I was just approached to swim the 500 yd portion of a sprint tri in 5 weeks. I have never swam open water before. What are the things to look out for? How do you train it in the pool? If i'm shooting for 8 min 500 in open I need to average around 48 for my 50's... how much time will I lose by swiming open vs in the pool?
Thanks!
If you do zero open water training then I’d suggest you plan on your first open water swim taking 50% more to twice as long as your pool swims. With some open water training and work on sighting and navigation you can bring this down to 20%-40% slower in open water. And with a lot of practice you can get this down around 5%-10% in fresh water and a little better in salt water.
Check out the Open Water Workouts - by Anne Cleveland thread for some great open water training workouts.
If you do zero open water training then I’d suggest you plan on your first open water swim taking 50% more to twice as long as your pool swims. With some open water training and work on sighting and navigation you can bring this down to 20%-40% slower in open water. And with a lot of practice you can get this down around 5%-10% in fresh water and a little better in salt water.
Check out the Open Water Workouts - by Anne Cleveland thread for some great open water training workouts.
