Planning and Preparing for your Swimming Triathlon

swimmer1Make sure that you plan long ahead of time by making a list of the materials that you are going to need in order to participate in the swimming portion of your triathlon. Here is a list of basic supplies that you are going to need for your training regimen and the race itself.

  • Swimsuit
  • Cycling shorts or racing suit
  • Goggles
  • Cap
  • Anti-Fog Drops
  • Wetsuit (In races where it is allowed)
  • Lubricant (Anti-chafing)
  • Water Bottle for pre-race hydration
  • Watch or heart monitor
  • Plan for using all of these items

Training Tips:

Make sure that you are not overdoing your swimming workouts. For most triathlete participants, an adequate workout is between 30 minutes and 60 minutes, and you can have one workout per week that is 75 minutes to 90 minutes if you want a long and straight swim.

In order to set a goal time for your swimming, you need to determine what your threshold swimming pace is for 100 meters of swimming, then add 5 % or 10 % to accommodate navigation issues and also to compensate for a lack of walls, and then multiply that amount by the distance of the race. This time should be generally pretty accurate barring any strange occurrences such as being kicked in the stomach by a passing swimmer.

You need to learn how to swim smart, and you need to learn how to make yourself as efficiently as possible through the practice of good swimming technique. While improvement is capable of being measured by creating faster times, it is also capable of being achieved through the same amount of elapsed time by having to put less effort forth or having a lower heart rate. This will leave you with more reserves for the biking and the running legs of your triathlon competition, and it will allow you to result in a faster race time over all.

When you arrive at the site of the race, and you have finished setting yourself up for the race, you should head for the swimming part of the course and spend some time warming up. As you begin to do some swimming, you should be looking around for any navigational landmarks that are all around you. Think about where the sun is and make sure that it will not provide you with any swimming difficulties. Are your goggles, wetsuit and cap feeling okay, or do adjustments need to be made before the race is ready to begin?

Now you can line up for the start. Line up toward the front of the pack on the outside. You can drift back to your own pace more easily rather than having to work your way through a thick mass of swimmers and their splashing, after all.

Photo Credits: eric.surfdude

Originally posted 2009-08-07 05:55:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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