Unsolicited Swimming Advice (Page 3)

Originally posted by jillian_o

I would say no unless you are friendly with that person, they know you, and they are aware that you are an excellent swimmer

With that being said, I'll admit that I am a lousy swimmer, but I honestly just swim to get to my bike and I don't care to improve. I swim the bare minimum. Anyway, I lost count of how many times people have stopped me in the middle of my flailing to give me unsolicited swim advice, and it makes me angry every time. Its so funny that they will give this advice, and I'm only half listening in hopes they will go away, and then they will stand on the pool deck and watch to see if I am taking their unsolicited advice, but I keep on flailing. I had to start wearing waterproof headphones and blare it loud so people will stop bothering me, seems to be working

Originally posted by ninagski



Just curious why you have no desire to improve? I don't mean to be judgy, but "just swim to get to my bike and I don't care to improve" is a pretty poor outlook. Why would you not want to improve? Especially if you are struggling as much as you're letting on...

If you dislike the swim so much, why bother with triathlon at all? Maybe just stick to duathons?

To each their own, but I feel like if I were in your shoes (and I'm probably close, as I'm a beginner swimmer), I would (and will) take all the advice I could/can get. Obviously some advice will be better than others, but at least I could use my discretion as to whether I choose to use the information or not.

My .02...

Originally posted by jillian_o



A few things you should know, not making excuses, jut background info is always good when someone claims I have a poor outlook

After my first tour of duty in Iraq, I came home and quickly after that was in a horrendous motorcycle accident, I broke my neck. Since you cannot put your neck in a cast, and surgery wasn't an option for my injury, it healed the way it did and I had to learn to live with it. My head now naturally cants to the right now. The accident was 12 years ago.

Because of this, when I swim my head cannot stay still while swimming. If I try to keep it still its excruciating and no treatment can fix it. When I was training for my second Ironman in 2013, I decided to focus on swimming because I though I could pick up some time there. I hired a USA Swimming certified coach and had 4 sessions a week, 2 one hour sessions, a 90 minute session, and a 2 hour session each week. All season I never got faster, was slower in a few races, and on Ironman race day my swim was even slower than my first Ironman.

After tri season and 6 months of intense swim coaching, my coach said "I'm not going to string you along any more and keep taking your money, I've done all I can with you, and with that neck injury and your inability to keep your head still I just can't help you"

I am a natural runner and a decent cyclist. I love triathlon and I'm not much of a fan of duathlons. I have been doing triathlons for 6 years. I came to this sport from a 300 pound morbidly obese woman to now 3x Ironman finishers. My positive outlook on life has kept me going in triathlon all this time. I have finished 40 or so sprint and olympic triathlons, and have either won top 3 women or won my age group in all of them except 2. I work hard on my strengths, bike and run, everyday and losing 1-4 minutes in the swim doesn't seem to impact much.

My last Ironman, which was Ironman Lousville a few months ago, I had a PR swim and I didn't swim much leading up to it.

I can't change what has happened to me, the motorcycle accident happened, and because of it I'll never be a great swimmer, but I can still run and bike well and that's what I'll do, because its what I can do. I'm not going to dwell on the fact that I'll never be a good swimmer, nor will I switch to duathlons, instead I'll just keep doing what I've been doing the past 6 years, swim to get to my bike, for the love of triathlon.