Learning To Swim

Taking The Challenge To Learn To Swim

I have been a Personal Trainer for years now. Always loved running, walking, gym workouts, keeping fit and healthy in general but one thing I never really learnt was swimming. How to swim length after length at a good pace and keep going!

It wasn’t until a few years ago I took up the challenge of getting my bronze medallion for surf lifesaving. I had to swim 400metres in 9 minutes. I hear a lot of you saying, “Oh my gosh that is so easy.” Well, not for someone that couldn’t even freestyle 25 metres. So I took up that challenge and finally accomplished that with a lot of hard work a lot of swimming and A LOT of persistence and determination.

My Knee

I was training for a half marathon earlier this year and my knee crapped out. It was so sore that my running buddy had to run home and kindly come pick me up =) Since then I have been back in the pool. No more running. Walking but no running. Slow as a turtle again in the pool and all with the wrong technique…..

So I decided to take the step. My sister Debi Hazelden races in Triathlons and is doing her first Ironman next January. So I decided to talk to her coach Graham Park and see if he would look over my mutated turtle stroke and see if he could possibly fix it. So I had a friend of mine video me and I sent it to him. After he overloaded me with so much information that I was confused he then gave me a few drills to focus on. Some more enjoyable than others.

I have been down the pool each week. Focusing on getting in at least 8-10 km a week. Concentrating on drills, quality rather than quantity and some sprints.

Timed My Sprints

Today a friend of mine came down and timed me. I did 2 x 100 metres and 2 x 50 metres. I had been continuously averaging 2.15 every 100 m and 1.00 every 50 m. I did honestly think I was making NO progress at all. But today I timed in at

1st 100m = 2.00.1

2nd 100m =2.01.3

1st 50m = 56.3

2nd 50m = 53.2

Still a turtle, but I’m like a turtle that’s awake now!!!! It’s very exciting. Goal is to get that 50m down to 49 seconds. Will see how I go.

Do I Enjoy Training?

I’m still not too sure about this. Yes I miss running! I love running. I miss having no music while exercising but what I do love is the sense of accomplishment. Learning something new and learning different skills. Having a buddy surely helps!! I am NOT one of those people that can get out by myself to exercise. Those people who train for Ironman etc need so much discipline and drive. I just don’t have that in me. Not one bit. So it’s really important for me to find someone to train with.

Some people work off having goals. Booking in for a race of some sort. This isn’t me either. Different things work for different people I guess. I just like to have my own little personal goals to achieve and make sure I have a few fitness buddies I can rely on. It’s not like I can even talk to people when I’m swimming, it’s just the fact that I have to meet somebody there and they are there swimming with me =)

If you have learnt to swim from scratch at an older age please let me know your experiences!!!

Tagged as: Swim Training