Back in the Pool

Last night I stopped by the gym on the way home from work for a swim.  As I mentioned in my post about triathlon training, I am doing a six week swim program to build my endurance so I can swim one mile prior to my Olympic Triathlon. 

I don't officially start the swim program on my training schedule until March 2nd, but I currently don't have enough stamina to complete the week one workouts, so I decided to get my butt in the pool as often as I can between now and March 2nd.    The good part of this is that I am still so bad, that a quick swim makes for a good workout for me, so I don't have to be at the gym for long periods of time for swimming! 

I learned a few things while at the gym yesterday....

1.  I need to not only build my endurance, but also work on my stroke.  Luckily Caitlin, from Healthy Tipping Point, had her friend Ryan, from Greens for Good, do a guest post on learning to swim.  I will focus on one of Ryan's pointers each time, with the hopes that improving my form will help make it easier to swim longer distances. 

2.  I need to buy a swim cap.  I already have the one piece suit and the googles, so I guess it's time to suck it up and wear a swim cap.   I had some nasty tangles in my hair by the time I was done with my swim!


Overall, it felt great to get back in the pool and find something new to challenge myself.  Plus I am getting nervous thinking about the triathlon at the end of April because I am not prepared to swim .93 miles.  The longest swim I have ever done was 1/3 mile in a triathlon last summer, and I thought it was so hard.  So obviously I have some work to do in the next few months.

Swimming is a very different type of exercise in my opinion because I am not listening to music, there is no one to talk to, and I can't even people watch while I am swimming.  The whole time I am swimming my focus is 100% on swimming.  That doesn't happen to me with other sports.   Do you ever have 100% focus while playing a sport or working out?