Ellyn Ritterskamp
Uh oh. I have spent all my energy training for the running portion of Sunday's sprint triathlon in Rock Hill, and none swimming. As in, none. As in, I have not timed myself swimming since I was 13 at summer camp, and even then all we had to do was stay afloat for ten minutes.
I timed myself today, and it was not pretty. First of all, I have to figure out how to warm up before swimming. Lots of people do these events, and I will find tips from some of them.
Before warming up, I tried an overhand stroke and ran out of gas very quickly. 50 yards took 2 and a half minutes. Outrageous.
I waited a bit and counted that as my warmup, and did 50 yards backstroke. A bit better. 2 minutes.
Then I thought it couldn't hurt to try a sidestroke, which I prefer anyway as there is no breathing stuff to think about, but I assumed it would be the slowest. Huh. I did that 50 yards in 1:45, which still sucks, but if I can hold that pace, 250 yards could be done in under 9 minutes. I just wanted to beat ten, so maybe this is not so bad. Mom is doing the hard part - the ten-mile bike ride - and then I will have had quite a while to get changed and run two miles to finish it.
As I was leaving the pool, I watched a young lady getting into it on a special chair that assists folks in from the side. I got over any self-pity I was feeling right then. If she can do laps with whatever her situation is, I can shut up and go down and back five times on Sunday.
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6 comments:
I just got back from the pool at the Y and totally feel the same way! I had to work up getting the nerve to be in public in a swimsuit first! At least at this Y I didn't feel like the lifeguards were circling me since I was clearly panting a few days ago and coughing since I managed to swallow water as I don't have the breathing thing down quite right. 2 minutes for 50 yards doesn't sound bad to me! Good luck at your race! Mine is in September.
You might want to try swimming the Breast Stroke, I find it a lot less tiring, I'm 63 & have always enjoyed swimming & over the years have found the Breast Stroke is my favorite. Although, my husband says my legs look like frogs legs, well so what? Frogs are good swimmers.
If you are seriously interested in becoming a better swimmer there are a number of USMS teams in the Charlotte metro area, helping/training adult swimmers of all levels. This is a very active community, both for competition and general swim fitness. I highly encourage you to visit the USMS website and look at the options. There are teams at MAC, MCAC, Harris Y, HFFA and Siskey Y.
Hooray! The pool will be open from 7:15-7:45 for warmups before the 8 a.m. start.
Ellyn
Ha. To fix it so we got out of the pool in the proper direction, we only swam 225 yards instead of 250.
We finished the event and were not last. Official times aren't up yet but I think it's in the 1:45 to 1:50 range. The winners did it in the 50- and 53-minute range, bless them.
More in another post later in the week.
Ellyn
Great blog! Check out www.triitforlife.com and consider joining us next year. We take women from the couch to their first sprint triathlon. We teach anyone how to swim!
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