Talk to the Fishies

For those of you who are new to my blog, I'm doing a triathlon on May 20th!  I will be competing in the Kansas City Triathlon with hundreds of other (fitter than me) people.  I am extremely nervous, but I'm also super excited to have this goal to work toward for the next few months.

I'll be competing in the sprint distance, which is a 1/3 mile swim, followed by a 12 mile bike ride, followed by a 3 mile run.

I really love riding my bike and I know I can at least walk 3 miles if I have to.  The thing I am the most nervous about is...the swim.  I know how to swim.  And by "swim," I mean float around in the lake with my friends.  I have never in my life, though, swam an actual lap or learned proper freestyle form.  I've definitely never tried swimming with 50 people kicking and thrashing around me.

There is only one indoor pool close to me, so I decided to go practice my freestyle during lap swim time.  I mean, how hard can it really be?  Michael Phelps makes it look easy.  Let me tell you.  It was hilarious.  I am horrible at it!  Oh, my gosh.  I just could not get the right rhythm going with the breathing.  I was splashing and gulping air, then choking on water.  I'm still searching YouTube to make sure nobody secretly videotaped and posted it.

After a few disastrous attempts, I struck up a conversation with the lifeguard.  It turns out she is the swimming instructor for the pool.  Her advice to me was, "Talk to the fishies.  Now listen to the fishies.  Talk to the fishies.  Now listen to the fishies."  She actually really helped me with the breathing.  I still didn't quite get it down, but I'm excited to try again tomorrow.

Are you a swimmer?