My thoughts are a bit different than others here. A bit of history - I do NOT have a swimming background and still do NOT do flip turns. In my first triathlon, 1981, I was last out of the water. In recent years I have had several FOTW (first out of the water) at IMs and 70.3. I basically swim 30 minutes five days a week, and have done this very consistently in the same pool for the last 34 years. I throw in a couple of longer swims in the weeks just before an IM. Consistent effort over time produces positive results. I do this when the pool opens at 5 am and haven't missed a morning swim for any reason in the past at least 5 years . . . maybe more.

Everyone always asks how I keep doing the same thing (not my personality at all!). I love the swim time because even in a full pool I am "alone" and no one can talk to me. I do things things, which by the way have researched based positive impacts on your life: 1) Spend some time in prayer/meditation/gratefulness 2) bullet point what I am going to accomplish during the day 3) troubleshoot/problem solve the biggest issue I am facing. By the time I have done those three I have many times gone further than planned. I do no count laps. I do some fartlek type pick-ups.

I basically swim 30 minutes five days a week, and have done this very consistently in the same pool for the last 34 years. I throw in a couple of longer swims in the weeks just before an IM. Consistent effort over time produces positive results.

I practice swimming so I dont drown... period.

Yes and yes.

Its not the identity. Its the ability to do them. I practice swimming so I dont drown... period. As a reward for living I get to bike and run.

Profound.

I look at it from a different perspective. I'm older, and have already been faster than I will ever be again. So improvement isn't part of it. It's more like stopping the aging process, and keeping what I have. 3 years ago (before returning to the pool) my shoulders were slouching, my posture sucked, things were getting baggy and droopy, and putting it simply... I was starting to look and move old. Swimming has been my fountain of youth. I don't care if I swim long (and I do, sometimes up to 6 miles) or swim repeats, or use toys, or work on mechanics or different strokes, or whatever. All I know, is that the longer and the harder I swim, the younger my body looks. The better I look, the more I want to swim. The mirror and my swimming feed off each other. I'll be the first to admit, that this whole athletic/endurance/triathlon stuff has a big vanity factor. Running makes me look like a bullet shoulder stick arm skinny old man. Cycling does nothing for my upper body, flabby arms, and saggy belly. But swimming is making me look like a 20 year old again. And that is worth every boring lap, after every boring lap. Bring it on, I can't get enough.

How can I stop dreading having to go to the pool?

And really you have just scratched the surface of the diff ways to move through the water. When you add in kicking with and w/o fins, swimming w/ fins, w/ fins and paddles, w/ just paddles, to your swimming w/ pull buoy and paddles, and just buoy, plus just swimming, then you end up with about 8 or more diff ways to swim, and that is just freestyle. If the OP could learn the other three strokes, he could have 32 or more diff ways. Further, you can kick w/ or w/o the k-board, plus on your back you can kick reverse dolphin and breast kick, so really 6 ways to kick w/o fins. Tri people may argue no point in learning the other strokes but we lifetime swimmers know that being able to swim all 4 strokes improves your freestyle. :)

I am surprised on this thread how many people hate swimming. I'm wondering why they are even doing triathlon. If feels like a soccer player who hates kicking the ball!!!!
What Erikmulk said....there are something like 40 different things to do swimming.....full stroke in a all 4 strokes, legs only in all 4, arms only in all four with a buoy. That's 16 right there. Then add in fins, and paddles and paddles with fins and snorkels etc etc and I can survive 2+ hours in a pool without being bored for an instant.
Here is my workout from today (and the ability to do this did not happen overnite, it took me more like 3 years learning various elements of the other three strokes): This was my set today

• 1000m warmup assorted strokes
• 500m kick with fins assorted strokes
• 5x200m IM with 20 seconds rest....hard fly, easy back, hard breast, easy free
• 2x400IM + 1x200IM, alternating hard stroke 25m, 25m IM kick
• 500m kick with fins assorted
• 5x200m as 50 fly hard + 50 free easy + 50 free hard + 50 free easy
• 400m cool down assorted strokes easy

But back to the larger point on this thread. I don't really care if we're talking swimming, biking or running. If you hate doing these sports, why even bother with triathlon? Just pick the one you like or two you like and focus on them.
Personally I don't think there is a sport on the planet that I don't enjoy doing. I'll do any sport you put in front of me with varying degrees of proficiency. If you just see sport as a challenge to yourself, you can enjoy the improvement. Trying to worry about how good others are and your lack of progress is a surefire bet to hate sport eventually, because at some point, progress is minimal and other people are way better.

Dev - That was a hell of a workout!!! I've been doing a lot of sets of 200 or 400 IM alternating 25 swim/25 kick, e.g. 25 fly sw, 25 dolphin kick, 25 back kick, 25 back sw, etc. I've found that alternating kicking with swimming helps me get a better feel for integrating the kick into the full stroke. Today I did 16 x 200 IM swim/kick, then another 2000 of mixed freestyle, e.g. some with paddles and buoy, some with just buoy, some just swimming, mostly 100s and 200s with one 500 thrown in for good measure. Most of my kicking has been sans fins the last few years b/c it seems that I can feel the water better w/o them. I still have two sets of fins in my closet but only take one pair of them to the pool maybe every 3-4 weeks.

Definitely doing IM sets where you alternate full stroke for 25 and kick only for 25 is a really "easy way" to never get bored.

But it takes sooooo much work to get to the point that its even possible to do that workout. I believe this is the challenge for most of us adult onset swimmers. Firstly triathlon does not adequately reward developing this level of techical proficiency in all strokes because of the prevalence of wetsuits in most events. Second, unlike running or cycling, we can't just turn out heads off and do it and look at the scenery and chase a power number or a mile split. In the pool, you have no scenery, so you have to really internalize and learn the technical skill.

It's almost list playing tennis badly. If you have no clue how to serve, backhand, volley, game strategy, react to someone's serve before the ball even hits their racket (because you roughly know where its going to go by the way the opponent's body is moving) and if you don't know the rules of the game how to pace, how to strategize then you're going to kind of hate playing tennis. You can't just go play tennis without all the fundamental skills and put it together.

.....and its really hard to enjoy all the aspects of swimming that guys like you and Jasoninhalifax and Monty have been working into my head (in addition to live people locally), until you really either are forced to learn them or want to learn them (or a combo).

I remember doing my first 400IM event last year and going from my fly to back my goggles almost came off (not sure why), and I was gasping for air after the fly and unable to see and felt like I was choking (not sure why, as vision has nothing to do with breathing, but when you have no clue how to pace a 100fly in a 400IM race that's what happens....you panic). All these little things that you have to put together to do competition, real swimmers learned as kids.....the rest of us Adult onset folks, well, it feels boring learning then because we suck at these skills and there are no shortcuts to learn them....you just go from doing it really really really really badly to less really really really badly to just really badly, to badly, to "hey, that guy looks kind of like he knows what he is doing, maybe I can ask him for tips to, "a real swimmer just asked me how to do a breast stroke underwater pull out and not die from oxygen debt, to a coach pointing to real swimmers and pointing at you and saying, "hey that guy is doing at least 4 dolphin kicks off the wall, why are you guys guys doing just one".

But hey, that process is kind of like perfecting your tennis serve that even Roger Federer is always working on. It's largely really really boring in all technical sports UNTIL you can find enjoyment from the minor incremental enhancements in acquiring new skills and feeling your body move, applying power and relaxing all at the same time.

I THINK anyone who has been in a technical sport in their youth (not swimming) can get to this point. Its more of an enjoyment factor through the neural part of gradually picking up skills vs the brute force enjoyment of biking and seeing a high power number, or running a fast track split. I THINK my friends who downhill, freestyle and telemark ski or do yoga "get" that enjoyment out of gradually building up the mind body connection toward superior form.

PS. Outside of my recent foray into serious swimming, I spent 15+ years trying to get the adult onset XC skier thing as close to perfection as possible, during which I applied what my coaches taught me in my youth technical sports....tennis, baseball, cricket, soccer etc. I eventually got to a high level of proficiency on skis, but it took me around 7-10 years before I could hang out with elite skiers and feel like I had sufficient skill to blend in. Swimming is like that.

I THINK also think that ability to tune out the world and doing really boring things to perfection and enjoying it is what makes guys like Phelps and Brady the hardest working GOATS of all time. I really don't think there is any way that Phelps would have beaten Cavic for Gold Medal number 7 in Beijing without that. Phelps knew exactly where he was and half stroked to the wall because that was going to be faster than gliding in like Cavic. In 2009 at World's Phelps was way behind Cavic, but in the final 15 meters you can see that Phelps is actively using his core like a dolphin and Cavic is just trying to pull hard with his arms and core is not looking as "active" as Phelps. That's Phelps just out executing, but it feels certain to me that both were physical equals on those two races. But I bet that out executing came from "out practicing" (but I could be wrong).

Just a thought, but have you considered biathlon? It's bike/run without the pesky swimming in the middle. I actually like swimming, so I've never done one and have no real experience with them.