LEBoyd wrote:
When my son got me started in 2020, I went online and found an off-shelf plan and found a lot of articles and videos on transition, mentally preparing, nutrition, etc. I also watched a ton of Effortless Swimming videos on YouTube, as I was a pretty bad swimmer.
For someone new or who doesn't have a strong competitive swim background, the swim is often the hardest part of the first tri. I know my first tri, I got about 100m out in the lake and thought "holy hell, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this." But I was a Marine and they beat the quit out of me.
For probably the first year to year and a half, my swim sucked. I could do the swim but I was very inefficient, very slow and spent a lot more energy than I needed. Then I started watching some technique videos on Youtube. I'm still not competitive fast, but I'm a middle-of-the-pack swimmer, and I can do that for a mile plus easily.
First thing is to get comfortable and not panic in the water. Second is practice efficiency. At least that's my advice. Worth every penny you're paying for it.