Wednesday, May 9, 2012

First swim - Triathlon Training

Monday was the big first swim for Triathlon training. If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen me complain about lack of ability to find a comfortable swimming suit. My torso is long, I'm plus size, and I carry a lot of weight in my midsection. Oh, and I have a lot of back fat/extra skin I want to hide back there. But finally I found one. A few weeks ago I tried on a size 18 basic solid tank suit from Reebok. It fit, but it was snug and a little tight, pulling down on my shoulders. I decided to keep looking, but to use it as a back up if I didn't find anything else. Well, after hours of dead end searches on the internet (you really CAN'T find EVERYTHING on the internet) I went back into Dick's Sporting Goods on Sunday. It was a different location than my previous visit. Low and behold they had a size 20 in the same suit I tried on before. It fit slightly better than the 18 and I decided to plop down the cash to get it.

Into the pool I went.

I recruited Jenne to come with me because I have a lot of social anxiety issues when I am trying something new or put outside of my comfort zone. Good thing she was there because I probably would have chickened out after I got into the water. All of the lanes were in use and we had to share (my worst nightmare). I sat at the side of the lap lanes telling Jenne I couldn't do it for a few minutes until coerced me into jumping in a lane. Of course, the guy in our lane wasn't following the rules (my worst pet peeve) and I forced him to run into me swimming so he would get the point. (Note: It is my understanding when sharing a lap lane you should swim "circles" or stay on the right side - just like the road - but maybe I'm wrong.)

The first two laps were a little uncomfortable. It turns out I wasn't breathing correctly while swimming. Did you know you're supposed to release your breath into the water when your face is down? Yep, exhale in the water (blow bubbles) and inhale when you tilt your head to the side. After a little breathing lesson, I was off for my second set of laps.

I'm grateful I'm fairly comfortable in the water. I've been swimming in rivers and lakes since I was 6 months old. I grew up on boats at the Lake of the Ozarks and sand islands on the Mississippi River. I learned to water ski when I was 4 and 1/2. I swam competitively for 2-3 years in childhood. And even given all of that, there were times I struggled. I felt clunky, struggled to find a rhythm, and at some points exhaled too much and thought to myself, "oh I can see how people freak out in water now."

I took 11 laps with breaks in between every 2. There's a lot of work to do, but the good part is that I enjoyed it. I'm already looking forward to my next swim. And looking forward to an open water swim when the time comes.

Next step is to figure out a biking schedule. It's sort of a pain to load up the bike for a <10 mile bike ride, so I may utilize some of the spin classes at the Y some days, but I'm not sure yet.

Needless to say, I'm pumped about Triathlon and can't wait until July 21st!

3 comments:

bolt bins said...

This pool is really so lovely. Goggles is a necessity for swimming because its protract your eyes. I also take this safety goggles for do swimming. Everything is perfect.

marisol said...

You are correct. Dude should've been going on the right side. I miss swimming so much. When i was younger I used to be on a team and I was good. But I stopped swimming, got fat and haven't been in a pool in decades. I look forward to when I get to the point in my weight loss journey when I am confident enough to try swimming again.

Prashant & Nivedita Shori said...

Well, I tried to come out of my comfort zone by trying out swimming for the first time ever (no sirree, not triathlon or lane swim for the first time, but into the pool for the first time almost!). And contrary to my very high expectataion, the lesson kind of bombed :) [http://nshori.blogspot.ca/2012/07/swimming-oh-man.html]

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