Triathletes: love/hate with your strong sport?

[Susie]

The US Masters Swimming 2 mile open water championship is a couple hours away from me, this Saturday.  For shits and giggles, I signed up last week.  When I signed up, I was all, la la la, excuse to take my pups to play in Lake Placid!  There is apparently a dog beach there, and I've been looking for good places to take them swimming. 

But then heat sheets came out early this week, and la la la no more.  We are seeded by short course yard 1650 times, fast to slow.  And now I want to win and feel unnecessary pressure - totally self-inflicted, I know - to do well.  I won't win women's overall, but top single-digits, and winning my age group are both realistic to hope for.

God knows, triathlon-swimming training doesn't put me in the kind of condition I COULD be in to kick serious ass and take names, but I can't stop trying.  This weekend is the 2 miler, and next weekend is my 5k.  It is really difficult for me to align my expectations with choices I've made in my training, i.e., to sacrifice swimming for the good of the bike and the run.  It is hard because swimming and tri seasons are at the same time (whereas I consider my "running season" to be spring/fall).

I love both open water and tri's, so I'm not sure how to reconcile this in my mind, so I can just relax and enjoy at whatever speed I am!

[joenali]

I'm excited to not run and bike for awhile and swim, to swim! There are a couple of meets in October and November that I'm excited to train for! Good luck at your races!!

[tuggyruns]

I totally get this. Although I can't call myself a triathlete, I get this feeling about well, nearly everything athletic, but especially swimming. I think it's because I think stupid things like "I put so many hours in club swimming that I SHOULD be able to kick their tooshy" nothing realistic enters this thought. Things like the fact that if I swim once a month, that's a record.

I can especially relate to this because I swam this morning for the first time in months and it KICKED MY BUTT. You know what my smug self thinks...I'm pissed about it. Like I have any right to be. I think when you have ever been competitive in a sport at a higher level for any amount of time, you innately place expectations on yourself.

I think I just rambled a lot... net, net, I get it!

[sadlebred]

Sounds like fun. Good luck!

[katandkevin]

Aug 14, 2013 9:26:13 GMT -5 joenali said:

I'm excited to not run and bike for awhile and swim, to swim! There are a couple of meets in October and November that I'm excited to train for! Good luck at your races!!

This is me. I can't wait to just focus on swimming.

[Susie]

That's my problem - I'm not all that interested in pool swimming anymore, and open water is always at the same time as tri season. So I can't find a time to focus on one thing and then the other. Le sigh.

[katinthehat]

I'm starting to feel that way. I've fallen in love with track cycling but unfortunately, coming in at the tail end of the season. I think I'll only be able to race once this year since the races don't start until the end of August for the fall season and my oly is at the end of September.

It's hard when you love two things so much and while they compliment each other, you can't give your full devotion to either of them and have anything left.

[trigal]

I was a swimmer in high school, but that's the extent of my competition experience. When I started triathlons (ten years after graduating from high school), swimming was definitely my strong sport. I don't compete swimming anymore, so I decided to do the OWS in Lake George next week. I may consider doing more of that, but I think my true love is triathlon. I don't see triathlon as a juxtaposition of three sports, but really as one sport. I'm not sure when that changed. I still compete in running races and duathlons, but those are really just as C-races when my triathlons are my A-races.

I guess I don't have any advice for you. However, I think the longer you do triathlons, the more you'll be able to focus on swimming when you want to, because you'll have a stronger base for cycling and running. Or, consider changing it up every season. You can let one year be a tri focus and another be a swimming focus. It's good to change things up like that.

Also, I can't believe I used the word "juxtaposition" in a post.

[dmxm]

I get this. I mostly run (badly) throughout the year, and look forward to tri training in the warmer weather. And I've really been enjoying biking this summer. Problem is, I've got a half marathon coming up and I'd rather be putting miles in on the bike than in my sneakers. I know I should probably run tomorrow morning, but I think I'm going to swim instead. Oh well. First world problems, right? The OWS you have coming up sounds great! Good luck!