OK, here's a dumb newbie question. Does everyone always swim freestyle in open water events?
I recently did my first one mile open water ocean swim, finished in 39:01 (don't laugh), but if I'm not mistaken, that's good enough to qualify for the Chesapeake Bay Swim next year, which is my goal. My problem is that freestyle is my absolute worst stroke (never learned fly, never want to). I regularly do two miles in the pool, easily, feel like I could keep going and going...but do mostly breastroke. I can barely do a quarter mile on freestyle.
As you probably guessed, I'm a total newbie, don't belong to any groups, never swam on a team or anything like that, just thought I can do twice the distance in the pool, so why not try it? The water was sort of choppy, so when I needed more power I did some backstroke, which is much easier for me than freestyle, and at least I could navigate better with that; I could not sight with freestyle, and probably wouldn't even have finished if I hadn't gone with breastroke (which I'm a natural at).
So my question is, should I force myself to do freestyle, or train for open water with breastroke? On a quarter mile, my freestyle isn't even faster than my breastroke (guess I'm just weird). Of course, if I ever do the Bay Swim, my goal is not to place, that's never gonna happen, just to finish - and if I finish dead last I'll be delighted, as long as I get there...
Thanks,
Sandra
Sandra,
Open water races are “freestyle races”, meaning you can swim any stroke you want, including breaststroke. If you are more comfortable swimming breaststroke instead of front crawl, then by all means swim it in the race. You won’t be the first or last person to swim breaststroke in open water events.
My only bit of advice for open water breaststrokers, please don’t start in the front or middle of the field, that kick can be a bit dangerous in a pack.
Good Luck
Thanks, Rob.
It's encouraging to know that I don't have to swim front crawl (I'd thought that "freestyle" and "front crawl" were synonymous) and that a few other people do breastroke. At my first and so far only race (the one mile Jack King swim in Virginia Beach) I was the only one.
Do you think that if I start training now, I might be ready for the Bay Swim next year? If I add 20% to my one mile pace (I'd want to maintain my one mile pace, but since I haven't done a 4.4 mile swim yet, don't know how much slower I'd be at that distance) that would give me a 47 minute mile pace. Sure that's slow, but I checked out this year's results and there were some finishers at that pace or a little slower, which makes me wonder if it might be possible to finish that race.
Have to admit I hadn't thought about the breastroke kick, but I did start at the back of the pack, because I guessed that I'd come in last, which I did (but first in my age group because no one else showed up or finished, so I got a medal for finishing dead last, which was totally cool).
Sandra
Originally posted by Sabretooth Tiger
Sharkbait,
You didn't finish dead last . . . you finished first in your age group!
Congratulations.
I'm with Sabretooth Tiger (you both have cool handles btw)! When you get there and do the swim and others in your a.g. don't, you win!! I've been a back of the pack award winner myself a number of times and I agree it's pretty cool!
The women's 50-54 and now 55-59 a.g.'s have treated me especially well that way, and I figure it somehow makes up for the excesses of my youth. :D
My best swim mile is about similar to yours, Sandra.... 38-39something. But I'm impressed that you could swim that fast doing breaststroke! I got more comfortable w/ crawl stroke after working out w/ a masters' swim group... found it hard to last very long w/ that stroke at one time... I'm still slow but can swim crawl stroke for a much longer time. But in open water swims, I sometimes switch over to breaststroke every few mins. or so for sighting, then back to crawl... not the most efficient sighting method, I suppose, but it gets me to the finish line.
For what it is worth, the British open water tradition seems to include separate race categories in at least some races, for folks who are swimming ***.
So while its not that common over here, presumably its more common over there.
Thanks! Guess it's all a matter of perspective. This was my first race of any kind, so finishing dead last but first in my age group was a nice surprise (and it makes sort of a good story...) It was pure luck, as the next age group up had plenty of entrants (aas, I'm aging up next year). Anyway, I was happy just to finish.
Nothing wrong with switching to breastroke for sighting. One swimmer ahead of me got way off course, swimming out to sea, and had to get turned back by a paddleboarder. Seems like one could do a lot of extra swimming that way and wind up with a slower time. (Not that I'm even thinking of times at this point, I just want to eventually enter some more races at longer distances and finish!)
Maybe I should look into joining a group. There are coached masters' workouts two days a week at the local Y, but they start at 5:45am (and I'd have to morph into a morning person which I'm not), but it could be worth it; I've never had real swim coaching, just lessons as a kid. Another problem I have with front crawl, besides not being able to go very long with it, is that it usually strains my right shoulder. Could be that stroke aggravates an old injury, but maybe it's just my lousy technique :confused:
Interesting. That makes sense; if there are categories for different strokes in pool races, why not for open water swims?
I wonder if open water is more popular over there and if that may be why they do that.
