New Triathlete, New City: New Concord, OH

Welcome!

I am also a newbie, but from upstate new york (Rochester), and planning on doing my first tri next summer as well! Sounds like you are off to a great start. I'm not a swimmer, that's actually the part that I am terrified of. Yes I said terrified. Good luck with everything!

~Kim

Well, I don't think you need to be terrified of the swim. That's not really necessary. Wary, yes. Ambivalent, maybe. Terrified, no.

(Although you should keep in mind that I haven't actually done a tri yet, so take everything that I say with a grain of salt. Perhaps a salt shaker, I don't know.)

I think that the swim portion gives pretty much everyone fits, or at least all the people that I've heard from or read about. I think this is for two reasons:

(1) Most of the people seem to be coming from triathlons from biking or running backgrounds, not from swimming (though there are the occasional highschool swim team members).

(2) I think that swimming has the highest initial learning curve of the three sports. The most accomplished bikers and runners are set apart by (mostly) invisible markers: speed and endurance, the kinds of characteristics that you can't see until after considerable distance. But you can IMMEDIATELY tell a highly experienced swimmer from a newbie at their first stroke. Well, at least I think you can.

What's terrifying you about the swim?

I guess i'm scared I won't make it.

It doesn't help that I'm avoiding it, I really need to just get in the water. I have been running and biking, but avoiding the swimming.I have no experience swimming except for swimming lessons when I was like 5 and backyard swimming. I've heard of a few people mention total immersion...do you know anything about it?

You mean, you won't complete the swim portion of the triathlon? I don't think that should be a major concern. After all, you can breaststroke or dog paddle or whatever you want. And if you're really slow, the big pack of swimmers will have already moved on, and you can swim as slowly and as leisurely as you want. No rush, no commotion, no crowding! People that finish last in a tri seem to get just as much applause and support as the people who finish first -- everyone respects the person who just wants to finish as much as the elite athletes. So go on, doggy paddle.



Yeah, I think that's about right. I'm a bad swimmer, but I've been swimming fairly regularly for a couple of years now -- my wife swims laps, and so I go with her every now and then and bob around in the pool. My form is bad, I have no endurance and I can't do a flip turn without swallowing half the pool, but at least I am confident that I can swim back and forth. I know I have a basic level of preparation. Leave the concern about being perfect for later. Just start swimming now; get your goggles and suit figured out; get used to going to the pool. Do that for a while, and then start thinking about, you know, getting good.



No, not much. It's a philosophy of swimming and a set of training videos that are quite popular. You can get them from the website, http://www.totalimmersion.net/, or I've seen them for sale used on ebay or on the classifieds section of the site here. There's some sample videos on the site. The people in them are way more skilled than I am. I look like the "before" examples on the videos, actually, the "how not to swim" examples.

I think you could get the videos, but actually I think you should not be too concerned about philosophy and form right now. (Remember, grain of salt; some Elite Expert Monster veteran might have other advice.) But I think you should just get in the pool right now, and start swimming as a part of your week, and then think about form and stuff later. It seems to me that there is A LOT of thought and philosophy and style and form about swimming, way more than running and biking. That will wait, I think, until you are confident enough to tackle it.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU REALLY GAVE ME A BOOST OF CONFIDENCE! i'LL LET YOU KNOW HOW EVERYTHING GOES!

Hey, kimbreed, check out this thread in the "Talk" forum:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

good general discussion of TI and other people's experience with frustration in the swim.