I had my first tri of the season this morning. I am in less than perfect shape coming off my marathon a month ago, but I still expected a pretty good result given the improvements I have made on the bike this winter/spring.
The thing that really bothered me was I had a frickin panic attack during the swim. I couldn’t catch my breath, wouldn’t put my face in the water, and I actually thought about calling a kayak to hold on to. This happens to me about every other race. I just can’t figure it out. I swam when I was younger so swimming is natural to me, and I have been under 21min this year in a 1500m in the pool, so I am really frustrated, since that seems like I should be capable of a good swim. I just cannot translate it to open water.
I am going to try my next open water swim practice *without *my wetsuit to see if this helps. Anyone have any other ideas?
Let me know if you come up with anything, I get the same thing from time to time, what I noticed with myself is that it happens when I wear something constrictive, such as a tight HRM strap or a tight 1 piece tri suit, in my race today my HRM strap was bothering me so i took it off and felt instant relief, just my 2 cents
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Do you have a Tri specific masters program? If so recommend the 3 wide to the lane alternating whose in the middle. It’s a great set to help with those race start jitters.
Are you starting at the BOP? If you are it might help to hang back just a little and ease into it rather than sprinting through the washing machine and pegging your hr? Not sure if you are doing that?
Another technique might be to do some visualization before you line up at the starting line. I start swimming mentally about 15 minutes before the race starts. Then when the gun goes off I am already ensconced in the swimming rhythm mentally and visualize my arms as unstoppable machines. Might sound a bit corny but it works for me…
And far be it from me to give you swim advice, but here is what I did today.
I have discovered the joys of swimming inside the buoys, I lined up on the inside, and in the back of the pack. I swam on the inside of the sighting buoys, and the only traffic I experienced was at the turn buoys. I still was slow, but I swam a relatively straight line. Only a few bikes were left when I arrived at T1, but that is my own fault for not getting in any swim practice this winter.
This probably doesn’t help you, but maybe someone else will benefit.
i used to have panic attacks when i first started open water; found the best thing for me was to focus on my breathing, calm it down by consciously focusing on slowing it down. if that didn’t do the trick, i would switch to sidestroke or even back stroke briefly to get my breathing back on track, then i felt okay.
also - do you warm up in the water - like actually swim for 5-10 minutes? first part of a swim, my hr is too high if i don’t warm up by swimming and getting a feel for the water temp (particularly in cold water).
Eric, if you dig up the archives from about a week ago somebody posted this same question and there were many good responses. It was something about a practice swim in a quarry pond.
As a fellow panicker, you might try going out and warming up in the water, swimming, instead of just BANG! GO LIKE HELL. You would not run or bike a sprint without a warm-up–same with the swim. My whole swim is a controlled panic.
Deer Creek, right? If I was able to plan ahead by more than a day, I’d of tried to plan to say hello today. Sure got HOT didn’t it? I wasn’t ready for that, it’s been so cool all year in Cleveland.
By the way, thanks for you tip about the Cinci aquarium, we did stop in on our way home from Mammouth cave in April.
I was very pleased with my swim and ride today, but sure need help with my run. And were’d all those 45 to 49 year olds come from. Last year there were only 5 in the sprint, at least 15 this year, and at 6 of em passed me in the first mile of the run.
To your question, just spend more time in the one of those many lakes around Columbus, if you don’t allready.