It may be easier for those in the southern hemisphere to wrap their minds around jumping into an open water race – it’s summertime of course. Regardless of where you’re at now, you can be (and should be) prepping for your next open water event all year long. There’s so many innovated sets and training ideas so spend the time to work open water training into your plan. A few things to consider:
1. Include variable paced speed work – open water races are known for speed changes and preparing yourself through your conditioning will go a long way when it comes to race day.
2. Know how to get around a buoy – drop a buoy in your pool and spend time negotiating turns. If you don’t have a buoy you can set a point of reference on the bottom of the pool and work various direction changes to the right and left.
3. Get your head around the course – if you’ve swam the race in prior years visualize the course in you mind. If not, spend time doing your research ahead of time and get a good mental picture of what the course will be like. Check YouTube for race footage from prior years.
As experienced open water swimmers know, there’s a lot more that goes into racing than just showing up at the starting line. Invest time before hand and you’ll undoubtedly have an even better time at your next open water swim.