Get to the pool, along with Joe and Stace... I gotta admit I'm always dragging my family along to all my little adventures, and they obediently tag along, game to give whatever the flavour of the day is a try. It's the 3 of us at the pool, not a big pool just 25m. Early September and the days are starting to get nice and warm. Which of course gives me this false sense of security when I see the sign... "Pool heater out of order" I can already see in their eyes, they are not too keen on this insanity, but they persevere ( not sure if it's out of fear of me or just curiosity as to where this was going).We get to the water and right away I'm in... to my surprise, the sign saying the water temperature was 23 degrees was greatly exaggerated. It was more like 2.3 degrees to me! Remind me again why I'm doing this!!!!
I manage to maintain my composure, enough in fact to see Joe jump in as well... and get out just as fast. Almost as if he jumped on a trampoline, he jumped in feet first, and only managed to get his ankles wet. Seeing this, Stace didn't even bother getting in, she was the wise one. She grabbed my program, and started reading for me, assuming the role of coach. Joe immediately found the sunniest part of the place and started defrosting while he waited for us... much like a lizard, baking in the sun. Kinda reminded me of a chop on the braai.
Man, am I already hungry? This cold water is getting to me, I'd better move to keep warm. So I start, 2 warm up laps and my shoulders are dying, my lungs are bursting. Stace shouts out... 1 arm drills.. WTF? What is that? How do they expect me to swim with 1 arm? I just barely managed to do the warm ups. Man, I'm in trouble. I push through the program I had found and eventually ( In my mind 12 hours later) I hear her say... and the last one, 100m sprint. Jeeeez, I survived.. wheezing, sputtering coughing like an old jalopy in dire need of an oil change, I get out... This is gonna take some work.
Immediately, as I get home I start researching. Go out and get all the toys I need, pull buoys, kick boards, the works. I'm gonna do this. Next pool session, I found a proper heated 50m pool, was doing drills, and actually progressing. Almost to a point I could do a full length of 50m without stopping. This was getting serious. So I was working on my stroke, stamina, endurance and speed for like 2 weeks, could even do a full lap, when I see this old man coming for a swim. While I'm getting ready, he gets in and starts swimming. I take a moment to watch him and I think to myself... "self, he's not going that fast. His strokes are really slow and he's old and he's fat.... maybe I should race him. BUT DON'T TELL HIM" I get in and get ready, timing it for when he comes around for his next lap.
As soon as he turns, I'm off like a flash. A full on sprint. I mean, I'm tearing down that lane, I'm surprised I'm even touching water, I'm that fast. I get to the other end, and look up... The "old, fat man" is already halfway back and looks like he's not even changed his speed... and I couldn't do another lap if my life depended on it. Dammit, back to the drawing board. More research. More practice. More drills. I eventually meet a group of guys training for the Iron Man and they invite me to join them for the swim training. Bonus! Just what I needed. They give me their program and we start working together. It was really hard work, the training partners really helped. I kid you not, 2 months later I was ready for my first race... in fact, it turns out the swim section of that race for me was the easiest.
As time goes by, I will be posting the different programs that are working for me, until then, I am still in the process of tweaking and adjusting them to get the most out of them. Wouldn't want any triathlete hopefuls trying my programs and do more damage than good. The one thing that has been consistent, I've found, is that everyone says you need to do what's best for you. Everybody has different strengths and weaknesses and shouldn't follow someone blindly. Until then, keep at it, I will be posting what I can along the road to getting there.
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