At 37, I have been swimming since I was a kid (15 years of that were coached and competitive). I don't compete now, but I swim a couple of times a week and do 1.5 miles each time (in a short course pool, borrring), no rests.
Bottom line: I feel like I'm a pretty good swimmer. All these dolorous short course laps have made me interested in trying some open water... but I have NO idea what to expect.
Anybody have advice for a swimmer of my quality making the jump to some open water? I'm in Minnesota, so (I assume) our water won't be swim-worthy until about July.
Thanks!
I think you'll love open water. While it's not 180 degrees different from pool swimming, it's a very different experience. I don't know how convenient Madison is from where you are in Minnesota, but they do at least one great race there in August time frame that I've been dying to get to. This summer it is the 1-3 mile National Championships on August 20th (www.usms.org/.../). That's the 4K ironman swim distance which I find to be a great distance to race ... not so long that you need to worry about feeding during the swim and long enough where you can get in a groove.
I think you'll love open water. While it's not 180 degrees different from pool swimming, it's a very different experience. I don't know how convenient Madison is from where you are in Minnesota, but they do at least one great race there in August time frame that I've been dying to get to. This summer it is the 1-3 mile National Championships on August 20th (www.usms.org/.../). That's the 4K ironman swim distance which I find to be a great distance to race ... not so long that you need to worry about feeding during the swim and long enough where you can get in a groove.
