Not sure how much difference it'll make but the forecast is a lot less windy tomorrow

What time of day did you swim?

What are you scared of out there? Just curious, as a 25-26 Oly swim is plenty solid - if you find it challenging, there will be tons of DNFs in comparison given how poorly IM swimmers are swim-ready compared to you.

Relax and get into a rythm with the chop. You can’t overpower it. When you feel a wave coming try to pop your head up right at the top (but make sure you do it “alligator eyes” style). After four or five waves you’ll get the rythm and sight right at the top of the crest which will make sighting much more effective.

There’s lots of other little things you can do but not worth mentioning the day before a race. Good luck tomorrow, bummed I’m not racing this year :(

My waves goes off at 9:19.

I’m not so much scared of it as I am wondering if I’m going to have a 40 minute swim split and lose tons of time to people who are used to swimming in the ocean or big surf. I just couldn’t seem to take more than a couple of stokes before I pretty much came to a stop from the waves catching my arm as I recovered or throwing me back. I know there ate things you should do differently with your stroke but I wasn’t able to fupigure them out in the short time of trial and error I was trying.

I've swim in surf with decent-size waves for races before as a not-good swimmer.

Trust me - if you find it hard, the bulk of folks around you will find it near-impossible, so don't worry about it. Weaker triathlon swimmers don't go any faster when dealing with waves, even if they practice it and are experienced at it, and they won't outswim a 25 min Oly guy even if the waves and chop are annoying the heck out of you.

You’ll lose time to experienced open water swimmers, sure, but the vast majority of the field will struggle just like you. If the surf is up try to relax as much as you can. Better to have a 40 minute swim and come out of the water somewhat functional than have a 38 minute swim but be completely fried.

In Tuscaloosa one year they had to open the damn upstream so we had a current for almost all of the swim... that was fun. Based on that you’ll be fine. If you can swim around 25 you have the endurance to last in the swim it may just take a lot longer.

I just visited the swim course. It's flat relatively) and the wind died down. It was like this at 7:30 this morning. I suspect it will be fine in the morning. Now, if the temperature could drop one degree...

Skid,

1. Calm yourself. Tomorrow morning the body of water could be complete glass and you'll slip through with ease
2. If you do get a chance to swim in bumpy water in the future....here are a couple of tips

• Lift your recovery higher - in the pool you can often get away with fingers just mm above water's surface, in rough water lift your arm higher (doesn't necessarily have to be a straight arm, windmill) so it'll clear the chop.
• Turn and look back toward your shoulder every so slightly for breath. If you have the ability to breathe to either side then turn your face to the down-wind side for breath. If you can't bilateral, and you have to look into the wind for air then look back towards your shoulder a touch to seek out a tiny bastion of flat water tucked behind your head as it moves forward through the water.
• Rope-a-dope: do NOT try and fight the water, the chop, the movement that is put upon you. Move with it rather than resisting.
• If you have the fitness and ability - increase your arm turnover slightly and let go of any sort of long glide type of swim. Keep the quality of your timing but let your arms cycle through the stroke a hair faster. If you don't have that ability then swim your swim.
• Stay positive mentally with a couple of things: 1) It's this rough for every body, they are experiencing what you are experiencing. 2) When the RD created this course he started the idea of it. When the RD's staff laid out the plans they enhanced that notion. When the map of the swim was put on the web thousands started to see the flow. All the guards, the assistants, the racers, the family members and friends who are spectating are all aware and imagining that course. All that energy creates a flow, a stream - you are simply placing yourself in that stream and moving with it. 3) if you feel like your on the edge of panic then cut your kick by 75%. Just let the legs come along for the ride and give just a subtle thump to help initiate each stroke.

But again, it'll probably be super smooth and lovely tomorrow.

Ian

My favorite IM swim was into 2-3 foot swells. Everyone sat up often and just waited for the waves to pass... then we just swam again

Sure your time will suffer, but everyone’s will

You’ll be awesome. Go rock it and have a blast

Lake Erie can have some serious chop. If it’s rough enough that a 25min 1500 OWS is having problems, they will probably cancel the swim for risk of someone drowning.

If things are choppy, but not enough to cancel the swim, just relax and roll with it. As mentioned, everyone’s times will suffer.

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Wetsuit legal and no waves. I'm so sad

I'm so happy :-).

Are they allowing noodles?

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

While the water was wetsuit legal, however measured, water hardly flat for those in the later waves. 2-3 ft rollers by my not experienced opinion, making it hard to sight when making the turns to the next leg of the swim. All in all a blast nevertheless.

Skid,

Some of us are eager to hear.... How'd your swim go, details please.

Ian

---

Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan

Can I chime in?
Wow , that was an intense race.
I've done 7 alcatraz races and I would put the conditions today (other than the cold water) up with any of those.

People were swimming thier half ironman times. The absolute fastest swim on the day was a 22:40.
It looked calm from a far, but as we got in, it was just crazy. That said, (I actually had a lot of fun on the swim :) )

Yeah, it was a legit swim today. The fast water was gone by 7:45 or so

Wow 22:40 with this field... that's eye opening... I've never done Alcatraz but being local I've swam lots of races in Lake Erie and have seen it worse a few times. In all those times the swim was altered though either shortened or moved. Rev3 Cedar Point seems like they almost always had to move the swim..

I'm curious if they'll have a different plan next year.. Perhaps a shallower course more parallel to the beach.
,
My time was 8 min off my goal, I was in a later waive...

I was just before 9am and my parents said they felt it was the height of the chop then. It actually calmed down a little for the last couple waves, obviously I didn’t see but that’s what they said. I was nearly 8.5min off my regular swim. While the conditions and extra distance did play a factor, I believe I also just had a bad swim. I nearly doubled my age group place in the swim this year and I’m in much better shape than last year. I doubled my overall swim place too but some of that is due to the other AGs not having the chop nearly as bad as my wave had.

Sad to say there was one death. 75 year old Jim Hix was found unconscious in the water.

https://fox8.com/...during-usa-triathlon

 Actually the water was practically glass when they started at 7:10. But the first guy in the first wave which was male 30-34 came out in almost 25 minutes, so I’m pretty sure it had to be way long. By the time I started in the second to last wave at 9:30 there was a lot of chop, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as yesterday I didn’t think. I came out in about 33 minutes, about 7 minutes more than I would expect for a standard swim. That was only 68th in 50-54, but I managed to bike and run my way to 9th and snuck onto the podium, so I was very happy with that. But the extra long swim definitely cost me - 5th place was only 27 seconds ahead of me.

By the way - thanks for your tips and thoughtful post last night.

Well done! Congratulations on a top 10 in a tough AG

Ian

---

Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan