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london tri breaststroke ok ?

asaasa Posts: 1
hi all, have entered my 1st tri event and gone for the olyimpic distance at london in aug . training going ok apart from the swimming. Managing to do the swim in about 30mins at the mo,but breaststroke. Will that be ok on the day ? thanks for any feedback [:D]

Comments

  • trimonstertrimonster Posts: 35
    Wow!! asa! If you can do the olympic distance swim in 30mins doing breaststoke then i would say carry on! Considering that some people do a mixture of freestyle and B Stroke and still take longer. Then only problem i foresee is that you will get in the way of some freestylers, so expect to be knocked about and be swam over. You still have time to perfect you free style, so if you are part of a club get your swim coach to help you, but if you feel more comfortable doing B stroke then go for it!

  • jon_gjon_g Posts: 318
    30 minutes doing breastroke will do you very nicely! just stay at the back of the pack and over to the right so you are out of the way of the faster swimmers. that way you wont get puched kicked or even pulled back (had someone do that to me last year!)[>:]
  • Only thing I would warn is that your legs will be screwed before you even get to the bike if you breaststroke it all the way. Crawl can be hard to start, and even when you get better theres always loads to improve but is a much more efficient stroke for tri. Would recommend you talk to your local pool about swimming lessons, something I probably should have done long ago.
  • bennybenny Posts: 1,314
    agree with staple; 30min is a good time to start with, since you do BS it's a great time. But doing BS in crowded Open water starts is asking for trouble! Things will happen to you and/or others.

    I'd say try to get the crawl technique ok. It'll get you faster then 30 mins in time.
  • KiwiPaulKiwiPaul Posts: 46
    Just be happy with the 30mins I reckon - I'll get out of the way as you go by me - actually I'll be behind you !!



    What we really need to see though is some hooray henry butterflying the whole thing - now that would be worth seeing !!
  • TommiTriTommiTri Posts: 879
    I agree with the others that 30 min is a respectable time, but its not really about the time.



    When you come out of the water following 30 mins breaststroke your legs are going to be very tired, as breaststroke requires far more involvement from the quads and hammies as you flex your legs alot more than in freestyle. Therefore my advice would be try and work on the freestyle, get some lessons, you have time. Once you get the technique right with freestyle it becomes a far more efficient stroke than breaststroke.

    You can always mix it up the race, with a few breaststrokes here and there to regain your composure. In the long run you will not only be faster through the water, but you will be alot faster on the bike and run afterwards. I think after 30 mins of breaststroke I would struggle to finish the race let alone put in a good time!
  • HarriHarri Posts: 40
    i used to be awful at FC but after lots of practice and some drills now really enjoy it - you've got loads of time to get more comfortable with your stroke before August and then you can mix the two a bit. That's what i intend to do i think, FC for the whole way will be quite scary, but you do save your legs a lot more as the wetsuit gives you a lot more bouancy. I can recommend training FC in the pool and using a pull bouy between your legs to work on your stroke and breathing. Less to think about then using your legs too. You can alternate lengths with and without the bouy to build confidence. Good luck and see you in August!
  • TesseractTesseract Posts: 280
    I did the London Tri last year and did the full swim breaststroke, due to leaky goggles (I had tested them beforehand, so no idea why they decided to leak on the day!).



    The negatives were:

    1) you need a wider space to swim in, so there were a few times when I had to do a weird half stroke/ kick so I didn't disable any fellow competitors.

    2) due to the leg use, specifically the muscles used, I got cramp in my inner thigh on the bike



    Other than that it was fine - I managed to beat quite a few crawlers, although was about 34 mins, so you're faster than me!!
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