Entries tagged with “open water” from TRI-ing harder

I often wonder how I'm going to fit in all of the training that I want to do. A few runs each week is easy, as are a couple of hundred kilometres on the bike. And a few thousand metres swimming is a doddle to do before or after work. But all three? In just seven days (or 8 in a leap year)? How does a humble, work-a-day triathlete like me fit it all in? Oh to be a mere runner.

There's no white line on the bottom of the lake, and you don't often get a rope to guide you, so I always have trouble swimming in a straight line in open water.  Bearing that in mind here are my top tips for how to swim in a straight line:

1. Bi-lateral breathing
   When I learnt to swim at school, I was taught to swim every 4th stroke, and always breathe to the right hand side.  This makes for an inherently uneven swim stroke, and can tend to drag you to one side.   Learning to breathe every 3 strokes, and breathe on the right and the left can help you go straighter.
   
2. Look where you're going
   If you're swimming breastroke, you'll tend to go in a straight line, but because your head is underwater 90% of the time with front crawl, you'll find yourself swimming in circles unless you learn a technique known as sighting.  Before you start off in the direction of the next buoy, work out where it is in relation to something large and obvious in the landscape - a large tree or electricity pylon is good. Then  aim to look up every 10-15 strokes, either as part of your breathing motion, or by just slightly bringing your eyes to the surface, and see where your point of reference is.  Make small adjustments if you go off track rather than large movements which can be the start of a wild zig-zagging motion which can significantly increase the distance you end up swimming!

Last Saturday, 15th September, I competed in the Oxford tri club championships for the first time. I joined 22 other people at the lake with a good crowd of supporters and marshals at around 9.30am.

I'd been nervous in the run up to this event because it's longer than any I've done before.  At 1100m the swim was 50% longer than Blenheim, the bike was 18miles rather than 18k of Eynsham, and the run was 7km or so, not the typical 5km (or 4.5km of Newbury).  I'd only run over 5km for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and definitely wasn't confident that I could do it after a long swim and bike.

I'd been preparing for the event since Newbury - concentrating mainly on my running.  I'd also been down the lake with the tri club a few times to check that I could cope with the longer swim, and I was confident I could cope with the two lap course.

The weather on the day was fantastic: still and dry, with the sun coming through more and more as the morning progressed.  I usually get very hot when I run, so I was a bit worried that I would overheat but in the end the temperature was just right.

The race briefing at 9.50 was very brief.  I like to know a course in detail, and there wasn't really enough of that for my liking at the briefing, but there was a promise of lots of marshalls and signs on the way.  No time for butterflies though anyway, as we were in the water 2 minutes later and ready to go...

Had my first "members-only" open water swim at Cassington with Oxford Tri today. It was fantastic.  For any of you that is tempted by open water swimming but is worried, don't be.   I've put up some novice tips on open water swimming here.

Since it was my first time, I was advised to stick in a group (actually, everyone does this anyway - it makes everyone feel safe and also means they can stop at the various bouys and have a natter).  I tagged onto the back of a couple of ladies that looked like they were heading for an 'easy' route.  They were kind enough to lead me round and we did a couple of laps of the lake - or about 1200m, which was good enough for me.

The Oxford Tri open water sessions are well organised and friendly, so if you are looking for your first open water swim (or if your experienced and just want to do more), I'd strongly recommend them.  They're available only to members, but membership is so cheap and easy you might as well join!

Swim
I swim in the pool 3-4 times a week, and aim to do about 1000m each time.  I know this isn't enough for Olympic distance (which is 1500m), but I find swimming pretty dull unless it's in open water.  I like to listen to the radio whilst exercising, and have recently tried out a waterproof radio which might help me increase my distances.

update 18 Aug 07: I've finally joined Oxford Tri this week and so have started taking advantage of their open water swimming sessions at Cassington Lake near Oxford.  I love wetsuit swimming (probably because it's easier!).  I'll add a Saturday morning session to my training each week (only until mid-September though, when it gets too cold to swim)     

Bike
Just recently I've been focusing on Swim and Run, so my bike legs have suffered a bit.  When I did a 90km ride with my friend the other day, he was sprinting away up hills whilst I was virtually rolling backwards in bottom gear. 
I used to get out once or twice a week for a 20-50 mile ride, and I need to try to get back into that.  I reckon I need to be able to comfortably manage a 60 mile ride if I'm going to be able to do a 40 mile as part of a Triathlon.

Run
Running has never been my forte.  I always like to do things quickly, so pounding away on the pavements was always a bit depressing - I can go four times as fast on a bike. So running is an area I've needed to concentrate on.  I've been working on both distance and speed as part of my gym routines.   I'm currently (August 07) able to run a 7 minute mile, and a 26 minute 5km*.  I'm aiming to be able to run 10km in less than 1 hour, but I'm not sure if this is realistic or not.

*I was born in 1972 just after the imperial/metric switchover, so I use both but understand neither