Triathlon - casual swimmer VS. an olympic tri

Hello, all! I have a goal of completing an olympic tri in August... my goal isn't to win, but to finish. I have some past injuries which would keep me from being competitive.

I have to finish the swim portion in one hour to not be disqualified. I don't have great form and I'm not that fast... but I'm comfortable in water and have pretty good endurance. Do you all think a casual swimmer can finish the oly swim section in less than a hour?

Thanks again.

Have you been swimming recently? Do you know how fast you swim now? Are you prepared to put in some pool training time between now & then?

Everyone's definition of "casual" will be different. I'd say, go hop in the pool & see how long it takes you to swim 1500m. You'll have a good starting point to work from.

One hour is very slow.

Since you don't know how fast you are, get in a pool and time yourself. August is a long way off and there's lots of time to get better. Find an indoor pool and start practicing. You'll find it tough at first, but then you'll pick up speed and endurance as your technique improves. Watch others in the pool, get some books, read web sites for tips, and maybe join a swim club.

With some practice, you should get your time down to 30-35 minutes by then.

I am a very casual swimmer with okay endurance and I can do the swimin under 40 minutes with out much effort.

One hour is a long time for this swim, and and as long as you kept moving forward you will finishin under on hour. And why would you not keeping forward, as in an open water swim, the other options are treading water (still takes energy) or sinking (not advised):thumb:

You should have no problem. An hour for a 1.5K swim is pretty slow. Just make sure that you practice enough that you don't feel dizzy and nauseous when you come out of the water. I am also somewhat of a casual swimmer and I can swim about 33 min for that distance while taking it very easy.

Nothing to worry about...get out and practice...and have fun.

Thanks for the encouragement. I live at the beach but have no access to a pool. I'm a little hesitant about open water swimming at the beach but I need to practice. I'm sure a shark bite would heal in a couple of months :thumb:

When I say casual, I mean I don't practice and mostly flop around in the waves when it's not cold outside. I'm a decent swimmer but not trained.

I think you'll either freak out and DNF or finish well under 1 hour. Find a pool, you must have a Y near you or some other means of renting access to a pool. Then practice in open water before the event. I was a casual swimmer who would flop around in the waves and after swimming 50 yds in a lap pool my heart felt like it was ready to jump out of my chest (and I'm a decent 5k runner). After about 2 months of training I started to "get it". Rather than speed, pay attention to your strokes/25yd and work on getting that down so you are demonstrating a somewhat efficient technique.

Is there a sprint earlier in the season that you can do as a warm up?

I haven't trained for swimming for at least 2 decades and could still do 1500 meters in a pool in under an hour.

As others have pointed out by the hour you pretty much will either finish or quit. That limit seems to me to be saying the swim has to be a 1500 meter swim, not 15x100 meters with haning on the wall to rest between them.

Reminds me of the Grand Tour out here. It used to be a 2,3 or 400 mile ride with highland and lowland options. Time limit 24 hours. The 2 years I did it were right on the border of a change in the monitoring. FIrst time I did it everyone had to check in. Second time they changed it because they realized no one had missed finishing 200 miles based on time. Some failed to finish, but no one ran out of time.

Stop and think about it. 1500 meters works out to 4 minutes per 100 meters. If it is in a true olympic pool that is 2 minutes per length of the pool.

When I say casual, I mean I don't practice and mostly flop around in the waves when it's not cold outside. I'm a decent swimmer but not trained.

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend doing an olympic tri until you've at least swam a 1500 meter swim in a pool with a lifeguard on duty. I mean the best thing would be to swim that distance several times before the race, but doing it at least once is essential. It's just not the same as flopping in waves or treading water. It may be you'll do just fine, but the time to find out isn't in the competition. People do drown at these events every once in a while. :(

definitely get back into it. time yourself and train