Open Water Swimming in the Off-Season

There is something unique to open water swimming and many people think that you just can't replicate it in the pool.  Well, today I think I figured out how to do it.  Here are my simple steps:

1) Find a swimmer who is faster than you.
2) Split a lane with said swimmer.
3) Ask said swimmer to swim butterfly with a 5 sec. lead-off from you.
4) Watch the wake form and get into it!

See...it's simple.

I came up with this strategy by accident today.  The pool was busy so my swimming partner and I had to share a lane for our workout.  He's faster than me and can swim a lot more of stroke during the workout.  Even with a 5 second lead-off, I still felt like I was struggling in his wake a few times during the workout.  Though I apparently paid that back to him a few times when we would have the timing off for our flip turns.  As I was going into mine, he was coming out of his which meant he got to deal with my wake for a chance.

For our workout we did the following:

Warm up swim - 600 yds
Set 1 - 500 yd Ladder
His version: 25 fly, 50 back, 75 fly,back,breast, 100 IM, 100 free, 75 fly,back,breast, 50 back, 25 fly
My version: 25 free, 50 free/back, 75 free,free,breast, 100 pull, 100 pull, 75 free,free,breast, 50 free,back, 25 free
Set 2 - Pull 250yd to 300yd
Set 3 - 6 x 50 yds 3 on 60 sec and 3 on 55 sec
Cooldown swim - 100 yds

This year has been a great swimming year for me.  I did have a few months where I swam less than I would have liked as I adjusted to a new work position but I think that I've got that balanced back out now.  I'm looking forward to another great year for swimming in 2014.  As 2013 comes to a close, I have to thank one of my sponsors, TriSwim products, for the awesome support this year.  My hair and skin has felt great all year and I have TriSwim to thank for that.  No green hair for this girl...TriSwim gets the chlorine out and keeps my skin itch-free!