PenteKing’s BodyBlog

Took to the pool today in an effort to improve my swimming technique. I enlisted the ai of a friend who is a part-time instructor, and she took me through the drills they teach children who are just learning to swim. At first, I was skeptical of asking for assistance, but then realized that if I am serious about this triathlon, I had better swallow my pride and get help. The swim is my weakness. I have a fear of the water, haven’t yet learned how to regulate my breathing, and am tense and nervous. If I don’t conquer my fears now, it will be too late to do so on the day of competition.

I’m happy to report that I did fairly well today. I started off the way I normally do (tense enough to add ten pounds of fear onto my frame), but by the end of the lesson, I was sluicing through the water with little fear of drowning to death. Andrea is a great teacher - calm, patient and repetitive. She went through the drills again and again until I mastered what she was trying to teach me.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m a long way from being a serious swimmer, but I feel 100 times better now than I did yesterday, and for that, I am grateful.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.