1-mile bay swim-help

II can not get to the event site to practice, so what should I do in the pool so I am ready? How many days should I swim? How far? I am clueless and can use any advice. Also, do you think getting a wetsuit is a good idea? Congrats on signing up for the 1-mile at the Bay. I did it last year, it's a fabulous swim. If you're going to do a 1-mile swim in open water, this is a great one to do! About training, here are my thoughts. I would definitely build up to the point that you are swimming continuously for at least the amount of time you think you'll be in the water at the swim. That will give you good endurance and also confidence. Do that a few times if you can just to feel comfortable. This doesn't mean that you have to swim continuously all of the time, but at least a few times so you'll know what race day will feel like. Have you done an open water swim? If not, a few things to think about: 1. Wetsuit: Some people are more comfortable in a wetsuit as it adds buoyancy. You'll see a lot of people in them at the 1-mile bay swim, but you'll also see people not wearing wetsuits. The water temp should be ok by June for either wetsuit or no wetsuits. You can rent them from some of the triathlon stores in the area. Bonzai Sports in Falls Church, VA (www.tribonzai.com) is the largest wetsuit retailer on the east coast and Mark the owner is awesome. I think I spent about two hours in there last time I bought a wetsuit and he let me try them all to see (out of water) what I thought. They are one of the sponsors of the swim. You can rent one for something like $25 per weekend, but you'll definitely want to try it out before race day just to make sure it fits and you're comfortable in it. It's fine to try it in the pool. Mark's great and knows SO much about wetsuits. I've bought several wetsuits, bikes and other things there. Maybe try one in April or May to see what you think. Then decide to either rent or buy. 2. Open water is NOT like the pool. You can't see the bottom. I work with a lot of first time open water swimmers and that is the one thing that freaks people out the most. There's no line to follow. Also, the start can get hectic and there is some pushing and bumping...never intentional of course, but with about 100 people starting at once and heading towards the same buoy, it's bound to get hectic. 3. Sighting. You'll want to develop some sort of strategy for sighting so that you make sure you're headed in the right direction. You definitely don't want to turn this into the 2-mile Bay Swim. The buoys will be either bright yellow or bright orange and there will be 9-10 of them along the course. Definitely scope them out before you start the swim. I didn't last year and had to go back a little to go around the one that I missed. Learn from my mistake. Let me know if you have any other questions! I started open water swimming at 13, I'm now 30 and still love it, and have learned so much! I will be doing the 4.4 mile swim this year so I hope to see you at the finish with a smile on your face and great story about your 1-mile swim :) Julie

You are up to a half mile with breaks, You will need to be able to swim at least a mile and a 1/4 in the pool better yet a mile and a half without breaks. The good news is that you can take your time. Keep that in mind at the event so you dont tire your self out. The reason is waves in open water and currents. Its quite different then pool swimming. At the start let the pack get away a bit so you can relax and swim.. Not quite a "winning " concept but a finishing concept and thats what you want to do for your first open water event. Keep at your workouts regularly and build up your distance. Practise "sighting" raising your head to see where you are, you will need to do that in the open water swim. One thing about open water is that you need to do the distance in practise and thats a lot of swimming. A wetsuit will help you with staying afloat, there are a little like a life jacket in a way that they hold you up in the water a bit. They will keep the cold out of you. equally important is a good swim cap to keep the heat in . That swim I have heard has water temps that ranges from low 70,s to mid 60,s depending on how the weather has been up there.See www.geocities.com/.../coldwatercaps.html for details on open water swim caps. You should practice with any gear you get in the pool to get used to it. That can be hard with wetsuits because most people rent them as posted above. There expensive about 300-400 dollars. If theres any way you can swim at the site two weeks before that will also help a lot.

Thank you for the advice. I am excited about the swim. Good luck. Maybe one year I will be able to do the big swim.

Good for you! Just FYI, the Bay will require that you use their own colored cap for safety reasons. I'm training for the 4.4 mile swim, and in general I'm not a big fan of getting in a lap pool and just swimming laps continuously. I like to do a warm-up and then get into a main set of intervals. You might try to do a set of 5 200s, or 10 100s, or 4 300s with 20-30 seconds rest in between each one. The benefit of this is that you can swim at a slightly faster pace than race pace, but still get the rest needed to complete the set. And, it's so much more interesting than continuous swims (IMHO). I agree with the previous poster that you need to get to a point where you can swim LONGER than a mile. With open water you don't swim in a straight line, so you've got to account for that extra yardage in your training. Try getting in the pool 3-4 times a week, and up your total distance about 10% each week. Mix up your training sessions so that sometimes you do long swims at a really easy pace, and some where you do faster sets (like a set of 5 50s at 80-85% effort). Your body and your mind will get cranky unless you keep it interesting for them...at least that's what I find. Also, add in some heads-up swimming, where you swim with your head out of the water. Open water swimming can tire out those back and neck muscles because you're constantly picking up your head to see where you are. Practicing heads-up swimming will strengthen those muscles before the race; an example of a set might be some 100s where the first 25 you swim with your head up, the second 25 you swim with your head down, the third 25 is head up, fourth is head down. Do you live near the swim site? Lots of people use the weekends leading up to the Bay to swim at Sandy Point State Park on the west side of the bridge. You can swim parallel to shore and follow the buoys (so you get to practice sighting something) and that'll give you some practice in open water with the waves, saltiness, etc. I think it's $5 per person to get into the park, and it's well worth it to practice, even if just once. Good luck with your training, and I'll see you on June 10th!