As new as they come..lol

Tammy:
Welcome! Sounds like a great summer you are planning!

Hi Tammy--

Why the 'lol'?? You sound like you'll do great! Very few of us have a 1/2 or full marathon under our belts!! And many of us started as the most casual of swimmers.

It's a great community, and welcome to it!

Keep us up to date with your progress,

Dana

 Welcome to the T-spot!

Ditto on the welcome - the swim will come - lots of us are working on the swim portion and you will do great.

Great to have you here Tammy -- as a member of our "team". You will love it here -- wonderful people, great tips and just plain fun. Welcome

Glad to have you amoung the throngs of BTers.

Welcome Tammy! I think we found the right place for us newbies!

I'm not a swimmer either. I have elicited the help of our high school swim coach (I am a high school teacher). I think it's going to be a matter of timing more than anything else since I'm in pretty good condition.

Tell me about the half marathon and marathon. I'm really interested in doing that.

Thank you all so much for the wonderful welcome!! Believe me when I say I'm NO athlete. I did the marathon and 1/2 and the century as part of the Team In Training program to raise money for Leukemia. I'm also planning on doing the Tri in Sept. for the same cause. Earn my triple crown My boyfriend is a serious triathlete and I go to a lot of races with him. I've sat there thinking over the last year or so that instead of watching, I should be participating so, I'm on my way.

I did my first swim last night and WOW, while I enjoyed it, I gotta learn to breath. I think I swallowed half the pool water..lol I'm thinking of making an appointment with the swim coach there at the Y to see if he can help me with my breathing technique. Any advice or suggestions from all of you is more than welcome!

Thanks again and I look forward to getting to know you all.
Tammy

Tory,
The marathon and 1/2 were both done in Anchorage Alaska. We did a run/walk program and it worked out great. I believe the training program was written by Coach Jack Daniels. We finished and still felt great afterwards. If I can do it, anyone can! Best of luck to you.
Tammy

Hi Tammy .
Great to see another beginner here. Sounds like you will own the bike . As another newbie my suggestion on the swimming is to read, read, read. Lots of great info out there. I have been going to the local chapters( the library.. lol) grabbing a coffee and reading before swim. Great mental focus before swim.
Good luck.
Dan

Dan

Would you mind elaborating? Swimming is my weakest sport...as in I completely suck at it. I'm getting better, but I have a WAY long way to go.

Tammy,
First of all little caution to you , I am a beginner as well. That being said best I can offer you is what I have done and learned as begginer as well.

What I found when I first started swimming was my desire to finish my laps as fast as possible. Big mistake. All this seemed to do was to tire me out and slow me down.
Body position is huge. In order to start to over come this .... relax.

Becoming comfortable and learning to breath properly in the water is the first place to start. If you try to make your stroke rate faster all you will do is look for more air. This will result in you pulling your head up and pushing your lower body down.

You want to do the opposite. Try pushing your hips and butt towards the surface and think like you are swimming downhill, if that makes any sense. Also try to think about your body as long sleek boat. The longer your body is in the water the better it glides . So you want to reach out as far as possible and as long as possible. This is why the fewer stokes you take the better.
Consider also your head position . I try to keep my chin down and eyes fixed on the bottom , this ensures that I am not looking up and thus pulling my body to the surface.

So when breathing , I suggest turning your whole body to the side and not lifting your head when breathing.Get used to the simple swimming technique of blowing out as you are turning to breath so you only need to breath in as your mouth comes out of the water.

Also you are not just turning your body on the breath side, you are also turning it on the opposite side as well. This ensures that you can reach further and make a cleaner entrance into th water . When bringing your arm up for a stroke , almost drag your thumb along your ribcage as your opposite arm is now straight out in a glide position in front.As your hand enters the water pull the extended arm back and glide with the arm that just entered the water.

As for the pull in the water , I am looking advice myself, do I pull my stroke straight out to the side straight under or what? Try what works for you.

That is the best advice for swimming technique I can offer from what works for me. I am sure there are plenty people around that will chime in with better advice or any corrections to my advice.
I know it seems like a lot but it will come . Try one or two suggetions next swim and then add others.But best advice is Relax.

I have checked out a number of books that have been suggested through this website. "Total Iimmersion" was one of the titles that I could understand and that I found great tips for beginners.

Good luck . You are not alone in the swim challenge, seems lots of people have a hard time with it.
Hope I was of help and didn't offer any improper advice.

Dan

Thank you so much Dan. Your suggestions make total sense and I will certainly try them out.