It Is Important To Know Multiple Swim Strokes in a Triathlon

Posted: by Sawyer in Swim
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It is important to be comfortable swimming 2-3 different strokes.  Swimming in a triathlon is different than swimming in a pool because:

1) you are swimming next to multiple other people

2) visibility is usually poor in an open body of water, and

3) there is not a painted line on the bottom of the lake or ocean that you can follow.

Therefore, you need to be able to lift your head out of the water to determine your location and that you are swimming towards your goal.

The freestyle stroke will be your primary stroke; however, it is also advantageous to be comfortable with the breaststroke.  The breaststroke is good because you can get deep breaths when you bring your head out of the water. At the same time, when your head is out, you can get a good view of the people around you and the distance to swim out.  You should also be able to do the backstroke in case you get into trouble (i.e. someone kicked you or you start cramping), but try not use the backstroke if you don’t have to. It is very challenging to swim a straight backstroke in open water.

When training in the pool you can simulate a race setting where you are swimming freestyle, switch to a breaststroke for a couple strokes and then back to freestyle.  Switching from freestyle to breaststroke and back feels somewhat awkward, but you will appreciate the skill once you have mastered it.

Great Triathlon Race Stories

Posted: by Sawyer in Bike, Run, Swim
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Tell us about your greatest triathlon achievement

Please share your story using the ‘comments’ button to the top right (or below).

Here is mine (and it’s not pretty): It was my first triathlon, the Chicago Olympic/International distance.  I had just completed my first marathon the prior season and thought I was a complete bad-ass.  I was 21 years old.  I trained fairly hard, but looking back, nothing prepared me for what I was about to do… First mistake: I didn’t have a wetsuit.  I didn’t think I needed one. I didn’t know that you essentially float while wearing a wetsuit, so you don’t have to waste energy trying to stay afloat.  I got into the water with 50 other guys, 45 of them wearing wetsuits.  I remember one saying, “Some of these guys don’t know what they are in for”. He was talking about me. The swim started and I swam fast and hard for 25 yards, I was anxious.  I grabbed the seawall after about a minute of trying to catch my breath.  I continued the swim, voyaging from rescue boat to rescue boat, all the lifeguards were happy to lend me a hand.  I never got inside a boat; I just held on to the sides (which is legal in the Chicago Tri).  I spent a long time in the water and when I got out I didn’t see a single person with a swim cap color that matched my own.

Upon emerging out of the water I started cramping.  While running from the swim exit to the transition point, my calves and thighs started to tighten up.  The one and only good thing about not wearing a wetsuit was that I didn’t have to peel it off in the transition.

When I got on the bike my thoughts were on recovering from that painful swim, so I started downing Gatorade and GUI.  My legs continued cramping…it was brutal.

Off the bike and into the run, I remember a race volunteer telling me I didn’t look so good.  I was in run/walk mode, dizzy and was drenching myself at all the water stations.  I remember the volunteer saying I needed to run right on through the cramps.  Well, at that point my entire body was a cramp.  My legs, arms, back and even fingers were cramping.

After what felt like an eternity, I arrived at the run turnaround point and made my way back to the finish.  I spotted some family members about a quarter mile away yelling for me and I accelerated into the finish. For me, out of all my finisher medals, that was the only one that mattered.

That is the one race I compare every other one to.  The race sounds like it was a disaster, but for reasons that only triathletes or marathon runners can probably understand, it was my greatest.  I found out what I was really made of.  Subsequent to that race, everything else seems easy.

Tell us your story….

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