Flailing like a cat in water

Yep I started swimming. I have been excited to start training in this area and start real multisport training. It has taken a while to locate an indoor pool in these winter months, but I finally hunted one down 45 minutes away from my house, and it's free with my local gym membership as well. It is a win win situation . . . if I could swim.

This past December I went out and ran the Jingle Bell Run where I live. It was a fun event and it taught me one thing. It taught me that even if I haven't been staying up on training, or really haven't been doing anything for a few months, that I can get out there and run a 5k at a reasonable pace. It felt good knowing that I am still an athlete and still somewhat/pretty fit. The first time in the pool kind of took that thought away though.

My family and I went up to the pool this last Monday. There is a great kid portion at the pool so they can play and have fun while daddy trains. I recently bought some new goggles and was excited to see how I would do in the water, I mean after all I was pretty fit right?

One and a half laps in and I was dead tired. My heart was racing and I soon realized how hard this was going to be. I stood there in the water at the edge of the pool thinking to myself, "can I really do this? I think so . . . but it's tough. I should be able to do more, can I do it?" Then I would press on for one more lap, until I found myself at the other end of the pool thinking the same things.

Soon I found myself back with my family in the family area. I was enjoying the family time, but in all reality I was resting. I did that two or three times, but I always went back for more. Half way through doing this back and forth transition, not knowing if I would be able to go back again, I thought of something. I told myself, "When you starting running you would run 60 seconds, and then walk 90. That was all you could do. Now you can go out and run five miles if needed. So today you will swim two laps."

All in all I probably struggled through 15-20ish laps, but I learned two things. First, this is going to be really hard. I am going to have to slide my running and biking to the back burner for a little bit and work on swimming. Second, I can do it. There is no reason I can't, and so I will keep going and eventually I will be an Ironman. Let's go get that Mdot, 2 laps at a time.

Posted with Blogsy