You'll see people doing all sorts of things in the water. Sure, it'll cost you time, but your first tri is a learning experience as much as it is a race.

Look into local private swim coaching. If you're both blank slates, you should be able to pick up proper techniques pretty quickly.

Yeah you see just about everything in the water. Especiall if you get lucky and do a race with a lot of other newbies. I did my first race almost entirely on my back. My 4th race a couple weeks ago was actually my first that i was able to stay in freestyle for the full swim. So dont worry, you wont be alone.

-Alan

Like everyone else said, you'll see it all in terms of swim strokes.

I would suggest starting at the back and outside of your starting wave. 2 reasons for this, 1 altruistic and 1 selfish:
1. You're more likely to kick someone if you're doing breaststroke or sidestroke.
2. If you're slow, people may swim over you. Starting at the back minimizes contact, which minimizes the chance that you will panic.

If the race is wetsuit-legal, consider renting or borrowing tri wetsuits, as the extra float from those really can help.

I was having the same problem with swimming when I began training for a tri. I figured out that it was terrible swim form and not that I was out of swim shape.

All the swimming I had done was with a pull bouy as it was the only exercise that I could do after a complete knee reconstruction (I was able to swim 2000 yards with no problem). Once my knee got strong enough that I could swim without a pull bouy, I could make it 35-40 yards before I was completely out of breath. Swimming is not an exercise that should make you out of breath so quickly unless you are trying to "sprint" in the pool. What I found was that I was kicking way to much, which the pull had isolated out of my stroke since it takes the legs out of the swim motion.

I think that the swim problems that you are having can be easily fixed so that you can swim the entire distance freestyle. I would suggest getting someone who is a good swimmer (either a coach or friend) to try to help show you proper stoke mechanics. My wife helped me figure everything out and ever since then I have been fine swimming. I have gotten to the point now where my legs almost drag behind me and are not in use, so they are nice and fresh for the bike and run.

It sounds like your a fairly new swimmer, so you haven't necessarily commited to muscle memory an bad habits or anyhting like that. I would recommend getting the total immersion freestyle dvd and book. I recently completed my first tri and while I got through it, I was very uncomfortable. The TI method intrigues me in that stroke economy seems very good and the TI method is contructed from the ground up to help you learn the skills.

Anyone else use the TI swim method? I'm about 3/4 through with my drills and I think my stroke is about to start coming around and become more fluid. I should be in the pool in a couple of hours ;-)

It can vary race to race, but by USAT rules:
"4.2 Bottom Contact and Resting. A participant may stand on the bottom or rest by holding an inanimate object such as a buoy, boat, rope or floating object. Excluding the bottom, a participant shall not use any inanimate object to gain forward progress."

So you can move forward if you are walking, but not by using any other inanimate object.

Being a fairly new swimmer, I know what you mean about 50m being difficult at first. I started back in April and could barely make it across a 25m pool in one shot. But practice is really all it takes. Within a month at 3 times a week (W/F/Su) I was able to work up to nearly a mile (with about 3-4 30 second breaks). Now I have no issue going 2600-3000 yards nonstop. Just three times a week is all it took.

When I first started splashing around the pool I sorta followed this website:

http://ruthkazez.com/SwimWorkouts/ZeroTo1mile.html

I also started off doing bilateral breathing as my starting point - even though I could barely breath at all. I'm so happy I decided to do that from the begining. It felt weird for about the first day, but since my body didn't know any better it wasn't a big deal. It's really helped - especially in keeping a staight line in OW.

Huh, interesting the USAT rules only say no forward progress by holding onto an inanimate object. Makes it sounds like another person could pull you, or a dolphin. :) Not that anyone would want that... But I'm sure that's probably covered in an overall rule not related to just the swim portion.

wirebook,
thanks for the link, my swim workouts had no structure... until now.

i've run across several swim videos that show freestyle, but i haven't found other strokes. since i intend to swim through the winter i'd like to learn some others, anybody seen online videos anywhere?

Naw... it just means they used their training time and/or genetics to unfair advantage ;)