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Jacksonville, FL, United States
In Life as well as in running the secret is Pace.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

One year of experience fourteen times

I’m sure that you have heard the expression…  X number of years’ experience or 1 year of experience X times…  well… that is me and swimming.

I have been training for triathlons since 1996…  and have really just done enough swimming to get by.  I have Been DFL out of the water twice…  once at IMFL 1999 were I passed a couple of 60+ “years young” ladies and the inaugural Hammerhead Olympic Triathlon in 2002 (I think) where embarrassingly enough I started in the 1st wave and was still DFL out of the water.

I have trained, been to seminars, done clinics… 

There have been years where I only swam in races.

Last year I trained with some level of regularity for a few months

Oh, I have improved a bit…  I moved up from BOP to the Back of the slow end of the middle of the pack..

But in my quest to become a competitive triathlete…  last night I took the plunge (pun intended, always) J


I joined the masters group at the local YMCA…  for 90 minutes I kicked, did drills, got critiqued, asked questions, worked, kicked, pulled, did IM sets…  you name it.  My shoulders were so tired last night that I had to sleep on my back.
So therefore I am a resoloutionist…. And 2011 is the year I learn to be a swimmer

6 comments:

Wes said...

I love to swim. You don't have to be a great one to do well in triathlon, but you do need to be a good one. Good luck!

B.o.B. said...

Master's swim team will do it. I'm resolving to get better on Dolly. Thanks for the name! I'll post about it shortly. :)

Chris said...

Sounds like you are taking the right route to improving your swimming. Nothing like peer pressure to get you motivated in a Masters swim class! :-)

Best of luck. I agree with Wes too. Being first out of the water (or last) does not guarantee a win or lose but it helps to be able to hold your own in the middle of your AG pack.

Lucho said...

My 2 cents (worth just one). I taught myself how to swim by buying the Total Immersion book and then dedicated myself to working my way patiently through the book one drill at a time, never moving on until I had perfected the drill. It took 6 weeks and in that time I was doing 2000 yards per swim with only ~200 yards as actual swimming... EVERYTHING else was drills and kicking only. What I realized is that doing drills is usually harder than just swimming so I ended up getting super fit AND perfecting my stroke. I went from 1:01 at Ironman down to 54:00 in less than 6 months. I also supplemented with dry land strength work like stretch cords and weights.

it's all about pace said...

thanks for the feedback guys... and yes Tim... drills... drills... and more drills... that is my swim regimine at present.

Adam Culp (Crazy Floridian) said...

Great going. It will be great to watch you improve as you dedicate more to the weak area. Doing great!

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