Reduce Swimrun Swim Times By 10%

How to reduce swimrun swim times by 10%.

In a typical swimrun event, you may end up swimming a total of 4 to 5 km. For a lot of people who swim at around 2 minutes per 100metres, that means about 20 minutes per km, therefore 80 to 100 minutes.
If you could improve your swim leg performance by 10%, you could knock an impressive 8 to 10 minutes off your total time!

But, 10% sounds like a lot, doesn't it? It would take a lot of swim training to achieve an improvement of 10 %. OR WOULD IT?

(As Amazon associates, we earn a small commission on any sales.)

Reduce Swimrun Swim Times By 10%

If you break a typical swimrun swim leg into its separate components, there are several factors that you can work on. If you improve each one by, say, 2%, then you can reach your 10% improvement target quite quickly.

But what are the areas to examine and work on?

1. Your transitions.
2. Study the route carefully before the event.
3. Your propulsion.
4. Your drag.
5. Your raw swim pace - your technique and form.
6. Your swim endurance - how long can you maintain your pace?

Reduce Swimrun Swim Times By 10%

Let's take a closer look at the 5 areas where it may be possible to improve your swim times:

1. Transitions.

This is the obvious place to start. Every time you transition from run to swim and swim to run you have opportunities to save time.

How?

You should study the event route carefully and be aware of when you are approaching a run-to-swim transition. As you get closer to the water, you need to have a routine to ensure that you are ready to start swimming as quickly as possible. Your routine may look something like this:

zip up your wetsuit
check your swim hat is in position
put your goggles on
get your paddles ready
check your float is accessible
check your swim tether is ready to go

The big time saver here is to do all this as you are running the final 100 metres to the water. If you have to walk or stop to get any of these things done, you are wasting time.

You should get all your gear ready, hat and goggles on, paddles on your hands, and clip your tether to your team mate, all while running. Positioning your float between your legs is the last thing you do as you run into the water.

I have seen so many teams standing at the water's edge fiddling with their gear and having a discussion, wasting precious time!

This area of improvement involves developing your own routine, and then practising it over and over again until you can practically do it blind-folded!

2. Study the route.

It is very important to study the event route carefully for several reasons, if you want to improve your swim times:

to know where the transitions are.
to check for prevailing water currents at the time of the race.

Let's look at these in more detail.

As we have seen in the first section, you need to be ready to swim as soon as you get near the water, at each and every transition. That means you need a good idea of when a swim section is about to appear - sometimes they crop up quicker than expected!

Once in the water, you need to know about any currents. If you are swimming in a lake then this is not so important. But if you are in the sea, it's crucial to know about what the tides are doing and the direction of flow around the shores.

At the Ötillö Isles of Scilly event a while ago, the route involved a circuit around several of the islands. I asked a local fisherman about the tides and currents. It was high tide shortly before the start, and he showed me a map of the islands and explained how the water would be flowing through the channels.

I realized that, on every swim leg, the current would be flowing from right to left. That meant swimming in a direction well to the right side of the swim exit. During the race I could see the seaweed on the bottom streaming to the left, an obvious sign of the tidal current.

We followed a route off to the right hand side of each swim course. To my amazement, no other competitors seemed to take the current into consideration, and were being carried downstream well to the left of the exit.

We were by no means the fastest swimmers, but we made up several minutes on each leg, simply by swimming in the right direction!

So, try to talk to a local fisherman or yachtsman about the tides, and how the water will be flowing at the time of your race.

Reduce Swimrun Swim Times By 10%

3. Your propulsion.

Your only source of propulsion is your arms and hands, with the aid of paddles. So choosing the correct paddles can improve your swim speed significantly.

Unfortunately, a lot of swimrun athletes fall for advertising hype which is also promoted by some prominent swimrunners. You can read my explanation about how this works at my the power of a myth page.

To find out about the best size and shape of swim paddle for you, visit my page about swimrun paddles. My recommendations are supported by scientific research, which I quote. You may be surprised to find out that bigger is NOT better!

4. Your drag.

This is an area that is largely ignored in swimrun circles. By 'drag', I am referring to your clothing and equipment that creates drag in the water.

Starting at the top and working down, your swim hat and goggles are minor issues.

However, when we get to your upper body, things can go downhill quickly. The biggest issue is the competition vest or bib that you have to wear. Sometimes these are elasticated and fit snugly, but all too often they are baggy. What can you do about that?

The obvious solution is to use a couple of big safety pins to make sure the bib fits tightly against your wetsuit. The most important area is at the top, where water gets in, rather than the waist.

Moving down, most swimrun athletes will have some sort of belt, for attaching a swim tether, supporting their float, carrying glucose gels, and sometimes to hold karabiners to clip paddles into on a long run.

Try to make sure that your belt fits well and does not have large pockets that trap water.

Moving down, the last thing to consider is your shoes. Try to choose shoes that are slim and have a smooth surface. While there are several trade-offs to weigh up with swimrun shoes, you should avoid shoes with lots of details, straps, badges etc.

5. Your swim technique.

This looks at 2 major factors, which could also be classified as 'propulsion' and 'drag', but I decided to separate these issues out.

In terms of propulsion, some people seem to think that a straight arm (or nearly straight arm) through the water gives the best power. This simply isn't true. Think about how you would climb a ladder. You wouldn't use straight arms to go up - your arms are bent.

To illustrate this, take a look at the youtube video below of Australian olympic swimmer Mack Horton. Watch his hands and arms very carefully, especially from the front, 30 seconds in to the video. Look at how much he bends his arms at the elbow!

The other aspect of technique involves the position of your body in the water. For the least drag (and the fastest times) your body should be as level (or 'flat') as possible.

Many swimmers adopt a position where their head is too high which results in the lower body and legs being angled downwards. This is simply inefficient, creating drag which slows you down and burning energy that you could be using to better effect.

To be open and honest, below is a video of me from 2000, taken by a swim coach. You can see that my head is too high, my waist too low, and my arms too straight!

6. Your pace and endurance.