Hi all. I am about 8 weeks out from a 5K Lake Swim. I am a strong pool swimmer but never done this distance in "open" water - pretty new here. I am convinced I can muscle though it if need be, but would like to make a competitive age group showing.
I am training almost exclusively in pool, so looking for advice, links, or books on workouts, distances, pace, taper (?), etc. Thanks for any advice.
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I found this thread great to read through as I am also preparing for a 5k OW swim in about 10 weeks. (Bonaire EcoSwim) This will be my first time swimming in OW. Unfortunately living in rural Ontario there is no OW to swim in, all my training has and will be in 25m pools. I know that we do get to swim the race course and have a few practice swims, I will be on island 4 days before race day.
I have been swimming seriously for about a year now. I am a 34 year-old male with 17+ years of experience with weight training/nutrition and fitness/bodybuilding background. Currently just amped my swimming up to 4Xdays week (approx. 2500m - 4000m a session right now) and cut my weight training back to 3X/week. I may even swim 5X/week and cut weights further - not sure yet. I know in the past few weeks since starting to focus on training for this race my swimming has improved incredibly, it is great to be involved in a sport where you can see and feel results week to week as opposed to year to year (bodybuilding). Genetically I have swimming genes/DNA/physique and wish I had found this sport much more sooner but better late than never. I absolutely love it and am looking forward to this race/trip/vacation.
Reading the posts here from the original poster's query it seems my biggest obstacle will be a total lack of OW distance swimming; sighting, current/waves, pack/group swimming. (I am going to travel to a 50m pool a few times in November to train.) Always looking forward to any tips/advice from you more experienced swimmers. I have a swimmer from a Masters team in FL also doing this race sending me workouts - any workouts anyone here might suggest for an OW 5k in a SCM pool would be great and appreciated. I will be sure to check out the link and sites suggested earlier in the thread.
Thanks in advance for feedback!
I found this thread great to read through as I am also preparing for a 5k OW swim in about 10 weeks. (Bonaire EcoSwim) This will be my first time swimming in OW. Unfortunately living in rural Ontario there is no OW to swim in, all my training has and will be in 25m pools. I know that we do get to swim the race course and have a few practice swims, I will be on island 4 days before race day.
I have been swimming seriously for about a year now. I am a 34 year-old male with 17+ years of experience with weight training/nutrition and fitness/bodybuilding background. Currently just amped my swimming up to 4Xdays week (approx. 2500m - 4000m a session right now) and cut my weight training back to 3X/week. I may even swim 5X/week and cut weights further - not sure yet. I know in the past few weeks since starting to focus on training for this race my swimming has improved incredibly, it is great to be involved in a sport where you can see and feel results week to week as opposed to year to year (bodybuilding). Genetically I have swimming genes/DNA/physique and wish I had found this sport much more sooner but better late than never. I absolutely love it and am looking forward to this race/trip/vacation.
Reading the posts here from the original poster's query it seems my biggest obstacle will be a total lack of OW distance swimming; sighting, current/waves, pack/group swimming. (I am going to travel to a 50m pool a few times in November to train.) Always looking forward to any tips/advice from you more experienced swimmers. I have a swimmer from a Masters team in FL also doing this race sending me workouts - any workouts anyone here might suggest for an OW 5k in a SCM pool would be great and appreciated. I will be sure to check out the link and sites suggested earlier in the thread.
Thanks in advance for feedback!
