Swim race pace

redved

How hard do people tend to go in the swim section of the tri.
Did the aquathon in the NAC in April, did a good swim for me but think I may have gone too hard.
Had very little left for the run and was pretty much going backwards after this.

So the queston is do people go all out, 80%, 70% etc for the swim

MD1983

as hard as i can for the first 150m or so to catch feet and avoid the melee and then just working hard until the exit, i dont back off as such just that the start pace is not sustainable. if i get to follow feet then perhaps i might ease off in the draft a bit but generally even on someones feet i am still hard at it to stick with them. certainly not in your 80-70% range much higher than that

griffin100

For me........for a sprint, as hard as I can sustain (90%); for olympic and HIM slightly lower effort but not much (80-90%). IM a bit slower (75%). You can practice the pacing in training to get a feel for level of effort.

The Lost Sheep

Only have done sprints so its as hard a pace I can maintain. When I go longer i'll drop pace accordingly
I need to go as high a pace as possible as bike is so crap.
Key is going as comfortably as you can while as quick as you can go IMO..