Kona swim question
Over the past few years, I have taught myself to swim essentially turning legs off because all of my HIM or IM races were wetsuit legal...either with pull buoy or speedtube pants ( they're awesome, btw)...now I've got Kona to do, and I've switched back to swimming without the pants....its harder and I go slower, which tells me I have a terrible kick which leads to more drag than propulsion. Any advice out there ?
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I'm not expert on swimming, but some thoughts: Could it be position rather than kick? It might be that the slow down is more about a drop in the legs rather than poor kick strength. With long distance freestyle my understanding is kick is really not propulsive anyway, its more about initiating roll and maintaining streamline, thats why most OW swimmers use a two-beat kick, one kick for each stroke. Video might help you see whats going on there, if you can beg/borrow a waterproof camera. Maybe try a set next swim where you really focus on "pressing the buoy" or levering your upperbody down to bring your feet up, then try it focusing on kicking to see if you notice any changes?
Salt water's more buoyant than fresh. Here's the "pep talk" i'm giving to my self: I say stick with the speedtube @ this late date. Focus on thinking about keeping your feet up. And accept, just like the wind and heat will slow your bike and run, you'll go 5-8 min slower on the swim.
Good rotation, even trying bilateral breathing, and finishing each armstroke fast and strong, also help me limit the damage in the swells of Kailua Bay. It's humbling.
I was lucky enough to get a Kona slot last year. The swim portion was the easiest of 7 previous IMs done. I'm a very poor swimmer, so the great thing for me was that within 1 minute I had open water as 80% of the field was long gone. Lots of kayaks, so I just clipped along from boat to boat. The water was crystal clear and you could see 100 feet down. For me, I was very calm almost immediately, so I'm sure I my HR was 25 bpm lower than I normally would have. No stopping or slowing for packs of other swimmers around you, and very little sighting required because of all the boats. Salt water definitely adds to the buoyancy.
With a one loop course, 1.2 miles is a long way out in the ocean for me, so a little intimidating. The weather was perfect, so the water was very calm and swells were very small. I did the practice swim a couple of times in the days leading up to the race and learned very quickly to sight at the top of a swell, as you can't see anything at the bottom.
Anyway, totally fun experience. Don't stress the swim.
Relax and enjoy the swim. It *will* be the easiest part of your whole day.