IRONMAN SWIM STRATEGY ...open water swimming, front crawl swimming, Total Immersion, and moreHaving an ironman swim strategy is very important as many first time Ironmen are apprehensive about the 2.4 mile swim.
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If you can swim sub-60 minutes for the Ironman swim distance then you can go to the front with the lead pack and stay out of traffic trouble and you don't need this ironman swim strategy. However, that is not 99.9% of first time Ironmen who will most likely finish between 1:15 and 2:15 somewhere.
DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!! If you attempt to swim out with the pack at the starting gun and think the best idea is to follow the buoy line to stay on course, you will be in for a very rough ride and have chosen a very poor ironman swim strategy. Hundreds of other swimmers will be doing the same thing. You simply cannot maintain a smooth stroke when your arms are landing on backs and arms and head and others are doing the same to you. Your heart rate will elevate and from the very beginning you will be losing energy you can't afford to waste. TAKE AN OUTSIDE LINE. An ironman swim strategy that works means picking an outside line when the gun goes off. Wait just 10 or 15 seconds after the gun and go into the water at the outside edge of the main pack. It doesn't matter if the swim is clockwise or counter clockwise. If it's clockwise like Ironman Canada for instance, the course markers, turn markers, and 99.9 % of the swimmers will be on your right. In a counter-clockwise swim like Ironman CDA, they will be on your left.
SETTLE INTO A SMOOTH, UNINTERRUPTED RHYTHM. The fewer people you can keep on the open water side(no markers)the better. That way you know there is little chance of being blind-sided by someone. That allows you to control your stroke and settle into a long, smooth rhythm which is exactly what you want. At the same time you can keep peeking over and see everyone else bashing each others brains out. Just keep a buffer zone between you and them. TAKE A WIDE BERTH AROUND THE TURN MARKERS. The field will collapse toward the turn markers as they approach them. The lemming-like thinking is that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so most of them will head directly toward the big turn marker to save time.
Now they will be in another mosh pit as hundreds of swimmers are all doing the same thing. Their swim stroke will go all to Hell again and all momentum will be lost. If you are following this ironman swim strategy to a "T" you will take a wider a berth around the turn markers and still say on the edge of the swimmers and avoid the mayhem. Sure, you swim a little further, but all the time you are in control of your swim and are remaining smooth, cool and calm. ***Keep in mind that as you get into the later stages of the swim, the field will be much more spread out. Normally in the last quarter or so of the swim you can begin to edge much closer to the buoy markers. There will be far fewer swimmers to have to worry about by then. This way you will have a nice direct line into the finish area.*** MAINTAINING A SMOOTH, RELAXED STROKE CONSERVES ENERGY. The first time I tried this was in the two-loop CDA course. I thought with coming out of the water and having to re-enter it to begin the second loop it would probably cost extra time, and I also thought with swimming way over on the outside it would cost even more time.
As I came out of the water at the end of the swim my feeling was that I had never felt better, more relaxed, and in more control physically, but my time was probably going to be pretty slow. YOU MIGHT EVEN BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED BY YOUR SWIM TIME. Wow! I had a personal best by some 6 minutes. So I knew I had hit on something and finally found an ironman swim strategy that worked. It makes sense to me now of course. I was virtually untouched when I was away from the pack so I turned it into a long, easy training swim and maintained the same stroke without interruption for the whole swim. That was the key. I actually swam further to swim faster and I wasn't even focused on the time or swimming faster. It was irrelevant to me. I was more focused on using as little energy as possible because it's a long day out there. It sure makes the swim more fun and less stressful and many, many people have emailed me and told me how well this ironman swim strategy worked for them. TOTAL IMMERSION....Is simply one of the best swimming techniques in the world today for triathletes of any level. Terry Laughlin's swim program is the perfect mate to my swim strategy. TOTAL IMMERSION is designed to teach swimmers to remained relaxed and efficient and if you follow this program and adopt my swim strategy you will most likely enjoy your triathlon swim instead of dreading it. TOTAL IMMERSION is offering all ironstruck visitors a 10% discount on Books, DVD's, and all other TI teaching tools. Simply click on this link totalimmersion.net/store/ and go to the store page and type ironstruck(all small case)into the shopping cart coupon box and you receive your 10% discount automatically. Remember that a great swim stroke that keeps you relaxed and in an energy-saving mode combined with a sound swim strategy will start off your Ironman day in the best possible way.
Ironman Swim Strategy Back To Triathlon Swim Training Page
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