Hi everyone! I did an open water lake swim this weekend, and it was really fun. I even got to meet Swimmy! We had a great time. My hubby told me that they watched me swim the 2-mile event and that I was really pulling to the right. I know that my right side is my strongest side, so I am not surprised. But does anyone have any advice or tricks for swimming straight in open water? I am doing a 10K in November and I would rather not swim an extra 2K because of zig-zagging, if possible! Thanks for anything you can suggest!
Diana
Parents
Former Member
OK - so yesterday I went and did this one-mile race. Had an absolute BLAST, even though the weather wasn't great. At least it wasn't raining, and the sea was calm. They rearranged the course to keep us inside the port and safe.
So, I thought a lot about sighting, which was actually pretty easy because with the rearranged course we just had to do a small triangle twice... but...
For the first round I had a woman on my right (I breath to the right) who was breathing to the left, completely in synch with my breathing pattern, and looking at me in the eyes the whole way! I thought, "who the heck is this?" and tried to shake her, which took a while.
Next round I found myself behind a woman, which was nice because I was dragging off of her, but towards that last 300 yards I was feeling fresh, so I decided to pass her. No go! If I took to her left, she veered left and kept me behind her... if I veered right, same.... I arrived 3 seconds behind her (which is ok because she's 25 and I'm 45)...
After the race this nice 70 year-old gentleman told me how he was behind me and saw me wasting lots of time and energy waggling back and forth, right and left. He gave me some good advice on keeping a straight course...
OK! I'll try next time! Got another one-mile race coming up on Saturday!! YAY!!
OK - so yesterday I went and did this one-mile race. Had an absolute BLAST, even though the weather wasn't great. At least it wasn't raining, and the sea was calm. They rearranged the course to keep us inside the port and safe.
So, I thought a lot about sighting, which was actually pretty easy because with the rearranged course we just had to do a small triangle twice... but...
For the first round I had a woman on my right (I breath to the right) who was breathing to the left, completely in synch with my breathing pattern, and looking at me in the eyes the whole way! I thought, "who the heck is this?" and tried to shake her, which took a while.
Next round I found myself behind a woman, which was nice because I was dragging off of her, but towards that last 300 yards I was feeling fresh, so I decided to pass her. No go! If I took to her left, she veered left and kept me behind her... if I veered right, same.... I arrived 3 seconds behind her (which is ok because she's 25 and I'm 45)...
After the race this nice 70 year-old gentleman told me how he was behind me and saw me wasting lots of time and energy waggling back and forth, right and left. He gave me some good advice on keeping a straight course...
OK! I'll try next time! Got another one-mile race coming up on Saturday!! YAY!!
