So I’m going to keep this rant very short and simple.
But I’m still steaming from last week’s Stroke and Stride.
The Stroke and Stride is a 1500-meter swim followed by a 5-Kilometer run. I recently had one of the worst of swims of my short S and S career.
It seems like many Newbie triathletes have wrongly got it in their heads that swimming fast means swimming under, or over, or through, or on top of, other racers.
Listen up folks (and that especially means you three brain surgeons who boxed me in for a full 750 meter first loop last week): You can not win a triathlon on the swim.
Let me repeat that so you really get it: You can not win a triathlon on the swim!
You can lose a triathlon on the swim, but you’ll never win the race by swimming under, or over, or through, or on top of, other racers.
To illustrate my point I’ve drawn a very crude sketch.
You’ll notice how we were swimming last week by looking at the diagram below:
This is obviously not a good way to post a fast time.
Instead the pros will often work together on the swim.
See my crude sketch below (you'll also notice that many of the top pros have long noses as illustrated):
Pros will get on the toes of the leader and draft each other. This way they swim faster and come out of the water together and next to their competitors.
Why do they do this? Because they know that they you can’t win the race on the swim. So for the sake of all of us stop swimming under, or over, or through, or on top of, other racers. You'll only go slower.
Let’s be smart out there and take a page from the pros and work together, instead of turning the swim into the heavy duty wash cycle of your washing machine.