I think everybody has an "achilles heel" sport. I'm a fairly natural runner; I'm not out there setting any speed records but I improve quickly with training and don't feel like I've yet trained so hard that I've reached the point of diminishing returns. BUT....

I REALLY, REALLY want to tri triathlon. I took swimming lessons when I was a kid, I'm comfortable in the water, but haven't swum laps in years. This spring, I started trying to swim laps, hoping to do a sprint tri at the end of April. Well, it turns out that 50 yards in the pool leaves me gasping for breath and sends my hr through the roof. It took me about two months to be able to complete just 100 yards freestyle, and even then it wasn't certain. I'd say I was going to swim 5 hundreds, and out of that I'd probably be able to complete 3 without stopping (that's not because I swam three in a row and then got tired and couldn't do the last two -- it's that my ability to pace myself and maintain that pace and maintain steady breathing was just really shaky and uncertain each time). Most of the summer, I've wanted to start swimming again and simutaneously dreaded it. I have a hard time wrapping my head around how difficult it is for me to improve. With lots of things (running, biking, weight lifting), I start training and get better really fast and it's actually fun to see myself improve -- it's like, every week I can see I've gotten faster, stronger, whatever. With swimming, it's a constant struggle. I expect that I'll get better quickly, and I do gradually improve a little, but it's... well, a struggle. And the improvements are much smaller and take much longer than for other things. Drills help. But it's still a struggle. I AM going to start swimming again this fall (now that I"m back on campus and the pool is free!). But I know it will be frustrating.