So, a few of us have noticed a brief HR spike after the swim, right about the time we move from horizontal to vertical, that we can’t seem to explain through exertion or otherwise. Our very amateur working hypothesis is that gravity-wise it ought to be easier for your heart to circulate blood to your body when you’re lying flat, i.e. swimming, and that when you stand up, your heart has to work harder very quickly to adjust to having to fight gravity to get blood to your head/up and down your body. The brief lightheadedness after the swim is surely also related. The alternative hypothesis suggests that it’s merely the realization that the real race is about to start. Thoughts?
I have heard many of the same theories and I notice it everytime I race. It takes me 2-3 minutes on the bike to settle in. AS for your point about the real race. A friend of mine that I have never beaten in a triathlon has been neglecting his swim entirely. We raced against each other this weekend in an Oly distance, his bike/run time was 3 minutes faster than mine. My swim was 10 minutes faster than his! I intentionally pushed myself in the swim and and tried to put as much time into him as possible. It worked.
As the latest IM-H DVD suggests re Badmann, you can’t win the race on the swim, but you can lose it!