Synchronized Swimming in Triathlon?

PHOTO CREDIT: Rick Rickman Photography

One of my Blogger friends, Dianne, was sharing her youngest son's adventures in swim class and it brought back a flood of memories for me and made me question my seeming adversion to going to the pool to do the work necessary for the swimming portion of triathlons.

I was thinking about how much I have always LOVED water... I was constantly in and out of the ocean at the beach in the summer. I know I caused my Mom at least a dozen tiny heart attacks everytime I would venture far beyond the "no higher than your waist" limit when I was barely seven.

I took swim lessons at every girl scout camp that I went to and I went to ALOT of camps. (My parents were in their late 20s and camp is a great place to send your little girl when you both have to work full time jobs to make ends meet!) My parents were very good about making sure that I knew how to swim, float, tread water and I even learned some water rescue techniques thanks to summer camp.

Then as a teenager, I was very lucky to get to spend a few weeks every summer at my grandparent's place in Deland, Florida (just out side of Orlando/Daytona) and the only places I was ever found were:

1. The Pool
2. On my grandma's 3-speed bike tooling around the neighborhood
3. In front of the TV
4. At the table eating a snack or a meal

**the only exception were the trips to Disney, Sea World, Cypress Gardens and other places that we'd visit.

My daily routine most summer days was: "Breakfast - Bike - Pool - Lunch - TV (must wait 1/2 hour after eating) - Pool - Snack - Pool - Dinner - TV - Shower - Sleep."

In all that time in the pool, I don't think I ever "swam laps"....EVER!

I LOVED diving and pretending I was an olympic synchonized swimmer and swimming underwater for as far as I could but whenever my uncle (only 5 years older than me) or my Grandpa would challenge me to a "race" to the other side of the pool, I would race them but I was never really very interested because I always lost the race...

Funny how much I could love the water but I had very little interest in swimming beyond it's ability to get me back to the diving board, out to the raft, or to wherever my friends were....

So I have been trying to find my inner child to motivate me to do my swim workouts because the truth is, whenever I finally get in the pool, my first thought is always... "Why do I avoid this ??? I love being in the water!!"

But then the laps start...at least now, thanks in large part to my friend Keri, I can spend some time practicing flip turns which are fun!

So I was thinking ...Why can't I "synchronize swim" my way to the out bouys and back at Eagleman Ironman 70.3? How is it different from "drafting" in the swim, which is legal in the swim portion of a triathlon.

Anybody ever synchronize swim" the Choptank, Nancy?

Something to consider while I drag my feet to the pool after work twice a week (when it really should be 3 times...)

Live STRONG!