As I've gotten more precise about measuring distances in open water, I've been shocked to find out how SLOW my open water practice pace is.
The problem is that I don't have a visual cue in open water for how fast I'm going. I swim with other people, but I don't have a consistent OW swim buddy who is near my pace.
A few data points:
In the pool, my long-distance cruise speed is about 1:50/100 yards. I can hold that for at least an hour.
My OW 1K race pace is in the 1:50s--high or low 1:50s depending on conditions and how the course is measured.
My OW practice pace is 2:00-2:10 (Yikes!)
Yesterday, I did an experiment:
OW practice swim with a friend who is close to my pace. We stayed together the whole time and varied the intensity of our practice. Our average pace was 1:55/100 yards.
After he left, I waited about 30 minutes for some other friends to arrive. I got back in the water with them. (We were all in the water together, but not swimming together.) I used the tempo trainer and set it at 1.1 sec/stroke (54 strokes/minute). In the pool, that setting would keep me in the low 1:50/100 range. The chop had died down, and I felt great. I was disappointed to find out that my average pace was 2:07/100 yards.
When I'm pacing off of someone, I can visualize exactly what it will take to pass them. I'm sure I get a little adrenaline boost from the competition, but that's not the main thing. When I see someone ahead of me, my body just knows what to do to pass them. I don't necessarily give it a big physical effort, I just concentrate on letting my stroke close the gap.
I wish I knew more people who swam at my pace and wanted to practice regularly in OW, but I have a hard time finding them. Most of the people who want to get out there regularly are slower triathletes.
So how do you guys pace yourselves if you don't have a buddy to pace off of? I'd be grateful for any suggestions.
Former Member
I like your writing style, and you don't use smilies, the sign of an adult.
Ha!
Anyway, happy/unhappy can be considered perceived levels of exertion. For me, I know the pain point and how long I can hold at each pain point. The good thing about that in OW is that it is condition neutral. So, whatever mother nature throws your way you always know how hard/easy you need to go, based on how you feel.
I'll try to start thinking about it like that.
I think you can probably drive yourself nuts comparing pool to open water. I used to get frustrated by the disparity in times until I realized that the same faster and slower people in the pool were also the same faster and slower folks in the OW. So, I just stopped worrying about the translation of times.
I'm obsessed with my OW times because of cutoffs. I want to do Swim the Suck in 2012 (10-mile swim in a dam-controlled river. Usually no current, but last year there was. It depends on whether TVA decides to release water that day.)
The cut-off for that event is 6 hours (36 minutes/mile). I can do one open water mile is 32-34 minutes, but that's too close for comfort. I am not in this to race the cutoff.
I've never fully understood open water swimming in Arizona. Where do you do it? It would seem that in the mountains it would be cold and in the valley/desert it would be boiling and nasty? I'm probably wrong so tell me how it is out there please. My bro lives in Cave Creek but he thinks swimming is stupid so he is of no educational value to me.
He thinks swimming is stupid? The high yesterday was 109, and it's only June. Swimming is the only non-stupid activity in AZ, IMAO.
The mountains further north get cold, but the mountains in the Phoenix area are hot. But once you get wet, you can't feel the heat. Even 115 feels pleasant until you dry off.
Open water swimming in Arizona is amazing. There are four lakes within an hour of Phoenix, each one more beautiful than the next. Bartlett Lake is in Cave Creek. This link has everything you need to know about finding a place for open water swimming in AZ: www.watergirl.co/.../open-water-swimming-arizona
Here's my theory about your results. I think you skewed them with the tempo trainer. You started out with a friend and kept a roughly 1:55 pace. After your friend left, you went on your own and went a 2:07 pace. However, the biggest change between swims is not that your friend left. It's that you tried to use the tempo trainer to maintain your pace on the second swim--and set it at a pace that would give you a desired pace of 1:50. The key point here, though, is that that 1:50 pace is one you have measured in a pool--where there are walls (fastest you ever go) and a black line to keep you straight etc.
I wonder what would have happened if you had used the tempo trainer at the same setting on your first swim with your friend. I suspect that you would have quickly fallen behind unless you ignored the tempo trainer.
Excellent point.
I think the lack of a pace clock is largely why I feel like I can swim forever in open water(And the lack of flip-turns which keeps my oxygen). But that is when I am practicing. In the event I get caught up in the excitement and go out too fast.
I've read about how a fast turnover is beneficial to OW. I don't measure my stroke rate or even my pace, but I feel like my turnover is markedly slower in OW. It feels natural for me to pause a bit more and make each stroke more sure as opposed to blasting through the waves. Que paso con eso?
