Greetings,
This is my first post and I'm preparing for my first race so forgive me if I'm asking common questions that are already answered elsewhere in this forum: i missed them. To organize this thread I'm going to give a little history about my swim background, tell you where I'm at now, my goals, and then finish with a list of questions. Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to answer any question.
History:
I grew up swimming a lot as a child. Partly on various swim teams, and partly in open water (lakes and oceans). I'm very comfortable in the water. I stoppped swimming around 10 and didn't pick it up again until I was 16. I swam competitively my last to years of HS and was good considering my experience (probably due impart to the fact that I'm 6'5"), specializing in sprints--mostly butterfly and freestyle.
Now:
For the past few years I've swam OW with a friend 2 or 3 days a week for the duration of the summer. These swims have been pretty relaxed and span distances of a half mile +/- 0.25 miles. We usually take a rest around the middle of the swim, 30 secs-5 minutes depending on daily BS levels. I live across the street from both the beach and a 25m (maybe yards actually) pool but I don't use the pool since the ocean is free and more enjoyable.
The Goal:
I quit smoking cigarettes 2 weeks ago and I need a reason to stay quit. I found it: a 5k OW swim on Sept 29 (about 18 weeks). They are also offering 1k and 2.5k events.This week I started my serious training. 3 swim days alternated with 3 cross training days, followed by 1 day off. Swim training consists of 2 OW distance days and 1 speed day in the pool. Crosstrain day will be Run/Core days (I'm at about 2 miles now barefoot beach running and have body weight resistance exercises for core training after the run. These exercises were taken from a strength training for swimming speed book I found at a book store. I have extensive time to train.
Questions:
1. Is my goal of a 5k race achievable in 18 weeks? This is a jump from .5 miles to 3 miles. Or should I aim for the 2.5k?
2. Can anyone recommend some good OW books to get me focusing better on technique, diet, training plans?
3. Suggestions for tweaking my current training plan? Or completely changing it?
Honestly, I'd rather avoid the pool entirely.
4. I haven't measured my stroke rate yet, but I'm sure it's pretty low compared to OW swimmers. Should I focus on shortening my long smooth pool stroke?
5. Any tips from the veterans out there?
6. Should I join the local masters swim club. Note: I hate pool swimming but could probably use some stroke tweaking.
Former Member
3 mi, nonstop, all freestyle, tomorrow. just do it.
3 miles is doable for you now, Larry. Swimming it asap is the best way for you to know how far you are from your goal, and let you tailor your training. You'll see that 3 is nothing, and experiencing that will relieve all kinds of stress and clear your mind of junk that is otherwise going to confound your training. I suggest you keep doing a 3 mi swim every 2 weeks, or how ever often you require between now and race day to develop a sense of pace for that distance.
nice work on the 2k, Larry! I like the idea of +1k each week for your weekly distance swim, and it ought to allow enough weeks of 5k distance swims to develop a sense of pace, which will be a huge factor in finish time on race day. I suspect the race will be laps around buoys which will not be in-place until race day. Even so, do some swims at the race venue in order to become familiar with the horizon in general as well as with specific landmarks because it can be far easier to sight an inline landmark such as a building or tree cluster than the buoy itself. Is the course going to be the same as last year? is last years course-map available? Starting in late August or September, doing some of these venue swims at the same time of day as the race will let you sort out possible issues of sun glare. After long swims, it is common to have balance issues especially in sand. They are compounded by the change in gait from in-water to packed-sand to loose-sand. So if the race will have a dry land finish, it'd be helpful to practice race-finishes at the end of your distance work outs.
There's already a thread on this race, but here's the link anyhow: www.clubassistant.com/.../meet_information.cfm
I've been thinking about starting to practice entries and exits, but I haven't incorporated them yet. I'm undecided whether or not to do them on run days or after my swims. I do however love the idea of trying to recreate race day conditions and times. Especially learning what to sight.
Larry,
The Tropical Splash course is the course we swim every Saturday morning.
We meet at the blue lifeguard stand at 7:15am, to be in the water by 7:30am.
The link you provided was for last year's race. This year's race will be held on October 6th.
just a couple more notes ...
the race course map from last year has an odd orientation, North does not point up, in fact North almost points down.
the laps are counterclockwise, all buoys will on your left (except the final buoy), so being comfortable breathing on both sides will be helpful.
if the logistics will be the same as last year, the race will start a few minutes after sunrise. in early October, the sun will be rising a few degrees to the South of due East (currently it is rising 22 degrees to the North of East). glare will likely be an issue for some legs, tinted swim goggles might help some.
www.timeanddate.com/.../astronomy.html
hope this helps.
Is the open water practice at Lido all year long? I am originally from Bradenton and we go down there for vacation over Christmas to see the family. I usually swim off Anna Maria but I'd go down to Lido to have some company.
I'll be there over Labor Day this year and will try to make the swim then.
Shoot me an email with dates if u wanna partake in an OW Lido swim. Me and my buddy swim there consistantly, but our swim times are constantly changing. I'm not a masters member so I can't PM you.
Im.a.lasagna.hog@gmail.com
Is the open water practice at Lido all year long? I am originally from Bradenton and we go down there for vacation over Christmas to see the family. I usually swim off Anna Maria but I'd go down to Lido to have some company.
I'll be there over Labor Day this year and will try to make the swim then.
Sarah - the Masters group practice is at Siesta Beach.
