Triathlon - Fear of swimming

For all of you who have avoided triathlons because of no prior swimming experience and fear of sucking horribly, listen to my experience. I'm a cyclist, age 47, but wanted to try something different this winter so I started swimming. My brother qualified for Kona 2006 and has been telling me for years that I should be swimming, even though I was primarily a cyclist. He insisted that the swimming was a great way to recover after hard bike efforts and another way to stimulate capillarization and aerobic capacity etc. I always balked because to me it just seemed like something I didn't have the time for, because I didn't like the idea of jumping into cold water and because when I last tried to swim laps it was embarrassingly difficult. This year I just said the hell with it and jumped in so to speak. The first day was more of a struggle than I even thought it would be. The next day the same. I didn't give up though and after severals weeks of demoralizing and agonizing struggle it started to get easier. I've been at it one month now and I can swim for an hour without any problem. I feel great afterwards and sleep like a baby. I look forward to the workouts and find that they are such low impact that I can do them whenever I feel like it, the day before or the day after a hard trainer session. It doesn't matter. I've been told my stroke needs work and I have no idea how fast I'm going, but I don't care at this point. I'm just amazed that I can swim as comfortably as I can after only one month.

its more like fear of drowning in my case- if they could make the pool 5ft 11 deep then it would be a lot better

I tried to learn to swim for years, was badly frightened when very young and a big wave knocked me over and I inhaled a lot of water, could not breathe, thought I was going to die, cousins I was with recognized what had happened dragged me to shore and pumped the water out of me.

From then on it was ONLy pools for me.And no swimming just playin around

As an adult I did try many times, tooks pro lessons and always quit.

Then I met an instructor, years younger than I was,who saw that I wasn't co-ordinated .....stroke,breathing, head in then out of the water, and recognized my panic each time my face went into the water

He brought a snorkel mask one lesson and for the entire lesson I bobbed up then down under the water to get a breathing cycle going, then I floated face down breathing thru the mask.
Then He had me doing a crude stroke, the only thing I could manage,with face in the water and breathing out and in thru the mask

To ease my fear we only used the shallow end, but gradually as my confidence rose he moved a bit deeper into the pool

It took me 4 months to get enough co-ordination and confidence that I was able to ditch the mask and swim ONE length of the YMCA pool without fear and able to keep my face in the water.

All those years I missed out on so much fun

Like the op, I'm a cyclist. Decided to do my first tri this fall, just as an off season change of pace. I always thought I could swim, not well, but not drown. Read the total immersion book, practiced in the pool, and got to the point I was feeling pretty good swimming a mile. However I only had time for one short open water swim before the tri. In the actual race, I couldn't sight, my googles fogged, and I was one step from shear panic. Swam a good portion on my back, but finished, and had a good enough bike leg to take 3rd in may age group.
My advice would be to spend a fair amount o ftime in open water. Swimming with a pack in open water is way different than the pool. I'm not going to do another tri, until I get some professional swimming help.

I can relate to all the struggles mentioned above. I always thought of myself as a good swimmer, but there is a world of difference between recreational swimming and distance swimming/competition/open water racing. It took me a full 26 weeks of swimming/drilling 5x/week to be confident enough to enter my first triathlon (a sprint with a 800 meter swim). I panicked too, but finished. What helped me was to enter the water well before the tri started, to acclimate to the conditions, and just float around and relax. I still swim slow as can be, but I'm not afraid of the discipline anymore. In my 3rd tri, I completed IM USA Lake Placid, and really enjoyed the swim leg...Mirror Lake is beautiful. Funny story about that event...it's a two-loop course where you briefly exit the water at 1.2 miles and run a few yards only to re-enter the water. I started way to the back and right (counter clockwise rectangle course). After the initial chaos (even in the back), I settled into a nice,easy pace and eventually worked my way over to the underwater guidewires. I was 100 yards from completing my first lap, feeling all strong and cocky when I heard or sensed a presence. Almost instantneously I was smashed on my back, then on the side of my head...scared the s____ out of me. Turns out I was being lapped by the leader, Britain's Simon Lessing, who would go on the win the race after swimming literally right over the top of me. I guess I was in his way :D
Dave

I tried to learn to swim for years, was badly frightened when very young and a big wave knocked me over and I inhaled a lot of water, could not breathe, thought I was going to die, cousins I was with recognized what had happened dragged me to shore and pumped the water out of me.

From then on it was ONLy pools for me.And no swimming just playin around

As an adult I did try many times, tooks pro lessons and always quit.

Then I met an instructor, years younger than I was,who saw that I wasn't co-ordinated .....stroke,breathing, head in then out of the water, and recognized my panic each time my face went into the water

He brought a snorkel mask one lesson and for the entire lesson I bobbed up then down under the water to get a breathing cycle going, then I floated face down breathing thru the mask.
Then He had me doing a crude stroke, the only thing I could manage,with face in the water and breathing out and in thru the mask

To ease my fear we only used the shallow end, but gradually as my confidence rose he moved a bit deeper into the pool

It took me 4 months to get enough co-ordination and confidence that I was able to ditch the mask and swim ONE length of the YMCA pool without fear and able to keep my face in the water.

All those years I missed out on so much fun

I tried the snorkel thing as well, without the advice of a trainer. Not only was I un coordinated, but my kicking was so bad that I remained stationery with arms outstretched holding the foam board.

Yes, its one step at a time. The snorkel thing gets you over the fear and allows you to concentrate on each body movement till you master them all. Having said that, there's nothing that replaces natural abilities.