Swimming

I purchased a fair amount of my gear during a good sale before I even registered for the Ironman. Triathlons definitely seemed like a route I wanted to go so I didn’t mind buying the necessities before I registered for anything. So when it came time to start training I owned most of the base goods for training. I began swimming having no idea what I was doing. I had goggles and I had one of those itsy bitsy swim suits just shy of a true Speedo. So I began hitting the pool. It was treacherous… I can’t even begin to describe the boredom. This is a lot for me to say; I’ve spent hours in the woods during backpacking trips literally just sitting there waiting for the sun to set so I could sleep. Even though while swimming you are thinking about leg mechanics, arm mechanics, breathing, and whatever else, I still was just so chaotically bored.

The bulk of my swim training is a culmination of youtube and watching people swim while I was in the hot tub at the gym. I’ve learned that almost everybody swims “wrong” compared to the supposed perfect form, so I focused on finding those wrongs and trying to limit them. To a pro I probably look like a fish flopping in a skillet, but I’m fine with that.

To swim I would wake up at 4:30am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I would pack my gear the night before and grab the gear and a banana or two on my way out the door in the morning. Swimming in the morning is terrible. The water feels even colder in the morning and half the time I would end up in the lane with the auto fill (nice fresh cold water). On top of this it means no one has checked the chemicals in several hours. But it was necessary, so I did it.  Another effect of training is the decrease in body fat over the months.  The pool is the foremost place I feel like that insulation is missing and I get colder faster while I rest.

I learned a fair volume of things over the months of swimming at the gym. I learned to always keep actual gym clothes and shoes in my bag in case the pool was full; if the pool fills up right after opening it means you’re going to be waiting a long time so you might as well change your workout. I learned to crack my bottles before getting in the pool; a tightly closed bottle can be a bitter enemy once you’re soaked and pruney. I learned to always wear a swim cap to help keep water out of your ears and limit hair exposure to chlorine. I learned that gym soap is terrible and to always keep body wash, shampoo, and conditioner in the gym bag; conditioner can be used as hair gel, by the way.

I feel I need to summarize what swimming is like to me. I wake up having no clue what is going on with a confused body. I take that confused body to a gym and submerge it in water. People talk about punishing their bodies? Well to me that is punishment, and that’s before even actually swimming. Having short lanes doesn’t help your brain wanting to take breaks.  It’s like a nice sofa sitting at the end of each mile while you’re running.  When I’m done there’s a series of things that take place.  With other workouts I can put off the shower for some time, I can go home, eat and surf the internet for a half hour. With swimming I’m freezing and I need to shower. My body is coated in chlorine and I have to peel off my swimsuit.  Once I shower I have to rinse my swimsuit and occasionally clean my goggles.  When I get home I need to hang everything that’s wet so it doesn’t fester in my bag.

In the end, I have an immense respect for swimmers. The boredom, the fluctuating pool environment, what it does to your skin and how you smell. It’s the most uncontrolled of the training environments.



A heron during one of my lake swims.