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101 questions on OW training :)

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  • 24-04-2010 9:37pm
    #1
    kingQuez
    Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭


    Hi Folks,

    I've been swimming with a tri club since the start of this year and seen a massive improvement over just training by myself.

    With my first OW race of the year in mid-june I want to start doing some training in OW now. The club organizes OW swims, but it sounds like there's no real structure to them and they're more just to have a group of people in the water together for safety. Without a coach telling me what to do, I don't know how to structure sessions to make the best of my time in the water...

    Are there specific drills that are good to do? sighting seems an obvious one, but are there others? Also, are the other drills like kicking, swimming with fists, swimming with isolated arms, breathing on longer stroke counts, catchup etc. good to do or are they better just done in the pool?.

    Overall how do you structure a set (without a big clock and a way to measure distance) or is this the wrong mentality to have doing OW training? And would you aim to cover similar distance/speed sets as in a pool?

    In the two OW-swim races I did last year I was breathing every stroke to the same side rather than every third stroke to alternate sides (as I would in the pool). I wasn't the most confident swimmer (nor the fittest :) ), so I'm not sure if this was a bit of a panic reaction to OW. Is it normal to keep to every 3rd stroke during an OW race (they were in lakes)?

    Cheers!


Comments

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    #2
    mad m
    Registered Users Posts: 9,001 ✭✭✭mad m


    Well the obvious things between training in the pool Vs open sea are you hit the wall, you know your distance, you can stand up,you can take a break in the pool doing sets, the water in pool is warmer than the sea.

    You might bump into jelly fish. You could thread the water in the sea to build up your strength, like water polo players. You will always know a water polo player in the OW races, they always have there heads up above water and are very powerfull swimmers. Also when coming up to a buoy don't go in too near as you will get hands,feet,elbows in your face.

    You do need numbers when swimming in open sea because of the obvious. What I do for sighting is I look in the distance for a building to go for, if there is nothing in the distance then its look up often. I know its the norm to try and do bi-lateral swimming in OW to stop getting a mouthful of seawater but you will always get a mouthful anyway.

    Trying bi-lateral is ok but when you have your handicap and you get GO shout then its hell for leather to do the set out course. Well thats just me, also don't get into water 5 mins before you GO, you will get cold waiting. I get in 30second to a minute before I get the green light.

    My club and I will be doing some training in OW soon enough, probably go out to Seapoint and swim out to Windsurfers pier then back. The hardest part is getting in:D.

    Well enjoy the new season, starting the 5th of June.....


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    #3
    Seaswimmer
    Registered Users Posts: 1,985 ✭✭✭Seaswimmer


    mad m wrote: »
    I know its the norm to try and do bi-lateral swimming in OW to stop getting a mouthful of seawater but you will always get a mouthful anyway.

    Trying bi-lateral is ok but when you have your handicap and you get GO shout then its hell for leather to do the set out course. Well thats just me, also don't get into water 5 mins before you GO, you will get cold waiting. I get in 30second to a minute before I get the green light.



    I would'nt get too hung up on the bilateral breathing. Its nice to be able to do it but plenty of people only breathe to one side, me included. Also i always find it hard to get straight in and start to swim. i prefer to be in the water a bit early to get used to the cold. Like everything else everyone has a different routine. I found when i started swimming that after a few races i knew the people who were around the same speed as me. If you can keep one of more of them in sight as you swim you are unlikely to go too far off course. Over time you will get better at swimming a straight line..


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    #4
    AngryHippie
    Registered Users Posts: 2,625 ✭✭✭AngryHippie


    1-2 minutes is plenty of time to spend in the water before you start your swim, any more than that and you will start to get a bit of a chill, after one minute, moving around, your blood vessels have had their initial contraction and the expanded again due to moving around, they are pretty much ready, and our body has adjusted enough in that time to be able to get reasonable performance from it at GO. Much less than that, and you will still be very breathless and working very hard for your first 5 minutes, any more than that, you'll be a little chilly before the race starts, which could inhibit the crucial opening 100m.
    Frequent cold immersion does help tune and limit the body's reaction to it. get in early. get in often (in the year)


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    #5
    swimforever
    Registered Users Posts: 131 ✭✭swimforever


    As regards drills and structure...

    I think that the pool is the place for drills, I wouldn't be trying to do catch-up or kicking or things like that in the sea. The only time I play around with them sometimes is if I'm swimming with someone who is slower than me (although most of the time I'm struggling to keep up with whoever is around so this isn't often!). I do spend time thinking about my stroke and concentrating on where my hand should be but that's more to combat boredom than anything else! That said, I train for distance rather than speed so it may be different when you are training for a race.

    I don't do sets in the sea either, but I do definitely keep an eye on the watch. I know approximate distances of the places where I swim and try to keep my pace as close to pool pace as possible. When I'm swimming on my own in the sea I do things like sprinting for 100 strokes and then easy for 100 strokes. Partly to avoid getting bored, partly to keep up speed. It's not the same kind of defined sets as in a pool but it does get the heart rate up! I also always make sure that I push really hard for my last 1,000m or so of the day so I know that I can push when I'm tired.

    In general I think that OW training is more about getting used to all of the conditions that you could deal with on race day than about speed and fitness-that can be done in the pool.

    If you are having trouble breathing bilaterally in the OW but can do it fine in the pool then it's just a case of practice. I always breathe every 3 strokes-in the pool, in an OW race, in a marathon swim. The advantages I find with it in the open water are that I can get a breath no matter which direction the waves are coming from and I can see better around me. If it's a panic reaction that you're having then I think you just need to keep getting in until you find that you can control your breathing in OW as comfortably as you can in the pool. The first few times that I was in OW I found breathing to be very difficult because I found it very claustrophobic. It took me a long time before I was really comfortable with playing around with my breathing pattern. But it's all just about practice-as is dealing with all of the other conditions the OW throws at you.

    Happy swimming for the summer :)


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    #6
    kingQuez
    Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭kingQuez


    Great, thanks for the info! it's really good to hear how other people approach this :)


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