Learn How to Swim Training Group

Howdy. I have completed one Sprint. Learned to swim in 2008 and my goal was to not embarrass the race folks by drowning. It was touch and go when the wave behind us caught up with the group I was with and swam right over us but I made it. This summer training was interrupted and I was just restarting when this article came out so I decided to follow the program.

Question: I hate kicking with a board and previous swim coach said to do the kicking drills on my side. Advantages/Disadvantages? Am I getting any benefit from this? Do I need to go back to that dumb board?

Thanks much. I guess I will keep on kick'n...

"Pamela, how was your OWS today?"

Hi and...Thanks for checking in!

There were four of us, I was the weakest swimmer.

Windy, choppy and cross-currents (according to one of the guys who is an expert ocean swimmer).

Water a little cold, but I now wear a full-body wetsuit which really helps. We did a quick out and back to get warmed up and used to the choppy waves and currents. Jerrett tried to teach me how to sight a palm tree against the mountains in the background to figure out the direction of the current.  On the way back I was able to get my face in the water a bit, but not much.

Did the full course plus+ (about 600 yds) which I know for good swimmers is NOTHING, but swimming in the ocean exhausts me really fast. I swallowed some nice brine, tangled in some nice kelp, but hey...I finished. Little to NO freestyle, back-floating, side-stroke, dog-paddling.

This really frustrates me because I have been doing really well in the pool, freestyle swimming 1000- 1200 yards, breathing every 3rd stroke with no problem. 


The ocean swim is always the longest 15-20 mins of my life.  This next Sunday will be my second of three Sprint Tris this season. I was going to do four but the big waves in the Oxnard Tri practice scared me so much I simply didn't race, just cheered every one on.

Today I did the entire course and had a great bike and run.  If it wasn't for that darn ocean swim...I might be able to compete in my age group. (50-54).

Thanks again for asking/listening,

Pamela

Wow. Windy, choppy, cross-currents and you did it! Awesome! I and many others share your frustration with the swim thing. My first open water class I practically had to be carried in, and it was a warm inland lake.

For the experts ... I have been thinking about combining a vacation with an open water swim class this winter. Thus the progression through this program. Total Immersion has one. Any thoughts on some others?

Thanks.

Howdy Pamela

I also joined an OWS group with an instructor. It helped a lot although life gets in the way and I missed half of the classes. I started thinking about adapting life to training by combining a vacation spot that would entice my wife but have an opportunity to improve. Found a TI class in January, at Maho Bay, St. John, USVI. No experience with TI but there must be others.

Cheers

Steve

Today's Mantra: the ocean is my friend, the ocean is my friend

The ocean is my friend, the ocean is my friend, the ocean is my friend.

The ocean is a cruel beast that is trying to kill me is more like it.

Oh to swim, to swim like a dolphin and play in the waves,
to not be gripped in sheer terror, hyperventilating and unable to breathe,
to not feel like my lungs only hold a teaspoon of air once I get in the water.

I watch my friends run into the ocean with a whoop and a hollar of joy,
diving into the wave like a freaking fish, popping out on the other side with a smile.

How the hell do they do that? Am I green with envy or sick-to-my-stomach with fear?

I tiptoe in, turning my body sideways, bracing myself as the waves whack me,
Slowly making my way out past the surf moving like an zombie with concrete weights attached to each ankle.

I don't swim with grace, I dog-paddle face-up, I turn onto my back, I shreik because I touched kelp (rolling my eyes at myself), I will myself through it and ask myself,

Why? Why? Why do I Tri? What internal idiocy compels me to be out here in the ocean subjecting myself to the kicks and flailing arms of 1000 other "real" swimmers?

Twice this week I have subjected myself to ocean swimming, finding other "beginner" women to swim with, who swim far better than I without trying, who actually SMILE while swimming, who, when seeing my grimace of fear, ask, "will you be okay?". Sweet Laurie who was on her VERY FIRST ocean swim last night kept swimming back to me and asking, "are you SURE you're okay?".

Why is this SO hard for me?

I have no answers.

Namaste,
Pamela