My Triathlon Adventure

One of the great things about the triathlon training program at the YMCA is that they have a beginner’s swim clinic.  That way, hopefully, I can get some help on swimming.  My hope is that I get comfortable enough that I can swim in the deep lap pool at the Y instead of the shallow, but more crowded general purpose pool.  I can’t help but see images of myself getting dragged out of the pool by a life guard, now that would be embarrassing.

So here is my plan, I have a book called Swimming Made Easy.   It is a book with drills using the Total Immersion method of swimming.  I have had it for about 2 years, and have done a few drills, but never dedicated enough time to get to anything that even looked like swimming.  I plan on getting some tips from the swim instructor for the basics, and then running through the TI drills to get more proficient.  That’s the plan anyway.  The first swim clinic is on December 15th, I’m excited.

Since I really have no base, I’m just going to work on building endurance.  I plan to continue my weekly spin session.  It is a killer workout and I think it can only help me in biking.  As it stands, in the hour or so of spinning (there is a warmup and cool down period that last about 15 minutes all together) I put enough distance on the bike to do the biking portion of a sprint triathlon.  I will try to balance this with some running where I can.  I’m also not too worried about the running portion of the sprint triathlon.  I think I will be ready to do a 5K.   My biggest concern is the swimming portion.

I can’t swim at all.  Not even a little bit.  I mean, I can float and I can make a little forward progress, but I have never swum in water that is deep enough to go over my head.  This will be my biggest challenge, and I plan to dedicate most of my time to learning how to swim and then building endurance.  So to sum up:

Biking: I will continue my weekly spin class

Running: I will fit it in when I can

Swimming: I will give it my total focus until I become proficient.

I have been spinning now for a few weeks.  I was doing it for fitness before planning to do a triathlon.  Now there is an even bigger reason to keep up the spinning.  I have to say, I really enjoy the spin class.  It has pushed me to the limit more than any workout I have ever done.  When I train on my own I typically give up when I get tired.  Spinning in a class with all these other people, the loud music, and the great spin instructors, I feel like I can’t quit, so I press right through it.   Lots of hard work, but lots of fun.  Ultimately if I get to the point where I do an Ironman triathlon this spinning stuff will be easy in comparison.