220Triathlon Edição 334

WWW.220TRIATHLON.COM

FEBRUARY 2017

FEATURE

THE SWIM

The first and shortest discipline, but the most feared.

Here’s how to counter the most common swim fears…

LEARNING HOW TO

SWIM FRONT CRAWL

Most of us have limited training budgets (both time and

money), but if there’s one area you might be prepared to

invest in, it’s swimming lessons. A respected coach will help

you learn correct technique and if you’ve never swum a

stroke of crawl before, you haven’t honed any bad habits.

Triathlon is focused on fitness, but, in the pool, you can go

back to school. So embrace the opportunity to learn.

NOT BEING ABLE TO SWIM

THEWHOLE COURSE

Most of your training should be interval sessions and drills

to add variety and improve performance. But while you

don’t want to slavishly tick off length after length in every

session, completing the distance ahead of the big day will

give you a boost. Just make sure that if you’re practising in

the pool, you don’t grab a breather after every length.

HAVING TO SWIM BREASTSTROKE

If you want to swim breaststroke, then go ahead.

Plenty of others will be swimming breaststroke too. Some

will be swimming a mixture of breaststroke and crawl.

Some people’s breaststroke is faster than their crawl!

GOING THEWRONGWAY

In the open water, there will be support canoes

or paddle-boarders shepherding wayward swimmers

in the right direction. Make sure you understand the

swim course direction (and number of laps) before you

start as sometimes there can be late changes due to

conditions. Pay special attention to the size and colour

of the buoys and any fixed landmarks that will help

you sight the correct line.

BEING HIT AND SWUMOVER

Mass swim starts can be frenetic, but unintentional

whacks can be avoided by positioning yourself to the rear

or side of the field. “I was petrified of being swum over in

my first race,” says multiple world champion Leanda Cave.

“I swam wide and took a longer line to the first buoy.

Sometimes the long way around is actually quicker.”

Even if you lose a little time by swimming further, it’ll be

a more enjoyable experience and put you in good stead for

the bike and run.

LOST OR LEAKY GOGGLES

Lost or leaky goggles can be irritating, both

metaphorically and literally – if you’re in a chlorinated

“I raced in trainers for the

bike leg as I only had BMX

pedals, and I was really

worried all the cool cats from

Thames Turbo would laugh at

me as they had the super

cool Time pedals! But the

vibe was really nice and

everyone cheered.”

TimDon, multiple 70.3 champ

MY FIRST

RACE