Chicago Triathlon | Pre Race Tips | Swim Tips

all right gang welcome to Chicago triy weekend it's coach Chris here I want to give you guys a couple tips for the swim I know everyone's nervous about the swim whether it's your 100th triathon or your first there's always a little bit of anxiety around the Open Water Swim so I want to give you guys a couple quick tips one before you get in the water if you can make sure that you get water on your skin it's the contrast of your skin temperature being high being cooked in the Sun going into the cold water that creates a lot of anxiety and that shock feeling so if you can lower your skin temperature before you get in the water that will help a lot to alleviate that cold shock feeling that you might have on rais day um typically at the Chicago Tri there's a table with water cups or water gallon jugs pour some of that on your face on your hands in your wet suit that will help to lower the temperature also if it's a cold Swim getting water in your wet suit and then allowing your body to warm that up will actually help you stay warmer and prevent a lot more cold water from getting into the suit that's how a wet suit is designed to work it is a wet suit it needs to get wet inside it's not a dry suit where you're trying to keep water out so intentionally put a little water inside your wet suit second thing once you get in there's no rule in triathon it says you have to go really fast right in the beginning it's an endurance event it's not a Sprint even though we call it a Sprint Triathlon it's one of the only Sports where a Sprint is an hour and a half or 2our plus event for most people um it is a endurance test so start slow build into it to negative split and you can always go harder later on so when you get in that water for the first time try to do anything that helps you just establish a good Rhythm um don't kick too hard don't increase your stroke rate too high take long gliding Strokes I always recommend the catchup drill where you take one full stroke and allow one hand to catch up to the other hand and that way you always have one hand out in front of yourself protecting your head before you get too close to other people um so think about using that defensive swim stroke the catch-up drill um for the first at least 100 yards or so of the Swift take long gliding Strokes that'll keep your heart rate down that'll allow you to get into a Rhythm that'll make sure that you don't go too fast too hard and you'll protect yourself by always having that hand out in front in case you get too close to other people so try to do that and you can always build up that pace after that um so the Mantra I like to have in my head is long and strong have a Long Reach in front and make sure you have a strong finish with your fingertips pointing back at the end to make sure you're getting the most propulsion from your stroke don't work hard in the front push strong in the Finish that's where you get the real return on investment of your energy on raisting and then just aim to sight off of buildings um I always like to use the one Tower at Monroe Harbor you'll be able to see Lake Point Tower and a couple other large buildings the the the Vista Tower um use those as your guidelines don't worry so much about swimming close to the wall the wall actually juts out in certain sections so if you get too close to the wall you might bump into a lot of people so try to stay off the wall you can swim to the perimeter the outside that's where the Lifeguard boats will be and you can just swim from lifeguard boat to lifeguard boat if you want to have a little bit more space to yourself then when you get out of the swim start peeling down that wet suit it is about a/4 mile run into transition uh you're doing the world's largest Triathlon transition area is the world's largest transition area another quarter mile so there's a lot of running through transition you don't need to Sprint it just take your time peel that wet suit off allow yourself to cool down a little bit and then really just smile because most importantly there's usually a photographer right there as you're coming out of the swim running into transition so if you want to look good for your photos don't forget to smile um smile all day long from start to finish because you know what race day is just one giant Victory lap and you want to look good for the photos right so um enjoy it out there gang good luck with a swim uh make sure you get as much as you can oh looks like we have a Fred out here I don't know if you guys can see that on the camera it looks like uh we have Freddy machete Fred Fred crit one of our water support volunteers for the race um if you guys do get nervous on race day Fred the guy with the ponytail he's usually the only guy on a standup paddle board out on the swim course providing water support so if you want to have a fun little break in the middle of your swim look for the guy in a ponytail on a standup paddle board swim up to him and say hey R coach Chris told me to say hi um and I'm sure you'll get a smile out of it he'll get a smile out of it and it'll make for a fun race day experience so we look forward to seeing you guys out there uh good luck on race day and we'll see you at the start and the Finish Line I'll give you a high five and maybe we can enjoy a beer together uh to celebrate your great achievements so we'll see you guys out there thanks gang