I've been working on my stroke, body position and breathing 3 - 4 times a week in the pool. I'm not completely new to swimming I just haven't done it in a very long time....decades.
I did my second open water swim today. I swam two miles. It took me about 1/3 of distance (probably a little less) to get warmed up after that I was more comfortable. I could feel my self glide through the water effortlessly and I didn't really have to take any breaks except to spot buoys.
What can I do to get comfortable quicker? In a real race I won't wanna spend a lot of race time warming up. I know how to warm up for bike races and know certain bike races require different types of warm ups. The same goes for running.
Is this just something I have to do more often and will come in time or are there some techniques for this?
Parents
Former Member
If I warm up before a longer swim I won't have energy left to finish the darn thing! Here's the deal for me in my 50s age group: if swimming in a pool I'll get in to see how the turns are, and I'll swim maybe 100 meters, and take a couple of dives. If I am swimming in o.w. I might get in the water to get myself wet and wash the goggles. I will warm up while swimming the race itself. Once I took off too fast in a 1,000 meters race and got sorta into the "lactic" phase after a minute or so and then panicked because I thought I was out of breath and it took me sometime to get into the groove again. So I always swim the first couple of minutes slower, then I pick up and only do a semi sprint when in full view of the finish area with about 200 hundred meters to go.
If I warm up before a longer swim I won't have energy left to finish the darn thing! Here's the deal for me in my 50s age group: if swimming in a pool I'll get in to see how the turns are, and I'll swim maybe 100 meters, and take a couple of dives. If I am swimming in o.w. I might get in the water to get myself wet and wash the goggles. I will warm up while swimming the race itself. Once I took off too fast in a 1,000 meters race and got sorta into the "lactic" phase after a minute or so and then panicked because I thought I was out of breath and it took me sometime to get into the groove again. So I always swim the first couple of minutes slower, then I pick up and only do a semi sprint when in full view of the finish area with about 200 hundred meters to go.
