Getting the hang of swimming...

The  pool where I spend
my time pretending to be a fish  

Tonight I swam for the first time after my first lesson in relearning how to swim. The pool was divided into 2 with one side devoted to what teenagers destined for swimming greatness and the other side was devoted to those who are destined for the more mortals (like me). I started off tentatively and went back to my old form of swimming, which is a nice way to say it went really bad. I had to slow down and remember the simple drills that I learnt on saturday. Hoping meanwhile that nobody was watching me. I do actually had the feeling that everyone in the pool was watching me in my efforts to look cool while swimming. Once I settled down it went a bit better especially when I went into the 'I don't care what people think of me' mode.

One of the things I noticed today was that I was swimming at nearly 85% Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) which is way to high if I want to for endurance swimming. I know definitely that my strokes are still inefficient. I have to start working on some drills to improve the technique. I had agreed with my swimming coach that the next lesson won't be for another 2 to 3 weeks.

My immediate objective is to be able to swim 1 lap of the 50m pool. When I swam on saturday I managed about 20m. Tonight I was able to push it to 30m. At this moment I can't even fathom swimming 750m open water which is what the sprint triathlon requires me to do. Still, if my running is anything to go by, I should be able to swim confidently if I keep working on my technique.

Now, life gets interesting as I I have to juggle between swimming, running and cycling and not to mention strength training and work in the gym. On top of that I still have to run my business and conduct my training.

Despite all that, I am having the time of my life. Everyday brings new discovery and new challenges.

Cheers.

Reza Ali Reactivated tells of the journey of Reza Ali as he embarks on transforming himself from a 120kg (35kg overweight) 46 inch waist unhealthy and unfit person to someone who can compete in a triathlon. Don't be afraid to dream. Take action. Correct your mistakes. Learn from failures. Bit by bit, you will get closer to your dream.

If I Can Do It, So Can You.....

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