My Swimming Origins

A few weeks ago I wrote about "my running origins." I'm continuing with my series on how triathlon became a part of my life...next is swimming.

I have always loved "swimming." Well, what I considered swimming was just playing in a pool without sinking. But I had never actually learned how to swim a stroke. Once I decided that I wanted to do a triathlon, I knew I had a lot to learn. The swim is the scariest part for a lot of triathletes, but I wanted to be as comfortable as possible.

Skyler took me to the pool at the gym and showed me how to do the freestyle stroke. I could swim maybe one lap before I was out of breath. Then I could go two laps. Then, everything seemed to click. I could swim 20 laps no problem. Swimming became my favorite workout! I feel like I had been missing out on it my whole life. I loved it!

So I began swimming several days a week at the gym. Since I was still new to swimming I would watch the other swimmers to look at their strokes. Obviously I had a lot of room for improvement. I tried different techniques, moving my arm this way, kicking less, kicking more, breathing on both sides.

The distance of the swim in my first triathlon was 1/2 mile, so I made sure that my swim workouts were longer than that. Usually I just swam straight, no breaks, no drills, just swam.

Over four years later, I feel like I am still always looking for ways to improve my swim. But surprisingly, the swim has been one of my strongest legs in triathlon. I am comfortable swimming in open water and cold water. I have even been the first woman out of the water in two triathlons! My only regret is not getting into swimming sooner. I know it will be something I will enjoy my entire life.