Swimming is not as horrific as you might think

As I began preparing my triathlon training program, the one thing that kept popping into my head is "how am I going to survive the swim?" I'm perfectly comfortable in water, but I have never been coached or trained on proper freestyle swim form. I knew I was starting from scratch and that scared me a bit.

Once I began talking to fellow runners about doing a triathlon, I found out that swimming seems to be the leg of a triathlon that keeps most people from doing one. As I started to read on the subject, I found several articles, including one in Runner's World that was entirely dedicated to discussing the difficulty that runners have with swimming when attempting a triathlon. What had I gotten myself into.

I knew that the only way to conquer this fear and doubt was to face it head on. I decided to start swimming as early as possible. I began going to the Urbandale indoor pool 1 day a week over lunch starting the week after Thanksgiving. It was just as horrible as I had feared. I started with 20 minutes but I had to stop and rest at each end of the 25 yard pool to catch my breath. I felt like I was drowning at times. My wife, Erin, tried to convince me to hire a coach, but I am stubborn. I agreed that if I couldn't get it figured out by mid-March, I would try to find a coach.

Moving into the New Year, I started watching some swim training videos on YouTube as well as talking with my wife and co-worker, Megan (both of them have competitive swim experience). I had been trying to focus on my breathing, but I realized that it really was my form that was causing me to be so out of breath. I was relying on my legs way too much and was not exhaling under water. It honestly was that simple. In January I purchased a 1 year unlimited pass to the pool and started going twice a week. Now that my breathing is under control, I have started focusing on my form, specifically body position in the water, hip rotation on my stroke, and keeping my head still. Currently I am swimming for 25 minutes twice a week and am able to swim 650 yards in that time. Although I'm not taking time to learn kick turns (those would prove useless in open water), I only truly stop for a short break 2 - 3 times per swim.

Oh, I forgot to mention, now that I can swim without feeling like I'm going to die, I actually look forward to going to the pool. I am also excited for warmer weather to come around so I can start doing some open water swimming.