the Swim

As promised I thought I’d give you a run down of the Taupo Half Ironman course one discipline at a time. First up is the swim.

The swim is definitely my least favourite discipline. Its all about building confidence and then getting the technique right. On my first couple of sessions in the pool I was a bit unsure of myself and was a bit self-conscious I guess. But as my confidence grew and I started to enjoy being in the water my technique has definitely improved.

As part of my training and as a way to gauge my process over the coming months I have done a time trial in each discipline. For swimming it is a 300m pool session, for cycling it is Makara Hill, and for running it is a flat 5km run at Oriental Bay. The idea is to compare the results every now and then to make sure my training is actually paying dividends!

So to kick things off – my 300m swim time-trial in November was 7 minutes 22 seconds!

2010 Taupo Half Ironman Swim

The swim at the Taupo half is a 2km rectangle circuit. It is a deep water start in front of the Taupo Yacht Club which is pretty close to the mouth of the Waikato river. Teams start 10 minutes after individuals. The swim heads out parallel to shore, takes a right turn and heads 70m offshore then another right turn and back to the start. On completion of the swim there is a 450m run which takes you to transition next to the events centre.