I think it’s fair to say that swimming will be the make or break event in my Ironman 70.3 and Ironman career. I know I need to train for the bike and run, but I’m 100% certain they will not be an issue. Swimming on the other hand is the event where all my doubts lie.
Most half Ironman training plans seem to be right around 20 weeks and they want you to be able to swim 400-500m continuously before starting the plan. I can’t do that as yet. But, given a 20-week plan, it would mean that I have just about 14 weeks (3 months) to get to being able to swim 500m continuously.
I’ve been swimming 500m during my workouts, with breaks, and while I could see small improvements, it just seemed that getting there in 3 months would be a close call.
Today was the first time where I did my 500m and I actually felt as though, yes, I can do this. I still had to take breaks, but I didn’t have that sucking air feeling after each length.