OW Training routines?

When you train or race open water do you use wetsuits? I've never trained with a wetsuit, primarily because our pools are too hot to do so and I don't have open water nearby to train in. I have recently done my first race in a full-body suit in colder water. While the warmth is certainly nice, I didn't like the restricted feel of a wetsuit. If I end up doing more races that warrant a wetsuit, I'm probably going to try a sleeveless suit. I have talked with a number of swimmers and triathletes about suits. My general impression is that for the triathletes who came to their sport from a non-swimming background, they tend to love the extra buoyancy of a wetsuit. Most "career swimmers," though, I think tend to prefer not swimming in one. Of course, my sample size of conversations is small and likely not representative. My near-term goal is to only enter O/W races where the water is warm enough to NOT use a wetsuit. My longer-term goal would be to acclimate myself to colder temps as I'd like to do swims like the Tiburon Mile and Alcatraz sans wetsuit.

Being an OW swimmer for some time now, I find that we all approach it differently which is a good thing. We all know our bodies and energy levels better than anyone else. I swim only in the ocean, no pool, so I sympathize with you who get that boredom associated with pool swimming. But when I am home in Texas visiting, I do go to a pool. Because my swim will be a very long one, I always swim at least two hours in the pool. I don't count laps, etc., just time spent swimming. For many people, they swim a mile somewhere around 30 minutes, so you can judge it from there. Training for a one mile swim is somewhat different than a 3 mile swim; not a lot, but some. What I have found for me is if I can swim 1 mile, then I can swim 3; I'm physically prepared for it from the 1 mile training. But a key for me is the feeding and hydration during training; it is crucial or I start getting leg cramps and then back spasms. I have a place I swim OW that is exactly one-half mile around it. So every half-mile, I hydrate, every mile I feed, especially if I am trying, on that day, to swim 6 miles of training. Bad things can happen later on if one ignores what your body needs. I don't think for a 1 mile you need to do this, but for distances higher than this, your body will thank you, and your recovery later will be much faster so you can swim again the next day. And every three days or so, I will have my sprint days whereby the yardage is decreased, but the energy output is intensified. An example is: easy half-mile, fast half-mile, until failure. This seems to build endurance so if I am racing, I have the ability to "change gears" to pass people when need be and my body will not suffer from that sudden outburst. Just some of the things I do to train for long distances. And if you train for a slow mile, you will race a slow mile; you must incorporate some sprinting, say a broken 800 using each 200 for a different intensity. And unlike some others, I breathe every single stroke because I have found that my body needs oxygen more than anything else even though I also do hypoxic training. Donna

i train in a 25 yard pool for most of october - april. i am an obedient swimmer who pretty much will do anything the coach tells me to do. on my own i can stay on task through sets that a lot of the folks i swim with would look forward to as they would a root canal. 100 x 100 on 1:30 hold 1:12's and 14SPL 172 x 25 fly on :30 hold 8SPL 12 x 600 on 9:00 (descend each round of 3) 1- 12SPL breathe every 3 2- 12SPL breathe 2R 2L 3- 12SPL breathe 3R 3L 4-6 repeat as per first round at 13SPL 7-9 repeat as per first round at 14SPL 10-12 ......15SPL at a lake i swim at during the summer months, there is a 200 yard buoy line, so my workouts there usually involve distances easily divided by 200: 200 TT= 1.00 breathing pattern - every 3 400 TT= 0.99 BP= 2R 2L 600 TT= 0.98 BP= 3R 3L 800 TT= 0.97 BP= 4R 4L 1000 TT= 0.96 BP= 5R 5L 800 TT= 0.95 BP= 6R 6L 600 TT= 0.94 BP= 7R 7L 400 TT= 0.93 BP= 8R 8L 200 TT= 0.92 BP= 9R 9L at coney island, there is a 5k course that is the standard CIBBOWS loop. i will often swim right next to someone and play little games: match speed with a lower stroke count. fartlek: 20 strokes cruise / 20 strokes fast...30/30....40/40 etc

Hi UVMflier, I"ve done quite a few 10km swims, and a couple of longer ones. Most of my training is done in a 25yd pool and often alone because of timing issues with my masters team's breaks. The most I've ever done continuously in a workout is 1000-1500yds. This is mostly due to boredom and/or lack of ability to count. I've always mixed it up and included a bit of IM (for fun). For a 10k I'll usually do about 9-10k yards about 1-2 weeks out. Not necessarly in the same workout, sometimes I'll do half in the morning ad half at night. It doesn't seem to make a difference. I like to take 3+ gu's into a 10k. I put them in my suit just behind my hipbones (suit has to be tight). I always take the first one only about 1/2 hr into th swim. They really help!! remember to put the empty packets back in your suit so as not to litter :) Hope this helps, but please note that I'm not very fast or very slow, but kind of in the middle :)