Something's fishy...

Nope.  No April fool's day joke this year.  To be honest, I just couldn't think of a good one.  Last year, I got a bunch of people with my "I'm moving!" post.  This year, it's just the real thing at DebTris.

So, I've had a couple "poor me" posts about my bike issues lately.  I'm hoping to get the fit worked out tomorrow, and then should be able to get the saddle time in.  In the meantime, I decided to stop whining about it and deal in a  positive way.

I've often said that one of the great things about triathlon is the built in cross-training.  In many ways, it's easier on your body, and if something happens to keep you from one of the disciplines, you've still got two other options to keep you from going crazy.  Now admittedly, I kind of thought that the run would be the most likely thing to be out of the game for, but lately it's been biking I can't do.

So, what to do?

As much as I'd love to run more, it isn't really a good idea to suddenly increase my run volume.  I tried that last year when I was travelling and was without a bike or easy access to a pool.  It didn't go so well and I ended up having to take off more running time then I had gained with running every day.

On the other hand, swimming is low impact, and throwing in a bunch of extra swimming will do no harm and likely lots of good.  This is, of course, assuming no shoulder issues, which I've been lucky enough to avoid so far.

So, I've been doing exactly that.  Lots of swimming.

I know some triathletes don't love the swim, but I really enjoy it.  It is such a skill based discipline and I love seeing the tiny little improvements.  I also just feel at peace in the water.  Seriously, I could be a fish.  I love feeling the water around me and me going through it.  I actually really feel it now, and I think it's so neat when I can observe how a slight change to the angle of my arm increases my catch and gives me more leverage.  How one position of my head creates drag while another seems to cut right through.

At some point, I really want to learn the other strokes.  Get better at backstroke.  Become coordinated enough to do breaststroke.  (The instructor for the last adult swim class I took laughed at my breast stroke attempts.  Seriously.)  I'd even like to learn fly.  It is amazing watching somebody go across the pool with a well executed butterfly stroke.  One of these days...

Right now, that isn't my focus.  I also can't maintain swimming 5 days a week once I start getting back on my bike.  But, getting in the water and just enjoying it has been great for me.

Now, the other thing I really ought to spend some time on is core, but that's just not as fun...