Open Water Swim Training

Open Water Swim Training

Open water season is upon us.

This raises those questions again. What should you be doing in open water? What type of training is effective? What does an open water swim session look like?

This article is about some of the things you might want to think about when starting open water swimming.

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Transitioning From The Pool To Open Water

Some people just can’t wait to ditch the chlorine-filled pool and jump in to the cooler, darker waters outdoors (you know who you are!). Others much prefer the comfort of the black line, the pace clock and the water bottle at the end of the pool.

The reality is that most triathlons take place in open water so we should all be comfortable swimming in a wetsuit outdoors – so we all need to practice this in training.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should abandon the pool and do all of our swimming outside. There is much to be said for keeping some sessions in the pool.

So, you decide to head to some open water sessions. What do you do when you get there? How do you structure a session in the open water?

For me, there are three things to focus on:

1. Skills
2. Conditioning
3. Race Tactics

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Skills

If you are doing the odd session outdoors, then your sessions should be less about fitness and conditioning (continue with pool sessions for this), and more about open water skills.

There are some key open water skills you should be looking to develop. 

1. One of the first skills you should look to develop is being comfortable with other bodies in close proximity! Swimming with, alongside, behind, in between and ahead of other swimmers. If you’re comfortable with this, then you should have no problems on race day! 
2. Learning (or relearning) how to draft others (and therefore save energy) should be something you also focus on.  
3. Learning how to lift your head up and see what’s going on in front of you and making sure you are swimming in a straight line (without your legs sinking too much), is another skill you should work on.  
4. Learning how to go around a buoy and change direction is another.  

I cover these skills in my open water swim sessions – and also in the pool prior to race season. If you’d like to master them, get in touch!

If you struggle to get outside in open water (time, availability) to some extent you can practice all of these skills in a pool – so don’t despair!

Comfortable In A Wetsuit

For me, the most important thing you can do in open water sessions, is just to get yourself comfortable swimming in a wetsuit.

Sounds simple.

This is a very different sensation than you will be used to in the pool. Flexibility in your shoulders will be compromised a little (even with the very best wetsuits). Your elbows don’t bend quite as easily. Your legs will be higher in the water. Your chest will be tighter. You will have rubber around your neck. Having experience of this, knowing all of these sensations in advance, will really help with your race day swimming.

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Conditioning

Setting swim sessions in open water is a little more difficult than in the pool. Distances are difficult to judge. There is no wall to hold onto at the end of each rep. There is no pace clock. The water is cold, so stopping after each rep can be uncomfortable.

There are ways, though.

You don’t have to – and you should not – just get in and swim. This will do little for your overall conditioning.

• Often, open water swimming venues involve laps. You can base a session on these laps e.g. 1 lap warm up, 4 laps at race pace (30-45s rest between each lap), 1 lap easy.
• You can use your watch to enable you to do some time-based sessions. These are similar to cycling sessions e.g. 10 x 2 minutes, 4 x 5 minute efforts (30 seconds rest) etc.
• You can swim some race simulation sessions (see race tactics below). This could look like 1 lap ‘comfortably hard’, 3 laps at a steadier race pace. 
• Some building pace sessions are also good, where you increase the pace each lap, or each 5 minute block.

However you do it, much like pool swimming, I think it’s important to develop more than one pace. Don’t just get in the open water and swim. Try out different things.

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Race Tactics

The third area to work on in open water swimming is race tactics. This could include:

• Race pace starts
• Mid-race accelerations
• Australian exits
• Preparing for transition

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Race Pace Starts

Races usually start off fast.

Often this is not a conscious decision, rather you just get caught up in the moment, get a bit excited, lose a bit of concentration. Sometimes it’s a tactical thing, to ensure you get on the feet of some faster swimmers and benefit from their draft.

You need to be able to switch from fast pace swimming to ‘race pace’ without ruining the rest of your swim. Start fast but then drop back into steady state. You could do this in your sessions. Half a lap ‘comfortably hard’, dropping back to steady race pace for the next 1.5 laps.

Mid-Race Accelerations

Sometimes, in a race, you want to accelerate.

To catch a group of swimmers ahead and benefit from their draft, to get to a buoy ahead of your pack and have a smooth turn, to move past people who are swerving all over the place ahead of you.

To do this, you need to be able to change pace, accelerate and then settle back into your swim pace. After a warm up, try 4 x 30 second bursts of pace during one of your laps, dropping back into race pace between efforts. You’re looking for the sensation of speed during these efforts.

Australian Exits

Some races have an ‘Australian exit’ in the swim.

This is usually a two lap swim – where you get out of the water half way around the swim, run for a bit and then dive back into the water.

Practicing this in open water can be fun!

It’s a strange sensation running immediately after swimming. Your heart rate skyrockets (mine does anyway). Doing this a couple of times in training will prepare you for this.

Preparing For Transition

As above, running immediately after swimming is hard work! You have been horizontal for anywhere between 30 minutes and 90 minutes (depending on your race distance and your speed). Getting out of the water after this time can cause you to become light headed and a little dizzy.

I’ve found a good way to deal with this is to increase your leg kick during the the last couple of hundred metres of your swim.

To translate this to open water swim training, you need to know what it feels like to kick your legs harder / faster. So, in your open water sessions, do some work where you increase your leg kick for 2-3 minutes at a time.

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We could go on. We could talk about how often you should sight, what sort of stroke rate you might use, how often you should breath, what to do if you have a collision with another swimmer, what type of goggles you might want to think about, what other sessions you could do. The list goes on.

Hopefully, this article gives you a few ideas for your open water swimming to get you started and get you thinking. Lots of fun to be had out there – so please don’t just swim aimlessly!

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