Swim Starts

If you aren't 54-minutes or faster for an IM swim then remember...

...There is NO clean water to get to!

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QUESTION TO ME:

> I consider myself
> to be in the 53-55 range assuming typical conditions.
> How did you approach swim starts when you were in
> this range?

ANSWER:

This year was a REAL eye opener for me. My fitness was nowhere near 2004
and early 2005 but I came out with guys that used to beat me out of the
water. Why?

Well, I used to start way too fast -- and that was when I was telling people
that I was going easy! Everyone goes BANANAS at the beginning.

Key thing -- get dragged out to 400m swimming easy -- then it should feel
steady. You HAVE to swim easy enough that you can "crank" a fast 200 at
anytime. You'll need to do that around 1,000m and 2,000m -- this will
either be due to a pace change or to bridge around someone that cracks.
People generally crack at 1K and 2K.

Also remember that swim time doesn't matter -- it's all about glycogen
conservation. As a high volume guy that rarely gets tummy issues -- you'll
be fine regardless.

My swims this year were "easy" due to learning how the start works. I also
lucked out that Matt Lieto swam on top of Monica for 1200M (!) so she ended
up pulling my group in Canada.

Pace change swimming on long intervals is the single best open water
training technique -- I do a lot of that in my training.