Since putting up my website and the triathlon section, I have had people ask me what my Total Immersion (TI) experience has been, so I thought I would write up my thoughts on the subject.

Like most people, I thought I knew how to swim. Seriously, I come from Minnesota, you know, the land of 10,000 lakes. You can’t run 10 miles in most directions without getting wet. My older brother even lived on a lake for most of my high school years. Most of our summers, after work, were spent kneeboarding and swimming in Lake Pulaski. Additionally, I took years of swimming lessons, and I do mean years.

So, I guess I was a bit shocked when I got into the pool the first time upon deciding to do triathlons and could barely swim one lap without having to stop and catch my breath. I was stupefied. Seriously, I was running 30+ miles a week and you’re telling me I can’t swim one lap without running out of breath? So, I did what any self-respecting obsessive endurance athlete does when confronted with such an obstacle: log more laps. I figured, if I could just build up to swim 9 consecutive laps, I could cover my distance for the Cayuga Lake Triathlon. After several tortuous weeks, I had built my way up to 9 laps, only to discover that, lo and behold, the Cayuga Lake Tri is an 800m, not a 400m. So, I recalculated and built up to 18 consecutive laps. Hallelujah! This should be no sweat. Then race day hit and the only thing between me and the 68 degrees of Cayuga Lake was a tri short. Can you say cold? I put on my game face and took off in a mad sprint just like everyone else did. I even managed to do freestyle… for the first 20 yards. Then I got a face full of water trying to get a breath from some fat guy next to me who couldn’t swim straight… or was it me that couldn’t swim straight? Panic set in, and I reverted to breaststroke for the next 750 or so meters. Of course, I took some solace in finishing that swim because I was ready to pull of my cap and signal the lifeguards after 20 yards. Naturally, I was exhausted coming out of the water. I think my wife thought I was drunk, I couldn’t even walk straight and people are telling me to get on my bike. Are you crazy? I don’t even know where my bike is…

Luckily, the bike and run turned out pretty well and I was hooked. So, I figured, I better learn to swim. After talking with my brother, I went out and bought Triathlon Swimming Made Easy by Terry Laughlin and vowed to overcome my swimming problem. I read the book and it just made sense. I was spending a lot of energy just staying afloat because my body was so out of balance in the water. Thus, I started at square one of Terry’s great book and did nothing but float on my back with my head in alignment for 2 weeks straight, 3 times a week. I have never felt so aware in my swimming life. Not just aware of all the people staring at me for doing such crazy drills in the pool, but aware of how I felt in the water. Aware of how I wasn’t sinking even though I was barely kicking. I slowly progressed through drills with weird names, such as underswitch and fish. At each stage, I could feel the change. Every few weeks, I would take on a new skill, only to feel stmyied by my seeming lack of coordination. I remember getting out of the pool feeling disgusted with my inability to learn the skill. However, the next time, I would try again, and voila, I could do it. After a few more times of this, I realized that the struggle was vital to learning. That I had to go through it in order to learn the skill. Just as Terry says, my body was adapting to the change. I was unlearning all that I had learned (incorrectly) before.

After a few months, progressively building up in both skill and endurance, I felt pretty confident heading into the Buffalo Triathlon. This time, I had a wetsuit and I was ready to go. Unfortunately, Buffalo Lake had other plans, as there was a pretty good chop on the water. My swim turned out all right, most importantly, I felt like I hadn’t even swam after completing the 1/4 mile. My time wasn’t great, but I did freestyle 85% of the way and didn’t panic at all.

Of course, I still needed to get better. Swimming in the pool is one thing, but open water is a whole different game. I signed up for the Jamesville Tri Series with the CNY Triathlon Club and went to work on my open water swimming. In this case, TI’s Freestyle Made Easy DVD was essential, showing me how to sight and navigate in open water without sacrificing too much form.

As the year progressed, I felt better and better in the water. My tri series swim time (about 300m) steadily decreased without much extra exertion on my part. Still my swim time wasn’t on par with my bike and run times. And, thus, the saga continues. I am now working on adding speed to my much more efficient and fluid stroke. While it is too soon to tell, I think it is really starting to pay off. Time will tell.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2005 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Swimming, Training, Triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.