Well, today is swim day. More specifically, Open water swim class night.
For me, like most of the people I talk to, the swim is the most difficult and often scary part of triathlon. I have to give the biggest props to the Tri Club and the Open water swim class headed by Bobbie at TCSD for getting me through the initial challenges of open water swimming.
My triathlon journey started out as a cyclist, who started to run at lunch, who then decided what they heck lets try all three! I could swim, I grew up in Southern CA spent the summers at the beach. I'm a certified scuba diver, but race swimming was a whole new adventure. Swimming with that many people around me all clawing for the same section of water is a whole new experience.
It is fun to look back on my progression in swimming. It started out with me going to the gym and jumping in the pool. After 1 lap 25M I was done. I was out of breath and wondering how the heck I was ever going to swim the 750M required for my first race. Like everything in this sport, I continued to work at it and got to the point that my stamina would allow me to swim that distance with a few rests along the way.
Then came the time to ratchet up the difficulty level. Swimming in a pool is easy. The water is clear and warm and there is a nice big black line on the bottom to follow. As mentioned above, I owe a huge thank you to the people at TCSD and the open water swim class. There is nothing like your first experience in the open water after all of the time put in the pool. First off, you have to figure out how to get into a triathlon wetsuit! As I mentioned before, I am a certified diver, wetsuits in CA are mandatory. However, that is a big dive suit, not a super light, thin, super tight, racing suit. Good thing I watched some good Youtube videos on how to get into a suit, or I never would have made it into my suit without ripping it to shreds.
Next comes the fact that the water is really cold, and you can't see a thing! I'm not over exaggerating here one bit. My first swim in the bay I swam head first into another swimmer. Somehow we didn't hit hands or arms first, we literally went forehead to forehead in the water. Ouch. This was all while I was trying to get used to the claustrophobic feeling again of being in a tight wetsuit, with goggles on in cold water. Something about that combo plays with your mind. When the face hits the cold water and is submerged, panic can set in.
To shorten the story a lot. The volunteers from TCSD are incredible. They took a bunch of us newbie swimmers and showed us the ways to swim in open water. They worked on our stroke, our body position in the water, our breathing, sighting the buoys, getting used to swimming with so many people around us, etc. Such a great group.
So the final step in my preparation was learning to swim/race in the ocean. Each new step in the process got me closer to my goal of racing, and each step ratcheted up the difficulty level quite a bit. Now add entering the course through the surf, learning to swim down under the waves in order to get to the calm water underneath the waves, then surfacing taking a few strokes, while setting up for the next wave. All while fighting the current that wants to pull me away from my target buoy. It was a lot of work, and a bit scary at first, but like anything you have to work hard to get through, I found it so rewarding. I now look forward to swimming in the ocean.
I have now gone from being really scared of the swim, to looking forward to it. Like most things in life, what you have to work hardest at, is what you appreciate the most. I really look forward to the swim now, Out of all the segments of the race, it is the one that I most want to share with people as it was the hardest for me to complete. It probably also goes along with the fact that so many people find it scary and intimidating, so to be able to do it, is just that much more of a reward.
Oh well, off to class to better improve my swim technique. Next race is on the calendar. July 24, Solana Beach!
