bad open water practice swim

[eclectic]

I really got to thinking about OW swimming yesterday after my tri and I can now see how scarey it would be for beginning swimmers.

I have been swimming since I can remember and used to lifeguard at a lake so OW is second nature.

But NOW I understand what you are going through
My hat is off to you ladies who are facing and conquering this challenge head on!

I realized
1. you can't stand up anytime you want
2. the edge is no where near that you can just grab onto
3. there is very little to nothing to catch your bearings off of.
4. You can't see the bottom (sometimes that is a good thing)

I don't have any advice to offer except keep swimming so you are confident in your abilities to get you through.

Good luck!
BTW running is my biggest challenge but at no time is there the panic factor because we can always slow down and walk and we are always on terra ferma. Swimming is by far the greater challenge.

[silver]

Open water swim update:

I ended up being sick last week....again....and missed out on the open water swim practices that my team had set up. So I ended up going into the tri on Sat. with only one pool swim after my Bad Open Water Swim (hereafter known as BOWS). Mr. gave me lots of encouragement and my team did too.

I was not feeling 100% from my illnesses, so I decided to go into the tri with my only goal being to make it through the swim with no panic attack.

I got in and positioned myself behind everyone else and started swimming VERY slowly, taking long breaths with every stroke. I got the song in my head....Steady as she goes (don't know the band) and just plodded along. No freak out. Yeah!!! I made it to the turn around and finally started to pass a few people. I felt like I was passed the worst of my "panic period" so I tried to swim just a little more boldly, but still did not let myself push.

I made it through without a panic attack!!! It was supposed to be a half mile swim, but everyone said it was probably longer, more like .7 or .8 mile.

Tonight, the team had another practice OWS. It was in the same lake as my BOWS.

[beetle]

Well done on a great swim. I hope you have a BOWS (Better OWS) tonight.

The fact that you have had a good swim experience now should make for more in the future. Don't worry if you have panic attacks again though, it does not mean you have lost any confidence, they can happen to anyone. I swam across the english channel and still had a training session where I had to get out as I was convinced there were nasty things in the water. I find singing in my head a great way to stop from focussing on scary things.

If you think that your breathing confidence is an issue perhaps this is an aspect you could really work on in all your training (pool and OWS). Perhaps start with a drill where you increase strokes between breaths and then go back down (ie. 1 lap breath every 2 strokes, then 3, then 4, up to what feels a bit uncomfortable and then down by 1 each lap until back to breathing every 2nd). Apart from forcing you to think about your breathing a lot more you'll be surprised how easy it feels to breath every 2 or 3 stroke when you come down at the end of the set.