Triathlon base training: swim practice

Swimming seems to have a bad reputation among endurance athletes. When I ask other runners if they're interested in doing a triathlon, most answer the same way: "Nope, because I hate swimming." Adding that they're also really bad at it, which I always doubt. Why is everyone saying their technique sucks? Who told them that?

I mean, generally when I see people swim, they clearly know how to get from point A to point B, fairly gracefully, and without any panic or risk of drowning. When I lived in Mumbai, there was a guy in my building who would smash the water with his hands with each 'stroke,' which created an incredibly loud sound that ricocheted off the walls. I've never seen anything like it before! He was a bad swimmer. But he was an  exception.

Reasons (not) to swim

I think a lot more people would like swimming and confidently say they were good at it if there weren't so many reasons not to swim regularly. Most people don't have pools, so it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to use one frequently. Many public pools are unattractive, cold, crowded, or all of the above. Swimming messes up your hair. Chlorine doesn't taste good. Swimming can be boring, especially if you don't own a pair of bone conduction headphones (like I do now!). 

On the other hand: I'm pretty sure almost everyone has a doctor/teacher/parent telling them how good swimming is for your body and your health. It's a low impact (read: injury free) sport that requires little innate talent and, if done consistently, makes you look like a Greek statue! Why not give it a try? After all the running I've done in the past three years, I feel like this is a particularly opportune time for me.

Swim technique

The first week of my (half) Iron Man training plan, which I plan to essentially repeat for the next eight weeks, suggested I start with some drills. I'd never done drills before, so I watched a YouTube video about it. An Olympic swimmer modeled how to slide through the water with only one arm stretched out, staying in a perfectly horizontal position, keeping his entire body submerged. So, pretty much impossible.

But why not try? I went to the Fajara golf club (which is not as fancy as it sounds), where I had the entire pool to myself. The pool is 17 meters long, which is pretty small and not a standard size, which made it tricky to count laps, but that didn't matter. At least I had some privacy to revel in the sheer pleasure of starting my Iron Man journey for real. I kicked my way through a few more drills, just doing the best I could. The benefit was that when I got to the regular part of the training, it felt great to be able to use all of my limbs again. In total, I completed 125 of those little 17-meter laps in about 65 minutes. 

That's more than I ever did before! In the past, before I had the crazy, mind-blowing goal of doing an Iron Man, I would find myself at the pool only to finish up as quickly as possible, usually in under thirty minutes. I had no real goals and felt like the entire effort of being there was too much. It helps to focus on getting the most out of the workout.