Catch a wave...Or the swimming thread

[HillSlugger]

I spent last week in Cape Cod, and was able to get in some swims in the bay. I think I was doing about 400 yards (rough estimate). This was my first opportunity to do some OW swims, so I was psyched! I'm fortunate because I don't have any real anxieties about swimming in the ocean, and actually enjoy it.

I feel like I swallow a LOT of water when I am in the ocean. What am I doing wrong? If it's normal, how do you deal with it before getting on the bike?

Congrats on successful OWS practice. It's great to get this in before your first OWS tri. It's really great that you were able to do it without getting anxious. Try to bring that same calmness to race day.

How choppy was the water? OWS isn't usually as flat as in the pool so you need to get used to being hit in the face when you try to breathe. Possible fixes: only breathe on the down-wave side, roll further out of the water to breathe, lift yourself further out of the water to breathe.

[Iris616]

Congrats on successful OWS practice. It's great to get this in before your first OWS tri. It's really great that you were able to do it without getting anxious. Try to bring that same calmness to race day.

How choppy was the water? OWS isn't usually as flat as in the pool so you need to get used to being hit in the face when you try to breathe. Possible fixes: only breathe on the down-wave side, roll further out of the water to breathe, lift yourself further out of the water to breathe.

Thanks for the tips. The water was a little choppy. Definately worse than the pool, but fairly calm for the bay. I think I might be able to simulate it if I go to the pool during a swim team practice and take the lane next to them: Then try to get DH to share the lane and swim right in front of me. I'm only half joking about this.

[alpinerabbit]

Alright... I think I am ready for the Oly this Sunday. I think I'll survive.

Monday I did a final pool swim, felt pretty good already but the final test was today's last OW swim, about 2.4 K and I still felt strong at the end. 8 or 9 wks ago my arms were getting really tired on the way home.

Yoda, I'm stealing your 3+2 breathing rythm and I love it...

And I can run 10K these days. Haven't done a fast 10K but what matters is whether my legs hurt - and they don't.

[Wahine]

Nice!!!! Good luck this weekend.

[kelownagirl]

I always do bilateral breathing when I swim but when I did my tri, I found myself breathing on every 2nd stroke so I could get more air and go faster. Is that normal?

[Wahine]

It's normal if your pushing the pace for a sprint tri. That's part of the reason I sometimes do a 3 - 2 - 3, then I'm still bilateral but getting a slightly higher breathing rate. On a short sprint when I'm pushing hard I might breath every 2.

[colby]

I tried breathing every 2 this time and I find it almost harder to get a rhythm than breathing every 3-4. I feel more smooth when I breathe less often, but it does make sighting harder (for a while when doing OWS training, I was doing 4-2-4-2 and sight on the 2, sometimes 4-2-2-4-2-2). I watched some of the women in the olympic OWS and they were doing weird breathing patterns... looked like sometimes 3-2 and sometimes 2 and then 2 breaths in a row on each side.

My swim time this year came out to the same as last year, but I think I actually swam faster... I just sighted more and had foggier goggles. Still working on the perfect balance of swimming and sighting. (I think I also ran faster this year, but walked slower on my walk breaks... bad Colby.)

Loving everyone's pictures...