advice for 10K swim and lower back pain

Jim, I would assume you don’t experience the lower back pain while pool swimming, so I would guess that the pain is a symptom of picking your head up to sight the buoys. A couple of suggestions that may help – 1) Make sure that you keep your head down when swimming, some folks will carry their head a little higher than normal in open water swims, placing more strain on their lower back 2) Swim straight, sight less. This is easy to say and hard to do. It’s been a few years since I’ve done the AC 10K, but as I recall I was able to pretty much navigate from looking at shore landmarks when breathing and only spotting ahead when I got near the piers. 3) When you do look forward to spot buoys and piers do it at the end of a breath instead of the beginning. It’s much easier to rotate the head forward after a normal breath than it is to pick it up at the beginning.

Thanks, guys, for the advice. Actually, my back is sore from pool swimming--no ocean nearby to practice in for us Pittsburghers. I have been doing continuous swims in 25 yard pools. (So far, my best one was 7200 in 97 minutes.) Usually my back is pretty stiff by the end of these despite trying to keep my head down and not doing any sighting whatsoever. I figure that's a skill I will figure out when it becomes impossible to ignore... I have also been wondering about two other factors in the AC 10k. These are: 1) how much swimming do you actually do if you finish the thing? it's 10 k as the crow flies, right? so with the inevitable meandering that comes from not swimming perfectly straight, do you know how far the average person actually swims? 2) to what extent does the "strong incoming tide" help swimmers? If I get truly exhausted, can I roll on my back and count on the tide to push me, like a "floater" on one of the CSI shows, to the finish line? Thanks again for the advice. Leonard, I too would like to meet you. I'm the guy whose thinning hair looks a bit like a rabid raccoon's pelt thanks to 97 minute doses of chlorine therapy.

Jim - I have severe back problems due to trying to win the Olympic diving competiton with a 2.5 gainer. Problem was that it wasn't the Olympics and it was on the stairs of my house, not the pool. The thing that seems to help me, other than swimming, is to do lots of abdominal exercises, such as crunches. Also, some stretching, but I have to be very careful about that. You will like the race - I've done it twice and it is great "fun." This year they are changing the course and it will be even better. When I did it 2 years ago, my back injury flared up big-time about 45 minutes before the race. I swam the whole 10k with a back spasm and it was agonizing and slow. I intend to be there this year also. Hope to see you there. -LBJ

I did the swim last year and the swim was ni canals of the bacy bay of Atlantic City. I know the course is supposed to change but it should be similar. If so, you can mostly sight to one side and just decide that you will stay a certan distance form the canal bank. That's what I did. On the other hand I swam down the wrong canal and went about 300 yards off course!

Hard to say what the true distance will be, since everyone navigates differently. I have seen people who swim straight as a laser and other who certainly take a more "scenic" route. I'd probably be more concerned that you can swim "reasonably straight" while minimizing the # of times you lift your head to sight - that can get exhausting. I can't speak to the first half of the course, since it's a new course and I haven't seen it. However, I have done the second half of the course several times and although you can wander a bit, you can't go off course. Also, around 3/4 of the race distance, there are several zig-zigs that can be a bit disconcerting, but again, you can't get lost. Don't worry about the slight extra distance - everyone does it. As to the tide... I doubt that you will get more than 1 MPH push at any point of the course and probably less than that. The last 1/2 mile - 1 mile will probably be against the tide as somewhere in that range you pass the halfway point of the island. But it's pretty sluggish in that area, so nothing to worry about. Big "secret" for this course: Right before the finish you go under a bridge that blocks the view of the finish. Since the finish is on the right hand side of the waterway, the tendency is to go under one of the right hand bridge spans. But the land actually has a sharp left hand curve just past the bridge and it is actually better to go under one of the spans on the left-hand side of the bridge. It is counter-intuitive, but it will save you 20-30 seconds. Don't worry - you will be fine and you will enjoy it! -LBJ

Ken, Excellent advice. What you said about flip turns actually helping mitigate back pain seems to resonate with my personal experience. I wonder if maybe it would help to take a breaststroke break every mile or so, or maybe swim some backstroke--i.e., anything to slightly alter the S curve in the lumbar region. Congratulations of the 10 k. Did you have any problems getting cold? I guess wetsuits are outlawed in the NJ swim.

The lower back pain can come from maintaining typical prone freestyle body position “pressing the T” for such a long time. Unlike pool swimming open water swimming does not offer many back-flexion opportunities. Back-flexion would include flip turns, changing strokes etc. Although flip turns can cause back problems in there own right they do counter flex the back versus the typical prone freestyle body position. Every year after my first open water-training swim or after my first extended workout in long course pool I have lower back pain. Unfortunately it sounds like you do not have access to open water or a long course pool, but I find if you can train long course or open relatively frequently your back will adjust to the stress. Some of things you can do during the swim is stop go into a Jelly Fish type float arms and legs dangling and then slowly pull you legs to your chest and stretch you lower back. FYI – just finished a 10K swim in Colorado see www.whswim.com and they finish the race on a boat ramp and had two strong people aid every swimmer out of the water. A very nice touch.

Originally posted by jim thornton Did you have any problems getting cold? I guess wetsuits are outlawed in the NJ swim. Yes, but you don't have to worry about the water being too cold in NJ. It's usually in the mid-70's or even a little higher. -LBJ

I completed a tri in Brigantine on August 7. (Brigantine is just north of AC.) It was a cool morning for the middle of summer and the water was warmer than the air. I agree that temp should not be much of a problem.

Jim, I was having a lot of lower back pain last swimming season. After championships I cut back on swimming and it went away. A few weeks ago I started swimming more and the back pain came back. I went to the doctor and he said that it was my back muscles causing all the pain and told me to do exercises for by back and gave me a perscription. It seems to be working but it is hard to tell since our Y has shut down the pool for three weeks. We will see if it really works when I start working out for masters again. (Unfourtuntly the pool won't open until the week before our first meet. Will you be at the Sewickley meet?) Check with your doctor and see if he can do anything to help.