i3 Open Water Swim

Train & Prepare

Open water swim tips:

Coach Stephan Teeling Lynch
Go Tri Coaching www.gotri.ie

Open water swim tips

Getting started: Be prepared!!

1. 2 x swim hats (ideally silicone)
2. 2 x goggles- one set of clear goggles and one darker pair, your pair of choice depending on the weather on the day
3. Wetsuit + tri suit or under gear-such as a rash vest or compression top
4. Body glide or wetsuit friendly creams to help with getting it on and off + around the neck for friction

Training for open water Triathlons or swims

RULES:

1. Never ever swim alone, if your part of a group operate in a buddy system, choose a partner of equal swim ability, or if you’re not confident enough ask a senior member to swim with you for the first session
2. Never ever panic, if you get into trouble at any stage, roll over on to your back tilt your head to the sky and kick your legs gently, put your hands out and scull gently the wetsuit will help keep you afloat, while you re-catch your breath to swim on
3. If you get into trouble or difficult, follow the above steps and then raise your arm with a closed fist, the swim instructor or if in a race, support crew will come to you and assist you.

Training:

1. Never ever swim alone, if your part of a group operate in a buddy system, choose a partner of equal swim ability, or if you’re not confident enough ask a senior member to swim with you for the first session
2. Never ever panic, if you get into trouble at any stage, roll over on to your back tilt your head to the sky and kick your legs gently, put your hands out and scull gently the wetsuit will help keep you afloat, while you re-catch your breath to swim on
3. If you get into trouble or difficult, follow the above steps and then raise your arm with a closed fist, the swim instructor or if in a race, support crew will come to you and assist you.

Training:

1. When training for open water sessions, do what you do in the pool, don’t change your stroke
2. Learn to sight and learn a sight rhythm, a sight rhythm is a routine that you don’t break of looking up for direction; it is different for a lot of swimmers. Some swimmers like 6 or 12, this can depend also on the weather conditions also but experiment, see what rhythm suits you and stick to it.
3. With your swim buddy, take turns practicing drafting, and the uglier side of open water racing being swam upon. On drafting, practice side drafting and drafting on feet.
4. In training get used to being beat up a bit, find a group or a few friends and practice mass starts to a buoy, practice pulling at each other ( try not to be too mean J, but get used to this, so when it comes to racing there will be no panic attacks)

Training for the beginner

Racing for the beginner

Choosing races according to ability-we are lucky to have lots of different races on our racing calendar, that suit beginner athlete’s with weaker swims, for example Carrick on suir or Cahir Tri 3 race. A lot of races now also carry Tri a Tri races with shorter distances also, so make sure.

Beginner swimmer training starts in the pool, getting things right there will really help with both confidence and open water swimming ability

Things you will need to be able to do before you can race

1. Float!! Practices floating both on your back and on your front. Remember that your wetsuit will aid you as you float in the open water, but you must be able to float on you back with confidence in the pool, before hitting the open sky views on race morning.
2. Frontal floating with front scull action, you will need a swim instructor, senor swimmer to demo this to you or alternatively YouTube will give you a good demo.
3. Sighting practice in the pool, practices sighting by using your water bottles
4. Close your eyes, as a pool swimmer you will get used to swimming by the black line on the pool floor, see how many times you can swim a length of the pool be it a 25m or 50m without banging off the lane ropes!!
5. In the pool with another beginner triathlete use the lane to practice swimming alongside one another, get used to your stroke being disrupted and getting the odd thump
6. Learn to incorporate your sighting and your breathing into the one stroke, (this is the topic of a further review on this site later)
7. Make sure that before you enter a race you can swim the distance in the pool.
8. Make the transition from pool swimmer to open water swimmer with the help of a senor swimmer/instructor/open water swim class in a beginner swimmer friendly area

Snamh beag (800m) Training Program

Weeks 1 to 4

The goal of weeks 1 to 4 should be to swim 2 sessions each week. Please note these don’t have to be 1hour sessions just 2 swim sessions  of 30mins approx, our goal is to be able to swim 800m not 5km.  This also has to be enjoyable, frequency of the sessions rather than the amount done per session is key for us as we aim to reach our goal of completing the Snamh Beag.

The Swim sets below are the main set of the sessions. We will use a standardised warm up, mixing up the strokes where the swimmer is able, so as to use all the muscle groups prior to harder efforts.

Session 1

Warm up:

1 length breast stroke (brst) , 10 seconds rest

1 length front craw(f/c)l 10 seconds rest

2 lengths f/c kick with brst stroke arms off 20 secs rest at half way

In-between all of these continue to stretch and take on some fluids.

Depending on what length pool you are in choose

Session 2

Warm up:  As above

Please note the rest time, as you get fitter in the water you can cut this rest time down, please don’t do this for the first 2 weeks, but try taking 5 secs off this On week 3 and see how/ what effects it has on your performance in the latter stages of this session.

Week 5

Test week- can I do the distance? Have I done enough training? Have I got what it takes? These are all questions that you will need to answer for yourself, and the answers should come from your training plan.

This week take time to get in two quality swim sessions.

The first swim session should be a broken swim set of 800m. We will break this down into manageable chunks and with little rest periods.

Warm up: as above continue to use the same routine and take this outside with you to the lake for the I3 race.

Main session

200m 10 sec rest, 100m 10 sec rest, 200m 10sec rest, 100m 10 sec rest, 4x50m 10 sec rest after each

Do not go out too hard in this session. This session is a confidence builder so that you know you can achieve the distance when the race day arrives.

Cool down

200m choice, but no front crawl take your time, bring the heart rate down and enjoy the feeling of knowing that no matter what you can swim 800m

Week 5 quality session number two

Warm up as per usual; include some dry land work also, with arm swinging drills and active stretching.

Main set; 4 x 200m off 30 secs rest at moderate pace

4 x 100m off 15 secs rest at moderate pace

4 x 50m off 30 secs rest but at maximum effort

Cool down: 200m choice stroke but no front crawl.

Note: please make sure to take on water or an energy drink while training in the pool. Athletes often forget to drink while swimming as they are in water. Dehydration has a huge effect on training and racing performances so keep topping up.

Week 6

Race week

2 sessions again this week followed by race day, if by week six you have not tried open water swimming make sure to get an open water swim in at the begging of the week. It is a strange feeling for those who have never swam in open water before, the lines at the bottom of the pool have gone, water life and nature combine to make beautiful things to look at and shock the first time open water swimmer. You will have to decide also if you are using a wetsuit or swimming without one.

Ideally for a first time open water swimmer I would be advising you swim with a wetsuit, as in the case of difficulty you have a certain degree of floatation provided by the wetsuit. This is something for you to decide and will depend on your level of ability to start with.

Two 30 min swim sessions

Target 800m/1000m per session

If you are going to try open water swimming this week, Try and swim from the activity centre. They will be able to provide visual cover from the peer in case of any trouble or check out www.gotri.ie to see if the Gotri coaching team have a session on that might suit you.

The final session J

Warm up

4 x 25m f/c rest= 10 seconds

4 x 25m f/c kicks with breast stroke arms

Main set

8 x 50m 1 fast 1 slow off 20 seconds rest

Cool down

100m back crawl or easy swimming

The big mistake made by most athlete’s is not trusting their training in the run up to a major event, they panic and want to get more training in so they can perform better and end up being tired come race day. Don’t make the same mistake.

Train Smart: Train Happy

Time to address what happens if I can’t make a pool session?

There are huge benefits to cross training for beginner and elite athletes. Plain and simply put to be a better swimmer you have to swim!! But there are many different exercises that one can do in order to help oneself to reach a goal.

The 4 magic r not so magic exercises for swimmers are the following and can be added into a program once or twice a week or when one is caught for time and can’t make a pool/water based session

Exercise 1 – full stroke exercise

The chin up/pull up

This exercise is divided into 2 phases

Phase one is the pulling up phase to the chinning position

Phase two is the lowering phase back to starting position

(Please note, no cheatingJ)

The muscles used in this exercise are majority the same muscles used during the arm cycle of the swim, please also not that to do a chin up correctly one must also engage their core

Starting off, aim for 3 x 2 reps with 20 seconds rest between sets. Build on this every 2 weeks

Exercise 2

The push up- mid stroke exercise

Please read and practise the correct technique on all exercises

Subject lies prone on the floor, legs together, palms on the floor, hands pointed forward and approximately under the shoulders, please keep your back straight, subject pushes up to the up position and returns to the starting position

How many should I aim to do?

3 sets of 5 slow push ups with 20 secs rest between each. Please do not try to do these with a fast return action; you will miss out on some of the benefits

Exercise 3

The tri-cep dips exercise

This can be done using a chair and with legs extended or bent depending on your ability. Please have a train professional show you how to do this exercise correctly

Exercise 4

Core plank exercise

This can be done in the extended push up position or on ones elbows

Take your time to visit a fully qualified gym instructor for demonstrations and do not attempt any of these whilst be injured or without undergoing a full medical check up by a doctor.

Core exercises are hugely important for swimming. A lot of first time swimmers new to the sport don’t understand just how hard or demanding swimming can be on your core muscle group. An enjoyable way to work on these is to partake in a Pilate’s class.