Open water swim tips
Open water swim races is a pretty big thing for the community I live in.
I eagerly look forward to our regular Saturday morning open water training session. I
actually get quite nervous each week for it … it’s the same nerves/feelings I used to get before a race.
So, the water is warming up down here as are the numbers we are getting each Saturday, especially considering the first race of the season is before Christmas.
The pinnacle of open water swim races down here is Lorne Pier To Pub. It is on the bucket list for most Victorians and has the title as the World’s largest open water swim race (gets the largest number of participants, usually around 5,000 people) It’s a 1.2km race that starts just out of town at the Pier (deep water start) and finishes in front of the Lorne surf club and attracts people from all over the place and all abilities.
If you’re keen to do some open water swimming this summer here’s few tips that might help:
– Make sure your wetsuit fits…. filling up with water is no good, as is feeling like you can’t breathe (too tight around the neck). There are so many great wetsuits out there, find the right size and make for your body type.
– There’s no black line out in the ocean, so make sure you look up regularly to see if you’re heading in the right direction and try and check/listen to where the swim
course goes.
– Try and swim with a pack, it’s like drafting on the bike, so much easier to be in someone’s slipstream, than leading out the front. Looking for bubbles in front of you is great too if the person/people can swim straight, as it will save you looking up all the time.
– Practice your swim starts and exits. It will be a rude shock to your poor heart and lungs if you leave it to race day to do your first run in and out of the water. It’s super
hard to swim with a high heart rate and then try and settle it down to get into a race
rhythm.
– Practice breathing bilaterally. On a choppy day, you don’t want to cop water in your mouth each breath. It’s also good to be able to see where other swimmers are and
sometimes the buoys might be on your non-breathing side.
