5K
Beaufort River Swim
Beaufort, SC
10:15 AM Start (Water)
Water Temp: About 77-78 degrees & Calm (with tide)
Weather: About 85 degrees and Sunny
Results:
50 Minutes 50 seconds
8th Place Overall
1st Place in 30-39 Male Age Group (Carlton Bruner, 47:50, who was 1st overall, so technically I was 2nd)
-Felt, did great I feel for my first ever open water swim. I really loved it.
-One note, be sure you follow people that know where they are going....I ended up swimming more than I needed to.
-Bilateral breathe, otherwise you WILL wear out a shoulder
-Its ALOT different than pool swimmer....lots of lifting of the head to find your sight references
Hey Jeff,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the swim. I'd actually be curious to hear more about what you learned going from lap to OW swimming. I've been strictly a pool swimmer for a long time, swimming in high school and college, with no real OW racing experience. Recently I've gotten into triathlons and have my first tri with an OW swim coming up and was curious if you had any other tips for making the transition from pool to OW swim.
Thanks,
Chris
Lump-
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a great swim! I like looking at your workouts to see how I'm doing. I did a practice swim nearby the course for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Swim over the weekend. The race is in 2 weeks. I've been working on breathing on both sides also. Thanks for the tips.
Hope you find another OW this summer. They're a blast.
Tree
Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it! I feel like I trained pretty good for it and it seems to have paid off. I know my speed in the pool isn't the best and could be better, but for OW its not as important as the stamina in my opinion. By drafting and swimming a better line in OW swimming you can keep up with guys you wouldn't have a chance against in a pool.
ReplyDeleteTree and Chris, best of luck on your upcoming events! My best advice is if you can get in a practice OW swim and the more you do the better off you will be. Nearly everything I read in the USMS forums on OW swimming rung true. Things like lifting your head every 10 strokes or so, spotting something in the distance to swim towards, bilateral breathing). While I do bilateral breathe in the pool I found myself doing alot more to one side (right) in the OW...not sure why, maybe the waves or where the rest of my little breakout group was? Also, warmup up beforehand if you can..onsite or at a local pool, either will do. I was a little to geeked up the first 5-10 minutes and worried a little I was toast, but I concentrated on my breathing and distance per stroke and things calmed down.
In any event, best of luck and thanks for the comments and following the blog, I hope to continue on for a long time. The goal IS/WAS to get ready and train towards USMS SCY Nationals at GA Tech next Spring since I live here in Atlanta. However, if I really fall in love with this OW thing I may just train for that instead and let the Master's meets just be a secondary thing? I've always had a dream since I was a kid to swim the English Channel and the thought of attempting that is becoming more real. I think I'll make that determination at the end of the summer or in the fall.
Go get 'em and let them eat bubbles!
Jeff