Open Water Swim Workouts

I attended Jim Vance's Open Water Swim Workout last night at Ventura cove and it was an awesome workout! These workouts are every Wednesday evening, in the water at 6:00pm and out by 7:00pm at Ventura Cove.

I was expecting a lot of talking and not much swimming but I was wrong.

If you are familiar with the row of swim buoys at Ventura cove, we warmed up starting at 6pm by swimming one loop of these swim buoys. In the meantime Jim put out two large buoys like the ones they use in races that were much closer to shore than the row of permanent swim buoys. At 6:15 he had everyone lined up on the shore and asked us to categorize ourselves into three groups of swimmers, A, B and C. He then had us practice starting a race from the beach by having us run into the water and then swimming 15 strokes and stopping. Next we practiced a water start by starting the race from that point and getting up on shore as soon as possible. We did this a couple of times.

We then did a series of mock races. He would start the three groups in waves with the A group going first followed by the B and C group for a small clockwise race from the shore around the two closer buoys and back to shore. We repeated this going counterclockwise. Then he had us repeat the same thing but after the first lap we ran on the beach and did a second lap. He changed it up and had the C group go first then the B group and then the A group. We did various other similar mock races. By the end of the workout I felt much more comfortable swimming with others close by.

This practice really helps in getting used to swimming next to people, having faster swimmers overtake you from behind, you overtaking slower swimmers, drafting someone, sighting and swimming with a high heart rate all while being in a relaxed environment. There isn't any instructions given just the opportunity to practice.

Jim Vance is holding a series of classes where he will be giving instructions, Jill and I are already signed up for the April 17th class. If you are interested go to Jim Vance's Blog.