Swimming Training: Pool vs Open Water

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!