I always swim really slowly at the start of warmup. As slow as I can, while still maintaining good form. Then gradually build the intensity.

It seemed to work for Matt Biondi, so that's what I copied.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

jason do you focus on slower turnover, gliding more. It seems like when I get into "real water" my turnover goes crazy and I have a hard time slowing down. Once I get into a rhythm it gets better. Thanks

Try a 7-10 min jog before the swim. For me, it gets the blood pumping, it gets me warmed up, and I get that heart rate "spike" out of the way and my body/mind gets into race mode. Then when I enter the water, it's business as usual.

My warm up starts 5 minutes before I get in the water. Arm circles, swings, leg swings, etc. I find I feel much more loose and limber when I do these first. My in pool warm up is done incredibly slow. Not really focusing on anything but relaxing, exhaling deeply on my recovery, and feeling the water. After a couple hundred of this, I'll start to sharpen things up. Still slow swimming, but more focus on technique. Total warm up is around 600m before I feel like I can start pushing.

If i jump in to a pool without and prep and try to swim normally, I would feel pretty gassed too!

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Long Chile was a silly place.

slow turnover, just trying to stay really long and stretched out. try counting strokes per length, minimize those to help you slow down and get into the groove, then pick up the cadence gradually.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

When you swim in your Endless Pool, do you start out at a slow pace and gradually increase your tempo??? Or do you set it at your race pace and then try to go hard from the start???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Oh, you're one of those guys...

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Damn straight. I get home from work around 5. Swimming isn't until 730 or 830. My muscles tend to tighten up during the time. If I just jump in the pool and start givin'er, I usually feel it in my shoulders pretty bad.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

You're experiencing the mammilian dive reflex duing the first couple hundred metres of the warm up. For race day, do a slow warm up and gradually increase the speed.
by the time the gun goes off, you'll be ready

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res, non verba

Agreed. I'll usually do something on deck before I get in the water. Can't say I do leg swings though..

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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http://www.swimoutlet.com/p/finis-tempo-trainer-pro-33518/


You could stick one of these in your swimcap. I also am a fan of the run warmup to get the heart rate up.

Start as slowly as you can without sacrificing technique. How much slower depends on the person, but generally one should have a slower stroke rate than normal training paces but a similar distance per stroke.

Personally, I like to warm up with fins for about 600, which allow me to have a long, fluid stroke and good body position with minimal effort and stress on the shoulders. The fins also help flush out the legs, since I usually swim after a run or bike. Then the fins come off, and it's 3x100 w/ 15s rest alternating freestyle & backstroke by 25; the backstroke opens up the shoulders more and makes breathing easy. Then 4x25 w/ 10-15s rest descend to fast.

My pre-race open water warmup is similar; instead of using fins I do 6x 50 strokes easy + 30 seconds streamline kicking on back to stretch the lats.

Will your race offer the option to warm up in the water first? If not, I would recommend practicing with a few on-deck options, jumping into your pool/ow workout and seeing what works best to eliminate that feeling so that you can replicate it on race day. Others put some options out there. I would add some bands to work your stroke outside the water.

As for in pool, others covered it well. I will add that a good kick set does wonders for my main set. I assume it syncs up my stroke or does some other voodoo but whatever it is I see a noticible difference (for the better) in time and preceived effort.

1. Is your breathing elevated and by gassed you mean out of breath? Or are we talking about muscles not feeling right?

2. Do you have an opportunity for swim warmup at your next race?

I jump in the hot tub for 5 minutes then do 6x50s @1:05 followed by 4x[50k @1:30, 50dr@1:15] to get things going!! I am about a 64' IM swimmer.

I feel like I get gassed as well doing anything longer for a warm up.

Sorry for the delay in response. Thanks to all that have replied. Eric I set my ep at a slower rate to warm up and then increase depending on what set I have for the day.

The feeling I get is being out of breath. Not a muscular fatigue issue at all. I do have some open water anxiety issues but I get this feeling at the pool as well. from the responses, I am just going to try and get into the water prior to race start and see if I can get into some type of rhythm. Thanks

So you do warm-up at a slower pace even in your EP. So, it would appear to me that perhaps the reason you don't get anxious in the EP is b/c it is relatively shallow and small, but then when you get into a bigger pool or OW, you get anxiety issues. How long have you been swimming on a regular basis??? I would think this sort of thing would go away on its own over time as your degree of comfort and relaxation increases, at least the anxiety in the pool part. Notably, even some world-class swimmers do not like OWS: Janet Evans has said she never swims OW b/c she doesn't like the fact that snakes, sharks, etc, could attack her. So, at least in OW, you have distinguished company, not that this helps all that much:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."