swim suggestions
3471
Member
1768 days
RV posted 3 years ago.
First off congrats on your first tri!
If not one of the fastest swimmers then seed yourself back and to the outside. A few extra yards is way better than being thrashed in the washing machine.
Also need to practice sighting. Of course a very well balanced stroke will lessen how often you need to sight. When you do sight maybe every 3 - 5 strokes, you want to lift your head only far enough to get the goggles out of the water. You raise your head when your arm extends to enter the water - take a peek - then roll to breathe normally.
I finished my first tri today and had a blast doing it. I feel content with everything but the swim which killed my overall time. I swim fairly well in the pool, but fell apart in the open water. I had no problems with hydration during the later part of the race given I swallowed a gallon of lake water during the swim:) My major problems were:
1. getting pounded by other swimmers at the beginning (apparently I wasn't far enough to the back) which really took a lot of energy to get out of the way, and
2. swimming in a straight line. I never considered how many times I would need to lift my head up to see where I was going. And every time I did, my feet dropped, and my technique disappears. It felt like I could never carry any momentum. It's been bugging me since the race, how do you stay in a straight line without lifting your head too much?
Any suggestions or reading references, especially with #2, would be helpful.
thanks in advance,
S