Training with only open water swimming

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi everyone,

I’m a newbie to slowtwitch, so I appreciate anyone willing to take a minute to share opinions.

Where I just moved, I have ready access to open water, but no access to a lap swim pool. I have two concerns: Safety and Quality training. I am a solid, middle of the pack swimmer, I am comfortable in the water, and I have swam open water swims before with no issues.

First safety. I figure the most important thing is to never swim alone. Second, to pay attention to surf and tide conditions. Does anyone have any other suggestions about how I can increase my margin of safety in open water swimming? Is there some type of flotation device that I can tow behind me, or a low drag belt I could wear? Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?

Second, quality training. Most swim workouts are geared towards pool swimming. How can I get the same quality workouts in open water?

Thanks for any inputs you may have.

–Bob

2

I’ve never swam open water for training but I read about it a lot here.

Make sure you wear a bright colored swim cap. Also I see a lot of people posting links to an orange bag that you can put all your clothes in and then inflate it and tow it behind you. Hopefully someone will post the link because I have no idea what it is called or where to find it.

As for workout quality I have no idea. Its probably better than mindless lap swimming.

3

As far as safety flotation devices…this comes to mind.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/09/the-swim-it-in-depth-review.html

4

I spent my first year exclusively OW. As long as you get comfortable in the water you should have no problems. If anything goes wrong just stay calm and relaxed and you will be able to deal with it. Only problem with OW is that it is a little harder to get consistency to really enable fine tuning your technique - unless your gifted with a glassy patch of water where you swim. You get to see some great ocean life. You can really enjoy the summer after the bracing winter months.

5

Oh… and don’t swim the next couple of days after storms or floods.

6

I live 300 yards from a lake, I’m thinking about getting one of these. http://www.ishof.org/cgi-bin/mivavm?/Merchant2/merchant.mvc+Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SF04&Category_Code=SF
The recent drowning of an area triathlete doing a solo open water swim got me concerned. I like this better than the co2 device the earlier poster mentioned and DC Rainmaker wasn’t really high on it.

7

I spent my first year exclusively OW. As long as you get comfortable in the water you should have no problems. If anything goes wrong just stay calm and relaxed and you will be able to deal with it. Only problem with OW is that it is a little harder to get consistency to really enable fine tuning your technique - unless your gifted with a glassy patch of water where you swim. You get to see some great ocean life. You can really enjoy the summer after the bracing winter months.
The above quote is excellent information.
I would add that with water that cold a full wetsuit is necessary AND the wetsuit will b a hugh factor allowing u to become relaxed and comfortable in OW. I bought a full suit for my GF who couldn’t swim AND high quality goggles that did not leak for her. On her second OW swim she nearly fell asleep floating on her back in 25fsw because she was so relaxed and anxious free.
Also, spend lots of time studying youtube videos of proper swim technique and LOTS of actual time in the water practicing those techniques. All this will get u out of the water way sooner AND into the lead bike groups.
Hope this helps

8

I did solely OW swimming this past year.

I don’t think it’s optimal. I have a bunch of friends (some competitive swimmers, some triathletes) who say that swimming open water is fine and dandy - but the pool is where you gain your speed.

I believe that to be true for the most part.

Keep in mind I’m a back of the middle/back of the pack guy - so my advice is pretty much worthless on this subject.

9

It is possible to do some quality work in ow, especially if you have some sort of landmark or buoy you can use. I swim in lake which has buoys roughly every 100m so is possible to do ~100m intervals. They aren’t exactly 100m so you can’t compare directly to a pool workout, but can use them to track progress (using a sportswatch) and adapt sessions to suit. If you don’t have buoys or landmarks or other sort of marker you can do intervals by counting strokes, but this isn’t as easy to track progress.

10

A wetsuit is a safety device. There are also multiple inflatable systems available.

FWIW for my IM i trained almost exclusively OW and never did any ‘workouts’ in the pool. Just hopped in and swam for an hour and hopped out. I may be a special case since I have a little bit of a swimming background, but it was good for a very fast race. I think the real advantage is as long as your technique is good you learn exactly how fast you can go for a given distance. Plus flip turns make me dizzy after an hour or so and you keep pushing off the wall which messes up your stroke speed and rythm. I really like OW and the more you do it the faster you go in OW. IMHO

11

Hi everyone,

I’m a newbie to slowtwitch, so I appreciate anyone willing to take a minute to share opinions.

Where I just moved, I have ready access to open water, but no access to a lap swim pool. I have two concerns: Safety and Quality training. I am a solid, middle of the pack swimmer, I am comfortable in the water, and I have swam open water swims before with no issues.

First safety. I figure the most important thing is to never swim alone. Second, to pay attention to surf and tide conditions. Does anyone have any other suggestions about how I can increase my margin of safety in open water swimming? Is there some type of flotation device that I can tow behind me, or a low drag belt I could wear? Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?

Second, quality training. Most swim workouts are geared towards pool swimming. How can I get the same quality workouts in open water?

Thanks for any inputs you may have.

–Bob

I have found a cap is not really helpful especially in bright sun. A white rash guard helps with sun exposure and makes you much more visible than a bright hat. I also use the SafeSwimmer and only really feel it tugging in rough seas. I figure any drag will only help my swim http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/38639.htm

Rob did a great review of it here. http://robaquatics.com/2011/03/review-swim-safety-device-ssd.html

12

Hi everyone,

I’m a newbie to slowtwitch, so I appreciate anyone willing to take a minute to share opinions.

Where I just moved, I have ready access to open water, but no access to a lap swim pool. I have two concerns: Safety and Quality training. I am a solid, middle of the pack swimmer, I am comfortable in the water, and I have swam open water swims before with no issues.

First safety. I figure the most important thing is to never swim alone. Second, to pay attention to surf and tide conditions. Does anyone have any other suggestions about how I can increase my margin of safety in open water swimming? Is there some type of flotation device that I can tow behind me, or a low drag belt I could wear? Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?

Second, quality training. Most swim workouts are geared towards pool swimming. How can I get the same quality workouts in open water?

Thanks for any inputs you may have.

–Bob

I have found a cap is not really helpful especially in bright sun. A white rash guard helps with sun exposure and makes you much more visible than a bright hat. I also use the SafeSwimmer and only really feel it tugging in rough seas. I figure any drag will only help my swim http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/38639.htm

Rob did a great review of it here. http://robaquatics.com/...fety-device-ssd.html

What she said … it’s much easier to see the movement and larger area of arms above water than a mostly-not-moving somewhat-submerged head. I have rashers in hot pink, fluoro orange, and yum-yum yellow and folks can see me from a pretty long way off, even in rolling water.

Counting strokes or going by rough landmarks on shore is one possibility; another is doing time intervals at given levels of effort. Most pool workouts can be adapted this way, especially those with slightly longer-distance intervals.

13

Hi everyone,

I’m a newbie to slowtwitch, so I appreciate anyone willing to take a minute to share opinions.

Where I just moved, I have ready access to open water, but no access to a lap swim pool. I have two concerns: Safety and Quality training. I am a solid, middle of the pack swimmer, I am comfortable in the water, and I have swam open water swims before with no issues.

First safety. I figure the most important thing is to never swim alone. Second, to pay attention to surf and tide conditions. Does anyone have any other suggestions about how I can increase my margin of safety in open water swimming? Is there some type of flotation device that I can tow behind me, or a low drag belt I could wear? Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?

Second, quality training. Most swim workouts are geared towards pool swimming. How can I get the same quality workouts in open water?

Thanks for any inputs you may have.

–Bob

I have found a cap is not really helpful especially in bright sun. A white rash guard helps with sun exposure and makes you much more visible than a bright hat. I also use the SafeSwimmer and only really feel it tugging in rough seas. I figure any drag will only help my swim http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/38639.htm

Rob did a great review of it here. http://robaquatics.com/...fety-device-ssd.html

What she said … it’s much easier to see the movement and larger area of arms above water than a mostly-not-moving somewhat-submerged head. I have rashers in hot pink, fluoro orange, and yum-yum yellow and folks can see me from a pretty long way off, even in rolling water.

Counting strokes or going by rough landmarks on shore is one possibility; another is doing time intervals at given levels of effort. Most pool workouts can be adapted this way, especially those with slightly longer-distance intervals.

SQUEEEE!! (((MELON press!!))) I have missed you HORRIBLY! Hope you’ve been well!

14

Oh… and don’t swim the next couple of days after storms or floods.

Very much appreciate this tip. We’ve been raining on and off for the past week.

15

I did solely OW swimming this past year.

I don’t think it’s optimal. I have a bunch of friends (some competitive swimmers, some triathletes) who say that swimming open water is fine and dandy - but the pool is where you gain your speed.

I believe that to be true for the most part.

Keep in mind I’m a back of the middle/back of the pack guy - so my advice is pretty much worthless on this subject.

I’m glad you mention this, the idea that OW is fun but pool is where a person gets faster. That’s exactly what I’m concerned about, so I’m glad I’m not being paranoid.

16

I spent my first year exclusively OW. As long as you get comfortable in the water you should have no problems. If anything goes wrong just stay calm and relaxed and you will be able to deal with it. Only problem with OW is that it is a little harder to get consistency to really enable fine tuning your technique - unless your gifted with a glassy patch of water where you swim. You get to see some great ocean life. You can really enjoy the summer after the bracing winter months.
The above quote is excellent information.
I would add that with water that cold a full wetsuit is necessary AND the wetsuit will b a hugh factor allowing u to become relaxed and comfortable in OW. I bought a full suit for my GF who couldn’t swim AND high quality goggles that did not leak for her. On her second OW swim she nearly fell asleep floating on her back in 25fsw because she was so relaxed and anxious free.
Also, spend lots of time studying youtube videos of proper swim technique and LOTS of actual time in the water practicing those techniques. All this will get u out of the water way sooner AND into the lead bike groups.
Hope this helps

Sharkbait and Spearit, thanks for sharing the experience. I don’t figure I’ll be able to use my wetsuit much here in the waters of Kauai. I don’t wear one when I surf, but then again I’m not in the water near as much when I’m surfing, so I guess I’ll see.

Really though, thanks for sharing the experience, it’s confidence building to know that I’m not crazy in thinking that exclusive OW training is possible.

17

You can get very solid workouts by open water swimming exculsively and as you are in a surf area you will have the opportunity to become a strong open water swimmer.We have a lot of the surf-lifesaving fraternity here in Oz who never go to the pool to train and they are great open water swimmers.Now if you want to be a really fast swimmer then a pool is required but you can become a very strong swimmer in the ocean.

Do in’s-and-out’s which is a beach start then swim as hard as you can to a bouy or past the breakers or for a prescribed time and then turn around and head back to the beach.Get out ,run around a marker and repeat again and again…

Longer swim run variations are up to your imagination like run up the beach for 500meters then get in the water and swim back.Repeat as often as you can stand it…

Take the band off a cheap watch with a countdown timer and put it under your cap with a prescribed time period that you want to swim hard.For example one minute countdown is one minute flat out one minute easy swimming.You will hear the beep without a worry under your cap.

Hook up with the local surf-lifesaving guys and train with them.You will soon be a strong enough ocean swimmer that it will take a very rare weather event to have to worried in any triathlon swim.

Lastly,find a resort hotel and see if they have a pool that yu could sneak a swim in every now and then.

18

If you don’t all ready have a Garmin 910XT, you should take a look at it. The main reason I say this, is that it will tell you how far you have swum in open water and also what your pace per 100 meters is. On the safety side of things, if the water is cool enough wear a full wet suit and neoprene hood, so if things start to go bad for you, then float on your back and your face should be out of the water. If there is boat traffic in your open swimming area, then get a “diver down” float/flag from a scuba diving shop and pull it behind you to alert boaters to your presence. Tim

19

Great tips, thank you! Don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but I would guess that there are OW specific workouts just as there are pool specific workouts, the OW ones probably just aren’t as easy to find.

Good point about the difference between a fast swimmer and a strong swimmer.

20

or you can get a good estimate with Google earth. After you’ve been doing your swim for a while (to the OP now), you might find that you like doing the same route for your bread and butter workout and you will pick up landmarks - but they’re sea floor landmarks. using google earth you can approximate them and make sets to incorporate those approximate lengths. I don’t wear a watch but instead will just do 5-10 seconds rest. I do a loop so I can leave a bottle of water or Electrolit on a dive boat to drink from and get some of the salt out of my mouth each lap (750m ish). Until you get used to the sea life you might find you’ll get your HR up without any need for intervals (i had murky water today and got totally freaked out when a few fish came right at me swimming like lightening (like they were being chased)).