Swimming Struggles

Most people new to triathlon say that the swim is their biggest challenge. That seems to be the case with me as well. While I think the Finis Tempo Trainer I've been using is helpful, I'm still falling short of my goal pace. Last time in the pool, I swam about 36.5 yards per minute. Not too bad considering that I went 40 minutes without a rest. Still, when the Summer Open Sprint rolls around in four months, I'd like to do the swim in 20 minutes (maybe even a little less).

Much as I respect everything I've read about proper form and technique, I'm thinking I may have to just try and swim as fast as I can for 750 meters without regard to anything other than speed. I'd like to see where I am vs. where I want to be. I'd also like to see how much I have left after that.

Along those lines, I thought I would see how it felt to run after a hard bike ride. Yesterday afternoon I rode 9 miles on the trainer with the resistance set pretty high and kept up about 15 mph. I wasn't too spent, but I was definitely feeling it. Lot's of people tell me that the transition from bike to run is the hardest and I think that makes sense. So after hopping off the trainer I got on the treadmill and went for 0.1 mile just to see. Yep, it's hard. My first brick isn't until late March so I've got some time to build up my strength. Good thing.

It's snowing again in Colorado tonight so my 3 mile run this evening was indoors. Even if I wanted to tough it out and run in the snow (and I didn't) it was way to slick to be running out doors. Fortunately, the Garmin Foot Pod is performing well.  In addition to pace and mileage, I'm also seeing what my foot cadence is:

Friday's forecast is for 50 degrees and I'm hoping to do 6 miles. It will be interesting to see how the foot pod works in conjunction with GPS.