Ironman, slow swimming, end of build phase

During Saturday's group workout I learned that my team captain is an Ironman. He says that he signed up for the Ironman right after he finished his first triathlon, a sprint distance with a pool swim, without really knowing what he was getting into. And he did it - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.

That just blows my mind! My approach to triathlon has been so cautious in comparison. About five years ago I decided that it would be cool if I could learn to swim well enough to do a short triathlon. I thought maybe I could work up to Ironman distance in 5-10 years. Three years later I finally did my first race, which featured a very unintimidating 250m swim in a shallow pool, complete with lane markers to duck under after every lap, and now it's five years later, and until I joined Team in Training the only progress I made towards my goal was to run a couple half marathons.

I spent from March to October preparing for that 250m swim! When it was over, it was pretty clear that I had made a bigger deal out of it than it was worth. During the race, the woman in front of me had trouble with her goggles, so instead of swimming, she just walked through the pool (I was able to keep swimming behind her - that's how not fast I swim). In six or seven minutes it was all over.

I've made so much more progress in just four weeks with TNT. I never swam more than 600-700m while preparing for the 250m - in comparison, the swim workout I did this morning was 1300m long. Over the past four weeks, my 100m time has improved from over 3 minutes to a best of 2:37. And the last two times I was in the pool at the rec center, I was actually swimming faster than other people around me! That has never happened before. People kicking with kickboards, people doing slow breaststroke, people walking through the water, they all moved faster than I did.

Maybe I should just sign up for an Ironman and see what happens?

This week is an "EZ" week, the last week of our build phase. I'm not sure what the next phase is called, but workouts will start to get harder.