Triathlon Swim Tips Newsletter

Dear Friend,

10 days ago while traveling around New Zealand, I stumbled upon a women’s triathlon at Lake Hays near Queenstown. The race had about 200 participants and was a sprint with a 300-meter swim.

I got to talk to a few of the finishers and came up with some common challenges in triathlon swimming, and made a video out of it. Please excuse the quality, videography isn’t my specialty! Content is what matters here. 🙂

Watch the video here and come back to read about some solutions to what was uncovered.

Enjoy,
Kevin

p.s. I’ve completed phase one of my new site….click the link below to check out what’s new!

The Triathlon Swimming Essentials

What can we learn from the video?

A few challenges were discussed in the Queenstown triathlon video. Let’s break them down and see how to overcome what we heard:

1. Not enough time to train. Yes, of course you have the right to do duathlons instead of triathlons, and often this is just a matter of preference. But if you’re feeling squeezed on time to fit in swimming to your training routine, remember that in triathlon, focus the most time on your weakest link. So if that means swimming, just cut out a run and bike workout. Also, economize your workouts. Only have 30 minutes? Simple, 5 minutes warmup, 10 minutes drills, 10 minutes main set, 5 minutes warm down.

2. Not practicing in the open water. Even for a 300 meter race, practicing in the open water is a MUST if you’re going to do an open water triathlon! At minimum you should be getting in the open water every other week and getting used to conditions and how it feels to swim without walls.

3. Cold water. This can partly be overcome by training in cold water. However, if your race is in really cold water, like the pacific ocean in California, it still may be a bit of a shock when you first dive in. The best thing to do is to stay calm, and keep your breathing as normal as you can. Mentally be prepared for what it feels like to get into ice cold water and you will not be thrown off in your race.

4. Overall preparation. How bad does it suck to have to repair or replace a tire? Interviewee #4 overcame this apparently with ease! Just make sure you have everything in working order before your race. That includes goggles, caps, and wetsuits!

For the women, these women’s sprint races are a perfect way to get started in the race. You will experience a ton of support, and the distances are not too overwhelming even for the true beginner.

Cheers from New Zealand!

For more, and to order The Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming, click here!