So, I've signed up for a couple of open-water swims this summer (the total will be 3, once signups open for the 3rd one), and I'm very excited and very nervous, as I haven't done a "race" with other humans in ... like 20-odd years.
I've been diligently working at my endurance and speed for several years after that long hiatus, but the kicker is that my freestyle/front crawl is still quite pear-shaped (I can do 100yds at a steady, not fast pace, and 200yds in a pull-set), and breaststroke is my pick for any kind of distance. Last year I spent a lot of time in the local lake tooling around the periphery of the "adult only" area (About 6 rounds equals 1 mile) making reasonable time, and my warm-up in the pool is a nice 500yd BS. I'm not breaking the lifeguard test requirement of 500yd in 'm not taking 20 minutes like I did when I first got back to swimming either.
Long story short, while I've signed up for 1/2 miles in all of these races (and might even be middle-of-the-pack, judging by other folks' times in past years), I just don't think my freestyle will be up to it. Is it ok to swim breaststroke, as long as I keep knees and feet out of other people's way? I have seen nothing on the race websites forbidding it or requiring a specific stroke, but I wasn't sure if there was a sort of gentlemen's/women's agreement that you just don't do that.
(also, any other advice for my first time in 20ish years "competing" with a bunch of folks would be appreciated. One is a lake swim in early June, two are ocean swims in relatively calm coves later in the summer. They're all in Massachusetts.)
Ok wait I'm back with another dumb question. How do people get out/leave the water? Do you swim until you're exfoliating on the bottom? Pop up and run? Is there some kind of buoy that means "ok stop swimming like a madman now"?
You can do dolphin dives, if you've still got the energy. For me, I keep swimming until the ground is getting in the way of my stroking, then I stand and "run" through the finish. Run in quotes because I don't always have the energy to do much more than walk fast. Also watch out here at the end: if you've been horizontal for a very long time, you can easily get light-headed standing up suddenly. As with everything, practice practice practice!
Ok wait I'm back with another dumb question. How do people get out/leave the water? Do you swim until you're exfoliating on the bottom? Pop up and run? Is there some kind of buoy that means "ok stop swimming like a madman now"?
You can do dolphin dives, if you've still got the energy. For me, I keep swimming until the ground is getting in the way of my stroking, then I stand and "run" through the finish. Run in quotes because I don't always have the energy to do much more than walk fast. Also watch out here at the end: if you've been horizontal for a very long time, you can easily get light-headed standing up suddenly. As with everything, practice practice practice!
