by Nick Mathers

Most triathletes are willing to jump into local cycling time trials or open running races, but have a big hang up when it comes to entering swim meets. Why are we reluctant to race in the pool?

Sure, entering an open Senior or Age Group meet might be a bit much, but Masters offers opportunities to compete against people right around our ability level.

Why Enter a Meet?

• Set Benchmarks - The 500yd/m, 1000yd/m and 1650yd/1500m are all good benchmark swims that you’re probably doing some variation of in your regular training already, so enter one (or all!) of those events at a local meet. The training for all of these events involves a lot of 200s and 400s... sound a lot like the training you’re already doing?

  The advantage of a timed pool swim is that you’ll also get regular splits as part of the results without having to time yourself. When you analyze the results, you’ll be able to learn if there’s a point in your swim that you fall off pace, something that’s hard to do in open water swims and triathlons.

• Gain Racing Experience - One of the best ways to get comfortable racing is to race. Yes, pool swimming is different than open water swimming, but swimming offers the chance for you to open it up without severely impacting your regular training.
  
  
• Watch and Learn - If you watch the other heats for the distance events you’ll see a variety of techniques. You may be surprised to see that the fastest swimmers don’t all swim like the iconic, high-elbow, six-beat kick swimmer. What you will definitely see is that the fast swimmers don’t slow down between strokes. It may make you reconsider the value of spending loads of time working on your distance-per-stroke and exact hand placement on the recovery. (See Coach Marilyn’s article on swimming potential for the basics on all it really takes to swim faster.)
  
  
• Build Your Volume - No one wants to show up to a race unprepared, so odds are you’ll increase your training volume going into a meet. It doesn’t have to be for months at a time, for example I only added a big swim block for the five weeks leading into my recent Masters Zones.

  As I mentioned above, not every swimmer has the same technique. The one thing most pure swimmers have over most triathletes is time in the pool. If you put in a block of 15km or more a week, you'll probably be able to hang with all but the top swimmers, regardless of your technique. At the least, you’ll be able to hang with the swimmers in your heat.

  I'm also a big believer in the idea that volume will sort out many significant technical issues. If you're only swimming 5k a week, that's not enough for your body to figure out what it needs to do to swim efficiently. A month of higher volume may go a long way in helping you learn what makes you swim faster.

Most triathletes spend most of their swim training in the pool already, so the environment is familiar. Why not broaden your racing experience and give a distance event at a meet a try?