Learn How to Swim Training Group (Page 15)

Couldn't really judge how far it was across the lake, so we just swam back and forth a bunch, then around the perimeter awhile.  After about 25 minutes without touching bottom/dock, I felt pretty comfortable.

Signed up for the Canton (IL) Triathlon Aug 6th.  If I don't feel I have enough improvement at Canton, I"ll do the Stovepipe Tri (Petersburg, IL) August 13th.

In the meantime, I have a couple 30-mile bike rides planned in this 100-degree heat, and two days of RAGBRAI next weekend (150 miles total).

Sounds good! Learning to feel confident in your swimming when you don't have the comfort of the wall or shallow water is SO important. Glad you got to work on that.

Hi,

I am a newbie in Triathlon with two tris under my belt , one olympic and one sprint.

The sprint i've done was with wetsuits which has made it much easier for me (slowly but confidently). The Olympic one which i just finished on the last weekend was no wetsuits and it was surviving in the water which frustrated me because my bike and run would have located me somewhere in the middle of the pack.

My swimming problem is kicking which i don't know how and which creates drag that leads me nowhere.

If someone has any recommendations about swimming group or even 1-on-1 coach in NYC it will be more than helpful for me.

Regards,

Ilan

First time in the pool in 16 years. First time in lap pool...ever? Anyway I made it about 20 meters and then gassed out (I can run and bike decent enough so I wouldn't think it was only lack of fitness), shoulders burning. Still had 5 meters to go. Did the 'ol doggie paddle/treading water the final few meters. Undaunted I stayed in that pool and did laps, with great struggle, and tried to work on my form, which I think is non-existent. Anyway, it was bad.

Knowing my lack of experience I had prepared by reading, a lot, on BT and watching youtube videos--a new experience for me.

That said, let me tell you what I was experiencing and hopefully somebody has gone through something similar and can provide some pointers:

1. Every time I tried to inhale my lungs felt full already. I couldn't get air. I would exhale in the water and then try to inhale (head out of the water, of course) but I just couldnt get enough air to get me through. My biggest disappointment was that all I wanted to do yesterday was work on breathing, and that is where I failed most.

Okay, I'll just stop at 1. Dont want to bore you too much. And, when I get back tonight (no I'm not quitting til I can do this) I am going to grab a kick board and/or a pull bouy and do only stroke drills: Catch, pull, finish, recovery; left side then right side. The reason I am doing stroke drills is because I think, or it least it felt like, my warms were just moving in a windmill fashion instead of "stroking".

The pull buoy might help you feel how high your hips should be in the water when you swim. Getting that feeling will help you slow down in the water. Most new swimmers don't know how to slow down so they get gassed very quickly. To slow down, you must develop better form. Think about swimming downhill with your hips high. Also think about turning your head so it doesn't raise out of the water but instead turns to the side, with one goggle still in the water.

"Downhill, hips high." I can picture that. And chest down in the water. All visual images I will take with me on Sunday, my next go at it. I also reviewed some very basic things about swimming that seemed to help a lot too, and what is most obvious to me is that I after I start getting out of breath I lift my head--thus my hips sink--and then I have lost all of my hydrodynamics, and that is why I start strong, with my head down and I can see my positive forward movement, but then I slow down when I pick my head up to breathe, then I try to overcompensate and swim faster making my stroke detiorate and my kicks lose all form until finally I am just doing a whole lot of splashing and no moving. At least that's how I see it.

Intellectually I think I understand what I need to do, unlike my previous haphazard attempts, the issue will be implementing those corrections in the water.

I am not an expert or anywhere close to that, as I have only been doing this about a year, but I recently read an article about breathing or lack of air.  We know we need to keep our elbows up when they come out of the water but we also need to keep them up while our arms are under the water.  It may have been a video I saw, now that I think about it.  Anyway, for me this really helped, I did not realize I was droping my elbows while my arms were underwater and that caused me not to be able to get enough air.  Hope this helps and if I can find the video clip I will send it.

Would appreciate that because I think I have been reaching down and extending my arms instead of keeping my elbows up, which would explain somewhat why I am not breathing and raising my head. So many things to remember!

Did my second tri yesterday, and the results were MUCH better.  I didn't panic on the swim, actually passed a couple swimmers from earlier waves, and came out of the water running rather than floundering.

Bike was good, I think I went faster than last time, but haven't seen the online results yet. Made a mistake and forgot my hydration on the bike so....

... started the run with cramps starting in both calves.  But I ran thru the pain and finished well.

Three weeks til Chicago!

Congrats on the tri! Good luck in Chicago!  When you get your results you should post your race log.

Yeah for Craig!  Finished your first tri!  You are a triathlete!

My advice to Julia is to try the training plan here for beginners, then go open water asap.

Rec'd my Chicago Tri package via email today... starting to get excited.  Lake Michigan is 78 degrees (pretty warm for Chicago) and the air temp is supposed to be 77 on Sunday.  I'm in Wave 9, start at 6:38am.  My buddy is Wave 11 eight minutes later.  He's a faster swimmer, so we may end up hitting the bikes at the same time.

BestBuy provides a real time Android/iPhone app that's supposed to let friends and family track you in real time.  I DL'd it to my phone and tablet.  I imagine that "real time" is limited to when you cross transition mats, and not real real-time.

Should be fun.  Haven't been downtown Chicago in a decade or more. We're headed up Saturday, staying at the Drake and doing the sites that evening.....

Here's the story of my triathlon journey....

https://sites.google.com/a/oakcrestfarms.com/tennessee/joes/triathlon

Welcome! Let us know if you need any additional help!

Hey all,

I am brand new at Triathlon training and have just started the couch to sprint training program. I have experiance running 10K races and some casual cycling. Though I have grown up swimming in pools, lakes, and oceans, I have never swam in competition or properly. I know swimming will be my biggest challange as I take on this endevour. My biggest problem so far is with breathing. I find it hard to not swallow water (coming in my nose) while swimming. I try breathing out my mouth and nose when under water. I am attempting breathing every third stroke. I know my cardio will improve as I continue training but does anyone have any tips on practicing breathing??

Thanks for the tip, I will try that tomorrow during my swim training.

What really worked for me was doing beginner workouts from this site.  At first I didn't see the point of using the kickboard and pull-buoys.. I just wanted to learn to swim, swim, swim.  But looking back, I see the value of doing two or four lengths with the kickboard, then doing the required rest, followed by the freestyle.   Sometimes, doing the pull-buoys laps lets you work on your upper body form and breathing while your legs rest.  Overall, it's VERY beneficial to do the workouts prescribed here.

What I did was copy the workouts from this site into a spreadsheet, formatted them very nicely, and printed them out with a week's worth to a single page.  Then I took page 1 and 2, and laminated them together back-to-back, so I could leave them on the pool edge.  I even used the laminated sheet as a "counter" by lining it up with the small tiles of the pool.  Every time I'd finish a lap I'd move the sheet over one tile.

I've also seen people with 3x5 cards in a ziplock bag.