Good Lord Almighty.
The back story; A few weeks ago my brother told me about an upcoming triathlon in the area and that he wanted to sign up for it. I thought to myself 'hey this could be fun' and I've been wanting to get into triathlons for a while now. What better time than now to start I asked myself. The upcoming tri is only a sprint tri, so it's going to be a 400m swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.
Well I run pretty regularly, and anyone can pedal a bike around. But swimming, swimming is the tough part (for most.) I was always told that if you were a swimmer you had such an advantage over the competition.
Anyways, so since the tri is just over a week away I figured it might be a good idea to go swimming, after all, I havent been in a pool (to swim laps) in over 3 years. Now normally I'd stretch it out a bit, jump in and warm up doing a few 400's nice and easy to find my stroke and let my arms stretch out in the water. Unfortunately I wont have that luxury on the day of the tri. So yesterday, my brilliant idea was to stretch it out a bit on the deck, then dive in and go right into a straight 400 for time, to see how my body would react and to see how it would feel.
1) My body definitely reacted, and not in a favorable way. I definitely took it out a little too fast and was about dead by the 100 mark. I gasped for air and I desperately tried to lift my 30lb. arms out of the water for the remaining, and painful 300 yards.
2) I did get my time, and it was much faster that I anticipated or thought I could do. Which I guess is a good thing, and a sign that I haven't lost my stroke or form....I'm just out of swimming shape....by a lot. I clocked in at a blistery 5min 10seconds. Which is kinda funny becuase when registering for the triathlon, they require you to submit your projected swim time, and I believe I put down like a 6:10 or 6:15, something in that range. Now granted, the tri is going to be long course, not short, and also meters, not yards. So based on my time yesterday, I think I can clock in a 5:30 or so come race day. Maybe a little faster with adrenaline pumping. Either way, that's a solid 45 seconds faster than I said I could do. Whoops.
After my inital 400 swim, I had a hard time lifting my arms above my head, not so much cause they were tired, but because I hadn't used certain muscles in such a long time. I needed to stretch it out, badly. I took a few minutes to catch my breath stretch, and then pushed off again. My lungs suprisingly weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. With each flip turn I had no problems getting in some real solid kicks off the wall and breaking out a good two strokes past the flags, another good sign.
In conclusion, the triathlon next weekend should be interesting. I've been told I have a sliiiightly competitive nature, so we'll see if I just take off like a bandit, bonk, and die half way through the bike, or if I'll complete the whole thing in a decent time. As for the swimming part, don't expect me to look like this anytime soon.....
The back story; A few weeks ago my brother told me about an upcoming triathlon in the area and that he wanted to sign up for it. I thought to myself 'hey this could be fun' and I've been wanting to get into triathlons for a while now. What better time than now to start I asked myself. The upcoming tri is only a sprint tri, so it's going to be a 400m swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.
Well I run pretty regularly, and anyone can pedal a bike around. But swimming, swimming is the tough part (for most.) I was always told that if you were a swimmer you had such an advantage over the competition.
Anyways, so since the tri is just over a week away I figured it might be a good idea to go swimming, after all, I havent been in a pool (to swim laps) in over 3 years. Now normally I'd stretch it out a bit, jump in and warm up doing a few 400's nice and easy to find my stroke and let my arms stretch out in the water. Unfortunately I wont have that luxury on the day of the tri. So yesterday, my brilliant idea was to stretch it out a bit on the deck, then dive in and go right into a straight 400 for time, to see how my body would react and to see how it would feel.
1) My body definitely reacted, and not in a favorable way. I definitely took it out a little too fast and was about dead by the 100 mark. I gasped for air and I desperately tried to lift my 30lb. arms out of the water for the remaining, and painful 300 yards.
2) I did get my time, and it was much faster that I anticipated or thought I could do. Which I guess is a good thing, and a sign that I haven't lost my stroke or form....I'm just out of swimming shape....by a lot. I clocked in at a blistery 5min 10seconds. Which is kinda funny becuase when registering for the triathlon, they require you to submit your projected swim time, and I believe I put down like a 6:10 or 6:15, something in that range. Now granted, the tri is going to be long course, not short, and also meters, not yards. So based on my time yesterday, I think I can clock in a 5:30 or so come race day. Maybe a little faster with adrenaline pumping. Either way, that's a solid 45 seconds faster than I said I could do. Whoops.
After my inital 400 swim, I had a hard time lifting my arms above my head, not so much cause they were tired, but because I hadn't used certain muscles in such a long time. I needed to stretch it out, badly. I took a few minutes to catch my breath stretch, and then pushed off again. My lungs suprisingly weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. With each flip turn I had no problems getting in some real solid kicks off the wall and breaking out a good two strokes past the flags, another good sign.
In conclusion, the triathlon next weekend should be interesting. I've been told I have a sliiiightly competitive nature, so we'll see if I just take off like a bandit, bonk, and die half way through the bike, or if I'll complete the whole thing in a decent time. As for the swimming part, don't expect me to look like this anytime soon.....
[You can see me diving in at the 1:25 mark]
Almost forgot; When I got home, all those smells and feelings [both physical and emotional] came rushing on back. I wreaked of chlorine, my skin was dry, my hair was all straw-like, my stomach was screaming at me that it was hungry [until I devoured everything in the kitchen], I savored it all. It took a while for me to get to this point, but boy do I miss swimming and everything that goes along with it.
3 comments:
That was some fast swimming!
Robert, I got all tense, and got goose bumps, and started pounding my desk all stressed out as I watched that. Oh, and I cried. Yeah, it all came back, all those emotions watching you swim ...
I'm bawling! Seeing you with that cap on backwards, your swim shorts, warm-ups...you're killing me! Oh, those were the days and THAT DAY was A HIGHLIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!
Post a Comment