One Clydesdale’s Journey

Okay, admittedly I used that title before.
But this time it was a little more significant than the last time.

Let’s face it; the swim is the most intimidating part of the whole event for most people. In fact I’ve talked to a hand full of people that would do a tri if it wasn’t for the fact that the swim scares the crap out of them.

I’ve also talked to a few people who are very comfortable with swimming and they admit that it always causes them a bit of anxiety as well.

As for me, I fell squarely into that first group when I first contemplated taking on this challenge.

Well now that I’m taking things to the next level with an Olympic distance, I wanted to make sure that I could handle the swim.

So the other day I headed over to The WAC and after a short warm up and I was able to pound out a 1 mile swim.

Yeah, I know, that is what I did the last time I used this very same title, only this time was different.

This time, I knocked the whole mile out non-stop. And to add to the training factor a bit for the outdoors; I went the whole distance with no walls or floors.

For a little while during the swim things actually got a bit Zen like and I was riding the glide of each stroke and felling pretty good. However, after awhile the turns got to me and by the end it was a bit of a struggle.

But I was able to finish the whole mile. And since the race swim is only .9 mile long that makes me feel even better about it.

I still need to find a few really good places that Shelly and I can do some open water swimming this summer. I have to believe with all the lakes around here that I should be able to find a few.

That’ll give me something interesting to search for on Google.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training