Swimming race one week before HIM

Triathlon Forum
1

I am doing my first Half IM ( Muskoka 70.3 ) in 10 days. There is also an interesting 2.8 km swim race this Sunday. Will full effort in the swimming race have impact on my performance in HIM swimming?

I am regularly swimming 3 x week average 2 km, started swim tapering on Wednesday and I was planning to do longer (80% effort/2 km swim) on Friday, followed bu shorter more intense sessions on next Wednesday and Friday before the race. If I decide to go to the swim race I will reduce volume on Friday. Any suggestions?

2

Will full effort in the swimming race have impact on my performance in HIM swimming?

yeah, prolly make you faster unless you have been doing mega volume and are already near death

3

Because a 2.8 kilometer race is relatively short, I don’t think it would have any impact, even if you swim b*lls to the wall. Lots of time to recover. However, I would advise that if your stroke breaks down just ease up a bit. No reason to reinforce bad stroke mechanics. It might also have the additional benefit of allowing you to relax at the start of the 70.3 if you get anxious over the swim leg.

4

If you’re only used to swimming an average of 2km a few times a week, you are probably gonna be hurting pretty bad towards the end of that swim. Make sure to start out really easy, or you’ll tire out before the end.
That said, your body recovers pretty well from swimming efforts, and you shouldn’t really feel any effects by the next weekend. Plus, it’ll make that 1.2 mile HIM swim seem easy!

5

Sounds like a great tune-up event for the HIM. Plenty of time to recover from it before the HIM.

6

I’m not sure how much open water swimming you’ve done but there are things to be aware of.

Swimming in a pool you break your stroke at least every 50m. Swimming open water you might not break stroke for the entire 2.8km. This can lead to *very *tight lats and triceps. To ensure you don’t injure yourself I would be very careful about pushing the last 100m of the race and ensure that you do a cool down swim and stretching to loosen up. Obviously it’s also critical important to do a warm up swim if you’re planning on racing from the gun.

I did a 5km race a few years ago about 2 weeks before my “A” race and I strained my tricep pretty badly when I tried to lengthen out and sprint the last couple of 100m. I very nearly didn’t recover in time for the A race.