Swimming by Numbers

I grew up on Long Island. I was in, or near, water pretty much all of my adolescent years. I took some swim lessons at various times but was never on a swim team or anything like that. I generally have no fear of water. Imagine my surprise when I started triathlon training and discovered that I was a really lousy swimmer! As soon as I tried lap swimming for the first time it was obvious that I needed help; my kick was terrible, I could barely turn to breathe, and it turns out that my stroke was completely old school (not sure when the stroke mechanics all changed).

I've always been good at learning things by reading and I've gotten a long way in triathlon by figuring out things by myself. Swimming is a big exception to this; I knew I was overmatched and needed help. I started doing private lessons with a coach at my pool and pretty much had to start from scratch. I definitely did not take to it like a fish to water. Gains came only through expert help and a lot of hard work at lap swimming. It took me from January through May to be able to swim 300 meters straight, the length of the swim in my first tri in July, and that took a mix of crawl and side stroke. I was able to do that first tri (a pool swim) all crawl, but the 1000m open water swim (OWS) for my August Iron Girl tri was a fairly ugly mix of crawl, side, and back stroke.

I made huge gains during the fall of 2007 and winter of 2008 because I was having knee issues and swim was just about all I was allowed to do. By then, I was swimming without a coach and figuring it all out on my own. My speed was decent (for a 48yo triathlete, sucky for a SWIMMER) but my body position in the water was not great and I was working at it harder than I should have been. In the game of "swim golf" (strokes needed to swim a 25m length) I was needing 28 strokes. Basically, if I wasn't stroking my heart out I was sinking.

This last January I joined the Mid Maryland Triathlon Club. Through them I took a one day swim clinic in March that included an underwater videotaping and stroke analysis. Before the videotaping we were put through various drills designed to teach us about balance in the water and help give us an awareness of our body position. I learned a lot just from this, but the swim analysis was eye opening. I learned that my body position and roll wasn't bad but that my stroke basically lacked any glide (as I said above it was stroke or sink), my hand entry was poor, and my catch was too far out to the side. I was taught how to do the catch up drill and other balance drills and then sent on my way.

The next few weeks were frustrating as I broke down my swim and tried to build it back up, always keeping in mind what I had seen in my stroke and what I was taught to correct it. I was slower than ever and felt uncoordinated and out of synch in the pool. I was sucking water.

I'm not sure when it happened but somewhere in mid to late April it all started coming together. It started to feel comfortable. I had glide. My stroke count was dropping (on Tuesday I had it down to 20!). I wasn't working as hard but my speed was increasing!

I'm now at a point where swimming feels really good and my swim confidence is at an all time high. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but if I have a poor swim at Sunday's tri I'll be very disappointed.

I am a shark among minnows!