I was in the breakroom at this morning and heard two people talking about a vacation one of them had just taken to Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. She couldnt get over how beautiful it was. I went back to my desk and thought where have I heard of Deep Creek lake before? So I did some searching online. Wait a second I know now. There is a 1/2 IM there in mid September. Now, I’m interested in triathlon but I dont consider myself a triathlete just yet. I’m come from a bike racing background and have done 1 triathlon in each of the last 3 summers, that’s it. This summer I hadnt planned on doing any. I’ve been only riding my bike and lifting weights. But now I’m thinking hey I need to take my wife and kids on some kind of vacation this summer and she loves lakes and mountains, and if there is a race I can do while we’re there even better. But there is that little matter of a 1.2 mile swim and I havent been swimming…at all. I havent been in a pool since March. I’m not a great swimmer to begin with and I bet if I get in the pool tonight 100 yards will feel like a distance. So who thinks (and why) I can go from 100 yards tonight to 1.2 miles by September 16th. Let’s hear it.
Check this web page out: http://ruthkazez.com/SwimWorkouts/ZeroTo1mile.html
worked for me. Will not make you fast but good way to build up some endurance
Good Luck
fal7
I think you can! Although Im not sure you’ll win.
My friend is training for his first tri(he’s a former hockey player but his overall fitness was pretty much nil at the start). In early May he couldn’t swim 25m without stopping and his stroke was laughable(he also thought it was funny so its okay to say that). He started coming to the pool with me 4-5 times a week with the Masters team or just the two of us. He can now swim 750m without stopping. He’s a little slow(and he’s feet still drag 12 inches under water) but his improvement blows my mind.
If you put in the same amount of effort and hard work Im sure you can pull it off too! Good Luck!
Last May I had a hard time swimming 50 yards. I did my first sprint tri June. I did about 150 yards of freestyle and had to backstroke, sidestroke, or breast stroke the rest. It was pretty ugly.
I started pool swimming 3 days a week and in July I managed to survive my first oly (no wetsuit).
In August I swam my first half IM without a wetsuit
In September I did my first full iron distance with a wetsuit.
If I can do it, you can definately do it too!
I’ve been swimming 30+ years (I started really young) and strong-armed a buddy into doing a tri with me. He never swam competitively and was afraid of the water due to an old kayaking incident. Our first trip to the pool, he swam about 8 laps (200 yards). On his 5th trip to the pool, he swam a mile. It was not fast and not pretty, but he went from 200 yards to a mile in 5 workouts. You have 3 months. This is doable.
TotalImmersion does clinics in Towsen, MD.
Even the haters here will admit it’s a simple and pretty effective way to get capable of doing that distance.
Several years ago I was preparing for a half-IM. I had always been a lousy swimmer, so I enrolled in a swim class. I was taught bilateral breathing (very little else), and I swam 4 days a week for 50 minutes.
Class started Mar 8, and my race was May 13. I was slow, but I was confident and I finished it. If I can do it in 2 months, I’m sure you could in 3 months - if you commit to your training.
No-prob-lem-o. I had not swum in over 35 years (unless sitting in a hot tub drinking beer counts) and decided to learn. 45 days after I started back my coach suckered me into swimming the mile at a Master’s Swim meet. Do you know what happens when you finish last in the last event of the night? You get a standing ovation.
no problem. I signed up for an iron distance race not knowing how to swim (but could bike and run). The race was August, and the first time I got in the pool was February. I could manage 25 yard repeats at first, but then the endurance grew.
My plan was pretty simple: just get in the water and swim (trying not to stop) for an increasing number of minutes. I started at 10 minutes and went up in 5 minute increments. After 3 months, I was up to 45 minutes and after 5 months I was up to 90 minutes. I was nowhere close to fast in that first race (or the next 3) but it does give you a helluva lot of people to pass once you get out of the water…
I wouldn’t sweat the Swim but would be worried about putting together enough long bricks (bike/run) to be up to the task. That seems like a pretty short window to build up without getting hurt.
I couldn’t swim 25 meters in January and yet I’m doing Ironman CDA in 5 days.
After New Years I watched the TI freestyle video enough times to memorize the drills and set to work on them. It was a very humbling experience as I drank enough pool water to feel sick most days, but a couple of months later I had finally found my groove. In the same week that I first swam 200 meters I improved to being able to do 1000. It was just the first 6 weeks that were really frustrating. I’ve since swam the full 2.4 miles a few times, with my best time being 1:15. I didnt bother learning flip turns or any other swimming style, but I figure those things shouldn’t matter come race day. I admit that I could probably still benefit from some sort of critique or coaching, but I’m a poor sob. I think that 3 months is plenty to arrive at 1.2 miles if you’re willing to put in the time at the pool.
trust me you can easily do it. in 3 weeks with a good masters coach you can swim that in a mediocre time. when i first started swimming with the masters in 3 weeks my coach had me do a 1 mile ocean swim i did it in 25 minutes with only 3 weeks of training. swimming 3 days a week. but i did swim on my on before that(i was swimming incorrectly on my own!!!) and i had only done my first tri about 2 weeks before that.
Sure. You won’t be fast, and it might not be pretty, but if your only goal is to do the distance, it’s doable. Here’s what I did when I started:
Get a watch. Get in the pool and swim 50 yards. Rest as long as you need to (10 seconds, 90 seconds, doesn’t matter). Swim 50 yards again. Repeat for about 45 minutes. Remember the duration of your rest breaks between sets.
Next time, reduce the rest breaks by 5 seconds but otherwise do the same workout.
Rinse. Repeat.
You’ll get there.