Yesterday was my first triathlon. (sprint distance). I’m a strong swimmer (used to swim competitively), strong runner but a new biker. I thought I would do well in the swim even though I haven’t practiced swimming in cold/open water. I rented a wetsuit and thought I would be fine.
10 meters into the swim I realized that I cant breathe in deeply enough to swim properly. I had to swim breast stroke or back stroke but couldn’t put my face in the water without losing my breath. At the end of the swim I was completely winded and was so dizzy that had to sit down after taking off my wetsuit.
I’m still unsure if it was because the wetsuit was too tight or if I naturally have a bad reaction in cold water.
Any experience with this?
Your posts are appreciated. I’m still hoping to be part of the sport but yesterday’s swim (not to mention all the problems I had on the bike ride) really put a damper on my enthusiasm.
Normal for me in cold water even with a wetsuit. It sucks… A LOT, you just have to relax and ride it out. Just part of a cold water swim IMO I suppose if you train in cold water regularly, you might acclimate to it. The key is just relaxing. I have to even wim on or 2 strokes of breaststroke or roll on my back ot catch my breath. I’ve still managed a solid swim split in each case regardless. I suprisingly didn’t cost me much time, because 3 or 4 short pauses, is still pretty irrelevant in a even 7-9 minute swim.
I have no issues when the water is above about maybe 70F.
I have a sleeveless full length wetsuit. Its’ a little small, but not restrictive.
Again, the key is too relax and fight your natural tendnecy to panic when you can’t breath normally. I have a similar problem in warm water. My YMCA keeps the pool at a rediculous 83-85F for the old f****** and I feel like I’m overheating soemtimes… I probably am.
In the future: Nothing new on race day (such as a wetsuit you’ve never worn before, and racing without any recent OWS experience), and get a good warm-up swim prior to the gun.
The article has some other excellent food-for-thought… Hang in there, and good luck!
Cheers, Chris
ETA: by posting that link, I didn’t mean to imply you were panicking out there, but since anyone’s mental state can snowball downhill in a hurry when experiencing an issue in open water (even just fighting an ill-fitting wetsuit), I hope you can still find some wisdom in that article… At any rate, getting more OWS practice time prior to your next race will definitely help. Again, hang in there!
Warm up before swimming, go for a light 5 or 10 minute jog.
Get in some practice swimming before the start.
Submerge your face before the start. I lay face down in the water.
I start out slow and then pick up my pace when the race starts.
I have an entry level wetsuit which I find too constrictive around the chest. I have a more expensive one on order which is only 3mm and better material on top with a panel which means when I want a full breath (more than normal) when swimming I can get it.
Practice immersing your face (only) in a basin of cold water and hold breath for approx 30 sec. A lot of physiological adjustments take place that will habituate you to actually getting in cold water. Kinda fun to monitor your HR take a dive.
Hyperventilating during your first tri is not uncommon. Happened to me as well and resulted in the most uncomfortable 750m of my life. Follow the advice advice here and get more time in OW.
Never happened again with me regardless of the water temp.
I’ve had this issue in almost every triathlon, but finally figured it out at IMCDA. After about 2-300 meters, if I was bumped, jostled, whatever, my mind freaked out and I was short of breath, and ended up treading water for about 30 seconds every 1-200 meters after. It happened again and IMCDA, and for some reason, I started counting my strokes when I started back up. Never had another issue - did a sprint tri last weekend, started counting from the get, and never had the issue pop up - now part of my plan in the water.
Thank you all! Just knowing that this is more common makes me feel better. I’m going to practice cold OWS before my next attempt and definitely ease into the swim. I like the idea of immersing my face in cold water too.
On top of all this I was told that Lake Ontario has one of the lowest temperatures that triathletes commonly swim in. Yesterday was 55 degrees
I had the same experience, and my impression is that it’s due to not acclimating to the cold water right before the swim. Now I spend ten or fifteen minutes before every OWS submerging myself and getting used to the temperature, especially my head. It fixed the situation for me.
Most likely the problem is not that you are not getting enough air in, but that you are not getting enough out. Similar to the problem asthmatics (such as myself) have… you keep gasping and sucking more air in, so you are actually getting too much oxygen and dropping your carbon dioxide levels. Found this article that describes it pretty well. Next time you start feeling panic and that light-headed not enough air feeling; try concentrating on nice long breaths out and calming yourself as much as possible.
Its possible that you are correct, but I think it was the cold that did me in. I didn’t panic in any way nor did I feel anxiety, I just realized that I couldn’t breathe and kept calm, albeit very frustrated. I think the best solutions for me will be to practice putting my face into cold water, practice OWS (this may have been a secondary issue exacerbating the problem) and warm up in the water prior to the race.
Thank you all again for your support. I hope to try one more race this summer.
I’ve swam in open water maybe 5 times this summer with little issue but I found the water to be extremely cold in spots this weekend at the TTF. Was thinking I may be developing asthma or a lung infection but hearing others had similar issues makes me think the cold temperature had something to do with it.
Definitely submerge before the start. When I first get in I’ll do alot of head-bobs, breathing deeply out in the cold water. After several of those I’ll lie face down. For some reason that gets alot of the nervous shock out of my system. Then I’ll do a really easy warmup (including breaststroke).
At the end of your daily shower dial the water slightly toward cold. Each day increase it a little, in a month you’ll withstand full cold. My wife grew up at the shore and taught me this. It is my annual April riyual and prepares me for summer ocean swimming w/o a wetsuit.
The physiological reaction to cold water is to restrict blood flow to extremities and cause muscle contraction (if humans don’t fight the impulse, cold will cause you to eventually go fetal), if you think about this in swimmers terms, it means your heart is simultaneously pumping less blood to your working muscles (which your body responds to as if you were working incredibly hard, thus breathing harder) and restricts your lungs ability to breathe out fully.
Get in the water about 10 minutes before race start, get your head in, and start to slowly acclimatize before race start. Once you’ve been in about 5 minutes and are starting to get full exhalation, do some fast 20m bursts to get the muscles warmed up.
I admit that I haven’t read all the posts on this thread yet, as I’m a little tired right now. But, I wanted to quickly assure you that this issue is a manageable one.
No doubt that the folks on this site will give you good advice on this subject. What you experienced is nothing rare or unusual. But, it is something that you will need to work at to get thru.
I’m a decent swimmer, but went through the same issues as you are currently experiencing when I started doing tri’s. I finally focused on three things that helped me:
Lots of open water swimming in my wetsuit. I joined an open water swim group that meets every Sunday morning.
Spending some time prior to my swim submerging myself and getting comfortable in the water in my wetsuit.
When swimming, I focused on my breathing. Most importantly, my exhaling. Exhaling is key to a good breathing rhythm.
Along with all the other posts, I hope this information help. I will reread this thread in the morning for everyone’s comments.
I had the exact same reaction. When I put my face in the cold water I couldn’t relax and properly exhale. Luckily I learned this at an ows while training. What I do now is prior to a swim I dunk my head in the water and exhale, over and over. Temps over 70deg and iam fine.
I have found that I need to get in the water and swim for 5 or 10 minutes before the race otherwise I will have a bit of a “panic” at the start of the swim and have trouble breathing. Get to the race early, get set up in transition and then go swim. When I do this I never have an issue, when I don’t I do.