Tri'ing to Swim

What in the world was I thinking signing up for the triathlon when swimming is up first.

First of all. I don't...didn't...swim. I had one set of lessons growing up and never really learned how. There was a summer at Bear Lake when my aunt taught me to float on my back and so I have always and forever reverted to that. I hate having water on my face so swimming with my head in the water has never really been an option. I have a huge fear of drowning. And I hate holding my breath. Let's not even mention the things that you find floating in the pool.

Wow. Definitely should have signed up for this triathlon shouldn't I have. Oh man does not even begin to describe it.

My friend, Christine and I are bound and determined to swim and not just swim to survive but swim and do the best we can. We have swimming lessons with a competitive swimming coach once a week (aka neighbor who was suckered in, an amazing coach and swimmer that broke swimming records in high school). He and his wife are both amazing and do olympic triathlons.

Christine told him from the beginning that she was terrified of the deep end, that I was terrified of having my head in the water and that our other friend, Heidi, was just terrified. He just laughed and probably didn't think she was serious. She was dead on.

Our first lesson was..dare I say rocky. After swimming half a lap for him to see what our skill level was, he kindly told us that we were both at the same level and needed to start with the basics. Our first lesson was holding onto the side of the pool trying to get comfortable with the breathing. We left feeling less that enthusiastic and wondered if we would ever really figure it out.

After five weeks of swimming I can tell you...I now swim with my head in the water. I haven't drowned and am swimming full laps without drinking gallons of water (not so much the first few weeks, I assure you I drank more than my fair share of pool water). I am learning to separate the water and air and don't feel like I am going to choke or drowned when I get a mouth full of water or someone sends a huge wave over my head as I am taking a breath. I am slow but I make it across.

Christine and I have been swimming about 6 to 8 hours a week just to get comfortable in the water and to practice what we are learning with our coach. It is hard. Sometimes I don't know how I am going to do it and feel like I am taking ten steps back. But there is nothing better than coming out of the pool and being able to say that we did it. We are getting better, we are building endurance and somehow we are going to make it to the finish line.

I would never be able to do this without my friend, Christine. Seriously she pushes me when I just want to quit and move on. Hopefully I do the same for her. If we just keep tri'ing together we know that we can do it.

Whoa....is right.

Let me introduce you to Freshwater. It fits for so many reasons. First of all, she's white, she is shiny and rock solid. Like a freshwater pearl, she is the smooth part of our ride and I am the bumpy imperfect part. Let me introduce you to Freshwater's friend...pearl. Pearl is Christine's bike and this is us on our first outing on our new bikes. Christine was smart and left Pearl's pedals in place. I on the other hand knew I needed to get used to my cycling shoes before our Goldilocks ride on May 8th and the triathlon. So, I swapped Freshwater's pedals out with new fancy ones and was ready to clip away.

Clip in shoes. To make Freshwater and I one. It is a bit tricky to say the least. I should have gotten use to Freshwater before making any changes to her. But I jumped on, clipped in and was ready to go.

What I wasn't prepared for everyone else stopping at the top of the hill while I was coming up the hill. All I could think about was my shoes...they were clipped in and I hadn't quite figured out how to unclip in the middle of riding. Let alone while going up a hill. Crash #1. Freshwater and I totally biffed it. Her seat bent back and my leg was attacked.

After stopping at a random house for some tools to fix Freshwater's seat, we got going again and rode quite a while before coming to a break in the trail. We went off trail to skip over that section and I am not quite sure what happened but the curb came faster than anticipated. I unclipped one foot as fast as I could and Freshwater and I tipped the other direction, foot still clipped in. Thankfully on some grass.

By far the best, we were coming down a hill which rounded a corner at the bottom. My biking buddy's son was in front of me and flew down the hill, rounded the corner without slowing or having any problems at all. My cautious self thought to brake but seeing how easily he went down, with a trailer in tow mind you, I thought for sure I could make the corner too. Bad idea. It was too sharp of a turn and at the last second I realized I wasn't going to make the turn. Realizing that my shoes were clipped in and there was no way I could get them out and save the turn, I held on for dear life and off roaded it. I went off the side into the weeds, bushes, rocks and trees. All I could think the entire time was that if I fell, my feet were clipped in and I wasn't going to be able to unclip without completely biffing it. Headed towards a tree, I put my head down so that my helmet would hit first and tried to get around, barely missing the trunk. I made my way back to the trail. When I got there I started laughing hysterically. Christine was behind me and watched the entire thing wondering what in the world was going to happen. Hilarious now. Not so much in the moment with the clip in shoes. I will get the hang of this. I am sure I will.