next week i’ll be in cabo san lucas, mexico for spring break. i’ll be staying at a hotel on the beach, and i’d like to get in a few good open water swims.
don’t worry about safety, my friends have agreed to kayak alongside me. and don’t worry about hangovers, i can’t drink.
my question is this:
what do you recommend i do during my swims? just out and backs? intervals? drills?
thanks…
oooh - sounds nice. i’ll be rowing till i die in tennessee. but i don’t have anything helpful for you.
honestly, nobody has any advice for me? nothing at all?
I’ll help, but just because of that Radiohead quote 
Just some assorted tasks, you then can set them together to form whole training sessions:
Warmups:
10-20min easy swimming, always practicing navigation
Drills:
2-4x4min alternating 10 strokes head above water+20 LONG strokes
2-4x3min alternating (20 strokes LeftArm+20strokes RightArm+40strokes CU)
2-4x3min alternating (10 strokes with sighting every breath + 10 LONG strokes)
Main tasks:
With a buoy set 150-200m from the shore, do 2-6 circuits of swimming hard to the buoy and easy on the comeback. Setup a marker on the shore and run up to this. Fun but HARD!
10-30min with 20 strokes FAST!+ 20-40 strokes easy
4-8x6min race pace with 1min total rest
(On every task you should practice navigation
Cooldowns:
5-10mins easy swimming
Hope this helps!
Paulo
“yeah no one likes a smart ass but we all like stars” Radiohead
Practice sighting so that you swim in a straight line. Maybe from swim bouy to swim bouy, 200 or 300 yds at a time. Pick a spot on shore to aim at and see how many strokes you can take between sightings.
Practice running into the water to simulate a start. This way you will know how deep of water to run into and then start swimming.
Here is a demo from our buddies at cliff bars.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~tri/23569-O.mpeg
Practice getting out of water to find out how close to the shore you need to be to run efficiently. I’m short and need to swim pretty close to shore. See what is faster.
My 2 cents
jaretj
(I’m desperately trying to be the man my dog thinks I am.)
The only thing I can really think of needed for most open water tri swims is to comfortably breathe on both sides, to be able to skip breathing for a stroke or two if necessary and to learn to site well enough and with the right frequency. You can practice the breathing in the pool, but the siting practice is really much easier in open water. I like to site simply by lifting my head a little up when I breathe rather than just rolling to the side. I think I take a look every 3 breathes.
I wasn’t so worried about hangovers…I was thinking more along the lines of a bunch of fratboys mocking you for wearing a banana hamock 
.
hahaha, that was my concern too. this is my plan:
a) wear my “boardshorts” - because regular trunks are too revealing, according to pop culture - over the skintight speedos, at least until i’m in the water and can have my accompanying kayaker hold them for me
b) i actually don’t own a banana hammock anymore. ever since i stopped swimming on a team, i’ve been buying only jammers. they just feel right-er. so if i do get caught in my lycra, at least it will leave something to the imagination.