Inexperienced Swimmer

Originally posted by horsemom3 I am an inexperienced swimmer, however am still hopeful to take on the challenge of the triathlon in September. I am comfortable and confident with my backstroke, but not with other strokes. Is it possible to do just the backstroke or will I need to also do other strokes? I am signed up for swim lessons, but where I live, there aren't any available until July 1. Thoughts appreciated

You can swim any stroke you want in a triathlon.  The problem with the backstroke is that you can't see where you are going.  You should work on the front stroke.  I was living in a rural town of 5,000 people when I started to train for my first triathlon.  The only gym with a pool for 50 miles had an L-Shaped pool with two 20-yard swim lanes in the back and a 15-yard exercise area in the front.  There were no swim lessons any time of the year.  The only stroke I was comfortable with was a sidestroke.  The problem with that stroke is that you come to a complete stop on the recovery of each stroke so you end up doing twice as much work to go the same distance as you do with a front crawl.   I was training for a local 70.3 event and the distance really scared me so I needed to save as much energy on the swim as possible.  So I taught myself to do the front crawl.  The first day in the pool I couldn't even go 25 feet without panicking for air, having to stop, catch my breath and re-start.  I searched youtube for swim breathing drills and for the next two weeks every time I was in the pool I spent all of my time with my hands holding the walls of the pool working on the breathing drills.  Then I tried again.  After another two weeks, I could swim the full length of the pool without stopping.  From day one it took me about 8-week before I was comfortable with the front crawl.  After that the swim progressed quickly and I did great on the 1.2 miles swim with just 4 months of swim training and starting everything from scratch.   

So...yes you can do the backstroke, sidestroke, breaststroke, etc. but those strokes are all going to make the swim more difficult than it needs to be.  Learn the front stroke and it will make the swim much easier to tackle.  It probably took me a lot longer than most to learn.  You can learn the swim.  You just have to be stubborn and not give up. 

P.S.  Are you in Cheyenne?  I graduated from the University of Wyoming. 

BlueBoy26 said much of what I would normally say.  It's good that you're taking some lessons.  Swimming is much more about technique than brute strength or fitness and it therefore frustrates a lot of people. 

Front crawl ("Freestyle" simply means any stroke, most people use Front Crawl) is the most efficient stroke when done well.  This means it's the fastest for a given effort or conversely, less effort for a given distance/speed.  Elementary backstroke can be useful for a brief recovery, but as already stated, you can't really see where you're going if you're looking up at clouds drifting by overhead (or worse, staring into the sun).   What you'll find surprising is you don't have to "swim hard" to do Front Crawl.  Most people starting are so nervous about it they're trying as fast as they can to get to the other end of the pool.  It'd be like trying to run the 100-yard dash...you're likely to be gassed by the end.  Instead, approach it like a "walk in the park" that you could do for hours. 

I'll offer this additional detail.  Get your head "right" about swimming even before you get into the water.  If you spend the time driving to your lessons thinking "I'm horrible...this is going to be bad..."  it will!  If you spend your time driving to the lessons thinking "this is fun...I'm a great otter..." your lessons will be far more productive.  So...embrace your inner sea turtle (being comfortable in the water) as well as your inner otter (have fun, play).  A simple game to play (I used to teach swimming lessons) is to push off the wall and see how far you can "glide" without doing anything else (no kicking, no arm stroke).  Try it with your head up (eyes out of the water), head down (eyes in the water), toes pointed, toes hooked, hands apart, hands together, tensed, relaxed...(hint, tension makes swimming very difficult).