Possible A-Ha Moment RE: Swimming

I'm kind of sorry no one has answered you. I thought you'd get some interesting replies.

As for me, I got nothing... the only thing that constricts my chest and makes me think I can't breath is cold water.

So I guess one obvious question is have you raced without the wetsuit?   Did you get the same constricted feeling?

My guess is that it's essentially a combination of both....   maybe an adrenaline surge; you get tired and then the wetsuit feels constricting.

The only time I have had a similar experience was in a race earlier this year when I got kicked and my nose started bleeding.  It wasn't that hard a kick, but it really threw me off and I felt as if I really wanted to rip my wetsuit (which I usually love) right off there mid race.  Ended an awful swim doing breast stroke!  Hasn't happened again since.

So...    I think that it essentially is the wetsuit, but something's triggering a mild panic response.

Just my $0.02 based on my personal experience  - I most certainly can't claim to be an expert!

I fear my long initial post was too verbose and unclear, so that's why there were no responses initially.

Yes, I felt it racing without a wetsuit. That's the a-ha moment. It was this weekend in a pool start tri. I was seeded 176th out of 300 for the swim, going in 20second intervals for a mere 300.

I usually swim 2000 yards or more, albeit slowly, so I thought I could hammer a 300 like an actual sprint, with no expectations of being anything but dead BOP on bike and run.

So when I felt that same sensation, I thought - maybe it wasn't the wetsuit, it was racing. When I've been in the wetsuit, not racing, it hasn't been nearly as bad.

I'm still on the fence about my wetsuit for a long swim this weekend. If it could help my speed, I need it for the cutoff. Trouble is, my legal open water options are few, especially since the experienced triathlete in the area I have gone out with in the river is doing IM Louisville, and I wouldn't want to badger him for help this week.

I just switched pools, and will be getting coaching from a experienced university coach. If he lets me try out the wetsuit in the pool for more than a few laps, I will try to get that in this week to help make the decision. My previous pool was so hot, a wetsuit would be a sure way to pass out. That drama is thankfully behind me.

In my limited experience (2 tris), I have that same super constricted breathing immediately after my wave starts. I do not experience this at all during swim practice. Neither race has been in a wet suit. I know that my swim panic is 100% race-induced. I too can swim a long ways in a pool without any of the terrible heart racing and total lack of breathing I get during a race. I recently bought an Xterra sleeveless and will be racing in it this weekend. I am hoping that the added buoyancy allows me to relax and just focus on my swim instead of focusing on not drowning. After doing several open water swims, I have not felt any restrictions and am really happy with the suit. I HATE having things around my neck and I don't even notice the cuff. 

I am wondering if you would have the same experience if you found a well-fit wetsuit...? You may find that the reduced drag plus buoyancy makes it easier to calm yourself (and do less work) during a race. Now is a good time to shop around for wetsuits. I got mine through Xterra and used the BTNEW discount code for 51% off and no shipping. Pretty good deal. 

thanks bikerchick. Just knowing one other person has gone through it makes me feel less insane about it, and it is something I can wrap my head around and beat. I don't mind being slow and steady, but the swim start, whether seeded or mass, tends to make me think - GO GO GO GO.

As for another suit, they aren't out there. Xterra as you mentioned, doesn't have my size. I think the size I do have may actually fit just right, as I read the experiences of non-XXXL sized folks in theirs.

As for buoyancy, well.... you'd need to tie cinder blocks to me to sink me. I have such a high BF%, it's not an issue. Back when I was 360pounds and over 50%, I barely got wet.

I think relaxing is super hard to do in a race, especially in the beginning. There's a real positive side to adrenaline, but it can work against you swimming. It's a head game to try to turn off the 'go go go!', and you don't want to be playing head games in the first minute of a race...so why not try to train with it? Meaning start your swim workout with a brief dip like you would at the race, get your heart rate up and get loose, then wait outside the pool for five minutes. Then jump in (as much as a lifeguard will allow you) and go balls to the wall for as long as you can without completely killing it. After that, switch your breathing pattern/change your stroke to recover a bit, then transition into your endurance tempo. 

Before my first tri, I was having major difficulty maintaining my freestyle stroke much past a few hundred meters , but could breaststroke for days. I had decent speed and good form for that distance, but exhausted quickly after that. I eventually remedied all that (another story), but at least for the race I decided not to fight it, and raced that way; sprinted into the water, took off as fast as I could  - ended up getting myself in a decent position in relation to the pack - then slowed my stroke down, switched to the breast stroke, and finished like that. I didn't get a great time, but it was a good time, and I put myself in the middle of the mob with that strategy. It was a confidence booster as a I got on the bike. Don't forget too, there are 3 legs, and it's damn near impossible to win in the water. If you can make the distance, not DQ, and come out with fresh legs, you're way more than half way there.

I've done 50+ tris including 3 IMs.

I used to have that constricted feeling at the beginning of most ows until I had done maybe 10 ows each year. One year I was struggling with it and realized it went away in  about 12 minutes so tried to force myself to continue.

When first starting to race, I realized that that anxious uncomfortable feeling I had in pool as well as open water but it wasn't as strong.

Last 3 years I haven't felt that anxious, constricted, I want to get out of the water feeling until last month when I did a short sprint. I was pissed that after all these years it came back.

Number of factors may have come into play:

1. Much less ows...only 3 all year but did a HIM swim w/o any ows practice the month before w/o any issues

2. Race was while on vacation and someone drowned and body not recovered for a few days when I was to swim and rescue/recovery boats were close to our dock

3. Gained weight and wetsuit was bit snug

4. Started in front row

I did an Oly aquabike Sunday and a few things clicked for me why the difference as I had no anxious moments.

I think in the sprint last month, I went to hard, had a lot of contact with others both catching previous wave and waves catching me and my wetsuit snugness added to the uncomfortable feeling plus swim was so short hard not enough time for me to settle in.

My suggestion would be:

Warm up on the swim
Change your pacing a bit where you maybe hold back smidge 50-75 until you get in your rhythm

If you gain 5-10 seconds on 300 yard swim but lose 1-5 minutes on your bike and run due to pushing to hard you didn't help yourself.

SO you felt constricted and tired after only 200 yards in a race but you practice 2000 yards during a practice. Been there done that bought the tee shirt etc. I have written about this on this site a few times. I have had an anxiety attack/panic attack twice during races. The last one was at a lake where I was taking lessons. So I asked myself what is different? I don't have these feelings during practice but I do during races....IMO the ONLY difference between practice and races is More Adrenaline and More people in the water. I could go on and on about this but drop me a PM if you want to discuss it further. Search my posts and you will see what I wrote about this.

In short: IMO its not your wet suit its all upstairs in your head. The race day brings on a rush and you want to go out and do your best. In the swim you need rhythm and you MUST stay within yourself and your training zone. People go out too fast and some forget to exhale which causes the fatigue you talked about. Start out slow, even let your wave get out 25 yards or so then go in. Find your rhythm and then just go. Relax Relax Relax at the start. Much easier said than done. But contact me if you like and I can go into what I have done to work on this situation.

Not sure how much any of this applies to you, but:

1) I had the "strange water jitters" pretty bad for most of this Summer (my first season of Tris and first as a swimmer). It wasn't just open water or races, it was any time I was swimming in an unfamiliar situation. What helped me was taking every opportunity to swim in strange situations. Our tri club had a practice event where we swam the wrong way, against the current, in one of those water park "lazy river" things. Then my family went on vacation in Leland MI and I swam in Lake MI every day. Also did a tri practice event in a green/slimy/grungy lake around here. Also, the tri group at my Y does "swim in a crowd" practices where we all jam into one lane, with the faster people starting at the back, every other week or so. I don't know if I'm cured of the strange water jitters, but I'm pretty sure it's not as bad.

2) I will have a chance to test this next week, when I do my first Olympic tri. I do think one of the keys of my anxiety->bad swimming->hypoxia->freakout cycle is trying to swim too fast. So for my 1500m swim, I have been practicing swimming the first 4-500m at a deliberately slow warmup pace, then pick it up in the middle, and swim hard the last 500m. It may not be the fastest possible time, but certainly faster than if I trigger the "jitter cycle," and anyways, I am often surprised how fast I swim when I focus on swimming smooth and easy.

3) Really put this in perspective for me when one of the strong swimmers in my Y Tri group put a pre-race post about how she was worrying about water panic. This woman is probably the strongest swimmer in my group; very smooth, perfect form, and water-rocket fast. She almost always wins her AG when she competes and usually in the top 5 females. So I figure if someone who is that accomplished a triathlete, and that strong a swimmer, can have swim anxiety, I can give myself a break. It's an issue, a challenge to be overcome, but I don't have to feel like a failure over it.