For those open water crazies who can swim hours and hours non-stop, I have a question: how in the world do you do it?I just cannot imagine swimming like 50 miles or so.And what do you feel while swimming?Pain?If so, how can you endure it for so long and not have your muscles shut down on you?I noticed when I swim for a long time(well, not even that long), I reach the point where I almost cannot get my hands over the water because my muscles tighten up so bad...
Parents
Former Member
Don't extrapolate what it feels like to swim a 100 meter race by saying "a 10,000 meter race must feel the same, but is 100 times longer." Generally, you are racing at/below your aerobic/anaerobic threshold, unlike the shorter pool races, so the pain you experience is more gradual and not like that of a 100. There is a lot of mental gamesmanship that you play with yourself as well - "if I can just make it to the next pier...", "I'll stay with this person for the next mile...", "I've hurt much worse than this before..." etc.
Just for "fun", try this: get in the pool and swim SLOWLY (say easy freestyle cool down pace) for 1/2 hour without stopping. I bet that you will make it physically, but you will find that it is your mind that is more problematic. The good news is that if you do it a number of time, your mind will adjust and it becomes no more daunting than most of what you are doing now. From there, the only limit to what you can swim is the amount of time that you want to put in to it.
-LBJ
Don't extrapolate what it feels like to swim a 100 meter race by saying "a 10,000 meter race must feel the same, but is 100 times longer." Generally, you are racing at/below your aerobic/anaerobic threshold, unlike the shorter pool races, so the pain you experience is more gradual and not like that of a 100. There is a lot of mental gamesmanship that you play with yourself as well - "if I can just make it to the next pier...", "I'll stay with this person for the next mile...", "I've hurt much worse than this before..." etc.
Just for "fun", try this: get in the pool and swim SLOWLY (say easy freestyle cool down pace) for 1/2 hour without stopping. I bet that you will make it physically, but you will find that it is your mind that is more problematic. The good news is that if you do it a number of time, your mind will adjust and it becomes no more daunting than most of what you are doing now. From there, the only limit to what you can swim is the amount of time that you want to put in to it.
-LBJ
