Yesterday was it. I had ran out of excuses. I’m 46 days out from a 70.3 triathlon in Racine, WI and I just HAD to get my ass in the pool. I didn’t want to do it but those ironmen are mean. Rough. They swim with their fists and it’s important to stay as far in front of the next wave as possible! So I went to the pool. I wasn’t thrilled but I faked mustered a smile.
This go round, I decided to swim at Governors State University. They have a nice 24.99 yard (odd distance to eliminate it from being legal for competition) lap pool and it’s normally not too busy. It’s open from 6am – 9pm M-F, and has similar Saturday hours but who the hell wants to do a swim workout on Saturday? Not me! Plus, they let me do month to month so when TRI season is over, I don’t have a nasty gym membership requiring me to sell my soul to cancel. Win, Win. I also noticed some improvements to the pool area since the last time I used it for TRI training. Kinda cool and relaxing, if you head to an indoor pool for that.
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Then I got in the water and fought with my goggles for 16 minutes before I was able to get them adjusted properly and actually get to some real swimming. Then I was almost out of time and needed to pack it up and head home to the family. In all, I had a craptastic 35 minutes of adjusting my goggles and floundering around swimming for a distance total of 1250 yards ( 0.71 miles). Impressive, I know. At this rate, it will take me well over an hour to get thru the 1.2 mile swim in Racine. That means just about every wave behind me will not only swim over the top of my slow ass but also punch & kick me as they pass me up. I’m seeing stars already. I can only hope that the water in Racine is cold. Super cold. Let’s slow those crazy people down! Okay, more importantly a water temp under 78 degrees means it’s wetsuit legal. Yay, me! Although I “normally” don’t need a wetsuit for that distance, it’s nice to have because it provides a little added buoyancy, fixes some of the imperfections in my swim, and HELLO, it holds me up when those assholes punch me in the side of the head. Feel free to read my IM Muncie 70.3 report HERE.
The good news, is that the swim in Racine looks SWEET! It’s a point to point swim where we hop in the water in one spot, and swim a parallel line with the beach to another location and get out. No stupid M to swim. Or V. Or J. Or whatever crazy shape that they make to slow us poor sighting swimmers down. Just two right turns around buoys and straight swimming. Racine, we may become friends after all. Looks like I’ll just be able to put my head down and swim, hopefully in someone else’s slip stream!
Swim #1 down. Many more to go. I think I better just leave my swim clothes in my car and go as often as I’m able. My goal is 2x per week til Racine on July 21st. We’ll see how that works with the family and job and commute and life dynamic but that’s the plan as of today.
Which part of TRI training is most daunting or inconvenient for you?
** Happy TRIing ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **
TooTallFritz 
Def the swim. I bike to work everyday.. so atleast my butt gets on the bike. and run whenever my knee and time allows. The swim? Yeah.. not too much of that. Especially not in open water.. I’m not quite ready for that yet. I’m not excited to try on a wetsuit.. sort of. I dont wanna feel claustrophobic. lol
PS. you are badass! 70.3 again?! holy cow. haha
Come on ….. EVERYONE looks sexy in a wetsuit! LOL!
I’m just hoping to survive my sprint tri this weekend. I cannot imagine doing 70.3!
You are going to be amazing and absolutely love it!! YOU are a great swimmer!!!
Yay for swimming! I have been deficient on my swimming recently as well. One of my June goals is to get swimming at least twice a week. Let me know if you’re going to do any open water swims at Ohio Street Beach… I’m not too far from there.
Not sure when I can fit in open water but it would be nice. I just don’t like all that floating debris over there. 😦
Way to get back into the pool and get to work.
1250, nice warmup. JK. First time back can always be a pain in the a$$ getting everything settled.
Great job getting through! When I did swim laps, I’d go to the high school, which has a punch card and set lap times. I need to start figuring that water thing out, though, as I hope to do my first tri next year. And the insane part of me wants to do a 70.3 though I’ll probably do an Olympic distance.
Olympic distance is my fav. It’s doable as a mom/wife/fulltime worker. You can get on the bike and hammer 25 miles without much training. But the swim is almost a mile. I just take it slow and steady and it normally works out. You can do it!!
Well TTTF…sounds like swimming isn’t high on your list of things you want/like to do! I bet that GSU pool would be really good for you being so close and I suspect it is not very crowded? I know Jon Mendelson does his swimming there!. But…if there was ever an inkling that I might tackle learning to swim and try to work into the triatholon racing and maybe even do an Iron Man someday, those descriptions of other swimmers kicking and punching over-swimming you just took provide took any such thought from my mind. I will stick to running and biking….at least in races…if I be too slow…they simply pass without kicking and punching. So I guess my Ironman status will have to remain – WIn water…I sink like iron!
I have NEVER had a problem in the swim in non-iron events. I prefer the off brand races which are a little smaller, more relaxed and the participants are more focused on fun and fitness. You could definitely do it if the IM name isn’t real important to you. I’m hoping I have a better swim experience in Racine.
I did the Platteville Triathlon last year and will be doing it again this year!!! I am a turtle in all events but I never give up. I do it just for me!!! I made a bet with a 19 year pool attendant last year that we both have to the Tri together this year…. maybe I should mention that this person went to Nationals for her D3 College this spring in 2 running events (placed 4th and 8th)…needless to say, she will run and bike around me many times… but I might just be able to do a decent showing against her in swimming….just a little pressure on me to put it all out there!!!!!
The swim for sure! My swimming abilities from 1-10 ranks wherever not drowning and moving at the speed of smell is! I am sure i waste so much energy to move so slow. I want to do one, but feel like I need at least a year of swimming to not embarrass myself. At least we’d catch up on the running right?
I am getting to the pool this week for my first go at the swimming portion of the Tri training. That sounds like me, messing with the goggles until the time that I need to be getting back to the kids!
Wow, 46 days away! Its coming fast and will be here before you know it. Way to force the trip to the pool. A Wetsuite has become my best friend in the water – that and grabbing onto the ankles and legs of people in front of me to pull myself along. It pisses them off but its hard to remember who was doing it after your out of your wetsuite and out on the bike course 🙂
LOL! I had to laugh at this Amanda because I’m the same when it comes to swimming. It’s like I need super motivation with a cape to get there! I’ve managed two swims this week (in Winter!) which is the most I’ve done in the past two months. So I reckon great job for getting yourself there!