Discover your life aquatic

by Peter Scott, Sea Hiker Coach

Several triathletes have already approached me wondering how they should prepare for their first open water race with a wetsuit. 

This is a great and very smart question. There is a world of difference between pool swimming and open water swimming. In one word: distractions.

As you try to think about your swim stroke, breathing and pace, you will be distracted every few seconds by other swimmers beside you, waves and current, sunshine, whatever anxieties or questions you might have about who or what is sharing the water with you. And then of course, you're racing!

But that's why open water is so addictive. It's a fantastic experience once you feel more familiar in your surroundings and have an idea of what to expect.

If you're asking the question of what you should expect in your first open water race, you're well ahead of the game.

I know of many triathletes who put this off. It's not easy to think about, there are so many unknowns and decisions to make.

Case in point: There are triathletes who race having never tried on their wetsuit (except once in the tri shop). gasp!…I know, can you believe it?

Bad idea.

That's when you find out that your suit fit snugly in the store, but made it impossible to breathe while swimming in the water. Or that water leaks in your sleeves on every stroke. Or that your neck seal lets water into your suit in a new freezing high pressured stream.

These are not things you want to discover on race day.

I understand human nature. We tend to shy away from doing the things that seem too complex, daunting or requiring a sequence of decisions.

This is why we don't practice breathing on our weaker side, let's all admit it.

But if this is your first foray into open water swimming, you should know the basics.

So here's a short primer on what you should expect, followed by a checklist of things to try before your race.

Cold Water

Yes, the water can be a bit of a shock. Your best bet is to explore this new sensation well before race day. Bring a friend for safety and so you have a real bonding experience.

Put on your wetsuit (see the checklist at the end of this article, though, first). As you wade into waist deep water, splash your face and neck to help prepare your body for the immersion and that inevitable trickle down the back of your neck.

This is actually really important.  It helps you avoid the gasping effect that often happens in cold water. When you're in cold water, you really need to have your breathing under control, for safety and swimming performance.

In fact, if you take a few short hyperventilations, say 3-6 quick, hard breaths, you'll have just a little extra buffer for when you start to swim. And you'll be in control of your own breathing.

For your first trial swim, pick a beach with a gently sloping bottom (ask your friends) and swim parallel to shore about 10m away from the water's edge. This is an important safety point for trying on a new suit. Why? Because it might leak, the zipper might break, or you could tear a hole, resulting in a mass of chilly water washing through your suit.

This is why swimming with a friend is always a great idea and something you should always do.

But if you take these precautions, and wear socks and gloves for super cold water, then you should be fine.

Sea Hiker Water Temperature Scale.

 Here's our scientific temperature scale (from the scientific advisor):

6-9 Celsius: Winter water temperatures in Vancouver. You swim can swim in relative comfort in winter months, as long as you have a neoprene cap, socks and gloves. For most people, bare hands and feet suck the warmth out too fast and so are not practical or safe for long swims, especially if you are swimming out away from shore. A swim buddy, as always, is highly recommended. Despite gloves and socks, your feet and hands will tend to get cold no matter what you do, even if your body stays warm.

10-12 Celsius: Your bare hands and feet will be really cold, they may immediately start to ache when you enter the water. When you put your face in the water, you may get an ice-cream headache for the first 5-10 minutes or so. Head up swimming, lots of breathing (every two strokes) is really helpful. It's hard to relax in this kind of cold water, so don't think you should be relaxed. Do you best until you actually warm up. Again, stay close to shore if this is new to you.

13-15 Celsius: That's what the water is like right now in Howe Sound and close to shore in English Bay. You will still feel a chill on your hands and feet, maybe a slight bone chill on your ankles and wrists. But it's bearable. Once you start moving, you can settle in and start to relax after 5 minutes. But you'll really have to keep moving! 

16-18 Celsius: Refreshing and great for long or fast swims. You'll feel a little breathless in the first 5 minutes as you warm up, but that will soon fade. No aching limbs or ice cream headaches. This is the coldest it gets for most ocean triathlons in summer time, with the exception of tides that churn up the deeper water and send cooler layers to the surface.

19-21 Celsius: Ahh, summer. This is the sweet spot for swimmers in a full wetsuit. You could easily swim without a wetsuit for while, but in a wetsuit, you'll be able to swim and swim without worrying about getting cold. On a hot sunny day, you might even need to flush your suit to stay cool.

22+ Celsius: Now we're getting somewhere. We do occasionally get water temperatures in the 22 Celsius mark, generally close to shore and after a few days of hot sun and no wind. In a wetsuit, you'll feel toasty warm, and probably too hot if you swim for any long duration, unless you're wearing a long john (no arms) or a shorty.

How the Wetsuit Changes Your Stroke

Most triathlon wetsuits are buoyant, and in my opinion, too buoyant for most people, especially in the legs and mid-section.

Balance: It is true that putting the maximum thickness in the legs helps most swimmers avoid dragging their legs behind them. But it also prevents you from kicking as efficiently as you can in the pool, changes your sense of balance, and makes it more challenging to control your body rotation on each stroke.

If you've been improving your balance in the pool with your head or lead arm position and succeeding, you will find you'll need to adjust your stroke further with this added buoyancy. You can tilt your head up slightly to sink your legs. But be careful that you're not arching your back - over longer swims this can lead to a sore lower back and neck.

Breathing: Breathing is whole lot easier because you just can't sink. This is good because chop and small waves can make breathing a little more tricky.  The main thing you have to make sure of is that breathing in and out is not restricted by the wetsuit. It is normal to feel some compression of the suit on your torso and chest, but you should still be able to breathe with ease. If not, exchange your suit for one that fits you.

Wetsuit Temptations: It is easy to let yourself relax in a wetsuit, you float like a cork. This is a great foundation for your confidence. However, if you let your legs dangle like noodles and your torso sag in the middle, you will still lose lots of speed as you move through the water. Swim like a torpedo, not like Gollum! Keep your core engaged, try to use your legs to stabilize your upper body, and find a way to feel stable in the water without lifting your head and lead arm too high.

Shoulders and Neck: Chaffing and tight shoulders are another consideration. Even with body glide or a similar product - a transparent odourless deodorant-style stick - applied to your neck, arms  and anywhere that might chafe against itself or the liner of your suit, you should still check your suit for obvious areas of note. One silly thing to watch for is raised stiching on the neck, this is almost guaranteed to chafe and rub your neck. You may not notice this in the water, but you will certainly notice it once you get out and while it might be a badge of courage for your race, it's something you can avoid or minimize.

Air pockets in your suit: If you can handle it, it's a great idea to pull the collar of your suit away from your neck and let water flush down your suit. Stand up and squeeze the water out - you'll find more space in your suit and an ability to slide it into the right position.

You can then eliminate any air pockets and improve the way the suit fits your body (thanks to Lynne from Switching Gears Triathlon Club for this great tip).  But, make sure the water isn't 12 Celsius! Otherwise, you'll be very cold and tense before you even start.

Swimming in Open Water

There's so much to cover here, and if you can, try one of our open water courses or Kits Pool Tri Clinics, but if we had to narrow it down to three things you should experience before your first race, it's this:

1. Stay warm: On a hot race day, with the sun overhead, it might be a great idea to jump in the water, a few minutes before your race to acclimatize to the water and the conditions of that day.

If it is early morning and freezing cold, you can opt to splash your face and neck a few times as a compromise. You're still giving your body a fair warning for the cold water immersion to come, but you're not sacrificing valuable body heat.

Standing around waiting for a race start in early morning cool air or rain is bad enough, don't compromise your comfort and performance by getting chilled before your start.

For your practice swims, swim for as long as you can stay warm. This will help to build an enjoyment of swimming in a wetsuit and will help you stay relaxed.

2. Breathe in Enough, Exhale More: There are no rules for breathing. The only thing you really need to do is breathe well enough and often enough so that it matches the level of work that you're doing.
   
In cold water, you need to breathe even more than usual. You will very naturally feel like gasping in very cold water, so it is good to actually start breathing quite rapidly and forcefully for 3-6 breaths before you even start swimming, as described above.

Focus on breathing as often as possible in the first 250-400m of your swim. This means ensuring that you're exhaling enough C02 from your lungs to prevent that unpleasant feeling of burning lungs. 

If this means breathing on the same side - every two strokes, so be it. That's perfectly fine and an excellent strategy that I use all the time. Once you relax and feel "warmed up" you can switch to whatever breathing style works best for you.

In an open water race, breathe often and focus on exhaling lots of air as you turn your head and opening your mouth wide so you can inhale with ease. The less you have to gasp, the safer you will feel when it comes to breathing. If you don't open your mouth wide enough, you just won't exchange enough air, and this can lead to uncontrolled gasping.

For your practice swims, focus on breathing first, then when you feel relaxed and warmed up, then cast your attention on smoothing out your stroke.

3. Look Ahead to Stay On Course:

The biggest rookie mistake for new open water swimmers is to put the head down and just swim. I can totally understand that. It's easier, it allows you to focus on the skills you've been practicing, it allows you to relax. But if you don't check your bearings every 10-12 strokes at a minimum, chances are you are swimming way off course.

Contrary to what you may have heard, there are no black lines and lane ropes in the ocean (although I've head that some lakes have them - it takes a lot of time, but scuba divers install floating reflective mylar strips at about 10 feet underwater so you can see them at the surface, .... honest).

So you need to keep an eye out for the general direction of traffic and the marker buoys. If you're swimming on shore, aim for a big tree, buoy, boat (moored, not in motion) or try to stay parallel to shore. Both are great navigation exercises.

A good think to get into the habit of doing is counting strokes between sighting strokes (when you tilt and slightly lift your head to look forward as an arm drive ahead of into the water). You don't have to do this all the time, but if it is new to you, it's a good idea. Count to 8-10 strokes and then figure out how you're going to look ahead.

In flat water with good steering on your part, 10-12 strokes might be fine. In choppy water with current and lots of people in your way, every 4-5 strokes might be required.  But the energy and time you save by swimming in straight line usually outweighs the energy it takes to sight forward.

If you find you are stopping completely in the water to look up and really lifting your head, you need to learn the sighting technique, which makes a big difference, and allows you to keep the flow of your swim going.

For your practice swim, test your ability to swim in a straight line. How many strokes before you veer off course? This will change, though, as the water conditions change. The more current and wave action, the harder you will find swimming in a straight line.

Leave Your Race in the Water

And finally, accept that the water has other ideas for you. That's part of the adventure of open water swimming. You can do your best for that day, but it is possible that the water might be too cold, or the waves too choppy or the field of swimmers too aggressive. That's just part of the adventure.  Chalk it up as valuable experience for next time.

The best advice I can give you is to approach your first race from a "soft style" perspective. Start out as relaxed as possible and gradually pick up your pace when and only if you feel a sense of comfort in your surroundings.

In a triathlon, especially your first few races, your goal should be to feel energized and warmed up after your swim.

Start there and everything will follow.

Wetsuit Checklist

Try out your wetsuit in a warm pool before taking it outside. Try some or all of these recommended steps.

At home:

• Read the instructions for putting on your suit without ripping it, and follow the recommendations.
• Gradually put on the suit inch, by inch, pulling from the inside material (nylon), not the outside (super fragile smooth skin neoprene).
• Discover if you can zip up your suit on your own. Arrange for someone to be there with you, otherwise a tri suit does interfere somewhat with work obligations and your social life.
• Buy some anti-chaffing product for your neck and other tender parts. Try it on.
  

At the Pool:

• Put the suit on dry, it's much easier. Do not have a shower beforehand! Time yourself. This could be important for race day. You don't want to rush putting on the suit, that's how you can get flustered, anxious and even injure your hands or suit.
  
• Once it's on, to get an even better fit, open the neck of the suit to let some water in. This will help you readjust the suit if it sticks on certain body parts. Stand up to let the water drain before swimming. This is especially important for your chest area and shoulders.
• Explore the feeling of water pressure compressing the neoprene around your chest. You may feel a bit uncomfortable here. This is natural. However, if it feels like a crushing pressure, and you can't breathe at all, then the suit may be too tight.
• Swim for a few 100m. Can you kick well? You may be tempted not to kick at all, but this will cause you some problems for your stroke, as you will have a hard time rotating effectively on each stroke.
• Swim for a few more 100m. How does your breathing feel? You will feel higher in the water, so that will be nice. Pay attention to whether your chest feels like it can fully inhale. This is very important. You need to be able to breathe freely. If you can't, exchange you suit for one that fits snugly but still lets you breathe normally.
• Swim for a few more 100m. Check your speed per 100m with a relaxed swim. You may notice you're swimming faster or with less effort. This will help you estimate your seed time, if you need to provide one for your race.
• Swim for 500m. If you're getting to hot, flush the suit again. This time, add sighting to your stroke (looking ahead over the water). Try to keep your head low when you look up so you don't slow down. Stroke counting is a nice test for this, too.   
• Check to see if you feel any strain on your lower back. Some suits are very buoyant in the legs and torso panels, so this can create a problem for some people.

Taking the suit off:

• Try taking the suit off. Again, read the instructions on how to get your suit off. Try it slowly the first time and then with speed in transition. 
• Rinse your suit out as much as possible to keep it alive. I don't normally recommend swimming in a pool with a wetsuit, but 1-2 times won't hurt it. 
• Dry the suit draped over a shower door or chair. Do not leave it out in the sun or hanging from a hanger. This will stretch out the shoulers and put more tension on the seems.
• Dry out your suit inside out, then put it back to normal for storage. Your suit will last longer.

Any tips for me to add?  Contact us to contribute to this list.