I have my first ever open water swim coming up next month, the Alcatraz Sharkfest. It's not too long, about a mile and a half, but the water is pretty cold (60) and the currents are strong. I got a wetsuit for the swim, but am not going to be able to test it in salt water until the day before the swim.
As a 56 year old novice swimmer, I can't swim that far using continuous freestyle, so I thought I would alternate freestyle and breaststroke, doing maybe 70 - 80 strokes of free (equal to 200 meters in the pool), then 20 - 40 strokes of *** to rest.
I've read a few posts from people saying that they were unable to swim *** in a wetsuit because it made them too bouyant. But I've also read a couple of other posts referring to people alternating strokes just like I'm planning to do.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has some experience with this. If the breaststroke is not going to be workable, what other techniques do you use for resting in the open water?
Thanks.
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I just realized I made a big math error in my original post. My strokes for 200 meters are 140 - 150, or 17 - 18 per length swimming in a 25 M pool. I wish my technique was good enough to do it in 70 - 80. Maybe someday.
Regarding fitness, I find swimming fitness to be a very strange animal. I have swum as much as 3K in the pool without stopping, alternating *** and free. But whenever I swithch to all free, my technique starts to deteriorate after about 300 M and I am worn out in about 500 M, even swimming at the same pace as the alternating ***/free laps (about 2:05 for 100 M). If I try to drop my speed low enough to stay aerobic, it gets so hard to maintain any momentum that I just get more tired.
Lately I've been focusing on doing 100 and 200 M freestyle sets and trying to reduce the rest between each set a few seconds each week. My sets are getting a little faster, but it's been extremely hard to reduce the rest at all. Maybe it just needs more time.
Anyway, I will try out the wet suit at the pool in the next few days. Thanks for the advice.
I just realized I made a big math error in my original post. My strokes for 200 meters are 140 - 150, or 17 - 18 per length swimming in a 25 M pool. I wish my technique was good enough to do it in 70 - 80. Maybe someday.
Regarding fitness, I find swimming fitness to be a very strange animal. I have swum as much as 3K in the pool without stopping, alternating *** and free. But whenever I swithch to all free, my technique starts to deteriorate after about 300 M and I am worn out in about 500 M, even swimming at the same pace as the alternating ***/free laps (about 2:05 for 100 M). If I try to drop my speed low enough to stay aerobic, it gets so hard to maintain any momentum that I just get more tired.
Lately I've been focusing on doing 100 and 200 M freestyle sets and trying to reduce the rest between each set a few seconds each week. My sets are getting a little faster, but it's been extremely hard to reduce the rest at all. Maybe it just needs more time.
Anyway, I will try out the wet suit at the pool in the next few days. Thanks for the advice.
