BOGUS.
If I am honest with myself, my swim has gone no where in a solid 6 months. That's nobody's fault but my own. When I first got into triathlon, I came in with a swim background (translation: I swam squad 4-5 days a week when I was in school for 8 years, raced a few district and state competitions, but hadn't swum a lap in probably 13 years). Lesson: The body changes a lot, physically, in 13 years. Stupidly, I eased back on the notion that "I'm a swimmer" and never really invested the same focus, or energy, on the swim leg as my bike and run. This attitude was certainly not helped by the common misconception among triathletes that you "just have to get through the swim".
No my friends, it is not just about getting through the swim. I read a quote from a pro who said "its true you can't win the race in the swim, but you can definitely lose it" and I can't agree more. My ambivalence with swimming has left what I can see is a gaping hole in my improvement trajectory. I know/knew I was a terrible runner and I've worked hard to improve this. I loved the bike from the moment I started riding, and had a little bit of natural ability so it's been a bit easier to pick this up and improve. But swimming......I've resisted. Why? I think the 8 years of following the black line, night after night, has mentally scarred me. In fact I know it has. Back in the day, your squad instructor yelled at you until you cried, hit you on the back with a stick to correct your stroke and wouldn't let you get out of the pool, sometimes even if you needed to go to the bathroom. I still have such strong memories of those days, and as a result I developed such a hate for squad and for swimming but was made to go. I suspect this is why I find it so difficult to motivate myself to go, and follow that black line again. That, and the fact that I stupidly have been thinking "I'm still a swimmer". A friend pointed out that it's easy to become complacent with a strength; in may case, I became complacent because of the past. Coach tells me the aim of triathlon is no glaring strengths and no glaring weakness. My aim is to stop the swim rolling closer to the 'glaring weakness' bucket.
BUT I'M NOT ONE TO SIT AROUND
Once I had my lightbulb moment, it was action stations. I fronted up to masters squad (on speed set night), got my ass absolutely whooped, walked out with my ego smashed, then fronted up again. And again. And again. And again. I've asked heaps of questions. I've gotten specific drills for ocean swimming. I'm still getting my ass whooped (side note: I used to swim in the advanced squad in my triathlon club so, even with my comments above, I considered myself to have a fairly good swimmer ability. What a joke. Clearly there is a different between "triathlon swimmers" and "swimmers".....maybe its a bit like the tension between cyclists and triathletes? Anyway moral of the story - these guys in masters swimming can swim. Like, seriously-swim-I'm-going-to-national-titles swim. My legs, shoulders, arms and heart rate have gotten the shock of their lives). I'm perhaps the 2nd or 3rd slowest swimmer there. I still hate the black line. It's still a battle to get the motivation to go. But I go, and I submit myself to the 90min of non-stop swimming pain and I'm already a better swimmer for it. I feel faster, I feel stronger, my stroke rates up. I can actually sprint continuous laps now.
The important thing for me is to be confident across all 3 disciplines; confident that my ability across each is roughly the same, that no one leg is going to let me down. I'm fortunate in that there is some residual swimming ability there; you don't forget technique, form, stroke....it comes back. The shoulders are slowly building up. My ego is slowly mending (although I did feel a little bit better when one of the guys found out I raced triathlon and said "that's crazy, I don't know how you do it". Made me feel a little better about the fact he was lapping me in the pool :)
And truthfully? The nut bag in me kind of likes the novelty of squad again. Turning up and being subjected to some cruel form of torture, not knowing what you're in for. I like changes to training, it keeps like interesting. So I've got big hopes that this cruel torture will pay off.
On the topic of changes....this week, coach mixed things up and programmed a Sufferfest video into my weekly wind trainer sessions. I follow this Sufferfest mob on Twitter and truly, the way they market their stuff it makes me think I need a dark room and a rave CD just to buy it. It freaks me out a little bit. People tweet how the DVDs ruin them, breaks them etc. Anyway, I was assured it wouldn't be too hard so I downloaded the required DVD, set up my gear and actually got excited for something new:
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| Sweat station |
It was awesome! 80min of solid riding, good intensity and some pick up sprints. Limited downtime and some cool cycling footage. Solid calorie burner and worked up a sweat. Wouldn't mind knocking off a few more of those. If you haven't tried a DVD from these guys, give it a go if you want to mix up your trainer sessions.
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| Just me and the open road..... |
On that note, 2 weeks until Victor Harbour and tomorrow is another solid weekend of training. Starting to get very close, 11 weeks till race day!
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| Me finishing Sufferfest - happy days! Love it! |
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