not physically, of course, but in the sense that it was all the confusing parts without any of the smooth, "okay, now I pedal for an hour" parts that are pretty easy to get your head around and give you the mental time to rehearse your next move. I.e., "When I come into transition I will be totally unclipped, move to the side of the dismount area, and go!"

Strong points include the individual assessment within a large group environment, particularly with the swim. Also extremely good was MM's no-bullshit attitude and emphasis on mastering the head game of racing in general and open water swimming in particular. Direct quote: "If you get out there in the water and you start to panic--and we all do--you have two choices: get over it, or drown." She believes, as do I, that almost everybody can do more than they think they can, but sometimes they have to get out of their own freaking way and do it.

Very well done. I did find the cycling as noted to be a bit disorganized, and would have liked to have seen references/credit given to outside study sources such as the Chi Running they obviously style from. I will very likely take the open water clinic again and/or do an open water workout to continue to get comfortable in open water, but I feel like this was a great start.

Oh, by the way, the folks up the road at Triumph Multisport replaced Ds tire with some super heavy-duty almost unpoppable tire. Here's her hands after getting her tire off to take it into them: