First of all... this is one of the most interesting sites I've come across in regards to triathlon and swimming. Helpful and sensible advice to get in the forums etc.First impression is wow.

Sorry if this is lengthy, but maybe I can inspire someone else to just try..

After a couple of years of cycling, a friends performance in xtreme Ironman inspired me to try tri - and this summer it's going to happen. My first tri - olympic distance.

However, as a kid I had an accident that kept me out of the aquatic environment for almost ten years. As a teen I wanted to to learn windsurfing, so I had to battle my demons.

It was hard, but at least I had fun windsurfing. I never felt comfortable in the water though and windsurfing let me stay out of it.. most of the time

Last fall I decided that if I ever was going to survive an IM, I had to figure out if I could learn to swim with anything else than the duck-alike approach - breast stroke of course - head a mile above water.

I am pretty technically oriented as a person... I always loved physics, aerodynamics and anything related, and I like to think I can learn most things if I set my mind to it.

With a few youtube videos in mind, I hit the pool - determined like never before. After a few sessions I managed to submerge my head in the stroke - and after a few weeks I started to feel comfortable with it.

I've been at it for almost six months now, and the up/down head movement of the breast stroke is no problem at all now.

The problem, that I suspect is caused by my lack of swimming experience from young age, is that as soon as I turn my head sideways in the water - crawlstyle - my locking ability disappears.

I have been experimenting, but with no luck so far - and I would really like to get some advice for some "baby steps".

I know the best thing is to find a masters group, or get coaching - but I'm a pretty busy dad with 3 kids and a time consuming job.I can't make it to the open training sessions of the masters.

So... are there any secret tricks to learn to keep that pesky water out or is it just a matter of hours, days and weeks in the water?

This seasons tri will probably be performed with breast stroke anyway. At the moment I'm trying out this tri breast stroke as shown on the following youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKgHTekxpc

With this technique, or my attempts anyway, I can do a comfortable 1.5miles per hour - for an hour. I can go faster, but it feels inefficient.I can go further - but I'm not sure it's the best use of my time limited sessions.

At the moment I'm just swimming half and half intervals and endurance as much as possible to build swimming muscles and aerobic capacity.In a couple of months I'll probably get some coaching from afriend.

My goal is to finish this summers swim in about 35mins. Are there others out there who do breast stroke triathlon swims? If so - whats your best?

If you're still with me - thanks for reading .