Dodging the dull stuff...

I ended up marshalling a duathlon this week (just checking the road is clear for the cyclists at a junction) seeing as I took part in the last one I thought it was only fair. I got chatting to one of the tri guys about training and he was saying how he is focussing on the swimming because it is his worst area. I asked him how his front crawl was coming on and he stated he still struggled but was persevering. I have to admit I have been dodging the swimming. Even though it is also my worst area and I really should focus on it more. I think part of the reason for dodging it is the convenience factor: It's not as easy as chucking your trainers on or grabbing your bike. You have to check the local pool is running lane swimming, and when, and then allow for the fact that other people use it too! Sometimes it's packed (7am) but what can you do? Still need to practice. So this week I have resolved to get into the pool more, and practise both breast stroke and front crawl based on the couple of coaching sessions I've had. I think it goes under the radar because my brain tells me "swimming is the shortest bit, like ten minutes max" which is true for this year, for the sprints, but if I want to progress to a normal distance tri I'm going to need to be able to swim 4 or 5 times the distance I am now. The bit that scares me most about going up to normal distance is the swim! The bike and run you can plod through if necessary, but even without trying to push it, the swim is exhausting!

I managed to bash out 30 lengths on the trot thing morning. It was easy enough and works out at 750m which is still sprint distance (depending on which race you are taking part in). It took about 20 minutes (which makes sense as I’m currently doing 16 lengths in about 10 minutes which is 400m, the swim distance for the sprints I’ve been opting for so far). Let me just put this into perspective for you with some information from the British Triathlon Federation:

Super sprint - 400m/10km/2.5km
Sprint distance - 750m/20km/5km
Standard distance - 1500m/40km/10km
Middle distance - 2.5km/80km/20k
Ironman distance - 3.8km/180km/42km

So it looks like I’ve been doing super sprint swim distance but sprint distance bike and run. The swim didn’t feel too bad and I wondered if I’d built the swim up into this big bad monster and was expecting it to be far worse. The curse of working in cognitive behavioural therapy is you end up applying it to yourself! I should have known that avoiding something would have made it feel worse.  The other funny thing is about perspective. Slogging away to hit 16 lengths seemed like a proper mission whilst doing it, but working towards 30 lengths the 16 passed by without so much as batting an eyelid! This was probably because I realised I couldn’t just hammer it and get it done like the 16, I had to actually pace myself and think about keeping going rather than getting it over with.  I think the other main problems with swimming are one: it’s boring! I know I could swim 1500 metres (60 lengths) as I already have, but jeez it will be dull! Also, the likelihood is that the standard distances will be open water, which is a whole new ball game! And also very hard to gain practice in.

So, all in all, loads of reasons to stop dodging swim practice! Next stop, the pool!