Wake up and smell the chlorine
There are the rare triathletes who come at the sport from a swimming background. But it seems that most of us come either as runners or as cyclists, both terrestrial based activities. Ask someone new to triathlon what has kept them away from the sport thus far and you are likely to hear something about not being a swimmer. That was my reply, and it continues to be my greatest concern as I count down t minus six weeks to the CapTexTri.
One friend, a veteran marathoner, was flippant when I asked her if she ever planned to do a triathlon. “I don’t swim,” she said. Her manner filled in the rest: “And I don’t intend to start swimming now.” Another marathoner, chasing the qualifying mark for the Boston Marathon, hopped on his bike and was peddling off 15 and 17 mile rides as though they were nothing. He does swim, just not in deep and open water. Will he eventually dip his toe into triathlon? I’m betting so.
All of this is to say that I know many of us fear the water. We cringe at the thought of a deep water panic attack. And as I write this, I acknowledge my own fear of locking up in the open water. But I would not be writing today if all I had to offer was validation of this trepidation. No, I write today to say that progress will come more quickly than you might imagine, but first you have to get in the water and return to the water regularly, three times a week or more.
Looking back at my training log (if you don’t keep one, you probably should) I see notations in week 1 of my 12 week triathlon program of a struggle to log 4 or 500 meters in the pool. I swim in a 25 meter pool at a Gold’s Gym, and for the first few weeks I spent as much time recovering after 25 meters as I did covering that one length of the pool. Swimmers call that half a lap. If I really pulled myself together I could struggle through a full lap. But I kept coming back, determined to find improvement. Midway through the 3rd week I covered a metric mile of 1500 meters, but still swimming only 50-75 meters at a time. Lately I have begun swimming with a Finis brand snorkel and it has enabled me to focus on the stroke and on lengthening my endurance. Maybe the snorkel is a compromise, a crutch, but snorkels are permitted in triathlon and I am told some quite competent swimmers use them. For now, I can report some encouraging progress. Here I am in the early days of week 6, and I just logged a mile and a half, swimming with much greater endurance than even last week.
If I can do it, you can too. One quick additional remark, and I am out of here. When I set out on, let’s say, a 6 mile run, there is usually a point within the first mile where my body might try to talk me into a shorter run. It can trick you, and I am sure many of you have probably had similar experiences. But once you run through that moment of contention (we’re probably just getting our heartrates up to running speed), you realize it was only momentary fatigue and the rest of your run is a breeze. Same thing happens for me when I swim, and it still scares me until I realize that just like running, I need to smooth out the stroke (stride if you are running) and relax so as to postpone any premature oxygen debt. Then the laps begin to accrue and before you know it you are toweling off with a huge smile on your face. Now eat that bowl of ice cream. You earned it.
3 comments:
James, did I tell you how much I love that picture of you in the tube! its is G R E A T. You should put it on a postcard. Having been in the water since about 10 years old you would think that I would never have a panic attack right??? WRONG. you would think I had no fear of open waterright? WRONG
For all the years I have spent swimming and lifeguarding etc I have an overly healthy fear of the water. I would NEVER SWIM ALONE at the lake and standing on the Jetty at Port Aransas with the water crashing in always make me realize the waters strength and my weakness. I think being fearful of an open water swim is a healthy attitude. It keeps us on our toes and on our game. Its when we get complacent or over confident that problems seem to arise. I had a panic attack at one of the most important races of my triathlon life, and I was even in a wetsuit. My girlfriend Liz and I were at Worlds in Japan and we were swimming in ( how lucky am I) the Sea of Japan. The swim was a 1.5 miles and at about 500 meters I just totally LOST IT. I could not breath, my heart raced, all I could think about was turn around, you have an issue here you are going to d i e. I really had to mentally grab my brain and say, "you worked to get here, people SPONSORED YOU, SWIMMING is just one arm over the other, breath deep, dont think, move forward, I had never felt so overwhelmed in my life. There was really no reason for it that I know of. it just appeared. But what it did do, was allow me to understand how people do feel when they have one. ITS REAL. But if you do have one, just get back on that horse, you are not alone! As for the pool.. work your weakness is what they say. : )
I hadn't considered this fear of the water; I had considered fear of not enough strength and endurance to complete the swimming portion. But, with James's log showing definite improvement, and Zetta's response, part of the training is to have a plan and focus on it when the panic(if it comes) arrives.
Mary Dell, thanks for your comments. You hit the nail on the head that there has to be a plan for if and when panic occurs. I'm looking forward to getting into some open water within the next few weeks to, as they say, test the waters and see if there will be panic. If so, I can test the various options of what I will do about it. Better to get it into the open while training rather than on race day. And I can't tell you how lucky I am that Zetta is assuring us all that it's not just us, but the accomplished athletes get psyched out too.
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