New- Quick Question?

Hey Sharon, I did 500 meters tonight pretty much non-stop but I did it very slowly and focused hard on my breathing. Only when I found myself pushing myself did I start not breathing correctly... so this will be my goal, to continue slowly until I'm completely comfortable and breathing correctly and getting enough oxygen while slowly increasing speed. I had to stop a couple times not on my own behalf, but because I was in the med lane which seemed to be going painstakingly slow and I didn't want to pass them. The fast lane was way to fast for me and I knew it was so I figured better to stay in the med/slow lane and just work on breathing. I will work on the technique you described below and make sure I'm doing that correctly... I honestly have to wonder if the reason I had troubles in high school had a lot to do with the breathing issue, just wearing out too fast... I never had formal training to learn this stuff.... I felt so great tonight and I most certainly could have kept going but my friend quit after 350 ( she's not that much into swimming, I think she's just hanging in there to help me out) and I am there as a guest with her right now.... She hopped out early, and she said "I'm amazed you didn't keep going, you were just gliding away" That acknoledgement felt good. :) We played an hour of raquetball BEFORE swimming ( whoo doggie, it was a workout today!) and I still have a 1-2 mile walk with the dog tonight... croak. I think Julie wants to workout every other day, so I'll swim on her off days. The Y gave me two more passes to get me through till payday for sign up. :) it was very nice of them. Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth, Stopping smoking is going to make a big difference in your breathing! Plus, you will get in better physical condition as you swim more regularly. So, this will correct itself in time. But I would recommend that you read up on "Total Immersion" swimming also known as "downward fishlike swimming". This is kinda the bible on new stroke technique. It's all about keeping your head down and not lifting your head up to breathe. Many people lift their head and then turn to breathe. If you can keep your head down (like when you wear a snorkel) and simply rotate your shoulders to one side. You should be able to breathe during that rotation without lifting and breaking your stroke glide. There are lots of drills to get the position correct. I know you can find info on this on the USMS website. Since you are starting over - you might as well start over correctly! Sharon

In response to your question about open water swimming being different than pool swimming - VERY different! There are no lines on the bottom of lakes to keep you straight, I worked hard last year on improving my spotting technique so I could look up for the buoy and not lose any momentum, and you will swim a lot further (i.e. off course) if you get distracted and or/lost mental focus on what you are doing. This happens easily because the swims I have done are so beautiful and fun I start sight seeing. Oops. Oregon has a circuit of open water swims in the summer, my favorite is at Elk Lake in Bend, where we do a three day series of swims at different distances. Last year they tried something new, grouping us in heats for the 1000 meters, so you were with about 7-8 other people about the same speed as you, heats left the starting line 3 minutes apart. It was very tactical as the group stays together so you are constantly jockeying for position instead of having the fast group just swim away from you.

As for planning our trips, my family loves to go to Elk Lake because we camp for the weekend, they reserve the group campsite at a nearby campground for swimmers so we all tent camp there. The open water swims are on the Oregon Masters calendar just like the pool swims, with entry forms available right off the website just like anything else. Elk Lake offers several different length swims, last year it was 500m, 1000m 1500m 3K and 5K, you could swim any or all of them. Here is an addy for some pictures from last years swim, its off the Central Oregon Masters website and gives you an idea of how lovely it is. Its always the last weekend in July so its hot! The mountain is the South Sister and you can also see Middle Sister and Mt. Bachelor from the lake while you are swimming:www.comaswim.org/.../index.html

So I can't just follow whoever is up ahead of me or follow the main group out there??? How quickly do I need to be able to swim to be able to keep up during open water events? Right now I swim slowly so that I am breathing correctly ( though I was getting stuck behind people when I was in slow mode so my slow is probably medium slow... and what should be a good aim for endurance swimming to judge.. Right now I'm only doing 500's and then plan on moving up a bit each week... I know some long distance swims are 1850's, i don't know how far up they continue to go... Also, the masters group which is local to me counts in yards. I have never counted in yards, always meters, so when he says they do 3300 and 2800 swims in 1:15, how far is that on a 25 Meter pool??????? or did he mean meters and just said yards by accident? Confused.. :) Elizabeth

Oh, I'm sorry, another question on open water... so how do you plan in advance for these trips? Are they normally held over a weekend or during the week? How many do you do per year. Where all do you travel to do them? How much does it typically cost to enter them? Do you do this with your masters group or can you go to these events on your own? Do you need sponsorship... Sorry, Just had a slew of questions fly off the top of my head. Elizabeth

Such beautiful pictures, I can only imagine it was 100% times more than that in person.... I live pretty far away from Oregon though. :) Are there people who travel all over the US for open water? I want to say thank you all for this information, I'm so excited about all of this... I wonder if there are ever any open water events on the Mississippi. ( I live on it, but don't recall any) but then again. I will have to look around and see if there are any events that are along our state borders.

Yep - those are all on the swim days! I don't know the stats on numbers of people but most of the swims I didn't feel crowded at all, and I am a middle of the pack (or is it "pod") swimmer. The only swim that got a lot of physical contact was the 1K where we started in heats and we jockeyed for position the entire time. But it was FUN! Everyone was about the same speed so we couldn't swim away from each other, the course was tight to keep us together. If you check the Open Water category of these discussion forums, you will see that the Elk Lake entry form is already available, this year it is the site of the 1-Mile open water national champs so we are swimming those (imperial?) distances, instead of meters. I will be there as it is one of my favorite swims, even though I tend to be a better pool swimmer!

Oops, its under Announcements - Waht's new, 1 Mile open water champs.

What are heats????