I was wondering how people calculated open water distances? I started to swim in Long Beach, CA and was wondering if there was something that can help me figure out distances, for example, if there was a standard distance between life guard stations or beach bathrooms (I tried talking to the lifeguards but no one knew :confused: )
Didn’t I ask “Don’t get me started”?
How many marathoners go out too fast? Lots of them. – Yes, you will find marathon runners who take it out too fast, but I’d guess very few finish who sprint as fast as they can for the first mile, while bashing the brains out of anyone near then.
But the alternate question is how many marathoners draft when running? – The good ones do. Have you ever run into a head wind? Drafting in running does not provide nearly the benefit of drafting in swimming, but every little bit helps.
And for me there is a huge difference between sprinting the first 200 M and taking it out at a fast pace to get in a favorable position to draft. The typical Cuisinart-esque start at a triathlon makes it real difficult for most people to swim efficiently. And if you’re in an Olympic distance tri or longer you don’t want to be burning energy fruitlessly.
My basic advice is to take an outside position (away from the center of the melee) and at the gun take off at a strong steady pace (for a 1K or 1.5Kmile swim, I recommend starting out at your 400Meter race pace, find some feet by the 200M mark and settle in .
Why start away from the center of the pack, the straight line to the first turn? Basic math. First 300 people standing shoulder to shoulder 30 across and 10 deep will occupy about 600 sq.feet. Soon after the gun sounds those 300 people go from vertical to horizontal and now take up closer to 3600 sq.feet. Additionally the outside ranks of those 300 people are trying to squeeze onto that straight line to the turn buoy, with everyone sprinting. Instant Mix-Master. In a race with a 200Meter straightaway at the start, before the first turn, if you start 25Meters left or right of the center of the pack you will end up swimming an extra 2Meters. 40Meters left/right makes that an extra 4Meters you swim.
Didn’t I ask “Don’t get me started”?
How many marathoners go out too fast? Lots of them. – Yes, you will find marathon runners who take it out too fast, but I’d guess very few finish who sprint as fast as they can for the first mile, while bashing the brains out of anyone near then.
But the alternate question is how many marathoners draft when running? – The good ones do. Have you ever run into a head wind? Drafting in running does not provide nearly the benefit of drafting in swimming, but every little bit helps.
And for me there is a huge difference between sprinting the first 200 M and taking it out at a fast pace to get in a favorable position to draft. The typical Cuisinart-esque start at a triathlon makes it real difficult for most people to swim efficiently. And if you’re in an Olympic distance tri or longer you don’t want to be burning energy fruitlessly.
My basic advice is to take an outside position (away from the center of the melee) and at the gun take off at a strong steady pace (for a 1K or 1.5Kmile swim, I recommend starting out at your 400Meter race pace, find some feet by the 200M mark and settle in .
Why start away from the center of the pack, the straight line to the first turn? Basic math. First 300 people standing shoulder to shoulder 30 across and 10 deep will occupy about 600 sq.feet. Soon after the gun sounds those 300 people go from vertical to horizontal and now take up closer to 3600 sq.feet. Additionally the outside ranks of those 300 people are trying to squeeze onto that straight line to the turn buoy, with everyone sprinting. Instant Mix-Master. In a race with a 200Meter straightaway at the start, before the first turn, if you start 25Meters left or right of the center of the pack you will end up swimming an extra 2Meters. 40Meters left/right makes that an extra 4Meters you swim.
