What is the best way to train in a pool for an open water?

That sounds great as we in chicagoland wake up this morning in Sept. 12 to 40 degree temps and clouds with rain!!!! UUUGGG !!

I did my first o/w event--2.4 miles--with absolutely no o/w training experience. I think I had been swimming with masters groups for 3-4 years, maybe 5x a week, average distance 3-4000 yards. No, I certainly didn't win the race, and that definitely wasn't my intention. But I did place decently for me. I truthfully think that if you're swimming regularly, and you just want to finish, you'll be fine. Actually I asked the organizer of the local SCAR swim a while back (when I thought I might be able to do a leg) what the best way was to train for it. His answer, "keep coming to team workouts."

I am currently switching from pool comps to OW comps due to feet and shoulder injuries. The longer distances OW are better for swimming at 80% effort I find. This season I have done a 2 mile, a 7 mile and on Sunday next a 1 mile event. Training in a 25m pool has been done on my own as club members are still sprinty things :) I do sets of 6 x 800m, alternating easy (perfect stroke)/warm ups with race pace. This is great for me for so many reasons. Most OW events don't allow a warm up so the first 800m strategy is rehearsed over and over again - I find i need 200m for my aging bones to get oiled these days so a deliberate slower pace is needed at the start. Then the practice at speeding up without damaging later performance is crucial to putting in a good time. Race pace for 800m really does allow you to listen to your body, slow down or speed up depending on how you feel. BUT using those feelings to see by the end of the 800m did you go out hard enough or too hard. IMO these are crucial 'feelings' to memorize for the event itself. 6 x 800 or perhaps 10 x 400 for shorter events (for your half mile) allows you still improve fitness/stamina whilst practicing for OW distance pacing. I know sighting is often an issue for newbies to practice, but is a distraction in valuable pool time. 10/12 very efficient consecutive strokes is by far the more important part of OW swimming training, than is the sighting part. This is because more often than not you are following other swimmers (no sighting required) or banks of lakes/rivers give a good guide without special attention. However if you are in the lead or out in the middle of a lake/sea/ocean then things are very different - get to practice in OW if you can! good luck

Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestion......