Open Water Workouts for the Pool...

I'm gearing up for a 2.4 mile swim in about 10 days. My first ever opwn water swim. The distance is not a problem. I do that (and more) 6 days a week. For me, I am doing longer and longer swims. Once upon a time my workouts were predominantly 200s and 300s. Maybe a 500 warm up... And then some 100s and 50s. But now I'm doing 1000s and 2000s. Yesterday I did 8 500s with 15 seconds rest in between, plus warm down. A few days ago I did a 4300 (a little more that 2.4 miles nonstop) just to prove to myself that I can do it without stopping. Did it in under my target time for the open water swim. One other thing I am doing is practicing my sighting technique. I think that will be my biggest challenge. No lane lines or line on the bottom of the lake to follow! So before I do my workout each day I decide on some item on the wall at each end of my lane. When I do a "sighting stroke", I make sure I locate it each time. I have also discovered that I don't sight very well when I try to do it on the stroke when I breathe. Intuitively I thought that since my face was going to be out of the water anyway, why not look forward a bit every so often when I breathe to see where I am going... But I actually have less break in my stroke when I sight on a stroke that I am not breathing on. Just raise my head a little so my eyes break the surface of the water... Not much different from my water polo days as a kid.

I'm gearing up for a 2.4 mile swim in about 10 days. My first ever opwn water swim. The distance is not a problem. I do that (and more) 6 days a week. For me, I am doing longer and longer swims. Once upon a time my workouts were predominantly 200s and 300s. Maybe a 500 warm up... And then some 100s and 50s. But now I'm doing 1000s and 2000s. Yesterday I did 8 500s with 15 seconds rest in between, plus warm down. A few days ago I did a 4300 (a little more that 2.4 miles nonstop) just to prove to myself that I can do it without stopping. Did it in under my target time for the open water swim. One other thing I am doing is practicing my sighting technique. I think that will be my biggest challenge. No lane lines or line on the bottom of the lake to follow! So before I do my workout each day I decide on some item on the wall at each end of my lane. When I do a "sighting stroke", I make sure I locate it each time. I have also discovered that I don't sight very well when I try to do it on the stroke when I breathe. Intuitively I thought that since my face was going to be out of the water anyway, why not look forward a bit every so often when I breathe to see where I am going... But I actually have less break in my stroke when I sight on a stroke that I am not breathing on. Just raise my head a little so my eyes break the surface of the water... Not much different from my water polo days as a kid.