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For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting
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Just curious - For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting?

I'm not a beginner, have been doing tri for 10 years now, but OWS access is definitely still a major problem for me, mainly due to scheduling but also because it's annoyingly far/trafficky for me to drive to.

I've found for myself that it's absolutely crucial for me to swim in my full sleeved wetsuit at least 3x prior to race day - the first sessions is always terrible due to early arm fatigue, but it goes away completely by the 3rd. (My wetsuit fits totally fine as well, I've tried a few, and the one I'm using definitely is not problematic for fit.)

I also have found that deliberate practicing of sighting in the pool (both with and without wetsuit) is really important for me to keep a good rhythm with swimming on race day. I don't do much sighting if practice if I'm 2 months+ out from race day, but I'm doing it every session, for a lot of the session the closer I get to race day and it also seems to make a huge difference.

Just kinda surprised it never gets discussed here, although I guess you don't have to worry about this type of prep much if you have regular access to OWS prior to race day which is obviously recommended over no-OWS.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I discovered that after a couple of wetsuit swims I get a bit faster, so it seems that I need it.
I swim only in the pool. I have to sight constantly, because of the traffic in the lane.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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The first time I typically put on a wetsuit is on the first race day of the season. I *may* do a few pool sighting drills in the week before hand, but in the pool without wetsuit.

During that first OW race swim, I'm extra vigilant in the first 400 yards in spotting ever 4th stroke, even if I'm on someone's feet. It doesn't take too long to get into the rhythm again.






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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Almost zero OWS leading up to the race as I don’t have easy access to that and I don’t find it that critical for me. Hopefully at race sight day before race I try to get in an OWS. I soak my wetsuit in the tub leading up to race if I haven’t worn the wetsuit in awhile. I’ll do a bit of sighting practice maybe starting a few weeks before the race.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I would say sighting mechanics is a thing amongst aos swimmers. Basically if you are sighting every 4-10 strokes then there is 10-25% of your stroke count where you (some) are generating lift instead propulsion.

We do sighting drills, basically 25 free then 25 sighting back to the wall. You can also do sets of 50’s alternating 50 free and 50 sighting every 4 strokes to see how bad the lift is.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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No training in my wetsuit before the first race of the season basically every year. Usually swim in the open water the day before the first race and will wear wetsuit if it’s wetsuit legal. No real sighting practice in training but if doing a longer set I’ll add in some sighting just to keep things from getting too boring.

But I haven’t felt that I was missing anything in those first races in relation to not swimming in my wetsuit. But I have also been very comfortable in my wetsuit so haven’t needed much adjustment.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I'm similar to most others here. I'll do one wetsuit swim in the pool the week of the race. For the whole week of swims leading up to a race, I'll randomly toss in a few OW sights as I'm doing my normal workout. I like to pick something on the edge of the pool like a door, chair, or clock that I know is there and find it in my sights. It's important for me to not really plan which laps or strokes I'm going to sight on. If I have a thought to sight, I do it. I think it helps with the spontaneity of open water swimming.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I do no OWS outside of races. I wear my wetsuit 3 or 4 times before a race to get used to it. I will just do the best I can sighting in the race. I swim like a drunk in open water, so I am constantly correcting.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
Just curious - For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting?

I'm not a beginner, have been doing tri for 10 years now, but OWS access is definitely still a major problem for me, mainly due to scheduling but also because it's annoyingly far/trafficky for me to drive to.

I've found for myself that it's absolutely crucial for me to swim in my full sleeved wetsuit at least 3x prior to race day - the first sessions is always terrible due to early arm fatigue, but it goes away completely by the 3rd. (My wetsuit fits totally fine as well, I've tried a few, and the one I'm using definitely is not problematic for fit.)

I also have found that deliberate practicing of sighting in the pool (both with and without wetsuit) is really important for me to keep a good rhythm with swimming on race day. I don't do much sighting if practice if I'm 2 months+ out from race day, but I'm doing it every session, for a lot of the session the closer I get to race day and it also seems to make a huge difference.

Just kinda surprised it never gets discussed here, although I guess you don't have to worry about this type of prep much if you have regular access to OWS prior to race day which is obviously recommended over no-OWS.

You really don't need to practice sighting unless you are going to lead the race or lead your wave. Pythagoras is your friend. Everyone THINKS they do long detours but this is not true UNLESS you go really wide at buoys. Just put your head down and follow the bubbles in front of you and you will get to the finish line of the swim. Everytime you look up to sight you will lose time when your hips drop....that time loss is much worse than just keeping your head down and following bubbles of the swimmers in front of you.

As for the arm fatigue, I hear you, but it may just be because your wetsuit needs to be soaked after sitting around for a long time.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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I def disagree with you Dev, as a non FOP OWS swimmer.

I'm not BOP - I always finish in the top 15-20% of swimmers, so frontish of the middle of the pack, but that means there are plenty of people who are TERRIBLE at sighting in front of me, fishtailing all over the course. I've heard countless times about 'just follow the bubbles/feet' which is easy enough for me to do, but every time I do it, I get horrified at how inefficiently the person I'm following swims when I finally take the time to see the buoy.

At least from where I am in the pack, I'd say following feet is utterly unreliable for the first half of the swim, until it really strings out and even then, I have to keep a close eye on the buoy to not swim extra distance.

In one of my races, where there was a mild cross current, I sighted every other stroke during the cross-current section, which cost me energy since I had to swim diagonally to compensate for the current and sight a lot to make sure I was staying on course, but I placed much higher than I expected to given that I wasn't going all out - I attribute most of that to the bulk of swimmers going with the current which led them farrrr right to where I was - they had to diagonal back in to the finish where I straight shot it right in.

If I were a top 10% or higher swimmer, I might trust the toes of those in front, but at my level which is still better than 80% typically, those toes are utterly unreliable. In OWS, even veering off course by a 'small' 25m costs you significants amounts of time!

I also don't think it's just wetsuit soaking for me either - I do soak my wetsuit prior to use 1-2 days beforehand. Doesn't help at all, for me.

I'm still amazed all you folks can just sight 'no problem' without significant cost to speed on race day with minimal practice. I try to sight as little as possible on race day, but there are stretches where it's almost every other cycle I have to sight if there is a current, and I'm really glad I've prepared myself for that motion. My worst swims by far are the ones where I had tons of fitness and was swimming my fastest times in the pool (but with zero sighting training) but got a rude awakening on race day when I had to sight a lot more than expected. (I'm also comfortable with sighting - I actually practice all of it - sight left, right, forward, head all the way out for many strokes, head froggy-eyed minimal out of water forward, just to be ready for anything.)
Last edited by: lightheir: Feb 16, 20 10:48
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
If I were a top 10% or higher swimmer, I might trust the toes of those in front, but at my level which is still better than 80% typically, those toes are utterly unreliable. In OWS, even veering off course by a 'small' 25m costs you significants amounts of time!)

This is my experience too. The problem is, even when I have open water in front of me, I too have taken bad lines, so I’m not sure ignoring others’ lines in lieu of my own, puts me in a much better position.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
I def disagree with you Dev, as a non FOP OWS swimmer.

I'm not BOP - I always finish in the top 15-20% of swimmers, so frontish of the middle of the pack, but that means there are plenty of people who are TERRIBLE at sighting in front of me, fishtailing all over the course. I've heard countless times about 'just follow the bubbles/feet' which is easy enough for me to do, but every time I do it, I get horrified at how inefficiently the person I'm following swims when I finally take the time to see the buoy.

At least from where I am in the pack, I'd say following feet is utterly unreliable for the first half of the swim, until it really strings out and even then, I have to keep a close eye on the buoy to not swim extra distance.

In one of my races, where there was a mild cross current, I sighted every other stroke during the cross-current section, which cost me energy since I had to swim diagonally to compensate for the current and sight a lot to make sure I was staying on course, but I placed much higher than I expected to given that I wasn't going all out - I attribute most of that to the bulk of swimmers going with the current which led them farrrr right to where I was - they had to diagonal back in to the finish where I straight shot it right in.

If I were a top 10% or higher swimmer, I might trust the toes of those in front, but at my level which is still better than 80% typically, those toes are utterly unreliable. In OWS, even veering off course by a 'small' 25m costs you significants amounts of time!

I also don't think it's just wetsuit soaking for me either - I do soak my wetsuit prior to use 1-2 days beforehand. Doesn't help at all, for me.

I'm still amazed all you folks can just sight 'no problem' without significant cost to speed on race day with minimal practice. I try to sight as little as possible on race day, but there are stretches where it's almost every other cycle I have to sight if there is a current, and I'm really glad I've prepared myself for that motion. My worst swims by far are the ones where I had tons of fitness and was swimming my fastest times in the pool (but with zero sighting training) but got a rude awakening on race day when I had to sight a lot more than expected. (I'm also comfortable with sighting - I actually practice all of it - sight left, right, forward, head all the way out for many strokes, head froggy-eyed minimal out of water forward, just to be ready for anything.)

OK, here is a thought exercise.

Our assumption is that everyone around us is bad at navigating. Fair point. But our assumption is that each of us is a better navigator than those we are around. This MAY be and likely is a bad assumption. We're probably just as bad as people around us, which means our line is not going to be faster than people around us. Instead if we put our heads down, get our hips up, and cruise and conserve energy, we're going to get to T2 likely with just as long a line as following a directionally challenged idiot as we would following our own brain. But following the directionally challenged idiot, you have your head down, hips up and use way less energy to T2. If you can follow a directionally challenges fast idiot, who is following an even faster idiot, who is following an even faster idiot, probably that draft induced path is faster but equally long to our own path.

So we can assume that we're better at navigating and take our own path, but its almost never ever faster unless you get to a turn buoy more than 5m away from the buoy. If the person you are following takes you to a turn buoy and you practically smash your head into the buoy, its probably a decent line. The buoys along the way don't mean much.

Like I said, Pythagoras is your friend....you can be 5 m away from a buoy to your right and if the next buoy is only 12m away you would cover 13m to correct your path to the line. At 120m from the next buoy you can be 50m off course and only go 130m relative to the guy going 120m directly. This is an insanely extreme example as 50m off from a buoy does not happen in real racing. Likely scenario you're 5 m off from a buoy on your right 100m away from the next buoy which is a turn. By the next buoy you only went 100.12m in distance while the person right on the buoy went 100m.

No one swims as long as they THINK. We're all roughly covering the course pretty straight unless we go 5-10m past turn buoys.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
If I were a top 10% or higher swimmer, I might trust the toes of those in front, but at my level which is still better than 80% typically, those toes are utterly unreliable. In OWS, even veering off course by a 'small' 25m costs you significants amounts of time!

800m out, 800m back. Off by 25m at the middle of the outbound leg, correct course back to the proper turnaround. Congrats, you've swum a whopping 1.6m extra.

Learn to swim in a straight line. This means having a balanced stroke. Find someone about your speed to follow. If you find yourself constantly correcting to stay on their feet, they're probably veering all over the place (or you are: know yourself!), so you need to find someone else or just swim your own race.

Without running any numbers, a path with course corrections every 4-8 strokes is probably going to be much longer than a path with only a 25m course correction midway. Yes, Pythagoras is your friend.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I grew up surfing and around the water, so I think that helps.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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No training in the wetsuit, and no specific sighting practice. I do do a fair amount of swimming with a pull buoy, which is somewhat like wetsuit body position (floaty shorts would be even better). I also do some focus on having a balanced stroke and swimming straight, which I think helps reduce my reliance on sighting (doesn't help for cross currents though).



As mentioned, soak the wetsuit in the week before the first race as it may have lost suppleness over the winter.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
I def disagree with you Dev, as a non FOP OWS swimmer.

I'm not BOP - I always finish in the top 15-20% of swimmers, so frontish of the middle of the pack, but that means there are plenty of people who are TERRIBLE at sighting in front of me, fishtailing all over the course. I've heard countless times about 'just follow the bubbles/feet' which is easy enough for me to do, but every time I do it, I get horrified at how inefficiently the person I'm following swims when I finally take the time to see the buoy.

At least from where I am in the pack, I'd say following feet is utterly unreliable for the first half of the swim, until it really strings out and even then, I have to keep a close eye on the buoy to not swim extra distance.

In one of my races, where there was a mild cross current, I sighted every other stroke during the cross-current section, which cost me energy since I had to swim diagonally to compensate for the current and sight a lot to make sure I was staying on course, but I placed much higher than I expected to given that I wasn't going all out - I attribute most of that to the bulk of swimmers going with the current which led them farrrr right to where I was - they had to diagonal back in to the finish where I straight shot it right in.

If I were a top 10% or higher swimmer, I might trust the toes of those in front, but at my level which is still better than 80% typically, those toes are utterly unreliable. In OWS, even veering off course by a 'small' 25m costs you significants amounts of time!

I also don't think it's just wetsuit soaking for me either - I do soak my wetsuit prior to use 1-2 days beforehand. Doesn't help at all, for me.

I'm still amazed all you folks can just sight 'no problem' without significant cost to speed on race day with minimal practice. I try to sight as little as possible on race day, but there are stretches where it's almost every other cycle I have to sight if there is a current, and I'm really glad I've prepared myself for that motion. My worst swims by far are the ones where I had tons of fitness and was swimming my fastest times in the pool (but with zero sighting training) but got a rude awakening on race day when I had to sight a lot more than expected. (I'm also comfortable with sighting - I actually practice all of it - sight left, right, forward, head all the way out for many strokes, head froggy-eyed minimal out of water forward, just to be ready for anything.)

I don’t think I’ve ever had a swim where I’ve had to sight every cycle, and that includes some swims in pretty choppy conditions. As others have said, going off course doesn’t really cost you much unless you constantly overcorrect.

That said, not practicing sighting is probably a mistake for most, just for the increased energy cost of sighting vs normal swimming. You want to be able to do it smoothly and efficiently, a lot of which comes down to planning and knowing the course.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [klehner] [ In reply to ]
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I swim very straight in a pool. I even test this in the pool before race day by swimming eyes closed except for sighting every 3rd.or.fourth cycle and i swim straight.

If there is no current its not an issue. Its the mild current that requires much more sighting and course correction me.

I see your point about triangulation which does make it less problematic - as long as you arent following someone veering all over the place. Constant course corrections can absolutely cost a lot more that the simplest lines. Will keep that mind.
Last edited by: lightheir: Feb 16, 20 15:12
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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For a few years, 2011-16, my first OWS was at an actual OWS race. I come from an exclusively swim background. I swam through college and have stayed pretty consistently in the water for most of the 26 years since. I guess I have lots of confidence in my background, so I’m okay on race day. I didn’t wear a wetsuit for any of those events, even though the events were in late May and the water temps were in the upper 60’s.

In one OWS race in 2011, I sighted more than I though I would. My back was pretty sore in the second half of a two-Mile race from the lifting of my head and the lack of flip turns to stretch out my back. Lesson learned: do more core work in the weeks preceding a race. That seemed to work great during an 11+ mile event I did in 2014, where I did LOTS of sighting.

My suggestions for those who are worried about about the up and down motion of the head/hip couplet during sighting is to do lots of core work and work on sighting as part of a breath in the stroke cycle. What I mean by that is to slightly lift your head forward to get the eyes and face out of the water and then turn it as normal DURING the normal-tempo stroke cycle. Your non-breathing side arm takes a slightly shorter extension and instead of you reaching out with it as in a normal stroke, you press down as you’re lifting your head for that combo sight/breath stroke. You should not be lifting your head independently of your normal breathing pattern. Those are the sighting moves that drop your hips, not the forward look/side breath combo.

True story: in one of those late-May races, I found myself sighting a much younger and faster swimmer. The race was a two-lap 4000m race. At the end of the first out-and-back lap, I saw her nearby. On the second lap, I “herded” her to my right, breathing side by taking the inside line of the anti-clockwise course. For the entire last 2000m, I basically saw her her to my right side, and let her do the navigating, while I barely ever sighted forward. I just breathed/looked right, and there she was. She was a junior national swimmer and eventually an NCAA D-1 nationals qualifier, and I was just a masters swimmer in his early 40’s. She beat me in the last sprint as she should have, but I was pretty proud of myself for controlling the positioning and swimming smoothly next to a really fast swimmer for 2000m.

That said, anyone can pretty much navigate by just looking to the side when breathing, if there are features parallel to the swim course. Trees, buildings, shoreline, hills, etc. And you don’t even need expensive Roka, Orca, or Aquagear goggles with fish-bowl lenses to sight. IM AZ and IM Louisville come to mind as courses with narrow channels and easily-spotted features parallel to the race course.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
lightheir wrote:
Just curious - For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting?

I'm not a beginner, have been doing tri for 10 years now, but OWS access is definitely still a major problem for me, mainly due to scheduling but also because it's annoyingly far/trafficky for me to drive to.

I've found for myself that it's absolutely crucial for me to swim in my full sleeved wetsuit at least 3x prior to race day - the first sessions is always terrible due to early arm fatigue, but it goes away completely by the 3rd. (My wetsuit fits totally fine as well, I've tried a few, and the one I'm using definitely is not problematic for fit.)

I also have found that deliberate practicing of sighting in the pool (both with and without wetsuit) is really important for me to keep a good rhythm with swimming on race day. I don't do much sighting if practice if I'm 2 months+ out from race day, but I'm doing it every session, for a lot of the session the closer I get to race day and it also seems to make a huge difference.

Just kinda surprised it never gets discussed here, although I guess you don't have to worry about this type of prep much if you have regular access to OWS prior to race day which is obviously recommended over no-OWS.

You really don't need to practice sighting unless you are going to lead the race or lead your wave. Pythagoras is your friend. Everyone THINKS they do long detours but this is not true UNLESS you go really wide at buoys. Just put your head down and follow the bubbles in front of you and you will get to the finish line of the swim. Everytime you look up to sight you will lose time when your hips drop....that time loss is much worse than just keeping your head down and following bubbles of the swimmers in front of you.

As for the arm fatigue, I hear you, but it may just be because your wetsuit needs to be soaked after sitting around for a long time.

No, mate. Had I done that 2 weeks ago I would have followed the guy in front of me out to sea. There have been quite a few times that my sighting has enabled me to put ~30 seconds into guys who were ahead of me during the swim.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [NAB777] [ In reply to ]
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NAB777 wrote:
devashish_paul wrote:
lightheir wrote:
Just curious - For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting?

I'm not a beginner, have been doing tri for 10 years now, but OWS access is definitely still a major problem for me, mainly due to scheduling but also because it's annoyingly far/trafficky for me to drive to.

I've found for myself that it's absolutely crucial for me to swim in my full sleeved wetsuit at least 3x prior to race day - the first sessions is always terrible due to early arm fatigue, but it goes away completely by the 3rd. (My wetsuit fits totally fine as well, I've tried a few, and the one I'm using definitely is not problematic for fit.)

I also have found that deliberate practicing of sighting in the pool (both with and without wetsuit) is really important for me to keep a good rhythm with swimming on race day. I don't do much sighting if practice if I'm 2 months+ out from race day, but I'm doing it every session, for a lot of the session the closer I get to race day and it also seems to make a huge difference.

Just kinda surprised it never gets discussed here, although I guess you don't have to worry about this type of prep much if you have regular access to OWS prior to race day which is obviously recommended over no-OWS.


There are always exceptional idiots you can follow. But you don't need to be sighting every 4-8 strokes like the OP is suggesting to thwart off following the truly navigationally challenged. If you only sight every 20 or 25 strokes (say the length of a pool), that's plenty. Even 50 strokes is fine. You can't go that far off course following bubbles in 50 strokes. Again, Pythagoras is your friend. Even if you go 10m off course in 50 meters, you're just going to swim 51 meters to course correct by a turn buoy 100m away from your original divergence point. You could literally sight first 50 strokes from one buoy, be 10m off course and maybe sight once more at 75m and then a final time at 95m and be right on track. 4-8 strokes seems to be really excessive.

You really don't need to practice sighting unless you are going to lead the race or lead your wave. Pythagoras is your friend. Everyone THINKS they do long detours but this is not true UNLESS you go really wide at buoys. Just put your head down and follow the bubbles in front of you and you will get to the finish line of the swim. Everytime you look up to sight you will lose time when your hips drop....that time loss is much worse than just keeping your head down and following bubbles of the swimmers in front of you.

As for the arm fatigue, I hear you, but it may just be because your wetsuit needs to be soaked after sitting around for a long time.


No, mate. Had I done that 2 weeks ago I would have followed the guy in front of me out to sea. There have been quite a few times that my sighting has enabled me to put ~30 seconds into guys who were ahead of me during the swim.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Honest question, has ANYBODY successfully sighted less than once every 10 stroke cycles as Dev says (one sight over 20 arm pulls) the entire race and had a decent OWS swim?

I typically hear of sighting once per 3-6 stroke cycles, which is where I land, unless there's a significant current, for which I sometimes have to sight every cycle just to stay straight.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I noted in my earlier comment that I barely sighted forward during the last 2000m of a 4000m race. That’s bc I was able to position myself to the left of a really fast swimmer. I was able to see her on every breath bc I breathe much more naturally to the right. I pretty much looked her in the eye or saw her feet on every breath.

In IM Louisville, the swim starts in a narrow channel then turns to go downstream with Louisville on the left and Indiana on the right. Those features make it really easy to sight the banks that are parallel to the course.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [140triguy] [ In reply to ]
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140triguy wrote:
I noted in my earlier comment that I barely sighted forward during the last 2000m of a 4000m race. That’s bc I was able to position myself to the left of a really fast swimmer. I was able to see her on every breath bc I breathe much more naturally to the right. I pretty much looked her in the eye or saw her feet on every breath.

In IM Louisville, the swim starts in a narrow channel then turns to go downstream with Louisville on the left and Indiana on the right. Those features make it really easy to sight the banks that are parallel to the course.

Yes, that doesn't really count for my question - you're in effect swimming on a sight line as you noted (her).

I'm asking on the lines of what Dev saying - having NO landmarks or fellow swimmers to reliably sight off of during breathing, and just relying on Pythagoras and straight swimming like Dev's theoretical example.
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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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At Muncie 70.3 in 2018, I sighted normally to the first and second buoys, but after the 2nd turn to the finish it’s directly into the sun. You can’t see shit if you sight anyway, so I only sighted enough to make sure I was heading into the sun, then pick up landmarks when I got closer to shore. I couldn’t tell you exactly how much I was sighting, but it was probably 30 seconds or more between sights.

17th OA and 2nd AG out of the water that day.

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Re: For those that don't OWS before race - how much do you train in wetsuit and practice sighting [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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There is no way that I could do an OWS without sighting. If it was in a flat lake with no current / chop / swell and you know the person in front / next to you is reliable .. then yeah I’d follow that person. But there are plenty of ppl who don’t stay on course or do a bit extra (myself included) so if the conditions are rough I’ll sight often but if the conditions are very calm and nice I’ll sight less, probably every 20+ strokes. I’ve followed the wrong person before so I don’t do this anymore. I’m not a fast swimmer but I’m not the slowest either.

Sorry I don’t have an answer re wetsuit as I don’t wear one and where I live - there are lots of OWS fun to be had.
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