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
Parents
Former Member
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:
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:
