May I ask your advice please

I read some advice re running a while back on the great STW … basically don’t run too far too quickly. So I gave that a try, working up to and sticking to 5 miles for a couple of months. Since the new year I’ve started to build up distance/pace and did 11miles in 1:22 at the weekend, Pleased ? (this if for a ½ marathon in 4 weeks time)

So to swimming… fancy giving a triathlon a go, but the swimming distances seem daunting!! Even for a sprint race (750m right?) Bearing in mind I do not want to be doing breast stroke and let alone the swim maybe in open water with loads of other people splashing about ?

I’ve not even got wet yet!! And guess I should just jump in at the deep end and swim(see what I’ve done there)

But have you guys got any pearls of wisdom for a relatively fit (see the running above/maybe that doesn’t mean a thing?) who used to swim as a kid … that’s why the distances, at the moment hopefully, seem longer for swimming than for the other disciplines in Triathlon.

As ever STW thank you in advance… you’re the best !!

You really need to stop over thinking it, get in a pool and start doing some lengths. Take regular breaks at first and and build up the distance you take between breaks.
Practise breathing on both sides.
When you are a bit more comfortable in the water think about a lesson, my mate just did one with video capture and coaching, he said it was excellent.
If the swim is open water make sure you schedule in some open water sessions in a wetsuit (if it is needed for your event).

Apparently over half of first timers at triathlon swim breaststroke, so don’t worry too much about that. It’s always there to fall back on.

Oh, and ask on a triathlon forum. You’ll get better advice there than on a mountain bike forum.

Swimming is mostly technique, so whilst your fitness won’t hurt, it won’t help much either.

practice practice practice. Even just reading some basic freestyle technique articles (or you tube vids) helps a lot.

I did a pool based sprint tri quite a few years ago which was only 400m swim. When I started I could barely swim 400m without dying. Got it down to about 8 mins in the end and I don’t think I drastically increased my fitness as I was still appalling at the running.

I’m doing a sprint tri this summer with a 750m open water swim. I’m assuming that I’ll be back at square one when I get back in the pool.

it’s amazing how quickly your swimming fitness picks up with practice. 750 is certainly not to be feared. also to be considered is if you are doing an open water swim you will be required to wear a wetsuit and tri-suits are so buoyant you can reduce your swim time and effort expended by some extent. however if this is what you are attempting, see if you can get some lengths in with the wetsuit on, or if this isn’t possible use a float between your legs, basically just use your arms, save your legs for the biking and running.

again use a tri-forum. plenty of advice there.

Just pick a race and enter it. Most sprints fill up early so do some research, pick a fairly local one and enter. Even if you did it today I’m sure you’d finish and enjoy it, so with a few months training you’ll be fine. Best to find a race when it’s a bit warmer, May or later, just to avoid the shock of running out of a warm pool into a blizzard (been there, got the T shirt!)
Good luck.

Swimming is actually the smallest part of most triathlons. Even if you are a poor swimmer it’ll still be the discipline you spend least time on in the race.

And, starting from the bottom, it’ll be an area where you can make huge improvement leaps as skill improves.

If you’re doing an openwater swim you’ll probably be wearing a wetsuit which makes swimming easier

A few lessons would be useful – you can get to a fairly decent level in running and cycling just reading advice in books or on the internet and trying to implement it in training, but with swimming there is a greater emphasis on technique – get that wrong and you are wasting alot of energy.

As for the distance. It is about perspective – i come from a swimming background and the swimming distance (and cycling distance too) in triathlons is IMO too small compared to the run.

Before you get in the pool…

Buy Total Immersion ‘Easy Freestyle’ or ‘Freestyle made Easy’ work purely on technique for the first month, don’t even think about the distances.

What the previous replies said.
Stop worrying, get in the pool and swim a length. Then swim another.
Then build it up and set yourself goals.

Technique is rather important – I watched those people in the pool who looked efficient and tried to copy them – don’t thrash or try to swim quickly as you’ll demoralise yourself.
Once I built up to swimming 40 or so lengths without stopping I found it helped a lot to join a tri club and attend swim coaching where you swim 2 – 2.5k in an hour with someone coaching on technique.

Enter a sprint tri – it’ll give you the motivation and goal of swimming 400m – it’s only 16 lengths – easily achievable.

Good luck and keep us posted on progress

Slow your swimming right down till you build up, and only kick enough to keep your legs up.

swimming is all technique. learn how to glide through the water and it will become easy. when I was training for Ironman (dropped out due to injury)i got swimming lessons and it made swimming much easier, before I knew it I went from struggling to do 50 metres wihout stopping to doing 500 metre intervals in about 2 months.

what i have done recently: get in the pool – do some lengths – get used to swimming again. try and practise what you remember as a kid. you will get better after a few sessions. once you are fairly comfortable have a look on youtube for TI (total immersion) videos and other technique help. this has massively improved my techniques/ spped and endurance. practice some more.

Hope that is useful.

I swam loads as a kid and got back into it with Total Immersion, the book is about 6 quid or so. It gives you a decent basis for a very efficeint technique which doesn’t take a lot out of your legs. I took a couple of minutes off my time for 2000m after I got the book but the biggest difference was efficiency, I could do the same times for way less effort.

AS most have already said! I entered a triathlon having not swum in years you just need to get in the pool and start by doing a few lengths in whatever stroke is comfortable then progress and move it onto crawl. TI book as already metnioned is good. I would defintaely pick a pool triathlon though open wtaer swimming is very very different and hideous if you haven’t done it before. The sprint pool tris are pretty much alwasy 400 m. i’ve been wanting to find tri’s with longer swims and I was struggling!!! What area are you in? i’ll find you a triathlon to enter and you can enter tonight and stop stressing, you’ll get around 😉

Oh,and get the best goggles you can, I cant see past aquasphere kaiman, or rather I can.

Some fantastic replies there guys … thanks

You have re-enforced some thoughts I’d been having.

Just do it … getting in the pool half a dozen times for 40mins a pop, stopping for a rest when needed.

Get some education… books/vids first… then after the above, maybe a coach for a session or two… before bad technique/habbits form.

Get signed up for a sprint in late may.

Happy days … last to the bouy smells 🙂

thanks again.

I always thought the swim was just a warm up for triathlons

Munqe-chick – if your still looking for a tri with pool based longer swim, have a look at http://www.bathamphibians.co.uk – both 750m & 1500m swims available.

i’m not saying people who think different are wrong, but personally i found the open water swims far more pleasant than the pool ones. they also add a bit to the drama. bournemouth did one where you ran into the sea off the beach that i always thought would be great.

Some reasonable training sessions here (http://www.swimming.org/swimfit) .going from very easy up to a reasonable level. There are also a few videos showing technique if you are after some pointers

i’m not saying people who think different are wrong

You have no place on this forum! Burn him!

apologies. i’ll try again.

i hate swimming pools, swimming pools are for losers.

Ro5ey I guarantee after a few sessions you will not get wet for less than 40 lengths! I cannot now get into the pool without doing about 80-100 lengths loving it though (bar the itchiness see previous threads!!). Phil I was looking at Bath as they have an olypmic distance in the pool but think it’s too early in the season. Found one in Banbury I’ve entered with 750m swim in 50m out door heated pool which should be nice!

strange what people find daunting, for me the idea of running 5 miles puts me in a total panic.

As for swimming, yep jump in and give it a go.
I learnt like others have said by watching the other good swimmers.

Check out your local council pools. Ours in Bolton & Darwen do swim fit sessions. They are typically not lessons but are a planned session, with the group divided in to lanes by speed, but they still give out a few good tips.

have a look for tris on here http://www.trifinder.co.uk,

loads more in my area than I thought.

Last year our council organised an intro to tri with only a 200m swim, although the rest of it was a bit short.

You could always try duathlon if you don’t like the swimming, I’ve entered one in a couple months time and I’m just hoping I don’t come last 🙂

swimming:

slow = smooth = fast.

don’t worry about getting to the end of the pool, concentrate on moving slowly and nicely. you’ll get where you want to go much easier/faster.

It should be no problem to get in a novice tri with a 400m swim. My swimming is still pretty poor but has come on loads after joining a club. Regular coaching has been brilliant. And not everybody who joins a club is a brilliant swimmer. Lots of people join to get a bit of swimming coaching.

Mrs FD is an ex county swimmer but now even she would be happy to say she is unfit compared to most people.

However get her in a pool and she is quicker than almost any one else on a normal day. She uses minimal effort and breaths correctly (non to either side as above, which does encourage bad technique)

To me it looks like technique and skill is the key to swimming quickly. I cant even keep up with Mrs FD, but use probably 10 times the amount of energy.

swimming is my strongest part of triathlons, 5.55 for 400m

if you can do front crawl dont worry about breathing on both sides,, personly i find it too long between breaths,,but it is good to be able to breath on either side , as you may need to breath the “wrong ” side if the waves are coming from the other side the sun is there etc,, so practice being able to breath either side,

in open water swimming sighting is very important dont follow the guy in front practice looking up every 5 or 6 strokes to make sure you are still heading in the right direction , if it’s rough ensure you do your looking on the top of the waves

i think the most important thing is pacing ,, dont go off too fast

try doing every pair (25m pool) at 1 min this will give you a 400m time of 8 mins ,,

and a 45 second time for every pair will give you a 6 min time

finaly ( in know) join your local club ,, I am a member of oxford tri we have 6 or so coached swim sessions coached open water in the summer, road rides turbo sessions and coached track sessions all for £3 a session

An update…

So I went swimming last night for about 3/4 of a hour… wasn’t going to do that long but the swimming lane emptied and I found it far more enjoyable on my own.

Physical I felt comfortable but was struggling with not getting enough breath…. I remembered as a kid 4 stokes to a breath and was trying 3 stokes to a breath so I was changing sides… naturally left sided, right sided was fine if I stayed on that side, but struggled a little to maintain a nice rhythm with chopping about and that left me short of breath.

Must have done a good 30 length (25m pool) with a few breaks, really don’t know how many I did beacuase If I thought biking and running took your mind of life’s stresses, swimming takes that to a whole new level…. not a thought entered my head except not trying to create to many bubbles and staying smooth….. very enjoyable will go back for more

Oh I got a pair of those goggles Sweepy …. Thanks for the heads up, they are great!! So comfortable didn’t know I had them on.

In fact… thanks to everyone for their input… I now have something else in life to enjoy…. ?

struggling with not getting enough breath

No need to go above 3 for longer distances, 2 is OK, but if you want to improve your technique then stick to 3. However, 4 should not be difficult unless you are putting major effort into it, you should be able to cruise along gently at 5, 7, or even 9.

The trouble with technique is that you can’t see what you are doing when you swim. You need someone to watch you and tell you what you are doing wrong. So 1 on 1 lessons are well worth it.

Ro5ey i would recommend a poolmate watch , it is clever and automaticly counts your lengths,, number of strokes per length time etc,,
it also works out your efficiency with buy doing something clever involving times per length and number of strokes,

i am rubbish at counting lengths and this watch has been great,,

in typical STW advice i would say with the breathing do whatever works for you, i still breath every other stroke, on the right ,,

Try exhaling slowly as you swim, you should have exhaled fully just before your arm starts to come over for the breathing stroke. This gives you more time to inhale steadily and gets rid of that feeling of having to exhale and inhale very quickly, and then hold your breath. It should feel more relaxing and eventually you won’t feel like you are having to “hold your breath” with your head in the water.

I now have something else in life to enjoy

Like the attitude 🙂

I always saw myself as a strong swimmer, but I never particularly enjoyed crawl. So I set about getting better at it. At first I could do a 25m length in 23 strokes (without a big push off). I hit the internet, STW and other places and found lots of videos and info, and within a few goes I got that down to 16 or 17 strokes. I reckon learning to do as few strokes as possible per length is the way to go.

As for breathing, I could not keep up breathing every 4 (as I was taught as a kid) or 3 for any length of time, so I now do every other stroke but to give my neck a rest I always breath towards the same end of the building, which means I alternate each length.

I considered myself to have just scraped into the ok swimmer category but I was still plenty quicker than anyone else I’d see in Maindy Pool at lunchtime, even the ones who looked like they knew what they were doing. Apart from that impossibly tall leggy narrow wasted lass I saw giving lessons to someone. Holy cow!

Try exhaling slowly as you swim

Yeh, that works well. But definitely google for videos.

http://www.swimsmooth.com/ this site is great it has a really good animation , great for looking at timing , and things like hand entry ,,

as normal there are many different styles and teaching methods ,, this is my current favorite ,,
a few swim coaches i know dont like total immersion but it;s what works for you

+1 ade
http://www.swimsmooth.com/