Its getting to that time of year again when the lakes are warming up and its time to start introducing some open water training into your schedule. In this short blog I will look at the benefits of both pool and open water training and look at how much of each I think you should be doing, and what you should be doing in them. Lets start with a quick look over the positives and negatives of each:

Pool Advantages:

• You can train to very specific distances/times
• You know exactly how far and how fast you have swam
• You can easily practice drills/technique
• You can have a specific focus on every part of the session
• No weeds, fish or duck poo! (most of the time)

Pool Negatives:

• Its not race specific
• Its not as scenic
• Some people find it boring (You aren't doing the right pool sessions if so!)

Open Water Advantages:

• Its race specific for most people
• You can practice using your wetsuit
• You can get into a rhythm and practice 'race pace'
• You can practice your open water skills
• No Chlorine!

Open Water Negatives:

• It might be a further drive than your local pool
• Sessions tend to have less focus than a pool session

I often ask this question to people...
'What does your typical open water training session consist of?'

This is the answer 90% of the time...
'I swim 2-3 steady laps.'

Personally, I can't think of a swimming session that has any less focus on improving your performance!

So what should we be doing?
With pool training, most swimmers with a good coach or training programme, tend to have structure to their sessions. We might work on speed, technique or endurance at certain parts of the session, or focus on a particular technique aspect.

In open water, its very common for people to just get in and 'plod'. 

Top triathletes and even elite open water swimmers do very little of their training in open water. Once you are comfortable swimming open water there is little benefit from training in it over the pool. Obviously for a swimmer new to open water, we definitely need to be getting down the lake and getting comfortable. 

My advice for open water training:
Make it specific! 

• You can still have a warm up. Swim half a lap or around 5-7 minutes on your watch nice and steady.
• You can still do a 'main set'. Swim 400-800m reps at effort pace. Or 5-10 minute efforts on your watch. Maybe rest between them, or have an 'active recovery' and swim steady between.
• Instead of drills we can practice open water skills. Do 400m sighting practice, 400m practicing swimming between groups. 400m practicing drafting then take some time to practice your open water starts and turns.
• We can still warm down exactly the same as in a pool.
• Finally my biggest pet hate of all.......... when you get out, don't stand around and have a chat, get that wetsuit off ASAP! Then stand around and have a chat. This is the perfect opportunity to practice getting off your wetsuit and its often missed by most.

How much Open Water should I be doing?
Depending on your experience I'd recommend the following:

If swimming 2 times per week = Err swim 3 times per week! 
If swimming 3 times per week = 2 pool + 1 open water 
If swimming 4 times per week = 3 pool + 1 open water
If swimming 5 times per week = 3 pool + 2 open water  

When should I start my Open Water training?
There is a VERY simple answer to this...

When you can swim comfortably enough to do something productive!

Absolutely no benefit of rushing down there all excited in the first few weeks, swimming 200m, and getting out like a shivering wreck. If anything you are going to give yourself a bad experience and make things harder. Start your open water training when its warm enough to make sure you can breathe properly, stay in long enough to do something productive and most of all ENJOY IT!

For those of you that somehow aren't aware of Katie Ledecky, here are a few things you should know...

• Aged 18 she holds the Women's 400m, 800m, and 1500m Freestyle World Records
  
• She won Olympic Gold at just 15 years old
• 400m PB of 3:58 (WR)
• 800m PB of 8:07 (WR)
• 1500m PB of 15:25 (WR)

She has arguably the best Freestyle stroke in the world. The following photos are all from her World Record 800m swim at the 2015 World Championships...

A World Record by FOUR seconds....

It can happen to anyone. You feel like you can't swim. You feel like you can't breathe. You feel like you might die. 10 minutes later, sat on the edge of the lake, you feel like an idiot. You shouldn't. It can happen to anyone.

While the swim is the shortest section in triathlon it is often the part that causes people most problems. In this short blog we'll look at what causes open water race panics, what we can do to deal with them, and how we can prevent them happening.

3 Things to Remember...

• It happens to ALL abilities. Don't relate this problem to your swim ability. I've seen more experienced than beginner swimmers have this issue this year!
• It doesn't mean your race is over. With the correct strategy and coping methods you may only lose a few minutes. Don't write off your race. (They are expensive these days!)
• The more you practice and prepare for this, the less it will happen.

Common Causes...

• Setting off too fast. Almost ANY pace feels easy for 100-200m when swimming. We've all been there, doing a 400m swim Time Trial, it can feel so easy for the first half, then BOOM, you suddenly realise you were going too fast. Drop yourself in the middle of a busy excited swim start and its very easy to set off at an unsustainable pace and not realise.
• Not acclimatised or exhaling fully. No doubt about it, colder water sets more panics off. Making sure you have got used to the temperature before starting will ensure you are able to exhale fully into the water. 
• Lack of confidence or race nerves. Again, this goes back to needing to be fully relaxed with your breathing, and ensuring you exhale fully.
• Wetsuit comfort. Some wetsuits have a very high neck line, this can cause swimmers to feel restricted with breathing and set off panic.
• Choking. Surprisingly probably the least common cause...!

Coping Strategies...

• Spot the signs early.
  
• Slow down your pace (sometimes this can be enough to prevent it).
• Focus on fully exhaling. 
• Switch to Breaststroke if needed 
• Stop if needed. Remember that in your wetsuit you can float on your back with zero effort, so lay back and relax. Its worth knowing that the rules state you can hang on to a kayak or lake edge so long as you don't make forward progress. So don't assume if a kayak comes to help you they have to take you out the lake. Take your time.
• Ensure you are fully relaxed and settled before setting off again or before picking up the pace if you didn't stop. Take your time.
• Don't write off your race. Sometimes these ordeals feel like a lifetime, when in reality they are a matter of seconds or minutes. Keep a positive mind for the rest of the event, it is easy to make up the time on the bike/run. Stay positive.

Training Methods to Prevent Panics...

• 100m pool reps with 1st length hard. Get used to that feeling of getting short of breath and practice adjusting pace and swimming through it.
  
• Bunch pool sprints. Get comfortable swimming in a group to calm nerves. We swim 2 rows of 3 in a standard pool lane in our squad. (see photo below)
• Breathing drills. Practice breathing every 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 until you can do a length of each comfortably. Try swimming relaxed lengths on 1 or zero breaths. Get comfortable in these situations. 
• Include 'Sink Downs' in your open water warm up. Put your face into the water and practice fully exhaling  until you start to sink down, that is when you know you are fully exhaling. If you are comfortable doing this you should be fine once you start to swim.
• Practice floating. I see so many experienced swimmers forget that in open water they can take a break and rest with zero effort. On your open water training occasionally practice laying on your back in your wetsuit at zero effort. Remember this is possible next time you panic.
• Practice varied pace swims in open water. This will get you comfortable being short on breath and recovering while keeping moving.

If I had a pound for every time a triathlete asked me how they can improve their swim... I'd probably be able to afford my own swimming pool. (One day ...eh!)

So...if you want to know how to knock a hefty 20% off your swim time (potentially more) keep on reading. If you want to continue plodding up and down the pool quite aimlessly - then this is probably your exit point. 

So, how hard can it be? You are in reasonable shape (hopefully!?) and you have confidence in the water, why can't you swim like you can run and bike? The answer is actually a very simple one. 

Run lots and you will inevitably get faster. Structure your run sessions and you'll improve even more. Same goes for cycling. But swimming is a completely different beast. It's all about your technique. 

One late summer's evening in August 2012 I was competing at Box End Evening series triathlon. I exited the water comfortably in 1st place, with a 40 second lead. I'm overtaken a little while later by a young Tom Stead. Tom came past at a completely different speed and went on to win the race by almost a clear minute. My thoughts...imagine what this boy is capable off if he improves his swim!

Despite Tom being a reasonably good swimmer to start with, the reasons why he improved so much in one year translate to every level of swimmer. 

The 4 steps to improving...

First step. 
Find your current level. Time yourself over 400m but if you can't manage that time yourself over 100m. Still struggling...okay 25m will do. Time isn't important here, everyone starts somewhere. This is a base reading so we can measure the awesomeness of your improvements.

October 2012 -Tom's 400m = 6:40

Second Step. Get a coach to assess your swimming, not just anyone, your mum/dad/know it all friend will not do here. You need to know exactly what YOU personally are doing wrong. This will vary massively person to person and won't be picked up in a group session. You may think in your head you are swimming along like Michael Phelps, in reality you might look like a drowning moose, but hey, its a starting point right. Your stroke issues will be unique to YOU. When I assess someone I like to give them the 3 most important issues to work on, we can address the next 3 issues when the first 3 are fixed! (keep it simple here guys!) 

Few things I immediately picked up for Tom to improve: Head position too low, slight scissor kick, elbow dropping during pull. So... no drowning moose, but plenty to work on.

Third Step. Get a structured training programme that is specific to your swim stroke issues and your current swim level (we just figured both these in step one and two! Told you this was simple). 

Fourth Step. (The easy part I think!?) Bust your ass training in the pool 3/4/5/6 times per week. Make an effort to actually correct the stroke issues, this is key. The people that correct the stroke issues are ALWAYS the people that knock off the most time. Continue your aimless plodding and you will continue to plod. Coached sessions with similar ability swimmers is your ideal environment.

Practice doesn't make perfect...PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. 

Repeat as necessary (Re-assess every 6-8 weeks ideally)

Need convincing some more?!

Snap shot of Tom's 400m times since we started this process:
October 2012  = 6:40
November 2012 = 6:04
February 2013 = 5:45
April 2013 = 5:27
July 2013 = 5:19
October 2013 -Tom's 400m = 5:15
Next Stop....5:00 

Someone who has a slower 400m time than the above (most people!) should expect to improve even quicker than Tom with the right kind of coaching and training. 

Its also important to note that any improvement over 400m soon adds up when you factor in the distance of your race. For example 1 minute improvement over 400m could easily translate to over 10 minutes if you are racing Ironman distance.