Swimming 14-07-07

This weeks been better training wise. I’m starting to feel much better after being sick for the better part of two weeks and got in a couple of good runs during the week.

The week also saw me having my first swimming lesson. While I swim to save myself, I currently can’t do much more than that, so I figured its going to be a good idea getting some proper instruction.

I have Hayden Woolly as a swim coach and told him that I’m a blank canvas. My technique is none existent, and in general my swimming can be summed up as being terrible, so he’s got his work cut out for him. On the plus side I’m really competitive and have no doubt that I’ll get the hang of this swimming thing in no time. Also I’m old enough now that I’m largely over the fear of looking like an idiot while getting the basics right.

It was surprisingly hard and I was absolutely knackered by the end of the 50 minute session. I got filmed about half way through and Hayden asked me to do 8 lengths while he videoed me … anyway thanks largely to the worlds must inefficient stroke I just made it 6. On the plus side the major flaws are clearly obvious on the video, so hopefully I’ll be able to correct those sooner rather than later. (And no Gemma, I will not be posting that up on Youtube – it’s not pretty).

While it can only get better I have to say that the swim is the one part of the Ironman that worries me the most. In saying that I had a good chat with a guy at church today who did Ironman last year. He pointed out that you have to put tings in perspective. The swim will last between 1 hour to 1.5 hours, whereas the bike will last around 6 hours and the run between 4 to 5 hours, so really it is only a small part of the whole thing.

Still I’d better figure out how to do it.