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Surprisingly, I don’t hate it.
I’ve thought I would. I protested mightily when Rainer suggested triathlons: “But Rainer, the swimming! The chlorine gives me headaches! I don’t like to exercise in the morning. Laps at 7 am will kill me.”
It’s begun. Training for my triathlon. I’ve got a sprint distance in mind for August. It is at least twice as far as the Try-a-Try I did last year, and I can’t just fake training for a few weeks and then coast on the strength of my cardio-vascular endurance from running.
Right now, I’m swimming for 30 minutes. My goal is to get to the point where I can swim front crawl for 20 minutes. I can’t seem to find any plans to help me with this or the cycling. In running, you throw a stick and you’ll hit a training plan. So I’m just taking what I know about learning to run and applying it to the idea of increasing intervals in the pool. I spent the first few weeks doing 50m crawl, 50m breast stroke. Today I began altering that by alternating it with 75m crawl, 25m breast stroke. My plan is to slowly (but not too slowly because, as freaky as it seems, August is really not that far away) increase the laps of crawl and phase out the breast stroke.
I’m not ready for the open water swimming, though. Really. Not. Ready. I enjoyed it far, far, far more than I thought I would last summer. But, seriously? The water’s not warm. Not warm’s cousin. Not even warm’s cousin’s husband’s nephew. My spanking new wetsuit (so shiny! so new!) will have to wait a week or two and I’ll let Rainer leap into the lake tonight while I take Matthias to soccer.
Handmade Homeschool 
Good for you. I used to wonder about doing triathlons, but the swimming part put me off. It’s not the cold, it’s the weed, and the creatures swimming in the depths….cringe.
You go girl! Think of the power knitting you’ll be able to do next winter with those triathelon-strengthened fingers!
What is it about training plans fpr swimming/cycling. Unless your looking to spin or compete in century rides there seems to be nothing on the cycling front and spinning instruction of any kind seems to taper off once you hit the double digits in age.
My plan is just like yours. I’ve adapted running programmes for cycling which seems to be going all right but I do wonder about time lost because I’m hesitant to push too hard.
PS I’ve also recently switched to barefoot running which requires a bit of slowing down and rethinking your form so I’m knee deep in training programmes right now.
Good Luck!
Wow! Look at you! Good luck with the training!
I used to take all of my swimming lessons in lakes. I actually kind of like swimming in cold water. (Yes, I am a freak….that is why you love me.)
Everyone is different when it comes to the water. I was on the swim team in high school and was super comfortable with the pool. After a winter of indoor swim training I started open swimming for triathlons and I suddenly developed claustrophobia in the pool. Outdoors is a hundred times nicer. And swimming in the pool is nothing like trying to sight your triathlon swim route while in the lake/ocean. Just get out there and do it. It just takes practice. You’ll get used to it. As you swim in open water you will warm up just from working hard. Good luck girl!