Swimming progress....?

Great job on your progress so far! My husband was in a very similar position about three months ago. He never really learned to swim properly, but decided he wanted to compete in tri's this year, so off to the pool we went. He also could barely finish one length when he first started. Even after a couple weeks, 100 yds would leave him exhausted. But he just kept at it, a little at a time. He knew that 450 yards was the goal, so he decided that he would just keep swimming that far each practice, no matter how many times he had to stop, and would time himself each time. Eventually the time it took him to finish it got shorter and shorter, and he had to take fewer and fewer breaks. He did his first race on 6/5/05 with a 1/4 mile swim and did fine. Swimming will never be his strong suit, but he can swim well enough to race, and I'm sure he (and you) will just continue to improve. Keep at it!

Congratulations on starting, that's half of the battle.

I'm not a veteran, but I can tell you that I was in a similar situation to you not long ago. 25 yards and 30 seconds to a minute rest, then another; only 600-800 yards in a long, tough hour. I bought the Total Immersion book and DVD, did the drills, continued with the Masters group three days a week; six weeks later I swam 2000 meters last night, in 3x600 groups with a 200 meter cooldown; the 100 meter laps averaged 2:30/100 yards, which is not great, but it's a world of difference from six weeks ago. And, best of all, I'm relaxed enough now so that I could have done double that distance without feeling tired.

It will come, if you continue to work at it, but progress can be slow in swimming. You'll be swimming like a fish by August 14 if you put in some solid time at the pool, and maybe get a little instruction too.

Fantastic Start!!!

You are certainly not alone. I was exactly where you where a year ago. I have to say that the more time I spent in the pool the better things got. I did the Total Immersion thing too (DVD) and it really helped. For me leanring that I could float while propelling my body forward was a big +. There is a thing called the "Sweet Spot" in the TI DVDs. Knowing that I only had a certain amount of time to spend in the pool and that I had NEVER swam 1/2mile before (my first tri was 1/2 mile swim), I praticed rolling to "Sweet Spot" quite often and relaxing, just floating. This totally saved me in my first tri. It was an open water swim in a lake and there where many times where I just rolled to my back, took some really deep relaxing breaths ("Sweet Spot") and kept thinking to myself..relax..relax..it seemed like forever before I got to the buoy, but with my crutch in place, I made it..
My next objective is to throw away the crtuch..if your first swim is an open water swim pratice sighting...I didn't pratice this enough and it showed in my swim...Balance, Breathing, Bearing is my mantra for my next open water swim.

Oh, sorry, my first tri swim took me 19min. (My fastest in traing was 22min./w/breathing breaks) I feel like I left myself plenty of room for improvement.

You're doing fine so far. Keep taking the lessons and try to get a swim in 2 or 3 times a week, at least. Give it another month and see what you can do then. It took me about that long to work up to an 800m continuous swim. You may do it quicker or it may take a bit more time but you should have no problem by mid August. If your tri is in open water, get some practice with swimming in those conditions too. Good luck and have fun.