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Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water)
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Last Saturday i completed IMFL and had the same issues. Every race start when i dive into the water I cant catch my breath. I couldn't even go one stroke without the feeling that I couldn't breath. This has happened at every race that doesn't have a deep water start. it is so frustrating to explain to the kayaker that I'm actually ok and will be one my way shortly. Most Ironman races its hard to sneak in the water before hand and wasn't available. Any advice or experience with this?
Last edited by: striket: Nov 11, 20 10:21
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [striket] [ In reply to ]
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Google mammalian response and see if that fits. If that is it, maybe some cold water to the face right before the start may help.
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [hugoagogo] [ In reply to ]
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Thats it (or part of it).

There's threads on ST about reducing heart attacks in OW and a common key issue is getting a warm up in the water (= get some of the cold on you too, not just about warming muscles).

I get it though that IM is often crap for any warm up.
Defo at least tey getting some splashes of water onto your face and neck as that helps 'prime' the body for the cold water and reduces the risk of the cold water shock messing up your breathing.

I always splash my face and neck when entering cold water.
Same when I used to so a lot of white water kayaking.
Last edited by: BobAjobb: Nov 11, 20 16:38
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [striket] [ In reply to ]
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During the in water start your heart rate is already elevated from treading water and your legs are not weight bearing.

In the beach start your legs are weight bearing, then you are running. Your arms are doing nothing. Then you go from vertical to horizontal and your upper body demands oxgen, while your lower body is still needing it and blood flow is simulataneously having to go into both directions, so your heart has to jack up its heart rate to deliver to both halves of the body working hard.

What I do for beach starts is try to swing my arms as much as possible, but also kind of jump on the spot to keep my heart rate high enough (recognizing that this shunts some flow lower but at least my heart rate is already a bit higher). Then jog to the water (don't sprint), dive in and soft stroke with arms and kick a bit harder and gradually reduce kick and build up effort with arms.

Don't go from sprinting with legs on the beach, to kicking hard AND stroking hard. Ease into the strokes but also keep a lid on intensity sprinting to the water.

The entire thing with age groupers and beach starts is so stupid, because the fastest runningn speed any age grouper has is the sprint from the corral to the water, second fastest run speed is from water's edge to T2....after that, most age groupers never match those run speeds and they did not even get to the marathon.
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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I walk......in.
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [striket] [ In reply to ]
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I have the same issue. For me it goes away the more I OWS. It’s a mental thing with dark water for me (or deep). Never an issue in the pool, but once in open water I have to convince my brain to put my face down, I can still breathe.

Happens to me in warm or cold water
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [striket] [ In reply to ]
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I just barely had it happen to me a month or so ago, first time in maybe 50 races. It was a choppy wavy day, and i maybe had gained a few lbs so the wetsuit was a bit tighter? but i finally got relief when i pulled the neck and let water in to balance out the pressure, took me forever to do that because i was blaming it on the waves. It was terrifying to think if that was an A race. i was breathing through a straw for two of three laps. luckily It was shallow and most of us walked haha
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [Cookiebuilder] [ In reply to ]
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This!
I think pulling down the neck of your wetsuit and letting some water in is very underrated. Buddy of mine that grew up swimming in Norway gave me the tip and I am surprised how few people have tried it.
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Re: Swim Help (unable to catch breath upon entering water) [striket] [ In reply to ]
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You have some great tips. They are very good tips.

I will share a swim drill that I was given to help with this also. Basically, the idea is to get your heart rate up and out of breath on purpose and practice catching your breath and recovering while still swimming. Swim 100 yards all out fast and then swim 25 - 50 yards as slow as you need to but you cannot stop. You can roll over on your back and kick - you can breast stroke but you must keep moving forward.

You can do this in open water as well by swimming 50 or 100 strokes fast followed by 25-50 strokes easy to catch your breath.

It's very simple but I personally found it very helpful in training myself to work through the race day situation.
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