Open water swimming

[Cantdoright1]

Im trying to set some varied fitness challenges and have spotted a swim of 1mile across lake Windermere next summer. I swim about 40 lengths twice a week in a pool and have never swum in open water and find the sea too scary. Is it an achievable challenge and how would I prepare?

40 lengths (I'm assuming a 25m pool) is a kilometre, so you're not far off distance wise.

But open water swimming is tougher. You don't get to put your feet down at the shallow end turn or the boost of pushing off a wall, and the cold/ wind/ waves (even on a lake) can be hard going.

I'd start by going for a short lake swim, just to see whether you enjoy it. If you do, keep upping the distance in open water (for as long as you can before it gets proper cold) and concentrate on stamina in the pool. Buy a decent tri suit to train in.

It sounds like a tough but doable challenge- the best sort!

wet suit coz cold.
But you can do it. Not nasty tasting like salt water.

oh.. and cloudy. Indoor pool you can see where you're going & orient self. Open Water, usually the water is very murky, turbulent, easy to lose bearings, esp. with destination further away. You see this happen in the Olympics sometimes, the leader goes off on a tangent & loses advantage.

I'm doing the 2 mile swim at Windermere.
I'm not a great swimmer, my stroke is rubbish but I can cover distance adequately slowly.
I hired a wetsuit and got in a lake (where they do open water swimming at set times) and swam about 2km ... But this might not the official technique.
It's much nicer than swimming in the pool, the wetsuit gives you extra buoyancy and it's much easier.

Find somewhere you can swim open water before the event. You won't be able to do this until April as its too cold at the moment.

There are coaches who will take you out to get some confidence. Look for triathlon ones.

I absolutely love open water swimming and am a very confident swimmer but as other people have said it’s a whole different ball game to pool swimming. A wetsuit really helps with the cold (but not all open water swimming allows them) always make sure you get the water on your face and head before you get going because it can take your breath away. It’s generally dark, murky and rough to some extent and in most cases you can’t stand up. Having said all that there is nothing like swimming in fresh water, no salt, no chlorine just water and it’s fantastic to be able to swim without constantly turning round! Organised races will have support kayakers if you feel you are struggling you roll on your back (in a wetsuit you’ll float) and they’ll tell you how to attract the attention of the kayakers.
My main advice would be for your first one not to try to keep up with people and get out of breath early, just enjoy the swim, head up to look where you are going every few strokes, oh and drafting someone going at about your pace can make it much easier (it’s allowed in tri swimming but I’m not sure about pure swimming races) just don’t keep touching the persons toes - it will annoy them hugely!
If you are doing a km in the pool I’d probably try to work up to 2km - a mile is 1600m roughly so then you’d be really confident of the distance.

I have done the great north swim (1m) twice......I can do the distance in the pool no problem but in open water I'm much slower, and it takes me a while to get used to the cold and put my face in the water 🙈🙈!! Also it is very different when your aren't swimming in lanes- I find I end up all over he place as haven't perfected my sighting technique! Also getting my wetsuit on and off is a feat in itself!! Try and get a few open water practises ok but the majority of your training can be in the pool.

The GNS is a great event with a great atmosphere, people of all abilities and shapes and sizes take place - I was worried it would feel competitive and I'd read horror stories about getting swam over the top of at the start, but I just hung back a bit and went at my own pace. The first year it was really choppy but last year it was so calm and the water temp was 20degrees! Balmy!!

Speed up the pace in the pool if you can to build up strength . Don't aim at just doing 40 laps but time yourself and aim as shredding seconds every time you go. Which stroke are you doing? Free style ? Learn how to breath in your elbow and maybe breath always on the same side every 2 stroke, so overtime you lift your right/or left arm.
Work on your glide and twist, so instead of only swimming a non-stop lap, alternate swimming one lap with an arm in the air, then the other, or change the pace, start quick for the first 100m, then normal pace and accelerate again for the last 100.
Swimming in a lake is a funny experience. I remember finding the water oily and you need to be prepared to touch vegetation. The first time, it made me freak out to feel these things in the water. Even if a lake, water might not be as still as a pool and you still have a bit of waves and a ton of splashes from the other swimmers.

I used to put shampoo in my wetsuit to make it easy getting in and out of it. Not much, but it helped. Especially when you are exhausted after the swim. And bring two towels minimum.