In my quest to improve my swimming (my coworker is totally killing me swimming, but she’s been going up to six times a week versus my one!), one of the things I’ve done (in addition to trying to figure out another time or two a week I can swim and borrowing a book from the library on the subject) is to get myself goggles.

I went to the local Ross Dress for Less and picked up two pairs of Nike goggles for $8. My friends who have been swimming with me have already been using goggles while swimming; I gave it credit for some of their endurance versus mine, since I’m usually giving up after about a half hour due to feeling blind.

But I found that goggles is making much more of a difference than just in terms of my vision. I feel much more comfortable swimming with them, which is probably psychological–it’s the difference between being able to see while driving and not. I believe that it’s improved my swimming markedly, which is not what I expected–after all, having a better bike doesn’t really make a better cyclist, but in this case, it was a big difference.

Now, “markedly” is a bit vague, but the truth is now I feel my limitation swimming isn’t my eyes–it’s totally eliminated as a limiting factor. Instead, it’s down to my form and my training. And really, my aerobic fitness is pretty decent from the cycling and running, so I’m mostly down to my form.

It’s time to really work on that swimming!