I signed up for what!? Again!?

Hmmm, it's like deja vu. Last year I signed up for the Escape from the Rock triathlon about three weeks before the event having never done open-water swimming. Hell, I hadn't even swam for at least 10 years. Considering I hyperventilated for most of the swim and had a crappy 1/2-mi swim time of 00:27:25, my finish time of 1:36:47 really wasn't all that bad.

I vowed to spend the winter in the pool working on technique so I could do a bunch of triathlons this year and shoot for a top-20 finish at Escape. Unfortunately it looks like Escape might be my one and only triathlon attempt this year. As it turns out I didn't get to the pool as much as I hoped and the IT-band injury set me back, but I figured I might as well sign up again, so here I am.

I just started running two weeks ago and so far so good but I'm certainly not as fast as I was last year. I'm much stronger on the bike so if I can pull it together I might be ok. I went swimming in Lake Washington on Sunday for the first time this year and flailed around like a dead fish. Then I hopped in last night and despite the chop I only managed to flail around like a half-dead fish. Improvement!

No, really, my swim technique has gotten much better. Unfortunately I just can't quit holding my breathe underwater and so then have to stop every 10-15 strokes to take a breather before starting again. The swim lessons I took have definitely helped. When I'm swimming I'm moving quickly and efficiently, I just need to breathe and keep going.

Good thing bike racing is wrapping up because it looks like lots of swimming is in my future. So just like last year, here I am with about three weeks to go. Ahh, I love pressure!