My Tri Training: Swimming & Breathing is Hard

Month 1 - Week 1:

• Mon: Bike: 30 minutes easy or spin class

• Tue: Run: 20 minutes easy

• Wed: Off

• Thu: Swim: 10 to 16 x 25 m easy, rest 20 seconds

• 25 laps (mostly practice)

• Fri: Bike: 30 to 40 minutes easy or spin class

• Sun: Off

Today's training was tough! I'm still trying to get this breathing while swimming thing down and still building up my endurance. At one point, I swallowed a good amount of water after not breathing when I was supposed to and started hacking. Another problem was water going up my nose just before I tried to take a breath.

Things that helped:

• Turning my body a bit more onto my back when taking a breath

• Turning my head without lifting it

Once I realized I needed to focus more on getting my technique right, I'd practice for 2 laps then swim a lap. Seemed to be a good method.

Later in the day I ended up purchasing a pull bouy and some of those hand paddles. Hoping they'll allow me to build up my strength.

Also stumbled upon the "Tri Swim Coach" program and thinking about purchasing. Lots of promises of teaching you to swim like a fish and there's a few positive reviews, on the site of course, which are promising. Found a video where Mr. T (Triathlon Taren) also recommends using them in addition to a few others in the video below.