(upbeat music)
- Welcome back to Triathlon Training Explained,
powered by TrainingPeaks.
- This week, we are diving into the open water
and embracing race season.
We'll be bringing you some key tips
and swim sessions to get you going.
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- The majority of triathlons in the summer
are held in the open water.
And here in the northern hemisphere,
we are in the height of our race season.
meaning we basically have a race, loads of races,
every weekend happening.
So, it's now that you want to be making sure
that you're getting yourself into river, lake, the sea,
whatever you have near yourself
to make sure that you're prepped for
an upcoming open water triathlon.
Now, before you do that, it's really sensible
just to make sure that you are ready for that.
And hopefully by this point in the season,
you'll be confident in your swimming.
Hopefully, you've got plenty of swim mileage in the pool
and you've got your fitness up to scratch.
- Yeah, and then you have to think about safety.
That really is key and it's essential
to make sure you've got a buddy to go swimming with.
So say you're at an open water swimming venue,
like this here at Vobster,
then they'll actually insist
that you have someone to come along with you,
whether that's swimming alongside
or on the side watching.
Sometimes they have, there are life-guarded sessions.
But if you're going wild swimming,
then obviously, there are no rules
but it becomes even more important
to have someone who's competent
and an experienced open water swimmer to go with you.
And before you go, it's a good idea
to check the forecast, and also to note
what's been happening in the weather a few days beforehand,
because say there's been a lot of rain,
then you're actually going to have,
if you're swimming in a river,
there's going to be an increased flow,
it might be slightly murkier water from the runoff
and could even affect your stomach if you're not careful.
And then on the actual day,
obviously, rain isn't a problem
because you're getting wet anyway,
but if it's really windy, that can affect
some venues, you can end up with waves
and make it a little bit harder to swim in.
And then there's the current to consider as well.
So if you're swimming in the sea,
check the tide times, because if it's a spring tide
that means the tide's going really fast,
and in a river, obviously, you've got the flow of the river.
So whatever the current is, swim into it,
so upstream if you're in a river,
so then you always know you're going to end up
back where you started if you get tired.
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- Right, so, beyond the obvious of
a swimsuit, hat, goggles, and even a wetsuit it it's cold,
there's some extra bits of kit
that you might want for safety and comfort.
Now one of which is a swim buoy or tow float.
Now this'll really help just making sure
that you're visible, particularly if other boats
are using the same area that you're swimming in.
Another thing is actually some anti-chafing rub,
cream, lotion, whatever it is,
you might want to apply that to your neck
just to avoid any rubbing of the wetsuit of your neck.
And also, some flip-flops
if you've got to walk over some rocky ground
to the water's edge, to where you're going to be swimming.
- Yeah, and then plan ahead,
so maybe check what temperature the water's going to be
and also the air temperature.
If a wetsuit's needed then obviously
you need to bring that if it's cold,
but then if it's actually a hot day
then you want to think about putting some sun cream on,
if you're swimming in a swimsuit,
your body's going to be exposed to that.
And also make sure you've got plenty of hydration
whether that's actually during your swim,
if you're doing laps, put your water on the side,
or have a bottle handy to hydrate properly
when you've finished.
- Yeah, and also think about post swim,
and what you might need for that.
If it's been a really cold swim
then you might to bring some extra layers
to make sure that you keep warm
and get warm after the swim.
Also, a hot drink, that'll really help
to increase that body temperature.
But if you want a bit more detail
on what to bring for open water swimming,
you can see our open water kit bag guide,
which we'll be throwing to you at the end of this video.
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- Well, when you come to open water
you want to make your training session
as specific to those skills that you need
to practice there as you can.
So, taking away from the pool,
you want to practice things like
swimming in a straight line
when you don't have that black line to follow.
Sighting, for example, which is hard to do in the pool.
Swimming around buoy markers, swimming in a group,
doing your entries and your exits,
and even deep water starts, the list goes on.
But you need to make it specific
to the race that you've got coming up
and those areas that you really need to work on.
- Well, on top of those skills you could also
add some structure to your open water swimming.
It can be very tempting just to jump in
and simply swim when you're doing open water swimming,
which is fine to a degree,
particularly if you're new to open water swimming,
but if you're trying to prepare for a race,
it's really good if you can add some changes of pace
and some effort into the swim,
just as you would if you were swimming in a pool.
And if you live locally to an open water venue,
you could even start replicating
some of your pool sessions in the open water.
But just be careful and make sure that
you're keeping the quality there,
so that you've still got that speed for race day.
(upbeat music)
- When it comes to devising a session in open water,
you'll need to use a little bit of imagination
because you don't have the pool clock
to tell you exactly the time that you're swimming
or a coach on the poolside,
and you're probably not going to have a group of swimmers
that are going at the same pace as you, either.
So with that in mind, you can actually use your strokes
to roughly work out how far an effort is.
So with that in mind, we've actually put together
a session that you can try.
Okay, for session one,
do a warm up of ten minutes easy
and then five minutes swimming,
building up to a strong effort,
so finishing similar to your 70.3 pace.
And then have a minute of resting, just treading water.
And for your main set,
swim 30 strokes hard, and then 15 strokes easy.
And repeat that five times continuously.
Once you've done it five times,
tread water for a minute to rest
and then repeat that whole block three to four times
and then finish with a warm down
of five minutes easy swim.
(peaceful music)
All right, for session two, for your warm up,
start with a five minute easy swim
followed by a five minute Ironman pace intensity
and then five minutes steady
to get you ready for the main set.
And for this, you're going to use the buoy markers,
so let's presume that they're evenly spread out,
I want you swimming the first two markers hard
and then to the next marker easy as part of your recovery.
But add on 15 seconds at the end
of just treading water to get your breath back,
ready for the next set.
Repeat this whole thing 10 times through.
Take two minutes extra rest.
And repeat it, once again, 10 times through.
And then, for your warm down,
do five to 10 minutes of easy swimming.
(peaceful music)
- Of course, those last two sessions
that Heather's just mentioned are just a guide
so both the timings and the distances
are completely adaptable to your standard.
In terms of measuring your effort,
you've pretty much got to go by perceived effort
for open water swimming,
unless, of course, you have an accurate GPS device.
When it comes to the rest, it's a good opportunity
to practice your treading water as I'm doing just now,
or, if you're quite new to open water swimming
or extremely tired,
then you may want to plan your reps
so that you finish in the shallow water
or somewhere that you can hold onto something
like a pontoon for example.
But don't forget that actually by wearing a wetsuit
you're a little bit more buoyant anyway,
which is going to make those recoveries a bit easier.
- Well, next time you head out for
some open water swimming training,
you should be more prepared
and able to make the most of that opportunity.
But whatever you do, just make sure
you take a buddy with you.
And that should also make it a little bit more fun
and see it like a treat,
getting out of the chlorinated pool
and into the fresh air of nature.
- Absolutely.
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so you can head on over to the shop to get those.
And if you'd like to see that video
that I mentioned earlier, the open water kit list video,
you can see that by clicking just down here.
- And if you want to know how to master
open water swimming, well, that video is just here.