Heavy breathing on race day/OWS
209
Member
2322 days
Joe_H posted 7 weeks ago.
practice more OWS if possible and your comfort level will increase. don't think it'll ever go completely away but everyone gets excited during start.
622
Member
478 days
Iron Dan posted 7 weeks ago.
You can't worry about running into people or having them run into you, because I doubt the guy that just swam over you after punching you repetitively in the face worried about it. You have to go out there and be confident and not give up your position in the water, I have found that when you worry about not bumping into other people, your time slows and you keep slowing down so you don't bump into or hit anyone and you get entirely out of rhythm.
The only other advice I can give is to be confident in your abilities to swim and go out there relaxed and enjoy the swim. Sighting can be a pain, but if you practice it in the pool, you can get your stroke down to where when you sight, there is nothing awkward about the sighting stoke. Also, work in the pool about trying to straighten out you swimming so that you can reduce the number of times you have to sight. I have been working on swimming with my eyes closed in the pool recently and in my Olympic this weekend, everytime I sighted, I was directly on course, a big improvement over what it used to be.
Good luck with your swimming.
I have been noticing that I am faster and more relaxed in the pool than I am on race day. In a recent race this weekend I noticed that right from the beginning I was breathing much heavier than normal. I don't know if it is just all the commotion in the water, the fact it is a race or that I am in open water or what. I just find that what I do in the pool and what I do in open water seems much different. Even on occasional OW practice swims I still seem a little more anxious - which leads to heavy breathing, high heart beat and slower times.
For a sprint distance I can kinda get away with this, but I have a Oly coming up in a few months and now I'm a little worried.
I also find it hard in the OW to "find my rythmn" since I am sighting every 5-6 strokes and also trying to avoid running into someone or having someone run into me.
Any help with this would be very appreciated.
Thanks!