Begginer Triathlete - Swim will kill me (Page 2)

Don't feel too bad.  I started going to the pool a couple of months ago to get ready for my fist tri (last weekend).  I had the master's coach there to give me some pointers.  After he saw me swim, the first words out of his mouth were "you swim like a barge".  Well I thought, at least I could swim.  He gave me some pointers and I worked on those.  Then he watched me again about a month later and he gave me some more pointers.

Skip forward to race day last saturday.  Brand new wet suit, never been used.  I scuba, but have never swam in the open water just to swim, let alone with a new wet suit on.  The race starts.  I take off.  After about 10 strokes I realize I can't breathe.  The wet suit is cutting off my neck.  People are kicking me and splashing me.  I am doing the same to them.  After about a third of the way through, I came really close to calling out to the boat guys and asking them to rescue me.  I was really starting to panic.  Brand new experience that was.  Finally I calmed myself down and finished the swim, but it was all side stroke, doggy paddle, and backstroke.  It was scary and humbling.

Well this week I have been in the open water twice (next tri is in 10 days).  I vowed I would get used to it all before the next tri.  I am still not the prettiest, fastest swimmer, but just on these couple of swim days this week, I actually love it now.  No panic.  Can breathe, and getting to be able to freestyle for longer than a minute at a time.  It is actually really relaxing now, and I have only done it total 3 times now.

My whole point is, the first OWS can be very scary.  It is a WHOLE different world than the pool. 
Good Luck, I think you will do great, since you are actually getting in some open water time before your first race.

Don't worry. I never ever swam to "go somewhere" and signed up for a tri. I thought that since I ran and biked I'd be fine. Actually, I could barely get to the end of the pool and had to hang on the side at each end to catch my breath. I took my first real swimming lesson about 10 or 11 weeks out from my tri.

My coach said that he got a lot of people who were runners and cyclists that had a hard time swimming. It's because you are using your entire body and you have to breathe at specified intervals. It's normal for this to be more difficult if you aren't currently a swimmer. I practiced a lot (3-4 x wk) and completed my 800 meters in my tri in the "top" 2/3 of the field. I have to admit that at least half of that distance was backstroke so I could breathe, but hey, I completed it. There are no 'tri-police' that say it all has to be freestyle.

Best of luck, and happy training!!

Swim update.  Okay so after my first swim for distance OWS just for the fun of it "see where I stand" swim.  I started swim training in a pool yesterday.  I knocked out 250 meters/yds (I dont know if the pool is in M or Yds.

I swam 150 of it in 50 M increments then the other 100 M I could only manage to swim them in 25 M and had to rest for about 20-25 sec. in between.

All in all, it was a lot more positve then the OWS.

The wifey is a more accomplished swimmer than I am and I asked/told her "when I rotate to breathe I think I kinda freak out a little cause I feel like water is going to get in my mouth." She had some great advice "You're gong to have to get over that." Sweet...I wish I would have thought of that.

Swim won't kill me but it's trying to.

I started training about a week ago for a tri in July. My 1st lap in a 25m pool was a disgrace. I felt like my lungs were going to collapse and that the pulse in my neck might make my head explode!

Being that i used to be certified in whitewater rescue, i thought i would take to the water again fairly easily. Boy was i wrong.

I've been swimming laps almost every morning and pushing myself further and further. practicing the TI techniques and other stroke drills.

This morning i completed 800m all crawl and modified crawl (aka "crap my arms are tired" stroke). I really concentrated on staying linear and creating perfect rotations for breaths. I also kept in mind my thumb to thigh technique to get the most out of my stroke. I had only 2 lengths that i had to "sweet spot" stroke to manage. I'm just happy that i can now hit my 750m length needed for the tri.

now to build on this. keep up the good pointers and success stories everyone! it really helps to read this and is encouraging to hear that i might not actually drown!! =)

Nice job of making good decisions. That is exactly how one should learn swimming. I'd encourage you to keep getting regular stroke analysis. Often once someone sorta gets the hang of it, they'll often go off on their own and they end up starting to practicing bad habits. Because you can't see yourself, you'll need someone to regularly get you back on track with your stroke.

In a weeks time you went from being gassed at 25M to swimming 800M? Okay what's the secret?

ha! sorry i may have not been that clear....i did have a 12- 30 sec rest between some of the 100m  intervals...

Mainly, i feel my breathing drills of stayin relaxed and staying linear have enabled me to go a lot further.

Everything important has pretty much been said already, but I just wanted to reemphasize TECHNIQUE. As an inexperienced swimmer I thought I was making good progress in the pool but after a while my yardage started to deteriorate. I took a lesson and the instructor told me my technique was all wrong. Duh! There are so many components to the freestyle stroke that need to be done correctly it's worth it to see an expert. Now that I know what I'm doing, I've gotten my confidence back and I'm seeing progress again.

One aspect of swim technique that I learned was very counter-intuitive and I never would have figured it out by myself: When you get tired and find your back end sinking (swimming uphill) push your head FARTHER into the water, don't lift it up to breathe. By pushing your head down, it lifts up your back end, leveling the body on top of the water, making it EASIER to turn your head and breathe at water level.

Hope that's clear...Good luck to all.

Pretty frustrated -

So this was my first week of "swimming" still at a point where I can swim 50 M and then need to rest, cause I'm so gassed.  I was hoping by my 3rd swim this week that I would atleast be able to get up to 75 M before I had to rest. No such luck.

I've been swimming in total most days about 250 - 300 M but those are usually split up into 50 and 25 increments with about 20 sec. rest oin between.

Am I expectnig too much in my first week?

Also tried bi-lateral breathing, um...well let just say on my weak side I gasp for air still and do not rotate my head back into position correctly after I get air. 

Practiced breathing out my air while under water, that went okay, I guess.

Yes. Just keep pushing the overall distance in each workset. Focus on just getting smooth breaths, which probably means slowing down. Take it easy, 1 week is nothing in this sport, and just swim a lot.

I'm 1 year in (9 months swimming), and I feel like it's still nothing...

Wow, this is what I think is killing me in my swimming.  I believe I exhale and inhale all at once every third stroke (or so)... never focused on it honestly.  Found a vid demonstrating the slow exhale that I'm going to focus on next time in the pool.  If I breathed on my runs and bike the way I do in the water, I'd be gassed there as well I suppose.  
 
http://www.goswim.tv/entries/5337/freestyle---exhale-slowly.html 

Another newbie here...

I just did my first triathlon a few months back and am training for a few more this summer. Like most triathletes, the swimming is my hardest part. I had difficultuies heading straight in open water and tended to stray from the main pack. Does anyone have any advice on following the course while swimming in open water?

Thanks!

This is good advice, IMO.  Swimming--unlike running--isn't really a natural activity for people.  We're marvelously well adapted for running (hunter-gatherer ancestry and all), but far, far, less so for swimming.  So it isn't something (as has been said over and over here) you can readily just pick up on your own.

But one thing that will help improvement in all three disciplines:  Relaxation.  Time and again on these boards you see indications that much of what is getting in the way of someone improving a limiter is tension of one form or another.  In swimming, that becomes really obvious.

Head down.  Breathe out while face is submerged.  Don't slap the water.  All have been mentioned; all bear repeating.

And did I mention:  Relax! 

All very true - efficiency is rewarded much, much more in swimming than the other two disciplines simply because of how resistive water is to movement.  The smoother you are, the faster you are.  Which is why the best swimmers look like they aren't working hard at all.

For beginning swimmers the most common problem that I see is the lower body being too low in the water.  I am doing swim lessons right now for my kid and a couple others and I think I am now known as the "butt UP" guy.  Nothing is more energy draining than exposing your entire front side to the water.   You waste SO much energy by presenting such a large area to the resistive force of the water.  You want to be straight enough to expose your head and shoulders - that's it.