Hey guys, I am doing my first Tri in mid May in New Jersey. Unfortunately the beaches here in NY do not open until after Memorial Day weekend so I don’t think I will be able to practice any open water swimming before my race. While this is certainly not ideal preparation I was wondering what some of you think about going straight in to their first Tri without having ever swam in the open water. I am definitely going to swim in a pool with my wetsuit at lest once or twice to get a feel for this. Anyway I appreciate and insight you may have. For the record the distance will be an Olympic and the swim will be in a lake.
Congrats on taking the plunge for your first Tri. I hope it’s a great experience for you.
I think a lot of this comes down to how strong/confident of a swimmer you are, and how big the race you’re doing is. If you’re a strong swimmer or it’s a small local race, you’ll be fine. If you’re less confident / new to swimming and/or it’s a big race, familiarity becomes more important.
I think the choas of the start is what most people find most intimidating. There is no substitute but experience here. If you’re slower, line up at the back and ease into it or take a wider line to find some open water.
The darkness/cloudiness of many open bodies of water is a close second.
Not all open water is created equally. Some is pitch dark and so murky you’re lucky if you can see your elbow. Some quite clear. Some is choppy and some calm. Do you know anyone who has swam where you’ll be swimming? Ask them about conditions and if you’re going to try to get in open water try to simulate race conditions.
Honestly, unless you’re very intimated by open water, if you can squeeze in just 1-2 swims ideally where the race is, you’ll be fine. As you get closer to your race practice sighting in the pool.
Find a buddy to swim with you in the pool. Put your wetsuit on then swim a few laps. Have your buddy pretend/try to swim over/on and push you a bit and get comfortable with other people swimming close to you.
My wife did this. She panicked when she hit the water because she wasn’t expecting it to be so warm and dark. Once she settled down she very cautiously got through it but it wasn’t what she envisioned. Make sure you know your environment, mentally prepare for it and you will be fine.
My first race was a half ironman 3 years ago. I had never swum open water until that race. I was kind of scared at the start, but then when I jumped in, I was OK. Don’t sweat it… if you cannot swim open water, that is not a deal breaker. You will be a little more worried, but all that will go away when you just start swimming.
You can always start out wide and/or near the back to avoid the scrum. But just mentally prepare yourself for getting bumped and possibly swam over. Also, prepare not to be able to see much in the water. Make sure to practice your sighting in the pool. There’s no black line to follow but many people get uncomfortable when they can’t see much in the water.
You can practice spotting in the pool. Put up an object (like a water bottle, pull buoy, hot chick) at the end of your lane. Take 4 strokes and look up. Try to time it with your breath and get that motion as efficient as possible. Bonus points if you do that practice in the lane next to the water aerobics class.
I did this and ended up having a panic attack because of the cold water. My race was a time trial start so I didn’t even have the mass start issues. My suggestion is to make sure you get into the water BEFORE the race. Get some water in your suit, get your face used to the cold water, do a bit of swimming if possible, then you will be fine.
Pacing is important. If you start too fast and lose breath control it is easy to panic. Use your first race as experience. Stay out of the scrum and let faster swimmers go ahead. Congrats on your first race. You’ll do great!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate the insight and advice. I have been working with a swim coach to get my technique up to scratch so hopefully come race time I will be confident. And I might try and visit the race site the day before to practice some swimming in the lake also.
Def practice as many open water skills in the pool as possible. Like sighting. And swimming with other people. Maybe swim a little in the dark if you have the option of turning off the lights. It might help with some anxiety of swimming in water where you can’t see much. Not an exact recreation of open water but it might help. (Don’t spend too much time doing tho.)
But if you can do any swimming at the site the days before you should do so. I don’t want to increase your anxiety unnecessarily but a friend who swims a lot in the pool did her 1st tri and she panicked during the practice swim the day before. Then she calmed down and managed to finish the swim. The next day she was totally fine.
It’s totally doable, but if you are not a ex-competitive swimmer, expect it to be very challenging and keep the expectations low-reasonable.
I found it helps a ton if you put in a good amount of sighting practice into your pool swims for at least for the few weeks before the race. Like every swim, if you can manage it. You won’t be able to go as hard on the intervals, but your added ease and neck strength and timing with the sighting will more than compensate for any fitness edge lost on race day compared to if you are literally doing a Oly swim with full sighting the whole way for the first time on race day. Practice sighting every 3-5 strokes; you’ll be surprised how often you will need to sight even on dead-straight courses with no current.
You should also definitely bring your wetsuit to the pool a few times and do a few full workouts with them. You just need to be aware of any problems and fit issues as well as any weird arm/body fatigue issues (compression from the suit affecting breathing being a big one) that you may need a few sessions to acclimate to.
It’s totally doable, but if you are not a ex-competitive swimmer, expect it to be very challenging and keep the expectations low-reasonable.
I found it helps a ton if you put in a good amount of sighting practice into your pool swims for at least for the few weeks before the race. Like every swim, if you can manage it. You won’t be able to go as hard on the intervals, but your added ease and neck strength and timing with the sighting will more than compensate for any fitness edge lost on race day compared to if you are literally doing a Oly swim with full sighting the whole way for the first time on race day. Practice sighting every 3-5 strokes; you’ll be surprised how often you will need to sight even on dead-straight courses with no current.
You should also definitely bring your wetsuit to the pool a few times and do a few full workouts with them. You just need to be aware of any problems and fit issues as well as any weird arm/body fatigue issues (compression from the suit affecting breathing being a big one) that you may need a few sessions to acclimate to.
Thank you, really appreciate the advice. I will start the sighting practice immediately and definitely wear the wetsuit to the pool for a few swims. I have never swam in it yet so I really don’t know how it is gonna feel.
I would definitely try to find some open water to swim in before the race. It’s so different than a pool swim. My tri career almost ended before it really got started. First race probably 10 strokes in had to flip on back for 10 minutes and chill out due to panic attack. Water was colder and rougher than I was used to and I had done two practices in the reservoir near me.
My first triathlon was an OWS and that was also my first OWS. It was a disaster. Here’s where I went wrong.
Not enough tri-slide or body glide around my neck on my wetsuit. 20 min into the swim my neck was rubbed raw. By end of it I was bleeding pretty bad from literally having a long strip of skin rubbed away.
I was also not ready for how little you can see in the water. I was so used to the black line in the pool I wasn’t prepared for staring into solid brown/greenish water.
The chop can also jack with your stroke and breathing. This was also tough and I even got a little nauseous. Lots of water ingested as I had no idea how to really swim with the chop and waves splashing onto me.
It absolutely can be done, but it’ll probably be an experience so be prepared for the worst, but expect the best.
In some ways having a bad practice swim is going to be worse than no practice.
Assuming your wetsuit is the right size (not too big) , then you’ll swim very similar to a pool, just be slightly more bouyant, that you’ll notice most in your legs and not needing to kick as much.
The skill differences are swimming straight and navigating, neither of those you’ll get in a pool. But come raceday then you’'ll have plenty of people around you so you aren’t going to get too lost, and if you’re that far out from the main body you’ll have one of the kayaks slapping you and pointing you back on course.
So then it’s down to the way you react. OW courses differ from crystal clear water that is same temp as a pool, to cold dark and murky water that encourages you to swim hard to get out ASAP. But it’s all just water and critically water that is of a quality and temperature that’s perfectly safe to swim in, or else the race wouldn’t be allowed to happen. See if you can find the water temp (check last years race reports). If it’s around 16 degrees celcius or equivalent, then consider ether a neoprene swim hat, or a second swim cap to reduce the heat loss which can lead to you getting an ‘Ãce cream’ headache.
Key thing is to get into the water early, brave the feeling of the water htting your lower spine as it comes in through the zip, and then just swim for 2 mins to warm up - trust me it’s that first 30 seconds that will freak you, after that it’ll be fine.
Oh, one pool drill you could do is to deliberately not breathe on your '3rd’or whatever. So move your head to take a breath, but then take anotehr 3 strokes and then breathe. Do this each length for a set so that you know that if in the race you miss a breath as you turn into a wave or wake, you know that you can just carry on to your next breath without worrying.
You’ve had some good advice on here. Add to the comments about practicing your sighting… in my opinion learning how to sight and in particular how to time it in your breathing pattern is a technique that gets better with practice.
Only thing to add is the importance of being able to breathe to both sides. Bilateral breathing can help with this, or simply alternating your sides in training. If you have chop coming in from one side it is important to be able to adapt and breathe to the other side. Also it can be helpful sometimes to get a look to the side when you breathe if you have other swimmers to keep track of, or maybe if you are following alongside the bank of the lake/river. Anything that builds up your picture of your surroundings is a big help.