Fish out of water

I've been triathlon training for 3.5 weeks now. I am surprised by 2 things:

• How hard it is
• How much I like it

Running comes so naturally to me. After all, it's just a faster pace of walking and I walk everyday. I love running. It lets me escape, enjoy nature and relax. On some runs I don't think about anything, while other times I think deeply about work or life. But I rarely think about running. Sure, tempo runs and speed workouts are fun (and grueling!) competitions with my Garmin where I have to think about my pace. But I never think about my form since I am so comfortable and used to the sport.

Swimming, on the other hand, is a completely different animal.

When I'm in the water,  all I do is think about swimming. About my breathing, my stroke, my kick, the water getting in my goggles, my ears and my nose. On top of that, there's remembering to count laps. I also worry about my pace and worry I'll never be able to do this out in the open water with tons of other women around me, kicking me, swimming over me. I wonder if I'll ever get to the point where I don't think about swimming and just zone out. My triathlon-loving, used-to-hate swimming hubby says "yes". I'm not so sure.

But I love how quickly I'm improving in the water. When you start out being so awful at something, the only way to go is up. Swimming for me is uncharted territory and I feel like a fish out of water doing it. I could always swim- I grew up spending hours in the ocean everyday in the summer- but I couldn't swim freestyle well. My first real swim was May 2. I couldn't even go 1/2 a lap without stopping to gasp for air or fix my form. This past Monday- a mere 3 weeks later- I swam 1250 m (25 laps) stopping only twice to fix my goggles

When I agreed to try a tri, I just wanted to get through the training program. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd enjoy swimming and want to improve. But that's exactly what I want to do. Yay me.

Workouts so far this week:

M- R: 4.75 @ 8:39; S: 1250 m

Tu- R: 7.4 @ 8:04 with 3 mi repeats @ 7:30

W- B: 1 hour spin class; R: 4.25 @ 8:46 (in the 96 degree weather yuck!)

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