First Swim in the Books

Hey,

One thing I try to do every time I build up for a marathon/triathlon is change things up. I guess I get bored easy so I need to change things to keep it interesting and fun. No one's making me do this(enter races) so I may as well make the training interesting and fun. It also helps to find things that work for the next time around.

Anyways I joined a triathlon swim course together with my good buddy Curtis. He had initially joined it and told me about it. I need somthing to kick start my swimming(it's not my fav. thing) so I thought this would be it. I'd get some coaching and get to train more with Curtis. It's a little more pricey for me since I'm not a member at his YMCA, plus I have to drive a ways to get there, but it's still a good deal and fun. I went for my first swim yesterday. We did like ~500 yard warmup(yes yards, it's an old pool) then our main set was 4x25 on 40 secs, 4x25 on 35, 4x25 on 30, 4x25 on 25, 4x25 on 20. With a min or two minutes rest between sets. They changed it to 2 minutes after the second set. Curtis is improving and has good form, he really just needs more time in the pool and he'll get the fitness he needs. He mentioned that his form goes when he gets tired. Everyone's does that though, for me the more tired I get the harder I work and the more I feel like I'm spinning and not even moving. LOL Swimming is frustrating that way, fitness has very little to do with moving forward properly. Running/Biking you can get tired and still pick it up and go faster. Not so in swimming, when you get tired you put more effort into it and you automatically swim slower. It really sucks... :P Oh well I've been told it's really a monologue of the Ironman. Here's a Phil Ligit quote I remember that applies.

"You can loose the Ironman with a bad swim, but you can't win it with a good one"

It's more for professionals but it still applies to me. I just need to get through the swim, be comfortable. I won't get any big time gains on it, the bike/run is where the action is. :)