The Triathlon Challenge Part I – Swimming

This is probably gonna be the hardest part of the whole triathlon for a number of reasons. First of all it requires walking around in public in a swimsuit which is a bit of a challenge in itself. Most of the time, these days, I generally like what I see when I look into the mirror (especially compared to what I used to see). Sometimes when I’m walking past a reflecting window I even think to myself ‘damn you look good girl’ (it’s a little arrogant, I know. But what the hell …). However, in a swimsuit that is still a completely different story. J

Furthermore, I haven’t done any actual swimming in over 10 year (not counting splashing around in the ocean). So in a way I have to re-learn swimming. I still know the basic techniques but I’m very rusty. I could do the other parts (3km run and 10km biking) separately right now relatively comfortably. But swimming 300meter is a different story. So there is a lot of training required to make sure I’m gonna be able to swim 300meter AND then bike 10km AND run 3km. 

So, how do you train swimming? Well, theoretically it’s easy. You hope in the poll and start swimming. And that’s basically what I did last weekend. But then the question was; what swimming style do I use? Here in NZ most people are swimming freestyle (it seems to be the most common style). And when you watch triathlon swimmers on TV they are all using freestyle as well. There must be a reason for that!? However, I always used to swim breaststroke back in the days so that’s what I feel most comfortable with. But it’s also quite hard and mush slower then freestyle. My favorite style is backstroke (because your head stays over water the whole time = no unwanted water inrushes). However, the problem with backstroke is that you don’t see where you’re going which could be a bit of a problem when you’re swimming together with dozens of other amateur triathletes. And it’s all good when I’m swimming inside because you can use the ceiling as a way of knowing if you’re still going straight but on the open water with nothing but the sky above me I would probably end up swimming in circles (which would look very funny but wouldn’t be very efficient J)

So I tried to swim freestyle (just cause that’s what everyone else was doing) but that was kind of harder than I thought. Couple of issue:

1. Swimming straight: I seem to be drawn to the left and kept getting into oncoming ‘traffic’ (let’s just say I didn’t exactly make a lot of new friends at the pool that day)
2. Breathing: Ideally you breath in while your head is over water to the side and then breath out under water - easier said than done and the consequences of doing it the other way around are quite dramatic (as I have learnt)
3. Coordination: Moving your arm and legs to initiate the ‘forward’ movement while moving your head sideways to breath. Again, easier said than done (took quite a bit of concentration).

So here are my option: (1) Use breaststrokes even thought it seems to be the most exhausting, (2) use backstrokes and risk swimming in circles and being disqualified for knocking out some of the competition due to not seeing them or (3) learn how to swim freestyle. 

I have decided to give the freestyle a chance and if that doesn’t work I’ll figure out something else. I bought swimming goggles so I can keep my eyes open which will hopefully help with the swimming straight issue and the breathing and coordination will hopefully come with practice. 

I will let you know how I get on ….