OWS advice--jump right in

I was where you are with my first tri last fall. It wasn't pretty, but I survived. Here's what I learned...

Try not to freak out when you first get in the water. Might help by "warming up" a little first to get used to the water temp.

Start near the back of the group so you don't have to deal with the other swimmers as much.

Try swimming (in your pool) in your tri gear - be it a wetsuit or tri shorts... if it's not what you wear at the pool for your normal swims, do at least one practice to make sure you know what the shorts/suit feels like in the water.

Have fun!

I did my first OWSs last week. Chris is right on. Just try to RELAX. One thing I found was that I got really out of breath, really fast. So I got back to the shore and tried to think about what I was doing differently. I use a gadget called a Tempo Trainer during my pool swims. It beeps at a preset cadence so I can practice swimming at differents paces. I put it on and went back in the water. Turns out I was swimming way too fast. So my stroke was all out of whack and my breathing wasn't good. I swam at my usual pace and everything went well after that. Good luck. It's great to get some practice before a race!

Sorry if I was not clear enough in my first post... the swim on Sunday is a race and it is 1 mile long. I am really hoping to do it in under 40 minutes (so I can qualify to swim across the whole Bay 4.4 miles next year). I guess that goal is also stressing me out a bit.

I know for sure there is no hope of a warm-up prior to the swim. There are over 1100 entrants for both the 1 and 4.4 mile swims combined. How does this sighting thing work... see I am in trouble. :0

Get in the water well before the start and stay in until you are comfortable with swimming.

I don't think sighting in that swim will be much of a problem, I hear the swim is between the bridges, so sighting forward isn't an issue

Unless they are going to have you jump in off of a boat there is a chance of a warmup. IF you can warm-up do so. If not:

(1) Jump in last, let everyone else get out of your way. This will save you from having some idiot jump in on top of you and scare you to death.

(2) Realize that the water will be COLD!! (No matter what the RD says) Be prepared for a few minutes of trying to catch your breath and getting used to the cold water.

(3) When you start swimming, be aware that you might not want to put your face in the water just at first. I NEVER do. Instead I swim head up for a bit and gradually start getting my face wet. I don't know why this is so hard for me to do, but it works for me.

Sighting is the process of looking up about every 8-10 strokes and making sure that you are headed in the right direction. Before your swim starts, make sure that you know where the course is going and where you are supposed to swim. There will be buoys out there (or something to swim towards), make sure you have located them all from the shore (or from the boat if it's a boat start.) When you get in the water, resight the buoys. (They will now look much smaller and farther away.)

Sighting goes like this. swim, swim, swim, sight (buoy right in front of me, good) swim, swim, swim, sight (now buoy off to the side, crap, straighten out) swim, swim, swim, sight, repeat ad naseum. By the way, if the buoys seem like they never get closer when you are swimming, don't freak out. The buoy always seems like it is a million miles away until suddenly you pass it.

The process of sighting is that right after you have taken your breath to the side, you lift your head up slightly and look in front of you to sight. If you do it right, it should only take 1-2 seconds. (However, most of us aren't that slick.) Do practice in the pool, you can sight down the lane to the end.

Also, it might be helpful to search the internet to see if anyone has posted reports on this swim (so you know in advance of any currents, etc.) and, last, but not least, LISTEN CAREFULLY to everything the RD says about the swim before you jump in and start stroking away.

Good Luck!

You can practice sighting in the pool the same way, just substitute a bottle for the buoy, as above. Good luck!

I did my first OW and first TRI 2 weeks ago... 600 meter lake swim. And honestly I was a pretty concerned about my swimming capabilities. I had prepared for the physical effort of the swim in the pool and in a local lake but the reality of a hundred plus swimmers headed out towards far away orange bouy was a little daunting. I sort of freaked I had a hard time keeping my head in the water, what little technique I had diligently practiced sort of went out the window the moment panic set in... Luckily I had invested in a wet suit and was able to get through it using a medly of headsup crawl and backstrokes. I did my best form about a 100 yards from the finish. And Bang in about 13 anxiety filled minutes it was over I was out of the water and on my trusty steed. I spent the next hour cranking back lost time from better swimmers I wound up doing a lot better then I had hoped, and had a lot of fun... I hear panic is not uncommon. Altough Im hoping to do a little better next week at a 500 meter sprint.
a couple of things I found helpful are 1 I love wetsuits if you do panic you can stop get it together and then move on ...you wont sink, treading water in a wetsuit is effortless. Also my back stroke is a lot faster in a wetsuit, for some reason I feel like I can backstroke forever, so I suspect my freestyle problems are related to breathing. 2 Practice OW swimming. It does feel good to come out of the water and jump in the saddle.
Good luck

Good advice here!  Being one who is suffering a little OWS anxiety, it is reassuring to read all your posts!

My first tri was last summer, and with it my first OW swim. Swimming "laps" in the beach area was a lot different than race day conditions! I had a LOT of problems just breathing with all the splashing.

My tactic was pretty basic... freestyle while I could, and when I couldn't breathe I would roll over and kick, either sculling or using some backstroke (back crawl or elementary). This let me breathe freely. When I could breathe smoothly I'd roll over and crawl some more.

Must've done okay - I came out of the water in the exact middle of the pack - they started all 168 of us at once. I'll second the advise I read in this thread about letting the pack have a 3-5 second head start - the chaos will sort itself out a little before you'll catch up to it. I felt better having a little open space to work with.

Practice siting in the pool.

If you can get in any open water - even once - before here and Sunday, do so. It'll be wierd not to have any wall to push off of every 25/50 meters. That and watching things float by as you go through the water...

Good luck!

--Becky