Freestyle the entire way. My resting stroke is the freestyle but only slightly slower.

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http://trainingoferic.blogspot.com/

Swimming in a wetsuit IS resting...

So my answer would be nope - you're probably better of just slowing down your turnover and keeping with freestyle... less loss of forward momentum (and time).

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"Race day is a celebration of your training"

If you need to rest, do backstroke. Please don't breaststroke in a race - you'll end up kicking people.

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No worries, I won't be breaststroking. Even if I did, there will be no one to kick...the relays go last at Racine and I (most likely) will be bringing up the tail end of 2500 racers all by my lonesome. Most of the people who are doing the swim for their respective relay will smoke me because they are competitive swimmers.

I was just asking because a friend of mine did breaststroke the whole thing last year. He was the absolute last person out of the water...He is an out-of-shape ex-competitive swimmer who couldn't freestyle because he couldn't bear to put his face in the water. I told him to do a few open water swims before the race, but he didn't get around to it. He was used to seeing the bottom of the pool...it is a little daunting when you are in the open water and can't see jack. He hadn't done any breaststroke training before hand....so when he got done with the race.....boy oh boy did his breasts hurt.

This year we are going head to head...so it should prove to be interesting. Freestyle all the way for me....it will just be slow going.

How is the training in Madison this year? I can't wait to get up there for the Horribly Hilly in a few weeks! I have some friends there that like to swim accompanied by a kayaker because of all the boat traffic. The also sometimes swim in the quarry near Verona on Sunday mornings when there are no lifeguards (so they can swim past the rope blocking it off).

I scrambled out of that lake pretty quickly the first time I swam there. After getting completely tangled in the weeds, a muskrat swam about a foot in front of me right as I was sighting. I didn't realize what it was until I was nearly out of the lake. For some reason, when I'm not in a race, open water kind of freaks me out.

I also heard that the rest area in Verona is gone. The one near the running path with the picnic tables and restrooms. :(

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"If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms." -- Mike Ditka

Unfortunately I haven't had my road bike out much this year so I can't speak as to how the roads are doing. I'm having some left foot problems so I don't know if there will be any tri's for me this year. I've been doing plenty of mountain bike racing though.

Open water swimming kind of freaks me out also. The nasty weeds, the boaters, jet skiers, the creatures. For some reason the movie Jaws comes to mind (we do have some pretty big fish here in wisconsin) Especially if I go it alone.

I thought about doing HHH, but it conflicts with the WORS mt. bike race at nine mile in wausau. Maybe next year... Good luck to you. Are you doing the 100 or 200k?

I hear ya! We have a couple big fish in MN too! That and I saw a snapping turtle a couple weeks ago whose neck was as big as my calf, and nearly as long! JAWS wouldn't have stood a chance against this little dinosaur!

I get freaked out more by my mind than by anything else though... Too many shark movies (along with a vivid imagination) as a kid...