Yes, assuming you're comfortable enough with the 2.4 mile distance. The river current will get you there with far less effort than a regular lake swim. People tend to be 10-20% faster in that river than in normal IM swims.

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Blog: https://davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com/
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Have you done an IM before? Are you a decent swimmer? If you’re comfortable at that swim distance and an average swimmer I’d say yes. That swim is easy. I’ve done it twice. In 2019 current wasn’t as fast as some years but it’s a straight swim with current. Just plug along and you’re home free before you know it.

Well, it worked for Sam Gyde...

https://www.slowtwitch.com/...t_My_Mouth_6895.html

I do not know the applicability of his experience to others....

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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Depends.

I’m a 59-61 min IM swimmer on about 10K yards per week and overall time in the 11-13hr range depending on the day. I’m swimming 1-2x week about 3K yards each and I’m not expecting to set a PR swim at my IM this July, but I expect to come out of the water in 65 min or so feeling reasonably fresh and am hopeful it won’t impact the rest of my day too much.

If you’re one of those people who barely make the cut-off as is and picked TN because it was an easier/faster swim, then probably not.

If you’re somewhere in the middle, say a 90ish min IM swimmer, my guess is you’ll still be fine but I’d expect you might come out of the water feeling pretty thrashed and it will impact your bike and run performance.

For me, 2 swims of at least 40 min each is kind of the min necessary to maintain reasonable swim fitness. I’ve experimented a lot with dry land over the last year and own a Vasa. The dry land stuff is pretty low ROI for me. I’d probably rather row or do an extra bike workout to be honest.

If you can do one swim a week and are an average to good swimmer you will finish done but count on low ng 30-60 minnofd your run split even tough you may barely lose 5 min on your swim.

If you are a weak swimmer you may blow up during the bike and probably walk much of the marathon

I am a decent swimmer and have done ironmans off 4km per week for 8 weeks and 20km per week for 10 months and the delta in swim split is barely a few minutes and it has been degree of suffering thru rest of race .

I completed my first IM distance with 2 swims in a pool. Im no where near fast in the water. I did the swim in 76 minutes with those 2 training swims. The 2 practice swims where 2 hours of constant speed. I just wanted to know I could do the distance. I have no swimming back ground other then dive rescue, so I am comfortable in water. On a side note, when I was about 9 years old I had to be rescued from the bottom of a swimming pool at a neighbors house.

The swim is actually the easiest part of the race. The race starts, for me, when I exit the water!!

In your experience, how much / often do you need to swim to get out of the swim without carrying too much fatigue going forward?

You should be fine, I did the Arizona 70.3 off pretty much just stretch cord work. Only did 3-4 OW swims the week before for 45-60 mins. I was only 1-2 mins slower than normal and didn't feel any more tired on the bike than normal. Just make sure you don't push yourself too hard and you will be ok

My rough rule of thumb was average 3 hrs per week (3 sessions) but have a two 5-6 hrs weeks in the build where I swam 5-6 days with maybe one session that is 1.5 hrs

I think that is going to be highly individual. I think for most people starting an IM the condition they get out in depends mainly on their pacing. I'm an average swimmer in that context but I can get out feeling absolutely fine if I swim an average pace. Alternatively I could get carried away, swim too fast, get a bit of bad luck with getting knocked about, never relax and I'm going to pay for it.

My model would be a diminishing returns curve. We all start at a different point on the curve. I guess we also respond differently to the training we can do so that will move us a different amount up the curve.

What kind of swimming history do you have? If you've done previous swim training for an OWS that will be your best guide. If you haven't done an OWS Before I wouldn't underestimate it but that's a different conversation.

I don’t see if you’re adult onset (AOS) or come from a swim background.
Big difference.
Penalty for AOS is much bigger if you’ve been out of the pool for a longer time.
Dry land doesn’t make up for lack of ‘engrained’ muscle memory and efficiency.

If you’re AOS, swim will take way more out of you.
But you won’t drown.

Just to be clear, he asked about my expeience, which I assumed was what I could get away with since I gave two extreme versions of my training. But having coached 50 others over time, as long as I could get them on the 2x per week swim program fall and winter and 3x per week in spring and then in summer have those few weeks of 5-6x per week with some longer open water sessions, these athletes roughly finished in twice their half IM time plus 60-90 min. (so the 5 hrs guy finished in 11-11:30).

if your goal is to finish: Yes
If your goal is to get a new PR/have your best raace: No

Hi,

I'm wondering where the next closest pool to you may be?

Possibly it may be beneficial to you to drive an extra 30 minutes to get additional swim time.

Thanks!

Mark

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Fast-Finishes.com
Triathlon and Running Race Timing
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I would have to guess that only an AOS swimmer would ask this question. Any life-long fish would know exactly what they need to do.