Day 3/28 – Breathe in, breathe out, and perve

Early morning swim somewhere in The Caribbean  – It doesn’t get better than this!

I’m a water baby.

From the moment my parents took me out for my first swim-and-dip at six months, I’ve been hooked.
Swimming never feels hard for me, it just feels natural and utterly relaxing.

I’ve had the fortune of going for long ocean swims in The Maldives (thanks Napha, Mark and Pat!) and in The Carribbean (oh Skimpy!) and nothing, almost nothing ;-p feels better first thing in the morning. If I had my way, I would start every day with an ocean swim.

Being a decent swimmer however has made me lazy when it comes to triathlon training. I hardly spend any time in the pool, I rarely push myself and often find myself switching to breaststroke when I should be working my heart rate up doing non-stop laps of freestyle.

Tonight, I found some additional inspiration swimming beside me. Two cute guys with killer swimmer bods (one was even wearing Speedos!) and super smooth strokes. Suddenly I found myself swimming faster, attempting to keep up even though all I did was eat their wake or dodging them as they barreled past me.

Near accidents aside, I was happy for anything to make the 45 minutes go by faster (and more pleasantly). On a more serious note, swimming alongside these guys made me push and push till my arms felt that so good it hurts burn. Something tells me I’ll be going back to that pool again, and soon.

Hey, it’s all in the name of training right?

The dry run

If I had to do this mini-tri all over again I probably would do things a little differently.

For the most part – and this is totally my fault – I’ve been navigating through this like a blind person.

I am three days from this event and i have NO idea what to eat, how to carb load or even what in the world to wear on Saturday!

And in about 30 minutes time i am going to attempt to ride home from work on a racing/road bike…. never been on one before, wish me luck!

However, i did attempt to do a dry run on Sunday. I roped in my long suffering niece Sarah to run with me, while my vacationing buddy Simei came for the swim with me.

Shiny, happy (exhausted) people

I didn’t do the full distances but I now have a rough idea of how hard it is going to be on the day itself. My legs really felt like jello going from the swim to bike, and after run (and subsequent bike home) I was laid up on my couch feeling rather sorry for myself. But interestingly, while my body was tired, my mind was racing.

All this exercising has had quite a few advantages. I’m amazed at the changes I’ve seen happening with my fitness. At the start of the year I was barely able to make it pass 1km on the treadmill. Last week, I went for a 45 minute run two times after work with Lyn – see photo! – and even combined one run with a cycle home. Amazing.

Keeping a sense of humour is important!

While I will probably never be super duper fit… I love that I am fitter, and relieved that it didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

Now, I just need to cross that finish line within the three hour mark. Here’s hoping.

And if hope is not on my side, I’ve told everyone I know who will be there (and now you) to HURL ABUSE at me should they see me flagging or looking like i want to give up.

Trust me, it is the only way I’ll keep going!

So if you see me on Saturday – race number (S370) – please unleash your inner sailor and curse at me!

Tri Bob Training Session 1

One of the first questions I had was ‘where the hell do i start?’

Thankfully as part of the whole gig, I’d scored some free passes to Tri Bob training sessions (www.tribob.com) (Phew!) and with daily sessions, I could not fail… right?

I rocked up to my first swimming session brimming with confidence. I like to tell people I was ‘born in the water’, hence I certainly wasn’t expecting to freak out the way i did.

Tri Bob Training

Arriving at the Farrer Park pool 20 minutes before the session started, I felt panic set in as I watched the group ahead of me. These guys were ridiculously good. In fact, most of them looked liked they swam for a living!

As I could not resort to Dutch courage – drinking before swimming, bad idea – I sped dialed my long suffering gym partner, Lyn. After five minutes of listening to me rambling she calmly (but firmly) told me to suck it up. I believe her words were, ‘Of course you’re scared. You’re totally out of your comfort zone. This is probably one of the hardest things you’ve done in the last few years. Going to bars/clubs isn’t difficult at all!’

She had a point. Damm. Obediently, I trotted over and began to suit up.

For the next hour, I was put through a range of drills – arm recovery, catch-ups – they were anything but easy. On the upside, I was swimming faster and smoother by the end. On the down side, I’d swallowed a lot of water, got kicked because i did not keep a body length’s distance and felt like a complete muppet for not being able to breathe on my left and my right side.

Post session, as I sat down and reflected I realised my ego was getting in the way. Of course I didn’t know how to swim properly. This is why I have these sessions!

Clearly, if I want to finish the swim leg in a decent time I’m just going to have to suck it up, and some chlorinated water.

Now, if only i can train myself to breathe on both sides.