Race training in the open water

By Penny Wilkin and Sarah Hill

Many of us are lucky enough to be able to swim in some beautiful open water and whilst we should of course take time to appreciate our surroundings, without a clear focus we can easily become distracted and drift away into a long slow swim that can often become ‘mindless’.  There is certainly a place for this kind of swim and it is a great place to start in the open water as it can help you get used to your wetsuit, acclimatise to a different environment and temperature as well as building endurance.

However, for many swimmers, particularly those aiming for triathlon or competitive swimming of some kind you will probably start to look for a little more interest in your swim, and, whilst a long slow no-pressure swim is enjoyable it will not provide the opportunity to practice the physical and technical challenges of  faster race-pace swimming. For competitive swimmers it is crucial to step outside of this easy zone - competitive swimming can be stressful; swimming in a pack, the risk of being kicked or swum over and the very act of racing itself can cause anxiety so it is a good idea to create a bit of pressure in your practice to help your prepare.

The open water offers the opportunity to practice using a range of different strategies; use the first 10 minutes or so to acclimatise to the water temperature, weather etc. and tune up your stroke with some simple focal points – e.g. breathing, head position, being relaxed etc. and then build yourself a set, the following tips should help.

Effort, pace and distance

It is much harder to measure your pace in the open water as it is difficult to measure distance and time, instead you will need to use different measures.

Split your lake up into sections/laps – chunk it down just like you do in the pool but don’t be too obsessed with the detail of the specific distance of each interval/lap– it’s more just a rough guide to help break it down.

Use a main practice to do some intervals/short sections of harder work at a range of different pace and distances at a range of different intensities/effort levels – try using this 1-5 scale

At Fast + pace 5 you would probably be doing 25-50m repetitions at this intensity in the pool so in open water this would equate to 30 to 60 sec or 25-50 strokes.

At Fast pace 4 you might be working on 100-400m repetitions in the pool so in open water this would equate to 2min-10min swims or 100 strokes or more.

At Brisk pace 3 you might be doing 5, 10 or 20 minute efforts.

3 or 4 is race pace depending on your race distance.

As measuring distance and time is tricky, it’s a great opportunity to tune into how your swim feels – ask yourself how out of breath you are, how does it feel on the body, how fast are your arms and legs turning, how much pressure are you applying on the catch.  

Use some sections to work specifically on sighting and check in with how straight you are swimming.

Notice too if you are still swimming straight at all these different effort levels; are you still able to sight accurately at different tempos?

If you use a tempo trainer in the pool, then you will be familiar with your tempos for each effort/speed/gear. You can use your tempo trainer outdoors just to help you keep a rhythm and dial into how your stroke feels at different speeds.

You can use the tempo trainer outdoors to help you concentrate, it can really help you work hard and keep focus, otherwise it is just too easy to swim too slowly and perhaps even get distracted by a particularly interesting fish!

If you have a watch or tracker you can set up a workout which will buzz at particular intervals to help keep you on track. Alternatively, use buoys or rocks or big trees as markers to swim to.

Another strategy is to count strokes:

·        10 x 50 strokes hard/20 strokes easy. Or 10 x 30sec hard/30sec easy

·        10 x 2min hard/1min easy – roughly 100 strokes/50 strokes.

·        Or 25 strokes easy, 25 strokes moderate, 25 stroke hard, 25 strokes all out.

Try swimming at level 2 or 3 continuously but add in 25 all out strokes in and out of a buoy to put yourself under a bit of pressure like in a race.

Swim a build set - 1 lap easy, 1 lap moderate, 1 lap hard. Measure your lap splits or use your tempo trainer and aim to swim faster each lap.

 

Swimming with others

If there are no social distancing rules then practice swimming with a friend or friends.

1.       Practice drafting on each other toes. 50 strokes each then stop, regroup and try again. If you have more than 1 friend then you can do arrow head drafting. One on the toes, one on each arm pit. Be sure to practice in each position especially if you don’t like breathing to one side. Start off at super easy pace so you keep together and experience how it feels and build skills/technique. As you get better make it faster/harder, so your skills are under pressure like in a race. Work towards 10 x 50 strokes practices.

2.       Practice starts. In a group of 3 or 4 practice a mass sprint starts; swim 50/100 strokes all out and then stop. This will help you to learn what it feels like to be under pressure in the water and is worth doing even if you won’t race like this.  Make sure you practice from all positions so you get used to swimming through the group or having people swim through you.

3.       In and out of a buoy.  Start 50 strokes away from a buoy and race into it and out of it, try this in a group to practice the pinch point of a buoy.