Lake Swimming in Triathlons

practice.  again.  you'll get more comfortable with OWS.

One thing to do in cooler water is to make sure you get wet before the swim starts.  Dunk your head.  again.  swim a little. adjust to the temperature BEFORE the gun goes off.

I did the same you did -- I bombed the swim portion of my first tri of this season -- by avoiding the cold water dunking until the race I was backfloating the first half to two-thirds of the swim.  Everytime I tried to put my face in the water I couldn't swim.  Once I got my head adjusted to the temperature and my mind settled that I *could* swim in the cooler water, away I went.

As for sighting and being a beginner... see my first word.  practice!  

Congrats on your XTERRA!

The more you practice open water swimming the easier it will come. Get a few friends to go with you and assimilate the start of a race. This will make you feel more comfortable. I would also suggest a good warm up before a race especially in colder water. Good Luck!

As other have said , practice OWS help. A couple of things that help on the raceday:

Do a warmup swim to get used to the water and calm the nerves.

At the start remember to start slow, concentrating on breathing and doing a smooth stroke. After a 100 yards or so then pick it up to your regular speed. You really won't be going that much slower but it will feel like it. That way you won't loose time having to backstroke to catch your breath.

As fo sightiing, a couple of things that might help. One, practice bilateral breathing and sight on somethiong from the side so you don't have to look ahead to see where you are going. If you need to look ahead practice minimizing getting your head out of the water. Most people raise their head more they need to see. In the pool swim some laps with your eyes closed and see how many strokes it takes before you get out of your lane and use that number of stokes as the frequency to do your sighting. You may want to get some coaching to advise you on what adjustments you need to swim straight.

Don't sweat it. Your post relates a very common experience. It is absolutely critical to do an open water swim before your first triathlon, a race situation is the worst time to experience what an open water swim is like. Just not being able to see a foot in front of your face in green water is a scary experience. In cold water, it is a necessity to get into the water before the start and swim, at least 50 yards for a warm-up and an acclimation to the cold. Also, watch out for swimming too fast at the start and then feeling like you're out of breath, or your chest is constricted (like your wet suit is on too tight). You are not breathing out enough! You are taking very rapid short breaths and have too much CO in your lungs, relax breath out.

If you feel like you are starting to panic during the swim do the following:

1) Talk calmly to yourself....I'm ok, relax, think, I'll just slow down, maybe roll to my back, or just bob my head up for some extra air.
2) Slow down, take easier strokes, like a warm down in the pool, until you start to feel comfortable again.
3) Don't be afraid to grab onto the kayak, or signal for help. As long as you don't get help moving forward, it's perfectly ok to rest on a kayak, buoy, or cable.

Get out and practice in open water. At your next tri, start in the back and over to the side. This way you can avoid the added concern of getting tangled up with the other swimmers.

Triathlon Swimming Made Easy, by Terry Laughlin (Total Immersion), is a great book on open water swimming, even though only a couple of chapters are devoted specifically to just that.


Get back in the water, in a short while you will be answering posts on this topic also.




Edited by vonschnapps 2009-07-25 5:42 PM

Focus on exhaling -- the shortness of breath is often caused by not exhaling fully.