And I'm off!

And I’m off to start my triathlon training! Yesterday I went out during lunch and picked up some goggles and located the local public pool after work. The pool itself is located on Champlain St. down inside the Marie Reed Center and is only about 2 blocks from my place so I was pretty excited when I found it. On top of that it is free to DC residents so really, I have almost no good reason not to go.

Having not attempted to swim since I was in 8th grade or so when I swam on the neighborhood swim team, I knew that it was going to be tough getting my swimming fitness in gear, but I had no idea just how tough. I hopped in the water and swam about 50 meters before stopping to catch my breath already. It’s amazing how unprepared my lungs and body were for this, and I could never get enough oxygen into my lungs as I swam along. I recomposed myself and tried to work on technique through the next few laps and worked back and forth between freestyle and breast strokes and lasted for about a half an hour.

Thankfully my recovery time when I’d stop was very quick and I could certainly have continued going at the end (with lots of short breaks involved of course) but I figured I didn’t want to kill myself on the first day in the water. I think overall it was a good start and I’m sure I will quickly improve as long as I make sure to get to the pool on a consistent basis. I wish the pool could be open in the mornings so I could swim before work but it looks like that just may not be available right now. But with free swimming two blocks from my house I guess I don’t have a whole lot of room to complain.