Long Distance OW Swim

Got a good 4.5km swim in yesterday. The swim was in Camlough lake so it should be similar to the 10k swim in Lough Gill. I did fast 1k intervals rather than steady swimming. Its a great place to practice. They have buoys permanently in place for 750m, 1k and a couple of other distances and there are always people swimming there. Pool sessions now are 2-4km of interval training or an easy 1k technique session and seems to be working. I'm confident enough that 10k shouldn't be too bad. I also got new Sable goggles and feel much better swimming with them. Watching all this swimming in the olympics really has me in the mood to train!

edit: fixed typo....

So the 10k swim is on in 2 days. I haven't really gotten quite as much swimming in as i wanted because of other events eating into my training time. 3k this morning will be my last swim. Ideally i'd rest until Saturday but I'm kind of committed to a long cycle this evening and a long run on Friday so i'll just take those very easy and rest as much as possible. I guess lots of extra food and water between now and then is a good idea? On the day i'm thinking i'll stick with my usual big bowl of porridge 2 hours before then a bottle of lucozade or something similar near the start. We have a personal kayak so we can bring food with us.. i'm thinking water, a couple of snickers, a bag of nuts and a banana should be enough to get me through.

OH has 3 times swum the 12km OW in Cologne, it is 6 x 2km laps, he survives well on just drinking every couple of laps and eating pieces of banana.

That's come around really quickly B_Kins.  Really good luck.

Tell me about it Thanks! There's one other thing i'm wondering on how to approach the swim mentally.. during the swim would you go by time or distance? Treat it as a 4 hour swim, or as a 10k swim? I wonder would it make it easier either way.. when i'm running i tend to go by approximate time left rather than distance left so i might do the same here.

I usually go by distance, I'm a fifth of the way there, half way there etc as I never really know how long it'll take when you're swimming so far, you don't want to have a time in your head and then discover at 5km you're behind where you thought you would be.

I personally would avoid nuts when swimming, great food but also get pesky bits in teeth and throat, taking nutrition when swimming arguably harder than when running so unless you've tried it before I'd think hard about that one. Bananas are great though, just wish I could eat them. 

Good point about the nuts.. i had them on the bike during the week and yeah they were a bit awkward.. could be worse when swimming. Also with the time v distance thing, i guess i really don't know what i'm in for here so I couldn't predict the time left or how much i'll be struggling and slowing down towards the end. Distance makes more sense.

Even watching the worlds best taking on nutrition in the 10k yesterday didn't look easy! Unbelievable that after 10k of swimming it was fractions of a second seperating them. I suppose the drafting keeps them close together.

Do you have enough carbs there B-Kins? I don't have experience of a swim that far, but given water can sometimes be colder than we expect and you will be in it for some time, you might need more fuel? If you have too much you can always save it for post-race.

Good luck and have fun.

And its done. Made it difficult for myself by running a faster than planned 10k race the evening before but got around the 10k swim in a decent time. The first 8k was a straight swim with the wind blowing across us and choppy enough conditions. I made a point of stopping every 1k for either 1/2 banana, 1/2 bar or a gel. In total i had 3 gels, a banana and a snickers and about 500ml water. At 8k i took my last gel and turned right to have a nice wind on my back. From here i knew i would finish and was already a little ahead of schedule. I decided to push a little harder and ignore my burning triceps! I went hard to the end and climbed out the ladder to be greeted by the mayor, free food and a big crowd in a better than anticipated time or 3:05. I had 3:20 in my head and i think the wind pushing along at the end definitely helped to beat that time.

Great swim, tough challenge and i'm sure i'll be back. 60 swimmers all finished, from a little over 2 hours to 5 hours. Just need to shake of the hangover now

well done, excellent performance!

Well done, what a great result!

Thanks for the advice guys. It all helped!

Well done & a nice time as well. 

Well done B_Kins!

I'm swimming around Brownsea Island this weekend.  I've done almost no training for it as I have moved house and started a new job in the last two weeks and have been too busy trying to get my life organised, but it wasn't that long since the relay so I should be alright

Got a mile (1.1k down & 400m up) in the Severn at Shrewsbury to do on Sunday. Entered as a non wetsuit swim. Now find that 90% are racing in wetsuits. Think I'll have to switch to rubber to keep up, particularly as I'm ranked into the fast wave & there are some 'proper' swimmers entered. Should be good river practice for the Dart 10K

Sounds cool Caz. I didn't know what Brownsea island but i checked the map and it looks like a nice swim. Does it start and finish in Poole or how does it work? Slugs, the way i see it is if you're not in a wetsuit you're in a different category really. If i wanted to go without then i wouldn't worry about the wetsuit swimmers being quicker, especially if the Dart 10k will be non-wetsuit. Saying that i wouldn't want to swim without a wetsuit

Registrtation is in Sandbanks, then you get a boat to the island, swim around the island and get the boat back.  Entries fill up really quickly so if you were thinking about doing it next year then you need to sign up for the FB page so that you get warning of when entries open.  I think it filled up within 24 hours this year.  I've been trying to get in for about 3 years

Brownsea Island was fabulous!  The island itself is beautiful and I wished that it wasn't a race so that I could slow down and take in the scenery.  The water was shallow and had heated up so much with the sun.  In places it felt hotter than a swimming pool and those who were wwearing wetsuits had to move into deeper water so that they wouldn't overheat.

It was a well organised event and I will certainly be attmpeting to get a place next year.

I was 13th non-wetsuit Lady and finished in a time of 1hr 51 min.  I think the distance was about 3.5 miles or something like that.

Hello everyone. Don't know where the time goes. B-kins - sounds excellent - well done! SuperCaz - as you know loads of the Seals did Brownsea yesterday. A few of us swam in the normal place yesterday and, although flat as a millpond, was cold for some reason - we all thought so. Mind you, I spose if Brownsea is shallow and in an enclosed harbour...

Super Caz - have you found anywhere good to swim yet? Can't believe you won't be able to find somewhere that will let you swim sans-wettie.

Am LOVING swimming in the sea. Wish I lived closer and didn't feel so guilty about the petrol money...

I miss living by the sea so much   And didn't really appreciate it fully enough at the time.  Mind you, it was the north sea so it was always bloody cold