Getting Started : Swimming

 For the first time triathlete I think swimming is the is the hardest of the 3 legs to get your head around. Everyone can run and everyone can ride a bike but an open water swimming with a mass start that's a scary thought when you've never done it before. In some way I was lucky I have been able to swim since I was 3 years old as my dad used to manage a local swimming pool and at least a couple of times a week we would swim rather than be taken to a child minders. Confidence in the water would not be a problem. Saying that I never got on with front crawl and couldn't swim more than a length but could swim breaststroke forever.

  I started swimming again by going to a local pool that had a Sunday morning lane swim where I did breaststroke interspersed with spluttering lengths of crawl for a few months. As one of my fellow swimmers pointed out 'your not very good at that, you might need lessons'. I had to agree with him if I wanted to swim my first triathlon front crawl and have a decent first leg lessons were required. It was not easy admitting was going to need help and needed to learn to swim all over again. I searched the timetables of my local pools and found a Monday night swimming class for adults who wanted to improved their front crawl. I phoned them and booked 10 weeks of 1 hour group lessons with Nick who is still my swimming coach nearly 2 years later.

  The lessons started from the very basics of front crawl using floats, flippers and pull buoys to isolate elements of the stroke and allow me to improve. Nick has a certain way he likes people to swim and as he is a former triathlete himself it fitted in with exactly what I needed. The other great thing about the lessons was there were so many other people with exactly the same problems and goals as me. We encouraged and supported each other and I still swim with a number of my classmates now. After the 1st 10 weeks I was progressing well and still had a while to go to my triathlon so I booked another 10 weeks that would up to the race. I talk to Nick about my race and as it was 'only' a 400 meter swim he said I would be fine with where I had got to. 

  Before that 1st race I was only swimming 1 hour a week but it was enough to get my stroke, swim fitness and confidence to where it needed to be to have a go at triathlon. For that race I hired a swimming wetsuit from a local water sport shop. It's important to get a swimming wetsuit not a normal one as they are made from different materials and cut differently for swimming. Before the race I did a test open water swim at a local lake where Wakefield Triathlon club put on open water swim sessions through the summer Wakefield Tri Club Open Water Swimming. When I reached the start line for the swim I was confident I would survive and had a good idea what to expect. It had take 6 months to get my swimming to this stage. I wouldn't be the best swimmer in my wave but also I wouldn't be the worst. 

  What did it cost me to get my swimming to this point? Well the pool where I was learning front crawl were doing lots of offers on the swimming lessons I needed so over the 6 months the lessons cost no more than £60 when they should have been £5 per lesson. I had some swimming shorts that I used on holiday but quickly traded them in for some Jammers (cycling shorts for swimmer in) from sport direct about £6 a pair (I am now on my 3rd pair). Finally I paid about £15 for Aqua Sphere goggles from Amazon which I am still using. So total cost for swimming build up to my 1st race about £80 not bad really.