distance swimming

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amruden
amruden Posts: 228 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I recently got suckered into doing the swimming portion of a triathlon. I am only a recreational swimmer with my children.
But the only one of my friends that can actually swim.

The triathlon is not till September.

Any tips on how to train for this?

Replies

  • nickiebb
    nickiebb Posts: 57 Member
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    Hi,
    First thing you need to do is know how many yards you are going to be swimming for your portion of the tri. Work up to about one and a half to twice that yardage. I don't mean you have to be able to swim it non-stop, but be able to swim it comfortably by September. If you have to swim 900 yards, be comfortable with swimming 1800 yards for a workout. Be sure to try to swim 3 to 5 times a week. Look up some swim work outs on line. During your work out you're going to want to mix up a little distance with a little bit of interval work. (Intervals are what will make you faster. Distance will give you endurance.) Perhaps look into joining a Masters swim team. Good luck! Swimming is a great sport. The farthest I've swum in a "race" is from Alcatraz into Aquatic Park in SF, one and a quarter mile. Swimmers are helpful people. Don't be intimidated. Go to a pool, get in and have fun.
  • iwantahealthierme13
    iwantahealthierme13 Posts: 337 Member
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    3-5 times a week, 1 kilometer in an hour would probably be best.

    I'm not training for anything...I do 1 kilometer twice a week but I used to be competitive.

    switch up the strokes so you don't get bored.

    I do 500 free and 500 medley.

    Mixing between racing and endurance.
  • tori_grr
    tori_grr Posts: 29 Member
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    Work on your technique and breathing the smoother you are the easier it will be build up to doing a 500 straight I've heard that if you can do that you will be just fine :) practice breathing every 3 strokes then work up to 7 strokes make sure you fully complete your stroke to get the most out of it you can do a drill were you drag your thumb past your thigh .. I think you can do it September is a good among of time to get in shape for a long swim :)
  • kbrogan78
    kbrogan78 Posts: 158 Member
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    I assume you're doing a sprint tri, so the distance is very doable, even for a recreational swimmer. However, there is a BIG difference between swimming laps in a pool and open water swimming (I assume you'll be in a lake or other body of water rather than a pool)! You have to contend with more water motion, the possibility of plants (an issue in the shallow water of the lake I did two tri's in), learning to site forward to make sure you're staying on course, and also the mental hurdle of seeing the full distance in one shot rather than broken up into laps. I'm a very strong swimmer but I panicked a bit seeing just how far 1/2 a mile looks!

    So train hard in the pool- the suggestion of getting up to twice the distance is a great one- but also make sure you get in some distance swims in open water so that you're prepared for that on race day.

    And finally, enjoy the race. Doing triathlons is really fun and you feel powerful afterward, no matter how you performed. :)
  • tori_grr
    tori_grr Posts: 29 Member
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    Amount*... If you need any other tips just ask me I swim 1500-2000 everyday.
  • LindsayE007
    LindsayE007 Posts: 212 Member
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    Bump! I am doing a sprint tri in 3 weeks and I am getting nervous about the swim portion!
  • amruden
    amruden Posts: 228 Member
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    Its a 1.5 kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run, for a total of 51.5 kilometers.

    I think I can handle a 1.5 by September. :-)

    Thanks for all of your support and information.
  • crewellademel
    crewellademel Posts: 168 Member
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    I did this last year with some friends and it was a blast. Now I'm training for my first sprint triathlon this June 2nd. So you can do it! Here is what I learned last year. An open water swim is a whole different ballgame than a pool swim. amruden is right train for twice the distance of what the tri swim is. Open water distance will feel 2-3X what it would feel like to swim it in a pool. The best advice I got (and I used it) was REMEMBER you can always go to your back if you get tired or stressed in open water. Everyone...even the best swimmer is likely to have a moment or two of panic when in an open water swim. (I also found this to be true) Because I was a relay person I was in the last wave to start the swim. This was good because I didn't have all the gungho types trying to trounce me, I just hung back a little and set my own pace. My only goal was to finish. Mine was an open water swim and the things that took me by suprise were the lack of visiblility in the water and the waves. Lots of waves because it was a big body of water AND the 3 waves of swimmers before me had kicked up the waves coming my way. This lead to me catching mouthfuls of water when I turned by head to breath, so this time I am training to breath every third stroke so I alternate sides and then I can breath either side depending which side the waves areN"T breaking on. :laugh: Also, because I couldn't see a darn thing I ended up swimming with my head held quite high up out of the water....which exhausted me quickly (that's when I started to panic a little) but one of the swim buddies (people that some races will provide to swim with you if you are nervous) who I overhead talking to his person said to keep the lower protion of your face in the water but your eyes up looking ahead and then turn to breath as you would normally would. It is much less exhausting to do it this way and really worked for me, I could do a reasonable crawl stroke and made pretty good time afte that. It also allows you to keep track of your race bouys so you don't swim off to parts unknown! :blushing: Seriously trained tri swimmers tend to swim for multiple strokes without a breath and then check their position when they come up for breath. I also invested in a wet suit, check your water temp for that body of water at the time of year you are going for the swim. Hypothermia is NOT your friend and the extra bouyancy helps. For the actual swimming portion of the training I started out working up to 3x the distance of my tri swim. Then I started doing heats of one lap fast, one lap normal, one lap fast, one lap normal. Then 2 and 2 etc.... trying to build speed, but again my only goal on this tri is to finish so I don't really care if I get any faster than I am now. So it kindof depends what your goals are. Hope this helps. :flowerforyou:

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