After a couple days of personal record 500-yard intervals in the home pool, I traveled across the country to visit family in Michigan.  Again, with a boot on my fractured foot, I can’t run or cycle.  But, I can swim and focus on my weakest skill.

The swim distance at 70.3 Ironman Canada is 1.2 miles or 2,000 meters.   For the past few sessions, I have swum 1,500 yards in total with breaks in between each 500-yard interval to rest and think about how I could improve the mechanics I was working on.  With the success I was achieving after my session with my new coach Julie, I decided that I wanted to increase the difficulty scale to two 1,000 meter intervals which would equal the entire 1.2 miles albeit with a rest in between the individual intervals.

I hobbled over to MVP Sportsplex in Grand Rapids on my crutches with a backpack full of my swim gear and paid for my weekly pass to span my stay in the mitten-shaped state.  I then carefully navigated my way around the wet tiles next to the pools and slipped into my wetsuit while the water aerobics was finishing up.

Once the pool lanes were replaced, I found a lane next to another guy who had already hopped in and got a few laps done.  He asked me about my foot as he noticed my boot and crutches on my way in.  This started what would become a 15-minute pool conversation about everything from my foot to my journey, to triathlon swimming technique, and more.  They are friendly folk here in the mitten state even half clothed in the pool.

He asked me where I lived and I told him, San Diego.  He asked me if I grew up around Grand Rapids and I said yes.  He asked me where.  I told him Howard City.  He laughed (That does happen when you meet people who actually know where Howard City is).  He said he had to ask me if I knew the Hauensteins?  I told him they were our neighbors across the road.  He laughed again.  He said he and his wife go on vacations with Katie (Who is my same age and we grew up as kids together) and her husband.  Small world in the pool I guess.  One degree of aqua separation if you will.

Finally, I began the swim.  It felt good.  It felt really good.  I had to slow it down though.  I was going for more distance today and needed a steady pace.  I tried to relax and focus on the two things Julie told me to focus on.  Keep my head at a 45-degree angle looking ahead and try to push through and graze my hip.  Sure enough, the first 1,000 meters ended up under 30 minutes!  28:29 to be exact!

The second 1,000 meters came in at almost a half hour on the dot for a total of 58:30.  This was a major achievement on many levels, to say the least.

The most motivating was that it beats the cut-off time at 70.3 Ironman Canada.  As mentioned previously in this blog, I have to be under a 1:10:00 cut off time or they pull me from the race.  I am not interested in traveling all the way to Whistler, British Columbia to get pulled out of a race after an hour when I have trained for over half a year.

Needless to say, there is more work to be done.  The pool offers a straight line and swimming in the pack in open water will certainly send me off track in excess of 1.2 miles.  I will also have to deal with the pack.  However, this day puts us within reach and my technique is smoothing out enough to probably tough it out.  Plus, a full triathlon wetsuit will offer technology benefits I am not getting with my old surfing spring suit in the pool.

In other words, looks like I am getting close.  With a little more coaching from Julie, and hopefully a mended foot a month from now, we might just pull this off.  There is still a chance to be ready by July 30th.  Like I said before, I am a half glass full kind of guy.