General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Shallow Water Swim Legs Rss Feed  
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2011-04-19 8:41 PM

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Expert
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Maui, Hawaii
Subject: Shallow Water Swim Legs

Is there a rule of thumb for races where the water is shallow?  For instance, at the knees - wade/run; above the waist, swim?  If you are scooping up handfuls of sand with every stroke, wade?  Where is the cost/benefit margin?  At what point do you save your legs by not wading/running?  Do you give up speed one way or the other?

BTW, I'm not talking about entry/exit (I'm good there), but the length or a lot of the length of the course.

I'm asking this because there is a tri I want to do and I've heard there's an issue with the swim being excessively shallow.  That won't keep me from entering, but I may want to change/modify my strategy.

 



2011-04-19 9:37 PM
in reply to: #3455709

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Champion
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Columbia, South Carolina
Subject: RE: Shallow Water Swim Legs
I don't know about mid-swim -- I'd be inclined to try to maintain some sort of consistent rhythm rather than frequently switching from swimming to running and back.  But entering and exiting, the usual advice I've heard (and followed) is to swim as long as your hands are not touching the bottom and run otherwise.
2011-04-20 5:16 AM
in reply to: #3455709

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Subject: RE: Shallow Water Swim Legs
I have done a few races that had stretches that were quite shallow, maybe a hundred yards or so. So shallow that fingertips dragged along the bottom. Conventional wisdom seemed to be that it was faster (and less energy) to keep swimming if at all possible. If it becomes so shallow that you cannot maintain a normal pull, I'd get up and run.

In one race I did though as soon as people starting running/walking it was impossible to keep swimming because most were just kind of shuffling along. They should have kept swimming but it was just too tempting to get on their feet.

Edited by popsracer 2011-04-20 5:17 AM
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General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Shallow Water Swim Legs Rss Feed