Here I am with my first ever full distance triathlon only 12 weeks out. How am I doing so far? Well, apart from the setback in February it is all going rather well. I am sticking to my plan, more or less, and feel like am progressing well. How well exactly? Let’s start this week with the swim.

It is okay. I am swimming significantly less than my plan prescribes, which is usually one endurance swim, 3500 – 4000m, and a threshold / speed session later in the week at around 2500m. It does happen from time to time that I only hit the pool once a week and I hardly swim more than 2500m per session. I am still getting faster mind you, but I don’t have the mental strength to grind through these very long sessions. I simply haven’t figured out a way to deal with this. And I think it is two things that are holding me back. One is that I enjoy swimming fast. And I mean fast for me, which is still slow for the average triathlete, but I feel that only when I am pulling with some effort my form is okay and my body position is where it should be. As soon as I step off the gas I feel sluggish and with horrible form. I have no problem doing my long runs or long rides in Zone 2, but god forbid I swim at a conservative pace. Secondly, I get bored in the water rather quickly. I am too poor a swimmer to just let my mind wander, I need to focus on what I am doing every stroke and that takes all my mental capacity and willpower so that I’m done after an hour or so. I hope it gets better with the open water season. I’ll join my club training in the open water and being around other people always helps to get through it. Also, in the open it might be easier to just continuously swim along and zoom out, without being interrupted each lap.

Most of it is an estimate, because I didn’t TT much, but my current stats are: 100m PB 1:36, longish session average low 1:40s. My flip turns are getting better. One thing I need to figure out are my leaking goggles.