Open Water Swimming

Opps, submitted too early.  I also wanted to say good luck to Blisters.

seren nos wrote (see)

Shes going for her 25 metre badge......

shes a box of frogs thats for sure

Did Pennington Flash tonight (last night!), first time there in the beginners group and really enjoyed it. Only my 3rd time OW and found it warm and great instructor too. Wish this was open before I did the Slateman in May - had a nightmare in the lake....

Did 2 laps of Bosworth and managed to get lost on lap 1, I almost went all the way round the 2nd island, when I stopped to look around I had no idea where I was or where everyone had gone. so with that little detour added on it was another record breaking distance for me, I'm guessing 1600mtrs yay

I didn't make it to bosy last night as I felt like crap. did a 35 mile ride on Wednesday and it poured down for the entire time. Wasn't wearing anything other than a jersey and by the time I got home I couldn't stop shaking and I felt sick. Made me feel like crap yesterday so thought it best to have a day off before the piglet on Sunday.

Saw a couple of girls and a chap in swimming cozzies last night, made me shiver just thinking about it, also saw a huge fish leap out of the way of a swimmer, as I got out I had a few weeds hanging off my head dreadlock style, a fun packed day, didn't see any pirates though, I've stopped asking as people think I'm odd, and thats bad in a group of triathletes

Hope you feel better soon GG

Cheers JP i actually feel ok now. All set for the piglet (my first tri since 2009) on Sunday.

Good luck GG, looks like good weather in the morning, hope you have fun

Well done JPG, I thought that the weeds seem to have grown alot in the last few weeks, you could nearly pull yourself along the out loop. Quite a few occasions i threw a lunp of weed during my stroke.

Weeds are OK. What I founds quite disconcerting was when I was fishing in a lake, some years ago. I must have been warm to have waded in barefoot, but there were little fish that decided to have a nibble. It was a bit spooky. Does that sort of thing happen at the mass start?

Blisters............with hundreds or even a thousand pair of legs all in rubber dredging up the water at the same time.you can guarantee that any little fishes wouyld have run for cover...............

remmber that in a wetsuit most of us resemble a whale

Did 2 1/2 laps of Bossy this morning, felt great, going for the big 3 laps next week, need to speed up a bit though

Training weekend at Dover for me, where I travelled a total of 13k and got stung by jelly fish 3 times.  I've never seen jelly fish before and I'm made them into something horribel in my head, but to be honest, most of them I swam over and as all the stinkers are on the underside, if you keep position in the water then they are unlikely to get you.

I think the reason I was stung was because of the turbulant water at the mass start which caused some jelly fish to become over turned.

I also learnt that jelly fish stings are really minor.  A quick shock when it happens as you aren't expecting it, but no worse that a static shock.  I had been told that it was similar to nettel rash, but nettle rash is muh more painful and lasts for a lot longer.  I could no longer feel the stings at all after 2 hours

I did my first open water swim in a race yesterday! How is sighting where your going?? I thought swimming front crawl and breathing would be hard! But it was staying on course. Any tips?? Apart from practising.

I think sighting is all about awareness in the water.  When driving a car you don't just look straight ahead and line the car up to the left of the white line.  You also look at other things to give you an awareness of your position on the road such as road signs, hedges, other cars.  You can do the same in the water too and it can help you to avoid collisions with other swimmers

If there are weeds and a current then the weeds will all face in one direction.  You can use them in a similar way to lines on the bottom of the pool, although you might want to be swimming at an angle to them rather than lining up with them depending on the direction you want to head in.  This is a good trick over short distances and can keep you on line between sighting ahead of you.

Also look at the bank and try to keep in line with that.  Make sure you draw an imaginary line along the bank and follow tthat rather than following the actual bends and curves in the bank.  Again, this is good for short distances coupled with sighting ahead.

When sighting ahead, try to look for something beyond the buoy.  Buoys are hard to see in the water especially if there is any chop or other swimmers around.  So instead look for a landmark on the bank such as a tree, building or spire that is higher up and easier to spot.  The boxes that contain the rescue rings located around a lake are good as they are bright and easy to see.  If you get a chance you can walk around the lake and work out your sighting points before you get in the water.  This makes it quicker for you to turn at each buoy.

When sighting, take a quick glance.  Lift your head just enough so that your eyes are above the water line so that your position in the water isn't affected too much.  If you can't see anything then don't worry about it and try again a couple of strokes later.  Adjust in small increments as it is easy to over compensate and then check again before you go too far.

Don't trust the people around you to go in the right direction except during the first 100m or so of a mass start where you are fighting for position and space in the water.