Catch breath while swimming?

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi all,

First post in a number of years. I took a small break after a more than a decade of racing everything from local sprints to IMs.

The swim was always my favorite event. Looking at the water at the start of the day, feeling the closest to nature as I’ll be all day, a warm trickle of pee dribbling down my leg.

I’m getting back into the swing of things, and today was my first race this year. It was only a sprint. I’ve swam tens of thousands of yards over the past 15 years, including a hefty sum this year, including open water.

While I forgot my wetsuit, it wasn’t the first time I’ve done such a thing, nor the first time I’ve raced without a wetsuit, and I jumped in anyway.

Within 100 yards though, a nemesis that first presented itself at a late season tri last year reappeared: I got extremely out of breath and couldn’t get it under control. It wasn’t my heart rate. It was my oxygen. Being without a wetsuit to allow for simple rolling and floating, I got very nervous that I wouldn’t catch my breath on my own, and pulled myself out.

My first ever DNF, although to be honest I would’ve DNF’d at last year’s tri had there been a swim cut off (where this breathing thing happened for the first time in a race).

What in the hell is one to do? I swam a mile yesterday in open water like it was going for an evening stroll. I swim about 6k per week. This was a sprint.

If I slowed down my stroke, I couldn’t breath fast enough. If I sped it up to match my breathing rate, then my breathing rate increased due to the increased effort.

Before I cancel future races, I thought I’d at least reach out to the slowtwitch crew.

As always, thanks.

-Chris

2

It really just sounds like a common case of pre race jitters, accompanied by going out too fast, and maybe not enough warm up? Remember what you think is going out slow when the gun goes off, is not really so. People overestimate their abilities at that point more than any other aspect of a race…Dont give up.

3

What is your average pace for your 6k per week, and how does that compare to your take-out pace in the race when you had to DNF? What was your pace for your open water mile swim?

Last, how do you breathe? Do you (i) do a long exhale under water then breathe in deeply and immediately when you turn to your side and your mouth comes out of the water or (ii) hold your breathe (or mostly hold it) then once you come up for air do a quick exhale and inhale one after another above the water?

4

Slow down your stroke rate and breathe every stroke on one side. I find sometimes that high stroke rates in open water cause me to not exhale fully and become short of breath.

5

I swam the mile at 1:38/100 pace.

A continuous swim in the pool is a little slower than that.

I typically breathe on one side each stroke, fully exhale and deep breath with decent rotation.

I find that I need to breathe even more than that, though, so my stroke rate tends to increase just so I can get my breaths. I can shorten my stroke to keep the same relative effort, but eventually that plan runs out of room.

I experienced the same shortness of breath running and biking, too, and had a full lung test done in a lab. Everything is working fine. So much so that the doctor thought I was scamming the system for the lab results.

So…don’t know. Still feeling like maybe duathlons from here on out.

6

Hi all,

First post in a number of years. I took a small break after a more than a decade of racing everything from local sprints to IMs.

The swim was always my favorite event. Looking at the water at the start of the day, feeling the closest to nature as I’ll be all day, a warm trickle of pee dribbling down my leg.

I’m getting back into the swing of things, and today was my first race this year. It was only a sprint. I’ve swam tens of thousands of yards over the past 15 years, including a hefty sum this year, including open water.

While I forgot my wetsuit, it wasn’t the first time I’ve done such a thing, nor the first time I’ve raced without a wetsuit, and I jumped in anyway.

Within 100 yards though, a nemesis that first presented itself at a late season tri last year reappeared: I got extremely out of breath and couldn’t get it under control. It wasn’t my heart rate. It was my oxygen. Being without a wetsuit to allow for simple rolling and floating, I got very nervous that I wouldn’t catch my breath on my own, and pulled myself out.

My first ever DNF, although to be honest I would’ve DNF’d at last year’s tri had there been a swim cut off (where this breathing thing happened for the first time in a race).

What in the hell is one to do? I swam a mile yesterday in open water like it was going for an evening stroll. I swim about 6k per week. This was a sprint.

If I slowed down my stroke, I couldn’t breath fast enough. If I sped it up to match my breathing rate, then my breathing rate increased due to the increased effort.

Before I cancel future races, I thought I’d at least reach out to the slowtwitch crew.

As always, thanks.

-Chris

Chris…

A while back I had a somewhat similar episode…I went out a bit too hard and hyperventilated, which presented as if I couldn’t breathe, or my breathing wasn’t providing enough oxygen. I ended up holding on to a turn buoy until I got myself under control, and then proceeded on with no issues. My suggestion…start out insanely easy, and build into your normal pace. If at any moment you feel like you aren’t getting enough oxygen, roll over and back stroke until you feel ok. Once you start hyperventilating, it’s tough to recover (when it happened to me, I thought I was going to drown/never swim in open water again…I was totally freaked out). Now I do a nice, easy warm up, and tend to start near the back of my group to avoid trying to go too hard at the start. I lose some time in traffic as I overtake other folks, but I haven’t hyperventilated since. Hope this helps.

George

7

Thanks, Monty. While I’d like to think that there were no jitters involved, this being my “I can’t even count how many” tri, forgetting my wetsuit was probably a bigger hit than I giving it, even though I’ve done the same race multiple times without one. It’s an in the water start, and just treading water (rather than floating in neoprene) got the worry loop going.

For now, I’m going to throw yards and open water swims at the problem. I like my hair with a green tint to it, anyway.

8

What to do? Pull over, tread water and swim slowly when you are ready.

9

In the past I’ve been comfortable swimming in really crazy conditions but today I went out too hard in my race, scraped my leg on a barnacle encrusted pole and had a semi panic attack. I blame it on a too long taper, no pre race warmup and some rougher than expected conditions. I just dialed it down for a couple minutes to get my heart rate under control and finished the swim but it did set me back for the bike leg too. Every race is different, don’t over think things too much and you’ll do better.

10

Hi all,

First post in a number of years. I took a small break after a more than a decade of racing everything from local sprints to IMs.

The swim was always my favorite event. Looking at the water at the start of the day, feeling the closest to nature as I’ll be all day, a warm trickle of pee dribbling down my leg.

I’m getting back into the swing of things, and today was my first race this year. It was only a sprint. I’ve swam tens of thousands of yards over the past 15 years, including a hefty sum this year, including open water.

While I forgot my wetsuit, it wasn’t the first time I’ve done such a thing, nor the first time I’ve raced without a wetsuit, and I jumped in anyway.

Within 100 yards though, a nemesis that first presented itself at a late season tri last year reappeared: I got extremely out of breath and couldn’t get it under control. It wasn’t my heart rate. It was my oxygen. Being without a wetsuit to allow for simple rolling and floating, I got very nervous that I wouldn’t catch my breath on my own, and pulled myself out.

My first ever DNF, although to be honest I would’ve DNF’d at last year’s tri had there been a swim cut off (where this breathing thing happened for the first time in a race).

What in the hell is one to do? I swam a mile yesterday in open water like it was going for an evening stroll. I swim about 6k per week. This was a sprint.

If I slowed down my stroke, I couldn’t breath fast enough. If I sped it up to match my breathing rate, then my breathing rate increased due to the increased effort.

Before I cancel future races, I thought I’d at least reach out to the slowtwitch crew.

As always, thanks.

-Chris

Can you tell us about your warm up?

11

Practice going out too hard in the pool during a workout. Do the following 200s, 3 times: Swim about 65 yds way too fast, then back it down until you can swim at a steadier pace for the remainder of the 200. Doing it 3x will help you understand that 1) you can recover while you are swimming, and 2) you can understand what going out too hard really feels like, and that you’ll be ok once you back off. If you’re in a race and experience it, you’ll have a better sense of what it is, and more confidence in how you handle it.

12

Practice going out too hard in the pool during a workout. Do the following 200s, 3 times: Swim about 65 yds way too fast, then back it down until you can swim at a steadier pace for the remainder of the 200. Doing it 3x will help you understand that 1) you can recover while you are swimming, and 2) you can understand what going out too hard really feels like, and that you’ll be ok once you back off. If you’re in a race and experience it, you’ll have a better sense of what it is, and more confidence in how you handle it.

That’s good advice, I think I will follow it too. The warm up becomes so important when you get older so all my training sessions include it. But race day can throw a curve at you so it pays to practice for irregularities. I also think you can become over confidant with what you assume is your easiest part of the race.

13

Hi Chris,

Lot’s of good advice here already.

It sounds to me like cold water reflex (no wetsuit) combined with a bit of panic resulted in shallow breathing that you could not get under control. If you don’t fill your lungs with each breath when exercising you will quickly feel out of oxygen. You tested that there is nothing wrong with your lung capacity and likely you were just utilizing parts of your lung volume with shallow breaths.

If you live in a cold climate you can recreate this feeling by jumping in the ocean or a cold lake. Your body’s reaction to the sudden cold temperature will typically include shallow breathing. Once you are able to relax you can deapen your breath and counter the urge to get out of the water ASAP.

Like others have mentioned, if this happens in a race again, just pull to the side, calm down and slow your breathing. Once your breathing is under control you can get back in the pack and enjoy your race.

Sindre