24 hour swimming in Austria, my second participation

Starting in 2005 this has been the 5th time the 24 hour swimming in Radkersburg has been organized. Even though the event is conducted in a pool I believe the experience that I made is relevant for open water swim-training. From November 6-7, 2009 the 5th Race was conducted with 428 participants, including 98 solo swimmers and 330 relay Swimmers (68 Teams of 5 swimmers with 10 swimmers missing). 428 participants swam 129,428 laps (=6,471.4 km). On the average each swimmer covered 15km. There were almost as many female as male participants. Overall there were 40 people less in the pool, compared to 2008 (468 participants) making the swim a little bit more comfortable. This time the organization exhibited some common sense and separated the "strokers" from the freestylers. This made swimming so much more pleasurable. On top of that, the sun broke through at saturday noon and I was swimming the last couple kilometers under a bright sky. Have a look at the event I just would like to mention that 5 years ago I had a paradigm shift from swimming against the clock to swimming with the least amount of strokes per lap. Needless to say that before I used to have sore shoulders after swims exceeding 5km, but with this new approach I seem to be able to swim "forever". Last years personal result was blowing my mind and I just wanted to keep it at that level, aiming again at 30km's. Much to my surprise I accomplished more than I expected: 702 Laps (=35.1km or nearly 22 miles) within 24 hours. On Friday I swam from 4:00pm to 11:00pm and then I took a good rest at one of the wellness-hotels nearby. On Saturday I swam from 9:00pm to 4:00pm (7 hours each day) and I finished with rank 20 out of 67 male swimmers. Here are the results The pool was outside with heated water but because of the cold air and mostly rain everybody was wearing a swim-suit. These are my experiences that I would like to share with You: Infrastructure: Pools provide ideal training conditions for solo-training with the least amount of organizational effort. Just put a bottle filled with some power-drink to the edge of the pool and refresh yourself let's say every 500 meters (=every 10 minutes if You are as slow of a swimmer as I am). If You are heaving a break, just go the water tap, and mix up some more power drinks. Eating & Drinking: This time I learned from last year's mistakes and I didn't eat at all during my 14 hours (7 +7) of swimming. I was splitting each 7 hour-leg into 4 parts, keeping 3 breaks of 10 minutes. During each break I got me another bottle of isotonic drink (1 Liter) to the edge of the pool and looked at the interim results that were put on a screen in the hallway that kept up with the number of accomplished laps in real time mode (Swimmers had to wear chips that counted laps electronically). I used a total amount of 10 Liters of Isotonic drinks, 5 Liters each day, averaging 1 Liter for every 3.5 km. After a good rest at my room I got up early the next morning and had a strong breakfast. At 9 o'clock I went back into the water and continued my swim until the deadline of 4:00pm. No more eating during the swim, only isotonic drinks that kept my stomach peaceful. In training for this event I also learned not to drink too much at once. It is better to keep a lot of small 10 sec breaks taking a sip instead of one big break with a lot of drinking that may irritate the stomach unneccessarily. Training: Don't change your habits during a competition, a solo crossing, etc ... Whatever your body is used to from your training sessions it will also be prepared for when it counts. If your body is used to eating when you train then eat also in the competition. Besides my regular "maintenance" training of a minimum of 2km per week I started one month before the competition having training sessions of 3, 4.4, 4, 10 and 2 km at my standard pool here in Vienna. I swam more during the competition (35.1 km) than in my entire training combined (which was only 23.4 km). Except for the last 2 km, I didn't use a swim-suit for my training. I am still positively shocked that I did more than last time. I finished well and could have continued for some more hours! When I arrived back home I wasn't famished to the point that I had to plunder the fridge, I just continued to eat normally. I am surprised what little amounts of calories are needed for swimming at a slow pace. Probably not the best activity for loosing weight :). My conclusion: A long open water swim without a suit (20 km plus) with permanent support is no longer out of reach for me, even if I am taking into account the "cheating effect" of my swim suit. :) cheers Gerald