Swimming Faster

I'm sure I'll eventually get back to my race report but right now I'm processing my race and trying to figure out how I can improve.

So my swim was slower than I wanted it to be at Lake Stevens. Particularly since IM races typically have accurate courses and there was this very handy yellow rope that you could follow which means I was right on course.

This was my typical 1.2 mile swim 39 minutes. That means that my pace is 1:50/ 100 yards.

So the question is: why do I swim so much slower in open water than in the pool? I have a theory. I am a trained seal! I swim in pools all the time. I know where the walls are. I can tell how fast I'm going by the feel of the water and the bottom of the pool. All the things that I use as a reference for speed are completely removed in open water.

So how do I get beyond that? Well I think one thing I can do is no longer warm up. I am going to jump in and start swimming pace. I think that is part of my issue. I have trained myself to get in swim about 1000 leisurely yards and then get ready for the Heart Rate set and then main set. Well that's not what an IM race is going to allow for. It's too long of a day to hop in and do 1000 yards off the bat! As a matter of fact the only warm up I'll have that day is getting into my wetsuit.

The other interesting thing is that with a wetsuit you lose your feel for the water. You go faster because you're more buoyant but you don't get that lovely sensory input of the water on your skin. So one suggestion Sybil had was to get the feel by body position. Get used to where my arms/shoulders are when I pull and then also figure out a tempo that works well for turnover. So I've got to find a song I can play in my head that won't drive me nuts for 140.6 miles!