I just finished the Pumpkinman triathlon in Boulder City, Nevada yesterday. Once again, my time in the water was 2:24/100m. This is remarkably consistent to my time at the Santa Barbara tri (this year AND last year) and the Rage (same swim course) earlier this year. I seem to be stuck in that 2:20-2:30/100m pace. At least for open water. In a pool sprint, I know I’ve done a sub 2:00/100m. So, ya, I know a lot (but not all) of that additional time is zig-zagging around the course.
I feel strong in the water. That doesn’t mean I’m saying I feel fast, I feel like I can hold that pace for quite a while. I don’t feel exhausted when I swim at that pace, and I regularly train out at Lake mead. My training swims are generally at least 45 minutes and often 1-1.5 hours. And when I’m done, I’m not particularly fatigued.
The online calculator I just found puts me at one hour, forty five minute estimate for the 2.4 mile Ironman swim. This is on the lower end of what I was expecting. Honestly, I estimated my total time on the swim to be between 1 hour, thirty and 1 hour, forty five. So I can do this and still be comfortably inside the cutoff, but I’m still going to be slow.
My original goal was to be out of the water and in T1 by 9am. However, with a staggered start for the age groupers, I’ll be very lucky and very surprised if I’m even close to that. At least if I can get out of T1 and on the bike by 9:30, then I still have a really good shot of being in T2 by 4:30. And if I can manage that, then I should be OK because the run is my weakest discipline.
I assume you are basing that off your personal GPS device and not the results calculator? I mean, I’m also a slow swimmer but I’m not that slow. (19:04 was the time the race gave me )I would guess the water to the start of transition was 1:30 to 2 minutes or so.
Pumpkinman has become my favorite race. I love that course.
Nope. 18 minutes from the start to the time I exited the water. So, ya, I’m that slow. Very consistently. I was 39 minutes for the mile swim in Santa Barbara (2:25/100m pace) and 18 minutes for the exact same swim course earlier this year at Rage. I am extremely consistent in that 2:20-2:30/100m pace.
And I have no GPS thingamabob. Just the timer on my G-Shock.
They had me down to 22 minutes. I assume you’ve done this event yourself, so you know it’s a bit of a hike from the waterline to T1. I did jog up there, but I got passed by quite a few people.
I was there this year. And I did not know you could stage shoes by the water, so I hopped gingerly from foot to foot. Then the pavement was worse. I was at the very top of the hill in transition. I never go barefoot anywhere, so it was a bit rough for me.
Anyway, I probably swam 16 or 17 min so I’m not giving anyone advice about swimming, but I was a coach for a long time. I"I’ll ask what I asked my kids sometimes. What changed in your training that you would expect to go faster? Did your pool training give you indications that you would be faster? (I coached runners, but the idea is the same.)
Nothing changed. I hoped for <15 minutes, but that was just me being optimistic.
I’m not complaining at all. Like I said, I feel strong. I know it’s not particularly fast, but I can maintain that pace for over an hour (I’ve done it before). Obviously, that’s a good thing considering I’m preparing for IMAZ. Going into the swim knowing I’m going to be in that hour forty five range, ya it kind of sucks knowing it’s going to take me that long. But I also know I can swim that distance without being too fatigued.
I learned the first time I did that event about the shoe thing. That is absolutely horrible barefoot. Hell, even with shower shoes, it’s still rough. When I swim out there, I always wear neoprene booties just to protect my feet. They’re far too tender to be running around on that crap barefoot. Boulder Beach is a lot more boulder than beach!
To piggy back on @cdw (hi Chad hope all is well), what have you done differently in your swim training over the last season or two?
is it the same workouts, have you added things to go faster, subtracted things that don’t lead to going faster? Do you know the difference? (In my coaching experience as both a swim coach and tri coach a WHOLE lot of triathletes couldn’t answer that for the swim)
I wouldn’t say I’ve worked super hard on improving my swim, mainly because it’s so inconvenient for me.
I stated this elsewhere, but I don’t have ready access to a place to train. I generally go out to Lake Mead since that’s where we do all the local triathlons anyway (T100 at Lake Las Vegas was an exception). And Lake mead is almost 100 miles each way. The closest pool to me in Las Vegas is still an hour away (I don’t actually live in Las Vegas). However, my community does have a 25m public pool, but it’s only open from Memorial Day to Labor day, so my training there has a very limited season.
So what I do when I do train is really concentrate on my stroke. That is to say I try to be very aware of my body position throughout my stroke. At least to the best of my ability.
To get faster in any of the sports you have to put time and a lot of effort into it. Swimming is probably the most difficult, because you are limited with breathing because you face is in the water.
If you cannot / do not put the time in to really push the pace to be uncomfortable. You will only stay the same or get slower.
That does make it tough. If I had an athlete like that I’d tell them a few things.
Memorial to labor day is a swim block.
Not worth it to drive 100 miles each way. Now maybe and this is a ymmv situation, ride out there one day, swim that evening. Stay overnight, swim in the morning and ride home makes sense. Again though that’s not something you can do every weekend.
Anytime you’re near the pool bc you came into town then it makes sense to swim.
I’d (probably) change your training as well. concentrating on your stroke will be done better at higher velocities repeated more often instead of longer swims. Again though don’t know enough of the ins/outs of your training to say with specificity.
I have and had athletes that were in a pool desert here in the US. Makes being a complete triathlete more difficult. On the other hand one can really focus on their B/R training and maximize that