I’m not sure why I stop blogging from time to time, but I do try to keep swimming. Today I decided to write about Triathlons. Charmaine did the Provo Triathlon this weekend. I thought it was very interesting. It definitely made me want to get in and swim. At the time I was sure I could have come in first place (at least for the swim).

Today I tried to prove my hypothesis as best I could by timing myself swimming 800 yards. I am not a distance swimmer. Doing an 800 in high school would have just about killed me. Back then, I had no concept of pacing myself; I would just swim until I was dead and then try to figure out how to get to the finish line. Today I decided to try and stick to the pace of the fastest sprint-distance swimmers. It was hard for me, but I was able to finish the 800 at that pace. I don’t think it’s a fair comparison, though. I was swimming in a pool, which gave me the opportunity to push off a wall every 25 yards. You don’t get that advantage in open-water swims. I was also able to see where I was going the whole time. I could even look up at the clock from time to time to see if I was still on pace. But it was still fun to do it, and I’ll probably do it again sometime at an even faster pace.

I’ve decided that Triathlons are skewed in favor of bikers. When I look at the results, particularly from the Olympic distance racers, it’s obvious. Most of the time is spent biking. Next is running. Swimming is short in comparison. This means that the winners are all bikers that run well and can swim. I think a better triathlon would be to give equal weight to each of the three disciplines. Obviously, I’m a bit biased being a fairly good swimmer and a poor biker and runner, but I still think it’s a good idea. Otherwise it’s really a bike race with a few non-standard things thrown in. That’s just my $0.02.

Swim:
200 Free warm-up
800 Free @ 12:00 (1:30/100 pace)
200 Free easy
8 x 50 Kick @ 1:30 (coming in under 0:55)
2 x 100 Free @ 2:30 (coming in under 1:15)
200 Free warm-down
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2000 yards