I have learned a lot over that last 4 months. Some things were fairly standard and some were surprising. As I began inching along in the pool, slowly becoming a better swimmer, I heard people discussing "open water" and my new found knowledge began to scare me. People openly discussed: panic attacks, emitting bodily fluids as a way to heat a wet suit, grass in your goggles, and my favorite, rock zombies. I don't know many sports where so many strange things take place. All of this information filled my brain but very little of it sank in. Why would open water be any different for me than a pool swim? As my coach repeatedly reminded me, "it's all water". Well let's fast forward to my first open water swim at Gunston Manor outside of D.C. It was a fairly cold morning and the water was about 65 degrees (not too bad with a wet suit). I stood there ready to go in the water and literally had a panic attack before even getting to the dock! Tears started streaming down my face. I was in no way prepared for this. I spent the next hour doggie paddling and hyperventilating my way around the buoys. OK fine, I had been told that the first time was always awful I can move beyond this and succeed. I spend the next few weeks rocking out my pool workouts, building strength so that I could kick some open-water booty. I headed out to West Virginia to do a practice mini tri with my tri hero and bestie. The swim was going to be very small - 200 yards and I was ready. I had crushed a mile in the pool, I had already experienced my freak out. I was good to go! We got in the water and I freaked out like crazy. It took me over 9 minutes to go the short distance. I again alternated between hyperventilating and doggie paddling. My confidence was completely shot and I was sure that the race was an impossibility. I slumped around most of the week. I had one more open water swim to get the job done before showing up at the Schuylkill on race day. I was devastated. I dragged myself out to a quarry in Virginia with the Team and stayed in the car as long as possible. I knew I was going to fail even before I got out. I was never going to complete a triathlon. I had wasted the last 4 months! Guess what? I was wrong! I don't know what it was - maybe the clearer water, maybe a few more degrees of warmth, who knows? I started swimming with my trusty buddies by my side. It was 500 yards around all 4 buoys. I stopped a bit to be excited at my progress as I went through and then continued to repeat 3 more times. 4 loops! I had gone longer than my race distance. I floated home on cloud nine and could not have been happier. This is what I was waiting for, this was the last piece of my puzzle. I am ready now. I have one more week of training then its taper time. I can't believe that I am here but I am thrilled. I don't know how to absorb the growth but I am sure there will be a post about it!
Do you remember me talking about this day?
<------------------------------------------ I remember going through it. This was my first official training day with the TEAM. If you look all the way in the back the person standing in the pink (of course) suit, is me. This is the day that I blew bubbles in the corner for an hour trying to figure out breathing until I was so disappointed I got out and attempted to salvage my self worth by running a very fast 3 miles. Since that day I have not successfully been able to complete the Tuesday swim workout within the allotted time. Granted there are a ton of distractions on Tuesdays, some good and some not so great. Coaches stopping to give you tips on stroke and breathing - good. Panic attacks as you try to swim but everyone around you is splashing - bad. Wetsuit try-on day - just plain ugly! But today was a magical morning. The ladies of lane 2 (yes somehow I have been promoted to lane 2) completed the entire workout planned for us. We swam a consistent 400 in a somewhat respectable 10:06 and even had time for our cool down. It was a momentous occasion to be celebrated with, what else, a 45-minute run! Gosh this triathlon thing is hard :). I suppose the lesson of today's triumph is that while I still have a LONG way to go to swimming my one-mile race distance, I have also come a long way- 34 swims to be exact! And with 32 swims to go, I just might get through this in one piece. If you are asking yourself, what Tiger Woods and I have in common, let me start by assuring you that my marriage is sound and I have not chased anyone down the street with a 5 iron recently. Tiger is an "elite athlete" which means, in reality, we have very little in common. However, if you watched the debacle that was his game at this weekend's Masters Tournament in Georgia and then juxtaposed it against his recent winning performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational it was like watching two different people play the game. This is where we are similar! Tiger had some bad days - I have bad days, but we are both capable. Sometimes, when you are lucky, you can just have a bad half hour. After a fantastic week of intense training I went for my final workout of the week, my Sunday swim. I visited the new Wilson Aquatic Center which is beautiful and remarkably FREE to all DC residents. I was pumped and ready to swim. And then in the middle of one of my early sets I started to think about how some days the pool is set to 50 meters instead of 25 and I panicked. I immediately told myself to stop freaking out, after all in the open water swim there are no walls to stop at anyway... I REALLY panicked! And there went my gusto - right back into the locker room. What was happening was an Augusta moment. Just a few days earlier I had crushed my swim workout and on Sunday it just wasn't there. Luckily one of the TEAM mentors was. He graciously took a few moments away from his (much more difficult) swim and came over into my lane to talk about what happened. With his encouragement I decided that I was indeed capable and I didn't want to wait till the next swim workout to turn it around. Despite "finishing" the 2 x 200 meters prescribed to me by the workout I decided to throw another one in, and this time I would do it right. I took a few deep breaths and glided off the wall. I stayed cool, calm and collected and by the end had completed my 200 meters without incident. I guess we all have Tiger Woods moments no matter what activity we are doing, and the only thing you can do is look that doubt in the face and say "not today!" As I told the mentor as he high-fived me upon completion of my beautiful 200 I am nothing if not persistent! Two months doesn't seem like a very long time, but I have come to learn that 2 months can mean an eternity in terms of change and growth. Full disclosue, this blog post is as much for me as it is for all of you. I am very much in need of a wake up call about the last two months. I have a new nickname amongst the TEAM coaches: Type-A. Yeah let it soak in, I am sure this is a shock to all of you who know me since you understand how laid-back about my goals I am. With this type-A attitude comes a harshness about the status of my training. I am always pushing and striving to be better. I never allow myself to think I am succeeding for fear that I would be to relaxed about my training and start to slip. This attitude combined with some less than stellar swims creates a perfect storm of self-deprecating comments that make me feel as though failure is imminent. So let's take a moment for me to remind myself and you what the last two months has been about.
~SWIM~ 2 months ago: I had to blow bubbles in the corner of the pool because I couldn't swim one lap with my head under water. Today: I am swimming 1200 meter workouts and even did a 10 minute consistent swim - that means no stopping for 10 whole minutes! ~BIKE~ 2 months ago: I was barely able to stay upright on a bike, I was wobbling all over the road and the mere thought of someone approaching me while on the bike was enough to send me flying. Today: I am about to put clipless pedals on my bike. Meaning I will be attached to the bike while riding, and not only am I OK with that I know that I need it. I am moving my hands around and I have even started going downhill without hitting the brakes! So, what I am realizing is that with three months to go if I progress at the same rate as I have the last two months I will actually be in pretty good shape. So let's get month three underway, and I promise to be a little nicer ... to me. Sometimes when we want something to happen very badly we have a habit of blocking the little things with images of the big picture. For two weeks I have been going to the pool and spending my mornings waiting for something to click. I don't know what I was waiting for. I was not going to wake up one morning and become Michael Phelps! But, in fact, that is akin to what I was looking for. I was waiting for this big AHA! moment when the stars would align and I would become a "swimmer". This weekend I finally got my click, but not in the dramatic fashion I was expecting. It turns out that while I was getting in the pool focusing on becoming an amazing swimmer, I was breathing like an amazing singer. I was diligently practicing exhaling under water by blowing bubbles calmly and steadily. I can make this exhalation process last up to 50 seconds (big thank you to all of my singing coaches) and I was very proud of that! However, this weekend when I got into the pool to work on this technique with two of my best friends, one of whom is a pretty amazing triathlete, they rocked my world with this little piece of knowledge. Swimming and singing have nothing to do with each other. I was shocked as I am sure you are! They (gently) pointed out to me that the exertion during swimming is much more like running and the breathing should match. Presto, while not on side breathing yet I took a number of laps consistently exhaling under water and inhaling above. Was I swimming like Phelps or, better yet, Katie Hoff, no. But, I am swimming and I am not 100% sure what happened. I suppose it just clicked.
As Julie Andrews famously said, "Let's start at the very beginning" and that is indeed where I was today. At the beginning of the day, in the beginner end of the pool, with beginner jitters. But just as Julie reminded us, while scary, the beginning is still "a very good place to start". Today's journey started at 4:00 am with the alarm. It sounded too early to possibly be functional but I found with about an hour of bus rides as a buffer before I would have to communicate with anyone it was just fine. I anticipate it will be even easier when I remember to make coffee (epic fail). Two buses and one very nice D6 driver later I was at the pool. After a quick call with Dad (bonus of being functional that early in the morning) my teammates started to arrive. After introductions it was into the locker room and time for our first swimming tutorial. I was antsy the entire time. If you know me well you know that by the time I arrived at this tutorial I had read numerous articles, consulted every friend I have and compiled a boatload of information on this "swimming" thing. Because of this I felt anxious listening to the coaches discuss stroke and form the entire time wanting to jump up and say "Yeah, but HOW!" Unfortunately I found the answer, by practicing. While all of the other swimmers (and I mean ALL) did some basic lap drills, I sat in the corner of the pool attempting to exhale a constant stream of air through my nose while keeping my head submerged. I anticipate that this is how I will spend the majority of my time in the pool for the next week or so. But hey, it's the beginning, which means there will be a middle and an end to look forward to. Those are the parts I can't wait to see. Sorry Julie.
Team in Training prep is hitting its stride. Meetings and workouts are on the calendar for early February and among the information passed on to participants this week was a pre-training schedule. At first glance I was thrilled. This week it was suggested that I "walk briskly or run for 20 minutes." Wow, I thought, maybe this triathlon stuff is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. After all, I have been maintaining 15-20 mile weeks since my Marathon last November. And then I saw the next day on the schedule. "Spend 30 minutes in a pool. Swim any stroke comfortably." Swim any stroke comfortably?! Let's just say my face was pretty much identical to the girl in this photo. But then it dawned on me. I will get in the pool for the first time. I will thrash in the pool and find myself short of breath (I find the idea of exhaling under water absolutely unfathomable). So I had a choice to make, do I make a complete fool out of myself during the first workout with my teammates OR do I give myself a fighting chance to get comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation. It was settled, I woke up early and went over to the pool. I thrashed, I paddled, I tried to get acquainted with the ways of the water. I don't know that I won't embarrass myself at that first training session, but I do know that I am one step closer to swimming that .9 distance in the Schuylkill River.
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