swim strategies from experienced sprint tri doers

In the start, everyone's adrenaline is pumping so much that it's crazy for the first few 100 yards. Some speed drills would help you and give you confidence.
I would do the speed drills first (after a warmup of course!) and then the rest of your workout (swim) so you can see what it feels like. What do you do your 100's in? Based on that time, you can just try to complete 3 or 4 100s in about 10-20 seconds less that your normal 100 time. For example, I do a 100 in 1:45 with 15 seconds rest....and I'll do 10 of them. If I wanted to try to speed it up, I'll do 3 - 100s on 1:30 with 30 seconds rest. These are more of an effort for me so I need more rest. But it really does work! If you swim with a buddy who is faster, you will get more out of it.n You don't need to do this every time you swim, just 1 time a week is all that you would need.

Have you ever swum in a group of people...I mean where they are close and hitting you while you are swimming? That's kind of a freaky thing, it was for me anyway. I start my races out on the edge and work my way in. I'd rather swim a few extra yards that get hit and swam over.

I hope this helps and that you have a great sprint race!
JR

How long is your swim leg? How far can you swim now?

I've only had one season of sprint tris under my belt, but my goal was always to get through the swim leg as fast as I could while staying aerobic. If the swim is really short (300 m or so), it really doesn't matter how fast you swim. You're only talking about a 1 or 2 minute difference between really fast and not so fast. Obviously, faster is better, but the swim leg is so short in these cases that you'd be better off concentrating on good transitions and a good bike leg and settling for a decent swim.

As I said, I don't know where you are in your training, and how far you're planning to swim. Just my very generalized 2 cents.

My swim strategy was to swim a consistant stroke and pay attention to where I was in relation to the buoy lines that were out there. One could be the fastest swimmer but unless he knows where he is going he will lose valuable time. Just swim with whatever pace your comfortable with If you want to increase your speed you can do the interval training. You can do 50's or 100's. The key is not to let your technique suffer. My next tri isn't until the end of June and I won't worry about building speed for awhile yet. If you want to see where you are physically go ahead and challenge yourself. Throw some sprints into your workout and see how you do. Just don't let your technique suffer. Keep track of your times so you can see your progress.

Mike

I am at the very beginning of my training for swimming. I just started about a month ago, and I couldn't swim one length of freestyle without stopping. Now, I'm only up to about 10 laps and I am working on my endurance. If I have to, I can swim breast stroke for a very long time, but I don't want to be too slow (even though my free style is slow also).

My first tri will be a sprint tri in March 05, and I believe the length is 1/4 mile. I hope to be able to swim at least 1/2 mile in the pool by then, and hope to put in some of your guys tips.

I'm very nervous about the swim portion but hopefully my confidence will increase as I increase my laps.

Thanks for all the tips so far, but I don't know if it made me more nervous or less...

You will do fine in the swim. A couple of things I would do. Have someone evaluate your stroke whether you hire a coach, ask a fellow swimmer who has a good stroke or a lifeguard that you know swims. Maybe your technique could be tweeked and that can make a huge difference. I would split up your swim. I would swim in 100 yd. length increments. Take a 30 sec to 1 minute break between each one. You might find yourself swimming farther. If you do it in 50 yd. lengths that is okay too as you build your endurance. Mix up your workout a little bit on certain days. Some days swim long and steady and others split up your workout that way your working your muscles differently. You will be fine for the swim. If your first triathlon is outdoors in a lake or ocean try to spend some time swimming there also that way your not freaked out the first time you put your face in the water and swim for some distance.

Mike

I did three sprint tri's this season and started the swim leg way in the back.  Swimming was my weakest leg so I figured why put myself out.  I have, however, made great inroads in swimming of late so next season I will have to adopt a different strategy.  I may seed myself in the back again and pass any slower swimmers if the need arises.  The logic in this is that it would be safer to pass someone than to be passed as I will be fully in control of that situation. 

Edited by Machiavelo 2004-12-31 10:58 AM

The strategy that is preached to me by my coach, which is preached to him by his coach, is to swim as hard as you can with excellent form.

This advice holds true for all race lengths from a sprint distance to a half IM distance.

I incorporated this surprising strategy last season when I did 2 sprints, 2 olypmics, and 2 half IM distance races and it worked like a charm.

In my first race I went out way too fast during the swim - nerves and excitment, I guess. Went anaerobic after the first 150 yds and really struggled for the rest of the way. In my second race I deliberately started slowly and didn't push hard until the last 500 yds or so. In both cases my times were disappointing when compared to what I had been doing in my workouts.
I have been spending a lot of time working on my pacing, monitoring my heartrate to stay just below my aerobic threshold. My goal this year is to be able to maintain more of a steady pace for the entire swim.