I am looking at doing my first Triatholon this June. I am a good runner and cyclist. Trying to get back into swimming. I am a decent swimmer. I just started swimming again last week after a few years off. Just put up another thread in the workout thread asking for a good workout routine. Anyway I just wanted some advice on open water swimming and group swimming if anybody has any. I am pretty good in the pool but have never really swam open water or in big packs like you would in a triatholon. I believe the swim portion of the Tri will be in a fresh water lake. If anyone has any advice and knows about Triatholons feel free to offer some advice. I would appreciate it.
Parents
Former Member
Get out and practice in open water as much as you can before your triathlon. Find a local tri or swim club or group that might make this possible.
Navigation is one of the toughest challenges for a person new to OW swimming. You need to modify your technique to lift your head out of the water and look forward to 'sight' a fixed object such as a buoy or a landmark that will be your reference point to keep you going in a straight line. Sighting is a pain, though, since it messes with your balance in the water it tends to slow you down and tire you out. So you need to practice it often until it becomes more comfortable and you can integrate it into your stroke more efficiently. You can practice sighting in a pool by placing a fixed object at each end of the pool (a cone or water bottle) and practice sighting it every 3 or 5 strokes. Move the bottle around between sets to get used to sighting on reference points that are not directly ahead of you, also. People at the pool might think you're a little weird, but it's worth the effort.
Also be prepared to have to modify your stroke depending on the conditions in OW. Waves, currents, and other swimmers often force you to adjust your technique on the spot for the given swim conditions. Some pool swimmers are so used to 'getting in the groove' that if they can't use their 'comfort stroke' they are completely thrown off and have a miserable swim. Part of the fun of OW swimming is the infinite variability of conditions and the challenge of adjusting to them. You might, for example, find that you need to lift your arms higher out of the water to get over waves, or change your stroke frequency to match the chop pattern in the water. In the early stages of the swim, when you are surrounded by other swimmers frantically trying to swim over you, you'll need to use bursts of speed to get away/around/or ahead of them. You can prepare for this in the pool by varying your swim sets from long endurance sets to short bursts of speed to middle effort tempo sets. Avoid the trap of only doing workouts that are just a long, straight swims with no changes to your tempo. Switch things up frequently.
One last thing I've always liked - in the last few hunded yards of the swim lots of triathletes go all out into a sprint. This just elevates the heart rate needlessly, especially when you consider you only will pick up a few seconds in the race. Stay steady at the end, don't think you need to sprint the last part of the swim. Save it for the bike/run. One thing I do like to do at the end of the swim though is about 50 yards of fast kicking. Not enough to tire the legs but it seems to help warm up for the bike and work out any cramping that might have ocurred during the swim.
Reply
Former Member
Get out and practice in open water as much as you can before your triathlon. Find a local tri or swim club or group that might make this possible.
Navigation is one of the toughest challenges for a person new to OW swimming. You need to modify your technique to lift your head out of the water and look forward to 'sight' a fixed object such as a buoy or a landmark that will be your reference point to keep you going in a straight line. Sighting is a pain, though, since it messes with your balance in the water it tends to slow you down and tire you out. So you need to practice it often until it becomes more comfortable and you can integrate it into your stroke more efficiently. You can practice sighting in a pool by placing a fixed object at each end of the pool (a cone or water bottle) and practice sighting it every 3 or 5 strokes. Move the bottle around between sets to get used to sighting on reference points that are not directly ahead of you, also. People at the pool might think you're a little weird, but it's worth the effort.
Also be prepared to have to modify your stroke depending on the conditions in OW. Waves, currents, and other swimmers often force you to adjust your technique on the spot for the given swim conditions. Some pool swimmers are so used to 'getting in the groove' that if they can't use their 'comfort stroke' they are completely thrown off and have a miserable swim. Part of the fun of OW swimming is the infinite variability of conditions and the challenge of adjusting to them. You might, for example, find that you need to lift your arms higher out of the water to get over waves, or change your stroke frequency to match the chop pattern in the water. In the early stages of the swim, when you are surrounded by other swimmers frantically trying to swim over you, you'll need to use bursts of speed to get away/around/or ahead of them. You can prepare for this in the pool by varying your swim sets from long endurance sets to short bursts of speed to middle effort tempo sets. Avoid the trap of only doing workouts that are just a long, straight swims with no changes to your tempo. Switch things up frequently.
One last thing I've always liked - in the last few hunded yards of the swim lots of triathletes go all out into a sprint. This just elevates the heart rate needlessly, especially when you consider you only will pick up a few seconds in the race. Stay steady at the end, don't think you need to sprint the last part of the swim. Save it for the bike/run. One thing I do like to do at the end of the swim though is about 50 yards of fast kicking. Not enough to tire the legs but it seems to help warm up for the bike and work out any cramping that might have ocurred during the swim.
