I just got an email from my boyfriend. He is across the US from me now, but we are both training for our first sprint tri in June. It is a big deal for him because, well, he can't really swim too well. I didn't know this when I asked him to sign up with me, but I found out shortly afterwards. There are no transfers of registration or refunds of your registration fees, so for better or worse he is in this.

I give him props, he has been really working on swimming. He put in a request for a personal swim coach at the swim club he joined, but hasn't heard back from anyone. I used to be a swim instructor, so I gave him some simple drills to work on so he can get the front crawl figured out (he told me he could swim, he just couldn't put his face in the water and do the 'breathing thing'... he was planning on doing the whole 1/2 mile with his head out of water!! ).

So he has been working with a kickboard on breathing and blowing bubbles out with his face in the water. He has been having alot of trouble doing this, but today I got an email from him saying how something clicked finally! He started concentrating on rotating his body so that he could better turn his head to breath, and he made it all the way down to the other end of the pool! (previously he'd had to stop halfway because he couldn't get the breathing rhythm down). He was so happy! And when he got to the end, the lifeguard on duty told him how improved he'd gotten since he started a week or two ago!

So then he did another lap breathing, and it worked again! He was so happy, and when he got down to the end of the pool the lifeguard was clapping and cheering for him!

I'm so proud of him, and a bit amazed that he would even consider signing up for a tri as unsure as he is of swimming! But props to him and props to that enthusiastic lifeguard who cheered him on and gave him a few more tips on better technique!

I guess it just goes to show that if you set your mind to something, you can do it!

K.