If you were swimming behind me then as soon as you touched my feet I would make you lead but then a 2:25 is the fastest I’ve ever swam a 200 and that was from the blocks.
The best part of that was that you explained that you needed a pull, and that he was willing. I saw the opposite MANY times in my years of swimming and coaching: someone just drafting the whole way, no reason other than to be lazy. That led to quite a few verbal (and some physical) confrontations. The worst was when the drafter would have a bunch of energy left at the end of a set, and either brag about it or have the extra juice left to pass the lane leader at the end.
It’s cheating when there isn’t anything at stake, other than not being exhausted, at practice. It’s cheating the drafter, who is just being lazy, and, like cycling, the leader who is doing all the pulling, will feel like she/he did all the work.
It’s PART OF THE GAME when it comes to competition, either pool swims or OW. In pool swimming, drafting occurs when the drafter swims nexts to the lane rope and surfs the leader. I actually did that several times, and I even shook a guy loose in a really important 1000y race. I was at his hips in the next lane for about 250y, and he actually got out of the pool and quit the race. Ahead of time, I didn’t actually think I was going to beat him, so I just wanted to get any advantage possible. After he quit, he was never the same swimmer again. He stood on principle, but he got beat, fair and square.
Also, Matt Biondi was drafted in the 200 free final in 1988 and was beaten. Again, within the rules.
The key is that someone has to work hard in practice and not draft, so that when the stakes get high, and each swimmer has his own lane or the fast swimmers bolt ahead in an OW race, the swimmer has the juice to last in the race.
Depends:
How crowded was the pool?
Would you have made the set without drafting?
Did the person leading off approve of your drafting?
Technically, you can’t really “cheat” in training as there are no official rules. Generally, you should spread out and go 5 or 10 seconds behind if there is space. If going 3 seconds back keeps you engaged and faster than without (i.e. making intervals touch and go that you would have otherwise missed), then go for it.
Meh it doesn’t bother me one way or the other if someone drafts off me in practice or racing. Swimming is such a simple joy to me that what other folks are doing has zero influence on my day. Riding a bike is the same way with wheel suckers, but I do need to know they are there as in the occasional moron who sneaks up behind me on the Pinellas Trail w/o announcing themselves…that drives me crazy. I had my RD taken out years ago by an unannounced drafter when I stopped to take off my vest and he crashed into my right rear.
I like the idea of having a faster swimmer in front of me, but far enough in front where the draft is minimalized like maybe 5 seconds or so. It’s a rabbit to chase. I do this with a buddy that swims Masters and it absolutely throttles me to death, but it gets me faster. Whenever I catch him on a non Masters day I like to jump in and kill myself trying to keep up!
IMO- There’s no such thing as cheating during practice. There are no rules to break. It’s just practice. There may be other adjectives for blatant drafters in the pool but cheaters is not one of them.
Honestly I don’t feel like I cheated (well, anyone but myself)
I would have never made the set otherwise and I needed a mental boost of hitting some numbers I haven’t seen in a long time.
I only contacted his foot once and that was early on in the set, I have a stronger flip turn than him and I got him off a turn.
The last 200 he picked it up some more and dropped me like a bad habit he went 2:22 and left me to do my own work on the last 100 and came in on 2:29. Spent!
The pool was over flowing with folks. With the highschool team taking up half the pool everyone else was crammed into 3 lanes. I hit hands several times with neighboring swimmers. We had to circle swim either way
I’m still writing today’s work out with out an *
Maybe this snow will stick today and I can go for a snowy run after work.
I have drafted substantially faster swimmers during training, with permission. I was still working hard (it was hard work to stay on his toes), but it gave me motivation to stay at full throttle to hang in the draft, and practice latching on to someone’s toes and staying there for races. The only way I’d say you’re cheating yourself is if you tell yourself that’s your legitimate pace, or if you use drafting to not work hard during your workout.
Some of you need to take a chill pill here. If you grew up a swimmer, then you drafted most of your life. Usually there are 4 to 8 folks in a lane, fastest goes 1st, and each lines up in the que according to abilities, or how fast you plan to swim that particular set. If someone wants to swim right on my feet the entire time, it is no big deal, even if they are faster. It only becomes a problem if they start to bump into me, or try some hero sprint at the end. If they are happy swimming right there, then what do i care? And this notion that they are being lazy is absurd. My hardest sets ever where leaving one second on someones feet. Did Wolfgang Deitrich’s birthday set of 32x100SCM on a 1;10 send off pulling, and made when i was in my late 30’s. It is just as absurd to say that the lead cyclist is doing all the work and the rest are being pulled. I mean maybe, but ofter people hanging onto a draft are barley clutching to those bubbles. Ask Jordan how easy it was in hawaii this year sitting behind, i’m sure he would not describe it as a “lazy swim”.
People need to get over themselves sometimes, if someone puts on fins to swim behind me, what do i care? If my pace is their hang on pace, good for them. It does not affect what i’m doing(as long as they stay in their place), and if someone in the lane steps up, then all the better. It happens every day in every pool where swim teams workout, all without incident or animosity towards each other. This is one place where triathletes would do well to emulate real swimmers…
Look at this way… next race you do, there is probably going to be someone swimming faster than you and if you’re smart, you’ll line up right on their feet and swim that same 5-7 seconds /100 faster than if you didn’t. This morning you practiced doing that so no, you were not cheating.
Some of you need to take a chill pill here. If you grew up a swimmer, then you drafted most of your life. Usually there are 4 to 8 folks in a lane, fastest goes 1st, and each lines up in the que according to abilities, or how fast you plan to swim that particular set. If someone wants to swim right on my feet the entire time, it is no big deal, even if they are faster. It only becomes a problem if they start to bump into me, or try some hero sprint at the end. If they are happy swimming right there, then what do i care? And this notion that they are being lazy is absurd. My hardest sets ever where leaving one second on someones feet. Did Wolfgang Deitrich’s birthday set of 32x100SCM on a 1;10 send off pulling
I agree 100%. In a LCM pool with with only a handful of swimmers, you leave 10 seconds apart. But in a SC pool any more than 3 people in the lane and you have to go 5 apart. Drafting is inevitable.
So the real question, Monty: who was pulling you?
In college, we did it this way: Each person in the lane leads one and then goes to the back of the line. I swam in the “animal” lane and we would do like 10x 200’s on 2:15. The thing is, it was actually 2:10 because you lose 5 seconds by moving up the pace line each time. Going 5th in a lane where the leader is doing 1:00/100 feels like you aren’t trying. It was pretty awesome! Doing stuff like that is what I miss the most now that I swim by myself 90% of the time.
As long as you aren’t hitting the feet of the person in front or you or refusing to lead the lane when asked/it’s your turn for that, no big deal of riding someone else’s slipstream.
So the real question, Monty: who was pulling you? //
Like i said, it was Wolfgang’s birthday set, so he led the lane. 2nd in line was Rob Mackle and 3rd was Simon Lessing, then me. Wolfgang did it as a pull set and he held 1;01’s & 1;02’s. Rob swam it taking the full 5 seconds send off, and Simon only made about 18 of them, so i hand to do one on the 1;05 to catch up. I would leave 1 to 2 seconds behind Rob and suck wheel for all i was worth. It was by far the hardest swim i ever did as a master swimmer who swam 3 or 4 times a week of under 4k. And it was SCM at the carlsbad noon masters swim. For about 10 years that was the go to place for top pro triathletes and masters swimmers. Like you i swim almost everything alone now, i really miss those days…
Its not cheating like drafting in a no-draft triathlon like an IM competition. Its only cheating yourself if you believe you are better than you really are and present yourself as such.
One of my most memorable swim training events was at a local lake a couple of years ago when I was first beginning to really enjoy swimming. I started alone but when a pair of other swimmers went by, I decided to try drafting for a while as I had not done much of that in earlier training.
After 1,000 m the lead swimmers beached and I followed to thank them for the draft and had a pleasant discovery: they were Olympic triathletes from Cleremont, FL! I chatted with them for a while, and in the conversation they told me how fast they had been going, and how it related to Olympic events. It was humbling, but also quite pleasant to know that I had been able to stay in their wake at such a speed.
The confidence I gained in that training session carried me through a lot of tough spells. If that is cheating, then I am all for cheating!
Simply training for the swim is cheating - That being said, I’d strongly suggest you focus completely on swimming until Mother’s Day and forget about biking and running.
Who cares if you’re drafting or not? As long as you’re not interrupting the person you’re drafting off of and you’re still getting the type of workout you want, then it doesn’t really matter.
Look at this way… next race you do, there is probably going to be someone swimming faster than you and if you’re smart, you’ll line up right on their feet and swim that same 5-7 seconds /100 faster than if you didn’t. This morning you practiced doing that so no, you were not cheating.
If you tried something like this at a USMS meet it would be cheating (of course you wouldn’t be allowed in the same lane). However in a open water swim (i.e. tri swims), its completely acceptable. Therefore drafting in the pool is nothing worse then practicing for swimming in a real world environment and therefore commendable. Tim
