Just Don't Drown...

Yesterday morning I completed my last swim session before the Sprint Triathlon on Saturday.

The swimming has not been going well. Since coming off that six-month shoulder injury I've managed to shave about four minutes off my time for a 750 metre swim, but I'm still having trouble completing that distance in under eighteen minutes. The shoulder is now completely pain-free, but I can't help but remember that I was still managing times under seventeen minutes last year swimming with a decent amount of pain. And I'm nowhere near the fourteen minute times I was clocking last July before my shoulder first gave out.

I shouldn't be shocked. From November through to May, the muscles in my upper body have done nothing but atrophy. When the pain persisted for over two months, I finally broke down in late January and saw a sports doctor. But he didn't prescribe anything but further rest -- with the possibility of surgery if the bursitis symptoms lasted more than six months. So no swimming. No rugby. No lifting. Not a single pushup or pull-up.

When I started thinking about trying my hand at triathlons last year, I never thought that the swimming portion would prove to be my weak point. But it is. And given my experience during my last triathlon -- where I was run down in the water by people starting three to six minutes behind me -- I'm going to go into the registration area on Saturday and get my start changed to the final wave.

For the second straight race, I fully expect to be one of the last people out of the water. But one of the good things about having nothing to do except concentrate on biking and running for the last little while is that I actually got better at the whole biking and running thing. So it will be, just like last time, up to my legs to climb up the final rankings.

That is, if I don't drown first.