Breakthroughs

First thing first, I really like beginnertriathlete.com.  I'm there nearly every day doing a bit of reading and occasionally posting.  I'm cbrave which is kind of stupid user name but I couldn't put in "Chuck the Brave" and I hope that people at least see that I'm brave when I take on challenging races.

So, why I'm sharing all this rambling is that I've noticed that people really want to find out how to make a breakthrough.  Swimming, biking or running is proving to be much harder to do and the person wants to know the secret to becoming fast.

I've often looked for the secret and I've posted quite a few times on breakthrough discoveries for me.  So here are my breakthrough moments.

1.  From swimming that was tiring to swimming that was easier.  The main key was to lower my hand in the glide phase.  I have drawn an amazing picture and included it below (I nearly failed art so have patience).  This "magically" pulled my hips up and made it easier to swim.

2.  No blisters - listened to the shoe sales person and bought a pair of shoes that were 1 size too big and then I wore them laced loose enough to slip on.  No more blisters, even with new shoes on long runs.

3.  Less pool smell - Shower (remember to keep your swim suit on) on the deck and then get in the steam sauna for 5 minutes after your swim.  Then shower as normal.  I find that I don't smell poolly as much.

Finally, breakthrough seem to happen after a bunch of training and racing.  Asking for help brings some and making mistakes bring others.

I hope anyone who is reading and looking for a magic training bullet will maybe focus less on finding the magic cure and spend a bit more time training and enjoying our sport.  The breakthroughs I enjoy the most are realizing that I've just done something that I could never do before and I was so busy enjoying the swim/bike/run that I didn't notice it.