How to train for an 8K

ChrisM - are you wearing a wetsuit? what is the fetch at Lake Mead at the point to point course? this swim ought to be a significant challenge. I think 3500 m - twice a week - will be plenty to complete your swim. you would benefit by increasing your weekly visits to the pool but you should be fine. you ought to do sets but you need to be capable of cranking out 3500 m. you won't be competitive but you'll complete the 6-mile swim.

ChrisM I am in a similar boat except that triathlons were suppose to be the first part of my season finishing up at a 1/2 IM at the end of June. However, I have been unable to run since January so that plan has been drying up. This is easier for me though because OWS is my first sport. First I think 5 months is enough if you are willing to turn you focus to swimming. You'll need to swim 5 days a week IMHO. To say there is a difference between 1 mile and 8K is an understatement. It is not the same as going from a 20 mile bike ride to a century, or a 10K to a marathon. Those are a lot easier. There is much you will need to master, including hydration and nutrition. With your background (as little as I know) I think you should immediately find 5K races to swim before your 8K. I would also add 2 1500 meter OW races. How much pool time you'll need will be in part dependent on how good your stroke is. You have swam a 59 in a 4K Ironman so it is probably reasonably good. So your pool time will be focused on swimming better. I think if you can get in 3 coached masters workouts, 1 OW workout 3 - 5 K and a 5th workout on your own you should have no problem. On the other hand if you are swimming a 59 4K at the front of an Ironman, you could gut it out with a simple hydration & nutrition regimen. But the question would be why? It just wouldn't be any fun. However I must admit that the first time I did a 10K was in the ocean and I did not plan to do it. I was in a Zen state and just didn't stop. But even then I had 4 GU packs in my suit.

Do what you want, but i'm not sure the advice you're getting is very good? Obviously going from a 20mile bike to 100mile or a 10k run to a marathon is orders of magnitute harder than just moving up from the mile to a 8k swim...and I wouldn't waste my time on 3 masters coached workouts a week, maybe 1 at the very most. You are a sub hour IM swimmer, just jack your freestyle yardage up to 6000-7000 per workout a couple times a week, and get in 1 or 2 OW swims a week with one of them 90mins+. I also wouldn't worry about feeding, you'll probably be close to 2 hours for the 8k. Do you take much food or water in during an Olympic distance triathlon of 2 hours? I don't. Swimming in lead mead was great at Silverman last november, although in the past wind waves have been a challenge so get in some training on windy days. Here's fun pool workout, I've been doing if it helps. 1x600 2x500 3x400 4x300 5x200 6x100 once that's easy for you go up to 700 pattern, then the 800 pattern good luck

Unless your wetsuit fits perfectly, don't wear it cause 8K with a bad wetsuit will give you some nasty burns. Come to think of it, don't wear a wetsuit, period, vile things. An 8K point to point in Lake Mead sounds awesome.

Thanks Bob, yes, nutrition will also be an issue. THey require kayakers, so it could be carried. I wouldn't go 2+ hours swimming without gels or calories... God, 2+ hours swimming... sounds nuts swimthe.... Probably not a wetsuit, I believe the Oct Lake Mead water temps are 70 or so. Although I might wear one anyway. 59 minute 4K was fresh water/wetsuit, although most of my 2 mile training swims later in summer are naked "fetch" - I had to look it up, still not sure what it means :) Course? Sunset Lookout to Boulder Beach chris - 'fetch' has implications for how intense conditions might be on lake mead... basically it is the distance over water that wind has a chance to stir things up. the degree of difficulty for an 8K swim will vary with conditions if you're comfortable in open water than 3500 - 4000 m twice a week should be enough to get you through an 8K swim. do intervals and churn the distance

Thanks Bob, yes, nutrition will also be an issue. THey require kayakers, so it could be carried. I wouldn't go 2+ hours swimming without gels or calories... God, 2+ hours swimming... sounds nuts swimthe.... Probably not a wetsuit, I believe the Oct Lake Mead water temps are 70 or so. Although I might wear one anyway. 59 minute 4K was fresh water/wetsuit, although most of my 2 mile training swims later in summer are naked "fetch" - I had to look it up, still not sure what it means :) Course? Sunset Lookout to Boulder Beach

I started a post about training for a 10K swim; it's somewhere here in this forum. Check it out cause there's lots of good advice for long ow races! Good luck!

Does anyone have a link for the Lake Mead swim? It would be a fun one to put on my OW calendar for next year...

This sounds like a great swim and LV is a cheap destination! Last season was my first open water season and it was fantastic. Being an all around athlete, I have learned that one of the most important aspects of training is nutrition and hydration. PRE-hydration is not the night before but 2-3months prior. I make a point to 8-10 large(12-16oz) glasses of water per day. I use a sugar free/salt free electro-mix by emergn-C once a day as well as loading up on a plethora of vitamins. Avoid sugars, fats and processed foods. As far as the training, I stuck with a combination of coached, un-coached and open water work-outs. Nehelem bay, Oregon is a great place to test the waters! My longest swim was 3.6miles and I did up my training to 4K-6K workouts. Now that I look back at my log, I actually missed a few. But alas, I was swimming just to do it, not to get a time. My time was 1:35. Considering that the week before was Halloween and I chose to do liquid carbo loading, I was just happy not to drown!

Does anyone have a link for the Lake Mead swim? It would be a fun one to put on my OW calendar for next year... here's a link to register... www.active.com/.../slam-the-dam-open-water-swim-2010 'slam the dam' and a great looking logo - looks promising