There may be a new 10K OWS in my area next year and it's a swim I'd like to do if it actually materializes. However, I need to train for that. THe longest open water swim I have done is a 2 mile cable swim this past August. I've since swum 2.5 miles in a pool. (mentally boring but a good mental training for that very reason). I'm also planning on a 5K swim next spring as the next step in increasing how far I am going to swim in open water.
Come next spring, I can do longer swims in the Hudson with my husband accompanying me on his paddleboard. I haven't done that yet because I just learned about place where one can do that. Now that it is getting colder, I am restricted to the pool. Any suggestions how one can train for a 10K in a pool and then what is recommended in open water once it is warm enough again?
Any advice on feeds in a 10K would be great too. I can swim 45 minutes before I start bonking unless I've had a Hammer gel before a workout (then I'm good for longer than that.)
Thanks all for any tips, advice or other words of wisdom! :)
I did my first two 10km's this year.
I was doing ~4,000 yard sets with my local masters team, 3-4 times a week, and then did a series of longer swims on my own, building up to a couple of ~10km pool swims.
For the longer pool swims I found a lap counting watch (Finis Swimsense, Garmin Swim etcetera) to be invaluable as I could then just zone out and not worry about the lap count. The long swims are a good way to trial whatever you are going to use for feeds.
I used Gu Roctane drink for my feeds. On the Ocean 10km I think I would have preferred something with a little less electrolytes (getting plenty from the ocean itself), on the lake 10km it was perfect. I was feeding ~30 minutes on the Ocean swim, the lake was a 4 loop course with a feeding station at the start so ~50 minutes (I'm not very fast).
The most important thing about OW training is not necessarily getting the distance in, but getting acclimated to all the things that are different from pool swimming i.e. chop, swells, currents, sighting, water temperature etcetera. As long as you are getting enough OWS in to get used to those things you can crank out your distance sets in the pool.
If the swim requires an escort, worth working with the planned escorter early on so they can get used to the idea that you go where they go, so the straighter they go the faster the whole event will go.
Above all - have fun on the event :-)
I did my first two 10km's this year.
I was doing ~4,000 yard sets with my local masters team, 3-4 times a week, and then did a series of longer swims on my own, building up to a couple of ~10km pool swims.
For the longer pool swims I found a lap counting watch (Finis Swimsense, Garmin Swim etcetera) to be invaluable as I could then just zone out and not worry about the lap count. The long swims are a good way to trial whatever you are going to use for feeds.
I used Gu Roctane drink for my feeds. On the Ocean 10km I think I would have preferred something with a little less electrolytes (getting plenty from the ocean itself), on the lake 10km it was perfect. I was feeding ~30 minutes on the Ocean swim, the lake was a 4 loop course with a feeding station at the start so ~50 minutes (I'm not very fast).
The most important thing about OW training is not necessarily getting the distance in, but getting acclimated to all the things that are different from pool swimming i.e. chop, swells, currents, sighting, water temperature etcetera. As long as you are getting enough OWS in to get used to those things you can crank out your distance sets in the pool.
If the swim requires an escort, worth working with the planned escorter early on so they can get used to the idea that you go where they go, so the straighter they go the faster the whole event will go.
Above all - have fun on the event :-)
