Open Water Practice Swim Update

The First Quasi-Bi-Monthly-But-Really-Every-Now-And-Then Open Water Practice Swim
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Special thanks to Anna for providing a beach house location for this practice open water swim. This means that we can bring food. We'll coordinate some of the basics, but let us know what you want.

Special thanks to Vanessa for getting people together, emailing and generally promoting the open water swim. You're like Don King for triathlon open water swim training events.

Leon Kung has agreed to come out and give us some swimming pointers. He held a number of Florida state swimming records for many years... may still hold one or two today. Leon was coached by Michael Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman. Special thanks to Leon for his time.

Date/Time:
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Sunday, August 29th at 9:00AM

Who's Invited:
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Everybody in the universe. Whether you're new to open water swimming or a cagey ripped elite speedster, you can use some more open water experience. Feel free to invite friends, family and Swedish supermodels. The more people we have the better we can emulate race start conditions. And if you can't make this one, send us a quick email and we'll keep you up to speed for the next one. Practice makes perfect.

Location:
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140 River Lake Dr.
Eatonton, GA 31024

Directions from Mapquest:
1. I-20 East toward Augusta
2. Take exit 131 (GA44)
3. At the 2nd Light, turn Left onto Old Phoenix.
4. Pass the bridge
5. Turn Left onto Ward Chapel Rd
6. 1st stop sign, turn left onto New Phoenix Rd. (The road sign is missing but it's the first stop sign)
7. Dead ends at GA16. Turn left and drive past the dairy farm with white fence (about 3 miles)
8. Turn Left on Long Shoals Rd. (Store on corner)
9. Turn left onto River Lake Drive. (it's the last street on the left. If you pass it, you'll end up on the boat ramp)
10. House is on the right. #140

Carpooling:
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Let's save the planet (or at least postpone its demise) by carpooling. Post if you want to drive or ride.

Rough Agenda:
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(This agenda is completely flexible and open to recommendations. Post your comments and we'll update.)

7:30AM - Leave Atlanta. Guessing roughly 1.5 hrs to get there. Adjust depending on which side of the city you're on.

9:00AM - Arrive at Lake Oconee. Scope out the water. Set up the course. Get dressed. Stretch. Discuss the day. General reverie.

10:00AM - First session. Focus: "getting comfortable without the line." Swimming in the lake is quite a bit different than swimming in the pool. One of the primary differences is the loss of a line to use for guidance. There's no sense of movement either. The goal of this first session is simply to get into the water and do a little swimming, getting used to the surroundings. This session is fairly free form... swim as much or as little as you like.

10:30AM - Second session. Focus: "sighting." Seeing where you're going while swimming is difficult because you're normally looking down or to the side. We'll spend some time discussing sighting technique. How often to sight? When to do it in your stroke, etc? Then we'll hit the water and swim for something far, far away. There are a number of ways to do this. One way is to send out people individually so that they truly have nothing near them for guidance and are forced to look up at a navigation point. Another way is to launch as a group and use each other for guidance... like sheep... California water sheep, of course.

11:00AM - Break time. Enjoy the day a little. Sit back and chat. General reverie.

11:30AM - Third session. Focus: "swim start." The start of a triathlon swim can be rather rigorous and abusive. We're going to try to emulate this a bit. No kicking or dunking, but we do want to see a tight group of peeps in the water all trying to swim to the front. We'll discuss where to start... on the left side, right side, center, front, back, upside down, etc. The goal is to gain comfort with the start. We'll probably do a number of mock starts and swim out a couple hundred yards... hopefully there's a way to do this and stay near land.

12:00PM - Fourth session. Focus: "drafting." If you can get behind a faster swimmer you're able to gain a hydrodynamic advantage. We're all familiar with the illegal (except in ITU races) aerodynamic advantage on the bike. Let's see if we can experience it in the water. I've tried in races and it's tough. Practice would be nice. We'll probably try to pair people off and send them on their way to try to draft off of each other. Big goal here: don't slow into the breast stroke without telling your partner because you may kick them in the head.

12:30PM - Break time.

1:00PM - T1 practice. Getting out of the water and onto the bike is tough. We'll discuss preparation and maybe do some mock T1's.

After that? Anybody's guess. Relax and eat. Go for a bike ride. Go running. Bench press logs.

Sponsors:
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Currently none. I'm more than happy to Sharpie your logo onto my chest and/or back for the duration of the open water practice swim. Price: $50 chest/$50 back. Included in sponsorship package: pictures of my chest/back with your logo on it. Lock your price in today... we'll be nationally televised with helicopter coverage soon(ish).

Looking forward to seeing you there. Let's have a fun, safe and productive open water swim!

Joe

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