Wednesday, July 29, 2009

My focus changes to swimming

So I haven't posted for a while but I have a few developments. A short while back I did the Redondo Beach Triathlon. This was my first triathlon of the year. It's a pretty short coarse so is ideal as a stepping stone to a larger race. It went well and I thoroughly enjoyed the day, but the one thing that really came out of it was my lack of swimming strength. I would say I am an average swimmer at best but in this case, the swim in the race was my first for a good 9 months. I don't just mean first race for 9 months, (which it was), but my first time in the water and especially the ocean for 9 months. As expected, this came as quite a shock and I dropped my pace to a comfortable cruise and finished the swim leg about 20% slower than I would normally hope.

All this got me thinking that I really should be getting into my swimming training by now. I had a slight holdup due to a planned trip back to England, but now that I am back in California, I have rejoined the Southern California Aquatics (SCAQ). I only have 6 weeks left to train but I hope this will be enough to make a big difference. I am also hitting this hard and hope to address my lack of upper body and core strength.

For more details on SCAQ please go to www.swim.net.

Final comments: I bought myself a new bike at the weekend. More to follow.