Nanci
08-31-2005, 04:07 PM
So there's this tri I want to enter on Sunday. I've only been in one ever- Meek and Mighty last April- very very very short. I swim like crap, but I wasn't last. I had a great time! I loved it!
So this tri, the swim is 800 yards, in a saltwater bay, supposedly calm. I went there to see what I could do this morning. First of all, there were (small) waves. I measured out the distance between the lifeguard towers with my bike odo. Then I swam 3/10 of a mile. I didn't time it, though. But I made it. But I had to either sidestroke or backstroke, because I can only manage about two strokes of freestyle before drowning. It wasn't pretty, but I wasn't any more winded than if I had been running "fast." I plan on going back tomorrow to time it and reevaluate.
So- will I be the laughing stock of the tri if I can't freestyle? I suspect I will also be close to last, if not dead last, out of the swim. But I can handle that. I've been last in a running race before, especially now that my compartment syndrome is getting worse, thanks to my calf muscles getting bigger. (That's one thing I love about biking- compartment syndrome doesn't affect me doing that.)
Once I get out, I should be good on the bike, and slowish on the run. I don't care how I do, but I kind of care that the whole thing isn't packed up and gone when I finish...
I used to do ok running, even got an age group first once, and one time a womens masters, when all the fast runners were running a longer distance. But then I got fat(ter) and got this thing called compartment syndrome, which means my calf muscles swell up bigger than the muscle sheathes, and it hurts bad enough to make me cry, and I used to just quit and go home, until I figured out that it went away after 45 minutes or so. So I started running longer, in the 10 hour range, training for ultras, and did some shorter ones, like 50k, but then I got even _fatter_. So it got tough to run fast, even though I could go forever. Then I did a bike ride, the Horrible Hundred, last fall, on my BF's old mountain bike with road tires, and fell in love. I rode a lot. Then this summer, I had a horrible scare when I had some blood work done, (I was one point away from diabetes!!) and have since gone on a major diet, and started riding my *** off, and have lost 22 pounds. And in the back of my mind, I have always wanted to do tri's, because I love and am good at biking, and because I can run ok, but then there's the dreaded swim...
So that's my motivation. What do you think?
Nanci
So this tri, the swim is 800 yards, in a saltwater bay, supposedly calm. I went there to see what I could do this morning. First of all, there were (small) waves. I measured out the distance between the lifeguard towers with my bike odo. Then I swam 3/10 of a mile. I didn't time it, though. But I made it. But I had to either sidestroke or backstroke, because I can only manage about two strokes of freestyle before drowning. It wasn't pretty, but I wasn't any more winded than if I had been running "fast." I plan on going back tomorrow to time it and reevaluate.
So- will I be the laughing stock of the tri if I can't freestyle? I suspect I will also be close to last, if not dead last, out of the swim. But I can handle that. I've been last in a running race before, especially now that my compartment syndrome is getting worse, thanks to my calf muscles getting bigger. (That's one thing I love about biking- compartment syndrome doesn't affect me doing that.)
Once I get out, I should be good on the bike, and slowish on the run. I don't care how I do, but I kind of care that the whole thing isn't packed up and gone when I finish...
I used to do ok running, even got an age group first once, and one time a womens masters, when all the fast runners were running a longer distance. But then I got fat(ter) and got this thing called compartment syndrome, which means my calf muscles swell up bigger than the muscle sheathes, and it hurts bad enough to make me cry, and I used to just quit and go home, until I figured out that it went away after 45 minutes or so. So I started running longer, in the 10 hour range, training for ultras, and did some shorter ones, like 50k, but then I got even _fatter_. So it got tough to run fast, even though I could go forever. Then I did a bike ride, the Horrible Hundred, last fall, on my BF's old mountain bike with road tires, and fell in love. I rode a lot. Then this summer, I had a horrible scare when I had some blood work done, (I was one point away from diabetes!!) and have since gone on a major diet, and started riding my *** off, and have lost 22 pounds. And in the back of my mind, I have always wanted to do tri's, because I love and am good at biking, and because I can run ok, but then there's the dreaded swim...
So that's my motivation. What do you think?
Nanci