Winning Together -WW and friends of WW 11/18 - 11/25 (Page 2)

I saw this on a thread a couple of years ago and I copied it because it impacted me so greatly...I thought of it w/ this swimming discussion. I'll have to search the forums to see where I saw it originally, but I wanted to share it w/ you:

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I found this in an old email form Triswimcoach. As my swimming gets better I try to read it to remind me of how far I have come in almost a year.


"An Open Letter to the Guy at the Pool This Morning
Once you caught your breath, it occurred to you that finishing even a short triathlon might be harder than you thought. After a few "laps" you thought, "I can't believe I'm so out of shape."

I saw you. You were at the pool this morning for the same reason you're reading this: you've been thinking about doing a triathlon. You haven’t swum since you were a kid, so you got up early and came to the pool at the Y before work. I knew as soon as I saw you. How did I know? I was you a year ago. I went through the same thing. The only reason middle aged guys who aren't particularly fit and who don't know the protocol for getting into a lane show up at the pool at the Y at 6:30 in the morning is because they're thinking of doing a triathlon. I've asked them. Every single one has answered in the affirmative.

At first you noticed that everyone was wearing skin tight Lycra suits and that the people your age seemed to be in a lot better shape than you. You realized that you may just look as out of place as you felt. Rather than just get in, you stood at the edge of the pool looking around for someone or something to tell you it was ok to get in a lane. Once the lifeguard or another swimmer explained that pool’s particular variation of lane etiquette, you got in and proceeded to slowly fight your way to the other end of the pool, turn around at the wall and make it most of the way back before standing up on the bottom out of breath and shocked at how hard it was.

Once you caught your breath, it occurred to you that finishing even a short triathlon might be harder than you thought. You tried a few more times, and after a few "laps" you got out, looked at the other people swimming so effortlessly back and forth and thought, "I can't believe I'm so out of shape."

This is when the decision gets made: Are you going to do a triathlon or not? Sometimes you go back to the pool for one or two more tries; usually you don't come back at all. I haven’t seen you back at the pool after 2 weeks. You’ve given up the idea of doing a triathlon.

If you gave up because swimming is too hard, that's too bad because you're wrong. It isn’t easy, but becoming passable isn’t all that tough. Swimming is different than cycling and running; starting from scratch, with no technique, you’re just not going to get very far. It's going to take you anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks of going to the pool at 2-3 times a week and swimming for 10 to 20 minutes in small chunks before you start to build anything like endurance. Six weeks, tops. It's really hard at first and then, after a few weeks, there's a breakthrough session where you feel like you can just keep swimming. And you do. You swim for half an hour straight, no breaks.

The feeling of being an outsider in an alien environment goes away right then. You feel as if you belong there. You are a swimmer. You don’t even feel silly walking through the locker room in Lycra jammers.

Read all you can about swimming technique, buy a book or DVD, or, even better, take some lessons. But don't stop trying because it seems ridiculously hard at first. Don't let those first few attempts stop you. Getting through those 3-6 weeks can be tough mentally and physically, but you can get through them.

You know the pictures you’ve seen of a race right before the start with all those triathlete swimmers standing around in wetsuits and colored swim caps? At least half of those people went through the exact same awkward first day at the pool that you had. They just decided not to let it stop them. They decided that triathlon is about overcoming mental and physical challenges, and swimming was number one on the list.

You can either be the guy who thought he might like to do a triathlon but gave up because swimming seemed too hard, or you can be one of those people who finished a triathlon despite those first few practice swims.

Go back to the pool."

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The first time I went to swim practice with Team in Training, I sent a message to the coach (so I thought) about please don't make fun of me as I learn to low bubbles in the corner. Little did I know the group he set up had his name, but the ENTIRE TEAM got the email. I was affectionaly (I think) known as "Bubbles" for the entire season.

I recently hired a coach and her observations/suggestions have made a huge difference already (it's only been a month). I think there might be some hope!

Lani

I'm so inspired by all of you who are taking up swimming! I was lucky, I think, to start out a pretty confident swimmer, even if I was really, really out of shape and hadn't swum in ages. But not long ago, a friend at the masters' swim practice convinced me to try the butterfly -- a stroke I just don't do. (The last time I did it was because I had to pass the freshman swim test in college, and that was almost 15 years ago!)

.. But what that experience taught me is that it's really, really hard to teach your body a completely new set of movements, a combination of twists and lunges and breathing and so on that you haven't been doing in that particular combination. Especially in the water. So hats off to all of you!

On the WI front: I missed last week and this week at my WW meeting, because of being out of town. I might have to start over on my 6 weeks of maintenance. When I went to the gym today, I was 3.8 pounds up from my last weigh-in. Bummer.

I'm taking the next 24 hours 'off' of thinking about points and weight. I'm not going to go crazy, but I want to enjoy the holiday meal without worry. I'll exercise every day that I'm out of town, though, so that should count for something!

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday. And enjoy the food!

letitia

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I just finished my workout for the day. My meal is pretty simple...thanksgiving isn't bad on core at all. Don't really have any battles to fight, especially since I cooked 99% of the food. Anyway, just wanted to check in. Next on my agenda is turkey in the oven and sitting on my butt to watch football!

Look at all those beautiful faces!

I had a nice Thanksgiving. Melissa came down Wednesday night and we ran in the Oceanside Turkey Trot on Thursday morning. Then we mostly sat around trying to sleep the rest of the day! LOL

I'm cooking Turkey stuff today.

I had an invigorating bike ride in the morning before my family arrived...helped keep me on the straight and narrow.

No change since last Friday (169.5)

@ wi today, lost 2.5! this is my first week on the program based on my RMR results, so i'm pleased that over thanksgiving i still managed to have such a big loss. hopefully i'll see continued results!

Here's the link to the next thread!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=96988&posts=2#M1067090

Edited by lastcall2003 2007-11-25 11:06 AM